Knowingly stealing - food shop delivery

[Ponter]

We order from one of the main supermarkets. On the day of the delivery (last week), I decided to cancel the shop as many of my plans had changed so i didn’t need some of the stuff that had been ordered.

Anyway, the food van turned up and I had a hunch that if I accepted the order I could get the groceries and still get the refund. Which is exactly what happened. It was a risk but I still needed majority of the groceries ordered so thought I’d chance it. We had similar happen once before but we were honest in that scenario.

Even if the supermarket comes back and want me to rectify the error/pay up I can do so - that’s no problem.

I know it’s wrong but I believe the majority would do the same.

Be honest would you?

Well now you have stolen, so you're prepared to steal when you don't think you'll be caught. That says a lot about you. People doing things like this drives up costs for everyone. You're not struggling to put food on the table, you have zero justification for this. My shopping turned up with extra bags a few days ago, I checked quickly and gave the extra bags back to the driver because I didn't pay for them. So no I would absolutely not have accepted the shop if this had happened to me.

Im with you op, its the supermarkets mistake, they shouldn’t be so crap at cancelling order’s.

I’ve had other peoples trays of food delivered with ours before….they have never come back for them.

Laithwaites perchance?

Obviously I wouldn't, because I'm not a thief.

I think that driving that lady home was lovely of you. But the bigger lesson from your story is how disgusting it is that an old(er) and seemingly of poor mobility eoman had to scrape together £3 in pennies for her food as she needed foodbank help but didn't want to lose her pride. She had to do this because supermarkets have not only protected their profits but have made records more whilst shafting the poor.

I've worked at a foodbank myself. I've seen the elderly and the disabled come in, and for the most part, be so polite and respectful and humble.

I can commend their fortitude whilst standing firmly on the fact that this shouldn't happen. The supermarkets who put up the costs of their food during a cost of living crisis, harming the elderly, are the only ones who need to be ashamed of themselves.

I don't think that being reduced to stealing basics means you lack morals or aren't a decent person, and I will never think that.

We've got governments thst fiddle their expenses and hand lucrative contracts over to their friends. Companies who care so much about us that they pay as little tax as possible. No way I can see that and sit around judging someone for making the difficult choice to steal from a large chain.

And as for the post by op, again I don't care. Once those with the power to influence the daily lives of so many, are held to account, then I'll hold someone I don't know to account for playing a rigged system

And no doubt the OP will be whinging about price hikes in supermarkets at some point in the near future. Disgusting behaviour, frankly. For dinner party contents, so hardly broke.

A well known supermarket near me now has the expensive alcohol and all the kitchen knives locked away due to theft. A chain may not feel the pinch but the individual shops within the chain will. They don’t tend to collect miss delivered items as they cannot guarantee how the item was stored so due to health and safety they would have to bin it anyway. They would also have to find a member of staff who could collect the items and most supermarkets here seem to be running with a skeleton staff at the moment. This wasn’t one or two miss delivered items though OP you deliberately stole a whole weeks shopping rather than handing unwanted items back to the driver who would then request a refund for those items. No I wouldn’t do it.

Hi, didn’t want to read and run as appreciate your response, but there are some things that not only I disagree with but that research has proved otherwise. I’ll respond when I am home if that’s ok, I took public transport to my meetings today and bus replacement services are making it take a million years (slight exaggeration!) to get home.

But I didn’t want you to think I was just posting and not coming back, so will do as soon as I get home. Also I hope you know I am not in any way spoiling for a fight, but this is literally a massive part of my job - debunking myths - and I do see some in your response. I also don’t think we are far apart in terms of our values - which matters a lot - although I do think OP stealing for a dinner party is appalling. It’s up to you how you feel about it of course, but smacks to me of complacent entitlement.

It’s amazing how many people with lived experience of abject, and I mean abject, poverty think that stealing from anyone/organisation is abhorrent. You don’t lose your morals because of poverty and it’s patronising for anyone to suggest otherwise (not saying that you said this or believe it). I know people who have stolen bread and milk and then done everything to make restitution later and overpaid at foodbanks because their conscience bothers them so much. But that is NOT the issue the OP is experiencing and that’s important to point out.

It's not worth it for the potential ramifications.

At work (finance) I could probably engineer things to make a couple of hundred thousand disappear without anyone picking it up for a while. Again not worth it for what would happen when caught.

When caught, not if.

It's not luck to defraud a company, it's common thievery. Sure they are unlikely to caught, but it doesn't change op planned to steal

That's okay, I know you're not at all x

For me I've met many poor people who would and wouldn't steal. I see them the same. I've never met someone who would think it's OK to steal from a charity or foodbsnk, which I think would, for me, be wrong.

