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).

YANBU. It's uncouth. Haven't RTFT so don't know if someone else has mentioned this yet, but I dread to think of the germs on the handles of trolleys. Never cleaned and touched by thousands of people. Yuk. Definitely not something I'd want to touch before eating.

I've never seen this. I did see someone smoking in Asda as she was walking round with her trolley once. It was probably about 1987 though. But since then, no one eating or smoking that I can remember.

I'm also with you, OP. I think it's a very odd thing to do, for all the reasons already mentioned!

I literally never see it around here, though, and it's nothing our parents would have done when we were children. We would've just been told to wait.

This annoys me too. I'm a bit of a rules person, so it just doesn't sit right with me, especially when you see wrappers shoved behind other shelves, so there's a good percentage of people who don't pay for what they consume. It's not that I think it's disgusting, it just goes against the way things are supposed to be done. Pay, then eat.

What does disgust me is the way people act about the free samples in places like Costco. Do people not eat for a week before going there? Elbowing people out of the way, standing dribbling over the staff while they're trying to cook, then grabbing about six of each sample, and then making sure all their kids get multiples, so that I don't get to try one, when I'm actually the consumer who might be interested in trying it to see whether I want to buy it. I swear, some people just go there for a free meal.

You don't own it if you haven't paid for it yet. It typifies this "must have it now, my needs supercede everything" culture. It would have been unthinkable 30 years ago.

no it wouldnt . 30 years ago my friend and I always used to help ourselves to some pic n mix in Woolworths...
ahh happy days

I agree with you OP. It's very uncouth behaviour for an adult. To me, it shows a similar lack of decorum as that of wearing ones pyjamas in public!

I've opened a packet of crackers in the past when circumstances have forced me to shop with a tired/hungry toddler to keep them distracted and ward off the looming tantrum.

But this thread has made me realise that I have a mental sliding scale of acceptability - completely arbitrary obviously! . So crackers - ok, sweet biscuits - not ok. Things that need to be weighed at checkout definitely not ok. Gingerbread people (whether cis, trans, or identifying as non-gender binary) completely beyond the pale. My children have also worn new shoes out of the shop - the shop assistant almost always asks them if they want to, and puts the old ones in a bag for them.

But I'm Australian, so therefore "common" and "uncouth" by definition .

I have picked up and opened boxes of tissues to use during allergy season, and paid for the box at the checkout. I have an idea the supermarket would prefer to see me make it to the checkout and not abandon my trip to go home and take a happy sleepy anti histamine and spend the afternoon in bed.

The DCs have also worn new shoes home and they may have eaten the odd vanilla wafer on their way around the supermarket when they were stuck in the trolley and I was trying to stick to my list and not forget half of it while trying to distract them by other means.

I love a bit of delayed gratification. So although I may want those chocolate biscuits right now, I enjoy them more if I have a nibble of one at home on my sofa post arduous shopping trip.

no adult or child will starve or die of thirst during a quick shop or even an longer one,
Supermarket near me must have seen a need: they now have bins filled with small sized fruit and an invitation for people to help themselves while they shop,

This is another one of those threads where the people who do thing being judged are absolutely outraged to discover that they're being judged. People judge every little thing you do, Mumsnet is just window into discovering that, because people are free to be anonymous and honest on here.

I don't think I've ever seen anyone do this, I only hear about it happening on here. I'm either deeply unobservant, or people around where I live aren't dying of starvation in the middle of their shop.

YANBU, it's not a good look (for DC, either). I totally judge it, just as I'm sure I do stuff that others judge.

I work for a charity.

I give money regularly to other charities.

I house a formerly homeless pregnant girl in my house.

I'm kind to children, puppies and I smile at people.

Apart from that I find that not giving a flying fuck what people think of me is very liberating. I think I do enough good that I get to not care if people in supermarkets judge me. I highly recommend taking the moral high ground early in the game and enjoying the view.

I don't know how anyone can eat a cold sausage roll. They only come to life once they've had a blast in the microwave.

It wouldn't occur to me to do this. I also would prefer to teach my kids patience, rather than instant gratification.

Can't say I've ever actually seen anyone do it, though. If I did, the thought would cross my mind that they had very little impulse control, which probably shows up in other ways too.

Someone needs to do a study.

Maybe they should go to Tesco s they give fruit away for free,in a box saying take one. Me and my kids go in and take about 3 things each. And eat them as we go around.

It would have been unthinkable 30 years ago.

It was completely normal for adults to give small children food/juice box whilst supermarket shopping my area 30 years ago. I rarely see it now. I expect that's because in the past people were a lot less conscious of security/worried about being mistaken for thieves.

I remember my mum handing me an apple to eat in the small local greengrocer. No worries about not paying when you are standing a foot from the staff so they can clearly see what's going on! (Obviously anything that needed weighing would be weighed before eating).

I have done this before with post-gym hunger, I forgot my shake which I would have to replenish and refuel. But oh no, I tempted to full shop straight after, half way through I was shaking and I couldnt focus. I had a multipack of coke cans and downed one of them for sugar and had a handful of cashew nuts for salt and protein. I felt better within minutes and managed to complete a full shop successfully.

I had my reasons, apologised at check out and the lady smiled and said "its ok, its paid for!"

Tbf there are more things to be getting distressed about OP. People having a pre-nib on food before they pay for it isnt putting you in any harm or danger!

It was completely normal for adults to give small children food/juice box whilst supermarket shopping my area 30 years ago.

Well, it obviously depends on locality (like most things), because it was unheard-of round here. Australia, 1970s/80s when I was a child.

The parental response would have been 'No, because 1) we haven't paid for it yet so it's not ours, 2) you'll make a mess and put sticky hands on the trolley, and 3) you can wait, you won't starve'. And that would've been the end of it.

I don't see it now, either, and would be if I did. Looks scuzzy.

Here's a context. Friend can't get back from work in time due to crash on the motor way, so I have baby dd, older dd and two other primary school kids to pick up but have nothing in the house for snacks/dinner. I go to Tesco, they munch a big tub of strawberries as I go round and I paid for it.

Big deal.

Looks scuzzy? I really wouldn't care what you thought, nor did the check out assistant. She was quite empathetic too.

YANBU Op and 80smum that's my take on it too.

I'm sorry darling but I don't frequent cheap pre-pay places such as McDonalds so the concept of only being allowed to eat food I have already paid for is slightly foreign. In fact, I prefer going to a restaurant and have my lunch or supper before I have paid for them and I'd be insulted of they made me pay in advance. While the concept of a supermarket is to buy food for domestic consumption I see no problem in eating their readymade food should I be very hungry

I guess you don't live near me then Koala! I've always found logic fairly inaccessible to tired, hungry toddlers and done whatever it's taken to get round the supermarket as quickly and easily as possible.

But "Whatever it Takes" was always my lazy toddler-parenting mantra!