AIBU Strange banana business in Tesco's

[mrsjoyfulprizeforraffiawork]

I was in Tesco at the checkout earlier in front of a mother (30s) with double buggy and one toddler sitting on it visible. I was waiting for (very slow) customer in front of me to get her cards out and pay. The very young cashier was clearly extremely bored/nearly asleep (don't blame her) and yawning madly. Suddenly, the mother behind me said to her "Do you have a bin?" - she agreed she did, whereupon the mother handed her a perfectly good banana in one of those thin transparent bags and asked her to put it in the bin. She then said to the cashier, "You look as though you are thinking I should be paying for it but it's free to kids, isn't it?". (She had just opened a pack of oaty bars that she had not yet paid for and handed toddler one so I suppose she thought he wouldn't eat the banana after all). We were all a bit taken aback and I went away wondering why, if she wasn't willing to replace it on the banana shelf herself, she didn't just apologise and ask cashier if she could leave it there for a member of staff to put back. In effect, she was throwing away perfectly good Tesco stock that she had decided not to have and hadn't paid for. AIBU?

Recently the free bananas in our Tesco have been far too green for our boys to eat. The older one ate his but I ended up with the younger ones already open and bitten into banana, was even too green for me tbh, they are just too hard and dry. (And i like a nice hard banana , but maybe not in the middle of Tesco)

Tonight ds3 refused to get one as they were not ripe enough for him. Thought about telling him to get one to take home and ripen up so he could have it in a few days but that felt a bit cheeky to do. (The apples are too mushy for him, he doesn't like pears and the oranges are often too bitter.)

Maybe she got the banana and realised it was too unripe or it was bitten into and too unripe. Once they are opened you can't leave them in the fruit bowl to ripen, the end just goes black, so it would be wasted anyway if this was the case.

Or maybe she doesn't care about the environment etc but she could have at least taken it home for composting or food recycling if she has it in her area.

Yes, I know they provide a piece of free fruit for children but is it appropriate to waste it?

I don’t quite know why but this sentence is making me laugh out loud. I think it’s the triviality combined with the outrage about what is and isn’t appropriate.

I bet the child wasn’t wearing a cap either was he?

@HollowTalk better than binning it surely? They'll choose something, generally eat it but occasionally carry it round the shop. We take it home to eat later. Other people seem to leave them in the trolley.