Wish kids would stop opening stuff in shops

[notedbiscuits]

It annoys me when kids - both when I worked in retail and when I am visiting shops - touch, muck about and play with stuff that they (or their parent(s)) going to buy.

I have seen kids opening the blind boxes and bags - think Lego figures, Pokémon.

Play with footballs

Then have seen evidence of multi packs opened with a bag of crisps taken. Sometimes it’s the parent that opened the multi pack and pay for the item as their DC was screaming and giving a bag of Quavers just to keep them quiet.

Look but don’t touch

No, it’s not a museum. It’s a shop, with people.

It’s a very short phase where they do not have the developmental capacity to defer impulse control for the time it takes to complete a round of the supermarket.

Oh rubbish.

It's a much longer phase if you pander to them.

Kids do eventually get used to the word 'no'.

And if they don't have to get used to it at home, they'll get a short, sharp shock when they start school.

It's gambling aimed at children.

A far bigger problem where I work is adults taking food out of the fridge or freezer, deciding that they don't want it and just leaving it on the nearest shelf. We have to then throw it out because we don't know how long it's been there. A kid eating a packet of crisps doesn't really bother us tbh, although I wouldn't let my own kids do it

What do you do when your child has a low in places that don’t have shelves of food?

Clearly in an emergency it’s more important your child gets whatever they need to save their life, but it’s a bit ridiculous not to have supplies with you if you’re in this situation.

I do think it is an issue - you don’t own it until you’ve paid for it. I used to work in a supermarket and be handed a banana skin (how the hell am I meant to weigh and charge for that banana then?!) or a half eaten bread roll or in one case I was handed a half eaten bag of sweets and told not to charge because they’d just have returned them anyway for being “gross” - it drove me mad. You buy things before you consume them.

And then most of the time they’d leave me the yucky detritus at the checkout to dispose of as well.

Its not just kids, when i worked in a lingerie department people always opened the multipacks of knickers. Ibam assuming to eye up the size? Never bloody put them back or put them back in the wrong size box.

Some leave the rest of them on the shelf.

That is theft.

At my supermarket, it depended on the manager what we did with the crisps etc with one pack missing. Some reduced it to staff for half price or so. Some donated these to the food bank.

Regardless of what they did, the store lost money

What do you do when your child has a low in places that don’t have shelves of food?
DH has diabetes and he tries to take things out with him but if he doesn't have any or has eaten it he goes to a place where they have shelves of food, and buys something immediately, consuming it as soon as he can.

..and the French sticks with a bite taken out of them and then put back on the shelf with the bite end downwards so you can't see it. Or cans of coke opened, a swig taken or two taken and the can put back on the shelf...

It is the public that pay in the long run because prices go up because of this sort of thing. Parents should telll their children this (although I do realise that many children will just laugh and take no notice. A police presence in supermarkets might help but is obviously impractical. Kids LOVE thinking they've got one over on the staff.)

Yes, I’ve never seen this either?

It happens in my gift shop fairly often, both kids and adults alike. Once caught a child opening and "testing" beauty products. Where was dad? Outside. Told him he had to pay for all the stuff she had used. His comeback? She's only 12 and it should say don't test. I said it does say don't test and as her parent he should parent her, not leave her to roam free. He was incredibly rude and entitled. I was so cross with him.

Don't even get me started on parents kicking off when I tell them their toddler can't eat the ice cream that is currently starting to run down their arms, in my shop, or their Greggs sausage roll that invariably ends up squished into my carpet.

This isn't a "kids" thing.
Adults do it too.
As a former retail worker it's very annoying. Many small shops are practically having to go back to products being kept behind the counter and you have to ask for it.
By the way....if you're buying the Lego minifigs they now have a code on the box and there's loads of apps you can use to scan it and it tells you what figure it is.

It doesnt help when shop assistants make you out for being odd for paying for food and THEN doing your shop though. I needed to grab some bits, it was lunchtime and my toddler was dramatically dying of hunger so I went to Tesco and grabbed a cheese sandwich for her from the meal deal section went to customer services to pay for it and asked if it was ok for her to eat in the trolley whilst I did the shopping or if they'd prefer me to take her into the car park to eat. The shop assistant was quite shocked that I 1. Asked if it was ok for her to eat in the shop and 2. Had paid for it first. She said people normally just save the packaging and pay with their shopping at the end and that was fine.

I usually try to avoid shopping at meal times for everyone's sanity but I left feeling silly for worrying about a cheese sani.

I see no difference to a child kicking a ball once and someone sitting in a car at a car showroom. Obviously don't kick it about like you're playing a game but checking how good the ball is, how heavy etc is part of shopping surely?

We were in Tesco a few weeks ago and couldn’t get any garlic bread as two feral kids had opened every single packet on the shelves

Were you the one who walked over and said loudly that condoms could have prevented this? OR the one who said I'm glad I'm stuck here working to pay for these parents to have benefit money? Or the one who wrote all those entitled parents Reddit comments?
Seriously, it's quite scary how many parents don't parent, last time I was out shopping some excuse for a parent let their child kick a football into someone who had just had surgery, and ended up back in hospital. The person obviously would have stayed away from parks etc where they would have expected kids to be playing.

Half drunk drinks from other shops like a coffee shop also baffle me. Since when were shelves bins?

I also can't get mad with a child playing with a football. It's not a museum.
Supermarkets sell fragile items plus the act of playing football could cause someone to get injured. Nobody wants to trip over a child chasing a football either.

I've never seen a football in a supermarket. I was thinking more like Smyth's toyshop.

How do you know it was kids?

It’s also not their football. Who wants to buy shit that other kids have played with.

Take packaging away and they will play with everything. Just keep your kids under control.

With food - it’s usually parents I spot opening things.

Bet they dont pay for it either.

I was hit by a football in a supermarket once - some little shit had taken it in with them and was just out of control

I disagree. If you need the item for medical reasons you should go directly to the tills to pay for it. I have some sympathy if you are consuming the item in the queue for the till to pay for it because it is time critical and the line is slow, but not if you are doing so to go wander around the electronics or the toy aisle.

The supermarkets don't allow for the consumption of items before they are paid for. People are being very cheeky when they do this- it is absolutely against the supermarkets wishes- and many customers absolutely don't pay, I have seen them hiding the wrappers.

I have been caught short with a baby needing a nappy change before and a forgotten nappy bag, and we went directly to the tills to purchase the nappy pack and wet wipes before I went into the changing room. I feel like anything else is dishonest. You shouldn't consume something before it is yours without explicit permission.

I saw a child take the lid off a tub of ive cream smell it and put it back. Foul.