Told off in Sainsburys

[MassalaQueen]

I was shopping in Sainsburys this morning with my 3 year old ds. At the entrance there was an unmanned taster stall with some crisps in tiny bowls and some Robinsons squash in cups. My ds asked if he could have some juice and I helped myself to a cup. The stall holder came along and said you dont just help yourself to the samples. I was embarrassed and apologised. She then continued to reprimand me saying this isn't a cafe you know and tutting. Was her reaction over the top? Surely the point of the sample stalls are to promote the products rather than tell customers off for sampling. AIBU if I report her to customer service?

I often help myself to unmanned sampes by the til in Tiger .I sometimes go in specially and don't even walk round the shop...
I don't think I could waste energy complaining

Your actions seem reasonable,

Whether OP was right to help herself isn't really the point! The point is, the assistant embarrassed her and made her feel bad which wasn't called for. Yes she should have said something at the time but she may not like confrontation and was already made to feel awkward in public by this jobsworth.
I don't think its unreasonable to complain although it depends whether you really want her reprimanded.
I complained about an assistant in M&S once. I left my purse at the till and when I went back in to get it the customer service lady was really quite rude to me when I asked for it back. She demanded ID from me, even though I told her I could tell her the exact contents of the purse and that all my ID was IN the purse. She was actually gutted when I managed to produce my work ID card from my bag and had to hand it over.
Some people should rethink working with the public.

She definitely was out of order - YANBU.

Tastings stalls staff not employed by supermarkets, separate promoting companies. Complain to the customer services they'll feed back.

They're supposed to make you want to buy the product; so are actually aimed at adults (or whoever's actually doing the shopping).
Grabbing some for a snack for your toddler is a bit cheeky.

Lmao Overstepped the mark??? By sampling some juice?? Jeebus!

The perfect post as an example to why people find MN such a tiresome place to be at the moment and the multiple threads saying so.

That is the truth. As if there must be some way the blame can be shifted onto the OP. They must have done something wrong.

Of course it's not exclusively for adults. What if ds had loved it and said "Ooh Mum can you get some?" She might have got some. DOH!

They can be so rude in there! Unlike in Waitrose which used to look after the buggy for me... They took away the buggy and told be it was a security risk, an empty buggy. No need to be rude is there.

Yes she was being unreasonable. No, I wouldn't report her to CS, life's too short and nothing will happen anyway (she will give a partial account and claim you did something you didn't).

Yanbu

Free samples are there for the taking so you can try something you may not have otherwise tried. Even if it's something you've had before it's still nice to get a free bit so you can remember how nice or horrible something is.

I am now a firm converted buyer of Lidl's vegetable crisps in garlic flavour. OMG they are gorgeous. Would never have bought them if I hadn't tried a free sample.

That's a terrible thing to happen! They're supposed to be there to help customers not put them off buying products.

And FWIW, I'm wary of those plates of cheese cubes and other delicacies you see on deli counters. I always wonder how many fingers have picked them over before I arrived! Ditto bowls of mints in restaurants.

for profit reasons they are only aloud to give so many away.
so will be told to target people they think will get sales from buying then the actual product.so basically they are free for people they think will give them money when they go and buy the product.

@mrskeats please tell me you're kidding? Manned a sexist expression? Does that mean woMAN is also sexist?

OP YANBU she sounds like a jobsworth. I'd do the same next time, and criticise her for leaving the samples out whilst she left her post if she didn't want anyone to have them. As for your OH, buy yourself a present. It feels good sometimes, and it'll be something you want

As you sAy it was Robinsons squash, send a tweet to them direct - bet they'll get back to you very quickly! These companies hate bad publiciity. This woman definitely does need reporting.
twitter.com/drinkrobinsons

It was rude but then so is just helping yourself. Move on.

Every tasting stand I have seen near me has the samples available for customers to help themselves. The person manning the stand explains where the product is, any special offers, and prepares replacement samples to keep the stall filled. If they needed to nip off to the toilet it would be perfectly fine for customers to help themselves from the pre-measured samples. Rummaging around and taking stuff from the main supply or taking 53 samples would be a bit much, but tbh the sample people would moan to each other not the customer.

It's OK to give samples to children too. I used to do that all the time. What is the point of buying Chinese noodle nests and vegetables for your children if you don't know they are going to like them? What a waste of money that would be. I found all kinds of weird things DD liked via store samples.

Don't complain though, she's probably employed by a marketing company, not the store. She can go around putting people all over the country off squash and crisps and inadvertently improve the average health of the UK population.

Starting a thread on here about it so we can work up a head of righteous indignation is definitely the way to go.

Rjs Really? Everywhere I am has multiple samples out on a tray so people can help themselves. If people had to wait to be personally handed a sample by the stand holder they'd be there for 10 minutes or so, at least in Costco where there is a scrum for samples.

If the sample person was that bothered about it, she shouldn't have left her samples out for people to take them.

I would report her she overreacted just because she left her station she was taking it out on you. Obviously on a powertrip.

YANBU. If she thought so she should have been there to supervise.

If she was in a Sainsbury's uniform she was obviously Sainsbury's staff. However, if she was wearing a black chefs jacket, purple apron and black hat she was a Brand Ambassador, not employed by Sainsbury's. Sainsbury's would not be interested in any complaint about her. If a Brand Ambassador she should not have left her samples out. If she had to go and get more stock then she should have put all her samples under the counter.

Why not go to Customer Services and offer to pay for the 'free' sample. If you said something like "I'm sorry but I confused that lady and those small sample sized drinks as free samples, she was so affronted and annoyed I had taken a sample I was clearly wrong, please can you advise me the cost?" make sure you point at the lady in question so other customers don't make the same mistake.

Alternatively if you had the time, you could have stood next to her, telling people off and tutting when they helped themselves...you could make a day of it

Oh... I'd have totally lost my 'ish!
I'm very fragile like that