An "Is This Stealing?" Question

I like to go to Sephora and Macy’s and to get new cologne samples. I used to pay $70 a bottle for the stuff but I like to have a little bit of variety rather than get stuck with limited resources… so, with my current intentions of “never” purchasing these products anymore that I am sampling, what does this imply?.. Am I stealing? Certainly not. I cannot possibly be “stealing” a free product…

Same situation with this employee… She can easily jump onto the side of being a “customer” and there is no debate as to whether she is stealing or not. She’s taking a shortcut to the stash, that is it.

Personally, I believe that the samples should not be allowed to be taken home by employees since this is really something that cannot be controlled (most times, as a customer you’re usually going to be limited to 1 sample per item per visit [as long as they remember you]) and there is no way of judging what is “too much”. Management should hand out goody bags with samples every so often as their are new releases or whatever but it shouldn’t be a privilege to have unlimited access to the sample pile as you will never know how much an employee is taking and what they might be using it for (sales. etc).