Every package of grapes I have ever seen in a grocery store has the zip lock top opened. Why?
I’ve noticed that too. And they all have missing grapes near the opening.
Grape packers are paid by volume, and it’s a waste of time to spend a few extra seconds closing each bag.
I’ve seen a lot of grape bags which were perforated, or mesh. I don’t think they (or fruit in general) last long in airtight containers. The bag is just to keep them all together, not to preserve them.
In all the Asian markets here, all the grapes are closed up! I’d never seen it done before, but now all three do it. But still ‘all open’ at the regular groceries.
Grapes are not cheap, if I’m going to buy a big bag, which I probably am, I’m tasting one first. And if they are sour or bitter, I’m giving them a pass. So I never buy them at the Asian markets.
Also open bags makes it easier for the consumer to remove some if it’s more than they’d like to purchase!
I agree it’s probably a combination of all these answers.
I see them open or closed depending on where the grapes are from. Completely closed and difficult to open, closed with a plastic tab zipper type opener that you can open/close easily, open with the manual zipper that never locks properly, and open with no closure method - just handles.
Do you also take a bite out of an apple before buying a bag of apples? It is not an inalienable consumer right to taste produce prior to making a purchase. I realize a few grapes are minor in the grand scheme of things, but this is still theft. Normal people analyze our fruits and vegetables for texture and firmness prior to purchase, sure. But flavor is always a bit of a crapshoot.
Any store or produce stand will generally be happy to offer you a sample. But yeah, you should ask a store employee first rather than just help yourself.
As I was told many times during my tenure at Safeway, if someone asks for a sample, or even just hints that they’d like to try something, let them have some. Doesn’t matter what it is: produce, yogurt, cookies, whatever (provided you don’t need to cook it). If a customer tells you they’ve never had an Oreo before, rip that package right open and let them have some.
That is Safeway store policy. At least as recently as 2005 when I worked there.
That doesn’t fly in most places. I can’t imagine pulling this off at Walmart, or the local grocery store where I worked my first job as a bagger.
And the rest of the opened package goes to the employee break room!!!
They’re open so that you can reach inside and remove the bad grapes and throw them at the produce manager in retaliation against the store trying to sell rotten produce. Or, you can toss the bad grapes back onto the shelf. In my store, these grapes sold by the pound anyway so it works for me.
This open package method also allows the customer to alter the size of their purchase and I consider that a plus.
Did anyone claim it was an inalienable right?
Any sensible retailer would not consider it theft - not everything in store is amenable to being conveniently sampled (apples per your example, or sausages, or frozen fish), but some things are - grapes, cherries, cheese and other deli items(at the counter, if you ask).
It would be sensible to call it theft when someone consumes a whole bag of grapes while completing their shopping, without paying for them - but sampling a grape (with sincere intent to buy if good) when there is nobody around to ask permission? Call me out for being a thief on that and I’ll shop elsewhere.
Would you detain someone and call the police because you got CCTV footage of them sampling a grape?
Wow, I have shopped at Safeway countless times and never knew this. Which means I was subsidising the samplers all along like a chump! LOL (But even knowing it, I don’t know that I’d have the chutzpah to take advantage of it.)
Oh FFS!
/Rolleyes x’s 1000
It depends on how they are sold. There are bagged weights (2# Bag) which are closed that sells for a given price, and is barcoded that way, and there are sell by measured weight bags, where there is a price per pound and the bag is weighed at checkout. They have a PLU (Product Look Up) code.
Same idea as bananas. There are 3# bags that sell unweighed for , and the $0.49/pound bunches that sell by weight.
It’s not theft if the owner does not consider it theft; no major grocery chain would consider grape sampling theft.
In large market areas the grocery business is highly competitive. Allowing and even encouraging sampling is a smart marketing technique that makes customers happy. The big stores in my neighborhood (Kroger, HEB, Fiesta, Whole Foods, Albertsons) even have clear covered trays on plastic stands throughout the store with samples of just about everything. These stands are not attended.
I’d be willing to bet that people who sample grapes are more likely to buy a bunch than those who don’t. Just a hunch but I’m sure there is a study of this out there.
Eating produce you haven’t purchased is low-class, and it’s theft. But this is hardly a settled point. Doing a google search, lots of people agree with me and lots with you. Sounds like a culture/holy war thread in the making (like tipping). For example:
"I don’t see how valid the argument for ‘sampling’ the grapes is. There are very few other foods where you generally sample it before you buy it, people don’t bat an eyelid when they buy meat, fish, dairy, other fruits etc without having a taste beforehand, why do they suddenly give a damn when it comes to grapes? This strikes me as a retroactive rationalisation of something that they know is wrong.
“The foods that you do occasionally sample tend to be more pricey things like wine and cheese. This makes sense because you are paying good money for what you hope will be a good product. Grapes on the other hand are pretty damn cheap, so this argument is invalid. Furthermore, even sampling wine and cheese isn’t a given. If you were to assume that you could sample it, then you would run into trouble before very long.”
Pardon me for saying so, but isn’t it just possible this varies from region to region?
Or even store to store? In which case I’m going to believe if they really don’t want people to sample the grapes they would close up the bags, instead of leaving them all open!
In some places all the bags are closed but one, clearly left open for people to taste! In another store I frequent they have some loose grapes set out for you to sample before you buy!
So I’m going to go with regional differences myself.
In all my 46 years and living all over Texas, I’ve never heard of a grocery store of any stripe, giving a shit if you sample one grape. And I’ve dated two produce managers, one for Brookshires and another for Walmart. As a matter of fact, my dad stills works for Walmart and they’d much rather you sample one grape (for freshness / bitterness / whatever) than to buy the whole bunch and return them due to them not being up to your standards.