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

If I'd asked my DM if I could have something to eat in the supermarket and just scan the packet she'd have told me "no, it's common" 😆.

It also makes me think of that Peep Show episode where Jez is shopping while pissed and eating junk food.

If I have to take mine to a supermarket, it normally means I don't have any food funnily enough so don't have any snacks to give them. That's why I'm at the supermarket in the first place.

So they can have a snack which I'm going to pay for or some places encouraging the 'munching' by offering fruit to children.

I worked on the checkouts and this is a none issue. Asda didn’t give a crap if you gave your kids something and just paid for it at the end. Damage and stealing are different obviously but me scanning an empty packet of crisps and even putting it in the bin for someone didn’t bother me one jot. A lot of perfect parents on here.

I am in supermarkets regularly and have never seen any of this.

I am very happy with my kid in the trolley, I fully intend to wash their clothes after one wear anyway, never been an issue.

I also put the mini scooter in the trolley next to them 😂

Never seen bird poo on them! I have seen plenty of toddlers sitting in them and not on the seat on the trolley

They are often outside. Even if you've never seen things like bird poo on them, surely you know they are hardly clean even without toddlers sitting in them.

I don’t think it’s right to do this though. Presumably the children have been fed before going to the supermarket, so they’re not ravenous. Some parents just don’t like to say no, and it’s just easier to give in.

You are lucky.

Occasionally it is. If you’re a good parent who sets boundaries and does say no most of the time then surely we all have the odd day when you just don’t have the energy, especially with a toddler. I have a 2 year old and I like to think I’m a good and engaged mam. I try my best to set boundaries and stick to them but I also work full time so if one time every now and again I just do something to make that task a little easier then I’m ok with that. There’s just so much judgment when most of us are good parents trying our best.

I scan and go and will give a pack of something to my toddler just so I can focus for 10 fucking minutes. I really don’t understand why the other half of MN thinks that’s the worst parenting ever 🙄

Adults do this too.

If it is something that they the go on to purchase then I don’t see the big deal. If they put half of it back without paying that is crap and illegal behaviour.

The supermarket I worked at didn't have a hot chicken counter. Ask anyone who has worked in a store with one. They can tell you they have found chicken bones sometimes tossed in the bag dumped everywhere.

They were not paid for....

Baking them would be lower in fat.

Yanbu, I work in retail, I don't want to be handed some sticky half-eaten packet to scan, but also so many packets half-eaten around the store, people don't give a fuck, its both adults and kids.

Can’t manage a whole one!

I saw them doing it

Yeah, exactly the same thing 🙄

I dont allow my children to do this and never have but in our local tesco they do offer fruit.

I well remember giving baby dd1 at 8:months or so, a chocolate biscuit from a packet I later paid for, to keep her quietly and very messily occupied while I went round the supermarket.

I would have said "Oi.... don't open all the packets. People want to buy those".
(and that would be as a member of the public...not a staff member)

When I worked in M&S I often saw people of all ages just come in, pick something up off the shelves (could be anything, a quiche, a sandwich, a bag of doughnuts), walk around eating it, dump the packaging and then walk out. Astounding.

Giving a kid a packet of multipack crisps when kid and multipack are both in the trolley and you’re going to pay for the food is different and I think mums have done that since the beginning of self-serve supermarkets.

My parents used to do this 🤷🏻‍♀️ I've given my DS a banana from the bunch (around snack time if he was going to have one that day) then scanned and paid for the bunch.

(2 year old) DS sometimes has a banana if he has to come with who ever is going the big supermarket shop. We do self-scan so weigh and scan it, usually stick the printed sticker to DS, then peel it for him. I suppose I could go pay for the single banana first and then return for the rest of the shop but why would I? Rather this way with proof of purchase than bringing something from home that could then give the appearance that we’ve stolen it.

Another local supermarket has a shelf of free fruit for kids to take a piece of during the shop but it’s usually apples and oranges that are both tricky for a young 2 year old to manage without cutting them up first.