I've met many middle class people who, despite having more money and social standing, have awful morals imo

They'll look down on the poor as being scum for benefit fraud or theft from Asda but think it's absolutely fine to evade tax and would if they could, think the government should tax less and cut services to the poor

or use use disabled parking for their large cars, despite no right to 😒 (personal ick there). Those are the ones I think have poor morals.

I dont accept that big companies are so sad at all the stealing that they're forced to put their prices up - losses are expected snd factored in, even if there aren't any. The prices will never go down if there are less losses

Anyway, there's no rush @arlanymor, this debate probably will go on for a while. If I don't reply, it's because I've drifted off

The work you do is I'm sure appreciated by the service users

Edited to add, op's issue is completely different to the poor stealing basics - whilst I'm not bothered, I can appreciate that people would be

It’s amazing how many people with lived experience of abject, and I mean abject, poverty think that stealing from anyone/organisation is abhorrent. You don’t lose your morals because of poverty and it’s patronising for anyone to suggest otherwise (not saying that you said this or believe it). I know people who have stolen bread and milk and then done everything to make restitution later and overpaid at foodbanks because their conscience bothers them so much. But that is NOT the issue the OP is experiencing and that’s important to point out.

👏👏👏

So many thieves are not stealing through desperation and poverty as has been seen on this thread; and those with financial troubles don't suddenly lose their decency and honesty.
The flatmate who made my life hell in my 1st year in uni by stealing my money and food was from a wealthy background.

What if you could be sure you wouldn't be caught... would you think it OK then?

You are a cheat and if I was the manager I would ban you from the store and online ordering.

No @TheFreaksShallInheritTheEarth, I wouldn't because I'd think about the money I stole all the time, and feel so guilty about it. I certainly wouldn't be able to enjoy my ill-gotten gains at all.

I was in the bank a couple of years ago, and someone had dropped a wad of notes near the cash machine. My first reaction was to call out to the bank staff and hand it over. It was only afterwards that I realised I could have actually pocketed it, but my first reflex was to do the right thing.

I had some friends at school who used to go and steal makeup from Boots when we were about 14. I NEVER went with them as I always felt what they were doing was wrong. They ended up getting caught almost 2 years later, just before they were 16, and I felt the shame for them despite not being there, as the whole school found out what they'd been doing, and they got ripped to pieces for it.

it wasn’t really clear at the time I posted that comment that the OP had essentially planned the act! I thought like others, that she had tried everything to not receive the food and ended up with it anyway - at which point I do think there’s only so much you should have to do in order to put things right, if the company isn’t fussed I’m certainly not going to bend over backwards - at which point yes I think it’s nice to share the luck. It seems that what OP did was a little underhand

I'll bet you won't be telling your dinner guests about your blatent theft plan to feed them! Although, thinking about this post and your need for attention and praise, you probably will!

OP isn't coming back. She's a thieving cunt and an absolute embarrassment of a human being. Utterly grim.

Absolutely! From a large supermarket chain, likely bumper profits. Would I be calling them to update them, hell no!! I’d wait a few months and if they hadn’t charged me by then I would pass this saving onto a food bank.

Only read the first few pages but I’m astounded by peoples reactions to this.

I wouldn’t deliberately do it, no. That said I have accidentally had a free delivery before.

I used to do the shop and deliver thing from Iceland. Whilst I was at work we had a delivery at around 10am. My daughter put it away and went off to college.

I got home at 5ish, went to do dinner, realised half the stuff in the freezer wasn’t ’my stuff’. Called kids (6 to run through) and realised what had happened. Daughter had just assumed I’d ordered and forgotten to tell her.

I rang Iceland to explain what happened, started digging items out but when they called back they told me, whilst they weren’t saying I was lying they couldn’t accept it back as they couldn’t guarantee it had been frozen promptly.

I offered the non frozen goods back, but they said to keep it and dispose of it or use it. I was extremely grateful because at the time we were going through a really rough patch, DH had recently had a heart attack so income was down etc. it felt like a little good luck at a bad time.

DH adds to the online list if he notices we have run out of a particular thing, or if it's something he fancies. So if something unexpected turned up in the delivery, I would just assume it was something DH added. As this exact scenario has happened, maybe I have ended up with something I didn't pay for - but it wasn't DELIBERATE.

Pass saving on to a food bank - really?

OP has been considering doing this. Thing is, she’ll get away with it and try it on again, with this kind of mentality.

It’s stealing.

No I absolutely wouldn’t do the bloody same! However they will charge your card now, OP. For certain

Also, this is one of the reasons the prices go up! Loss is covered by the customer not the company’s profits!

excellent post.