To give my toddler a bit of bread?

[ChequeredPasta]

I imagine this has already been done to death, and would get the answer if I could be arsed to scroll...
At Waitrose the other day. Put a french bread stick in the trolley, which my toddler (2) saw, and started reaching for it. Told her no, to wait, but she is an untameable beast became upset. So..... I tore off the end and gave it to her BEFORE paying One of the staff saw, and gave me a stinker of a look.

Now, my Mum used to do this with us. But, my Mum's understanding of social convention is.... interesting.
WIBU?!

lol I've never got to a till and have had my card declined or forgotten my purse I can't believe people are that up tight about this, it's not theft it's the crusty top of a French stick, get a grip. Just shop in tescos and then they have free fruit in every store for children to eat while they shop. No YANBU.

Hmmm, so a mixed bag!

Peng, the point is, I don't have a problem with what I do, because what I do works (as lowly and not v moral as donkey thinks I am). She may not care about screaming meltdowns. I do. I don't want to hear it from my own ds. And I don't think I have the right to inflict that godawful noise on other poor innocent shoppers either. So to resolve both issues in one go, my ds gets the bread/buttons/grapes/whatever helps him STFU. And I am fine with it.

*I^ bite the end off the French stick, never mind giving it to the DCs!

subtlecheese. Hello - intrigued by your phrase "known shoplifters". Is it usual for shops to have people doing this regularly, then?

I usually open a drink too

Grapes will get your prosecuted. Tesco would kick your arse out for that. I’ve seen the best sad face on the front page of a newspaper when that happened before. So there you go. You are stealing.

Sales assistants don't want to touch your empty wrappers why would an empty wrapper be worse to touch than a full one? Were talking an empty baguette wrapper not a slobbered on chewed up greasy wrapper

Pengggwn: Would a supermarket be able to prosecute you though, if you then paid for it? Surely they would have to prove intent to steal, which would be leaving without paying...

Just don't let your sprog (or yourself) eat something then hand the empty package to the checkout person to dispose of - take your empties with you! As a student, working checkouts, that one of the most annoying things.

YOU happen to believe it is common sense to do this. I happen to believe it is common sense to buy stuff, then eat it. Neither of our opinions on this are relevant. A supermarket would be within its rights to ask you to leave or even prosecute you for this, because it is theft. No grey area, your definition of common sense is irrelevant: it's theft

The thread is obviously asking for a general consensus though. And if the staff at the supermarkets are okay with it, then I think we can say that in general, it's acceptable.

There are a few people that for some reason believe it is a problem (I've yet to hear of a reason why - saying "it's not okay!" is not a reason why it's not okay), but in general, it's accepted.

wren obviously the checkout staff at my local supermarket are nicer as they always offered to put it in the bin for me!

Just no. Yabu. Really common behaviour.

OP, a supermarket would never prosecute somebody for this anyway, that's the point. They don't care. It's not a big issue.

I go to Tesco and try to give the free fruit or bits of any bakery goods etc they have out for tasting if I've forgotten snacks (which is pretty regularly!) I have occasionally opened a packet of something, no one seems to care. I don't think it's a huge deal to be honest.

My understanding is it isn't deemed as theft until you have left the premises without paying. According to a Magistrate I know anyway.

Generally speaking I have snacks and a drink in my change bag and DD will have those. However, if she sees babybels go in the trolley and I don't let her have one she has been known to have a right old paddy. Most of the time I can distract her, but when I can't I'll let her have one.

I don't want her to carry on with her drama llama-ing; I don't care about what other people think about her "tantrum" I just pick when and where to stand my ground. Food shopping is a necessary evil which she has to occasionally tolerate.

No one bats an eyelid in my local store and it is definitely not frowned upon. Happy child = parent not about to lose their shit in the shop.

YANBU

The thing with “my mum used to let me eat x and then scanned the wrapper” is that lots of people would simply chuck the wrapper and pretend it never happened.
The staff don’t know the difference when you’re still walking round the shop.

OP you are fine, it's not a problem. We do it all the time in Waitrose and they don't mind. I used to pay at the service desk first before the manager said not to bother, just let my toddlers eat the fruit or baguette and pay at the end with the rest of the groceries.

The catsbumfaces on thus thread are not going to change my actions!

Why not bring your own snacks when you know this is going to happen, MrsDilligaf?
It’s not the shop staff’s job to keep your child happy