People eating food they haven't paid for....

[maddiemookins16mum]

....It just really bugs me. To the point of utter revulsion.
In a supermarket, grown adults opening a pack of 4 pork pies and happily munching their way around the shop, only to toss the empty pack to be scanned as their shopping goes through. Why do people do that, have you ever, and why??? (DD had to wait until the car for her gingerbreadman biscuit from Waitrose).

I don't like it either OP seems like stealing to me, even though (apparently) it's technically not. I do have a very overly developed guilty conscious though.

I'm not sure why but I think there is something distasteful about it. It's part of that whole thing of people not being able to go anywhere without stuffing food into their gaping mouths - you know, in cinemas, quite often in theatres now too, walking down the street and apparently even while shopping for food. It's unseemly. Also definitely unnecessary. And it looks rough.

Love the fact that one priceless MNetter has taken this as a cue to issue condescending parenting advice to another poster! 'Teach your child to wait; sometimes life is dull...' Hahaha! !

Personally I'm taking this thread as an opportunity to teach my children that sometimes people are unbelievably precious about things that literally affect them in no way whatsoever.

I once told a man off for picking his nose in the frozen food aisle. There are only so many breaches of supermarket etiquette I can tolerate.

I've never done it but I don't see the issue. If I'm working and didn't have time for lunch and had no choice but to shop on my way home from work then why not. Not everyone has plenty o f spare time for a naice lunch before going shopping.

On your premise op you wouldn't eat in a restaurant because you haven't paid first? I can't get worked up about that one as long as they pay at the checkout.

Can we just consider Cis Gingerbread for a second please?

*Runs! >>>>>>>

Is this not a normal thing to do I do it with my kids all the time Ive paid for it its not a problem

I once told a man off for picking his nose in the frozen food aisle.

Were there many to choose from?

This thread is highly entertaining. Loving what people can get worked up over. Although nosepicking in the frozen aisle would get me mad too

We haven't had one of these for ages they are a very good 'barometer' for the current Mumsnet make up. Could go either way...

Were there many to choose from?

Ba Doom Tish!

Oh i do teach her to wait for things. Thanks for the unwanted parenting advice!

She has been pestering for a doctors kit for ages and she knows she has to wait for her birthday next month.

But to teach her to wait to eat a basic ham sandwich that im going to pay for anyway?

Nah there are more important things to teach children than how to be petty.

I imagine Waitrose noses point up in the air

This was a Morrison's nose.

Wind your neck in op, you come across as a snob

Yanbu OP. It's our instant gratification culture, innit? Can't possibly wait till we get home, have to consume it right here, right now. It's a crappy attitude to food and to life in general. Hate seeing people do it.

It's astonishing that my children have never keeled over from hunger in the supermarket, despite not being allowed to eat any treats until a) they've earned them by behaving in the shop without having their mouths stuffed full of gingerbread and b) we've actually paid for them...**

Restaurant argument is weak because, erm, you know, it's a supermarket not a restaurant.

What the actual fuck does the sex of the gingerbread have to do with anything?????????????????????????????????

Gingerbread men aren't even fucking anatomically correct as they are totally smooth inbetween the legs and do not have nipples or bellybuttons*. It is outrageous tbh

• Except the ones in our local bakers. They have a smarty for a bellybutton.

I have literally never seen this ever. It's only a 'thing' on here. Or perhaps I just don't notice because it affects me in no way whatsoever.

Yeahhhhhhhh! Grabs buns off shelves (without paying, natch) and starts throwing in a maniacal manner! Waitrose! Ignorance! Revolting! Unacceptable!

I don't even give the food to my kids.
I eat it myself.
I'll take even more glee from it from now on!!

That it's 'uncouth', I can accept - it may be uncouth if someone is shovelling a sausage roll into their face on the hoof. But a 'disgusting' act worthy of 'revulsion'?? No.

It's perfectly normal in some continental supermarkets too - little coffee bars and delis dotted around. A bit like... err... some of the new Waitrose stores.... Who's uncouth now, hey?

Teach her that supermarket shopping is dull and you need to learn to put up with dull things rather than stuff your face to pass the time?

Oh yes, plenty of dull things around here

Well, personally I'd rather see somebody picking their nose in the frozen food aisle than near the pick'n'mix.
But maybe that's just me.

I love the word 'uncouth'. It works well with a wrinkle of the nose.