To think that the free fruit offer in tesco shouldn't be abused

[Frazzled50yrold]

Was shopping in tesco about half hour before closing last Sunday. I noticed a 30 something yr old female filling a plastic bag with the oranges/apples/bananas which are provided free for children. Initially I wondered how she would pay for them as they were all mixed together then realised she wasn't going to as she went up to her husband at the self service till and walked out with him. I'd estimate she had at least 20 pieces of fruit, it made me so cross

Explains why our often doesn't have any free kids fruit. Guess they only put so much out every day

They'll take it away

I doubt it, it's a new form of pester power. 'Can we go to Tescos dad, please...?'

Letting your child eat food you are purchasing when going around the shop is awful.

ODFOD.

Gosh, I wouldn't let dd pick a different piece of fruit last week, because she licked an apple then changed her mind and wanted a pear. I thought you were only allowed one piece per child so endured a ten minute screaming floor tantrum until she deemed the apple she had chosen acceptable 😩

But I don't think you're unreasonable for being a bit at the lady, they're clearly marked for kids so an adult taking a bag is just basically stealing isn't it?

"Any other old gimmers remember back when all this were fields and children eating supermarket grapes was a thing on mumsnet?"

^^
I did mention up thread that my granny used to do this, something I'm always reluctant to say on Mumsnet because of threads like this - although some comments have led me to come back and defend her
We didn't have very good parents and lived in poverty, that bunch of grapes I was given to eat on the way round the supermarket would have been the only fruit I would have eaten that week. We lived on cheap bread and jam, those few stolen grapes were luxury.
It may not be the right thing to do, but she was just trying to do what she thought was right for me.

Anyway
Back to the woman mentioned in the OP.
the staff might have an understanding with her, she might run a kids club, she might have 20 kids waiting outside, she might just be a greedy entitled fruit addict.
If you're going to feel hard done by, and judge then at least challenge the facts from her first before complaining.

"Greedy entitled fruit addict"

My 22month old Dd eats several free oranges while we scoot around doing the shop. I too used to sneer at people feeding their children to keep them quiet while in the supermarket. In fact before I was a mother I swore that I wouldnt make my children go to the supermarket with me. However, as with so many elements of parenthood, I didn't have a fucking clue what I was talking about! I shop at Tescos because of the free fruit and the fact I can scan and shop thus reducing the amount of 'scream time'

I am not sure you can judge this from the outside.

Maybe she's trying to feed a family, and can't manage on the money she has coming in, and this is the last resort. I don't think anyone would begrudge small kiddies a piece of fruit a day in those circumstances, especially not when a corporation like Tesco is paying.

OR maybe she's a greedy, well off middle class cow who has everything already, and is totally taking the piss.

That's a real shame and an abuse. In fact, really, its theft.

The fruit is there for the benefit of customers in the shop. A banana, apple or satsuma really help to keep my 19 month old quite as I get the shop done. I'd have said something.

The fruit is there for children to have ONE PIECE each whilst shopping. Not for taking out of the store to eat later.

Usually it will be fruit getting towards the end of its life and isn't a bottomless supply so it does run out.

Anyone who takes a bag of it out of the store or who lets their child have more than 1 Piece is a twat.

Maybe it saved her having to visit a food bank?

The sign at ours makes it clear it's one piece for children only. So she was breaking the rules (if the sign is the same). She might have mitigating circumstances but sounds like a piss taker to me.

We went the other week, DD nagging for a snack after nursery, and it was empty. Cue disappointed daughter. Didn't feel I could pinch from the main display as not setting a good example.

Yes one fruit PER CHILD. As an ex employee this kind of behaviour annoys me.

My 22month old Dd eats several free oranges while we scoot around doing the shop

Sure she does. And peels them herself, naturally.

Our signs say fruit for children (and it doesn’t seem to be fruit on the turn, as a pp said) so my dds get one piece each if we happen to spot the box. But I can’t get overexcited about someone taking more. I get more pissed off by the likes of the couple who took a box of Krispy Kremes from the display and ate them and dumped the box. Security guard didn’t give a toss. That hacked me off for days but I admit I was on a diet and would have killed for a KK...

Wouldn't have happened in ours. When they first started doing this there was a man at the entrance standing with them. It just said free piece of fruit not just for kids.

The kids took an orange each. I went to take one and he took it back off me. "sorry madam these are only for the kids".

Last time I went he was still stood there guarding the fruit

The proclivity of so many women on Mumsnet to insist on the importance of following ANY rule, no matter what the context, flabbergasts me. Makes me think expensive girls schools have much to answer for

I didn't have a fucking clue what I was talking about! I shop at Tescos because of the free fruit and the fact I can scan and shop thus reducing the amount of 'scream time'

Online shops are the saviour.

Exactly. Look at all the fuss over free coffee in Waitrose. Fruit woman probably goes there after Tesco to buy a single banana so she can get a free latte

And then return the banana after drinking the coffee (yes, happens regularly...)

Nooooo...... Seriously? That's insane.

It's almost certainly the case that a relatively small percentage of the 'buy the cheapest thing you can find like one banana to get a free coffee' will be skint people who haven't had a hot drink that day and can only afford the banana because they found a few coppers on the ground and most will be tightwad freeloaders out for everything they can get.

Some people seem to treat this sort of thing as a bit of a hobby rather than do it out of dire necescity. Tesco fruit woman probably falls into the same category. She probably makes lunch off the breakfast buffet on holiday too.

I tend to agree lanou I dread to think what they'd have thought about the suffragettes on MN. I don't think it's expensive girls schools though, I think some are far too unquestioning of authority for a variety of different reasons.

I think in this case though it's taking away from other people as if it all goes that's it so it isn't on.

You don't know the circumstances.

Maybe a relative works there and she was told to take it as they knew it was being chucked.
Maybe she was taking somewhere for children to eat. A nursery or brownie camp.
Perhaps they let her take surplus to the local old people's home.

We don't know.

The free fruit is a gimmick that encourages sales, plus is covered by the cost of everything else you buy in tesco, surely?
So taking a whole bag is free to that person, but covered by the rest of us. They procure the fruit from multi bags that have bruised or rotten single items when others In the bag are ok (or at least at ours they do) so are using essentially an unsaleable product that would otherwise be written off. All prices on items cover a cost of 'wastage' don't they? Fresh items are priced accordingly so to compensate for the likelihood of throwing lots away. This is why they can reduce it down to pennies to shift it.

Not sure where I am going with this.... But yes, someone taking a bag full is taking the piss; eating more than one piece while you go round is not TTP because that's exactly what they want you to do and everything in your trolley is covering the cost of that apple about ten-fold. IMO.

As a Tesco employee, the cores and skins dropped round the shop, or shoved on the shelf is a fucking pain.

There's bins at checkout.

I'd raise an eyebrow at carrier bag woman, its not really the idea is it?

SuburbanRhonda,
Sorry, what's the dig there? That I enable her to eat oranges because I peel them for her - thus feeding her citrus addiction ?
She does have a really good crack at peeling them actually - but it's a messy process

Yes, agree with you Bastard .
As an employee of Tesco, l'm sick of retrieving manky bits of fruit from the shelves!

DramaInPyjamas I have fond memories if my Stepmum taking the odd couple of strawberries from the displays outside a certain shop as a child. She'd always give me and my sister one. we were also dirt poor

Maybe not right. But the greengrocers is still thriving to this day. Sadly my Stepmum had the audacity to drop dead from a heart attack at the ripe old age of 37, which is why I used the word fond.