# grocery store question **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 20, 2000, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grocery-store-question/33908 "2000-09-20T20:56:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2000, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grocery-store-question/33908/21 "2000-09-21T09:41:57Z")
- - - How grocery store personnel respond much depends on if you appear to be someone who actually _has_ enough money to pay for what you’re eating. We’ve had bums come in and start eating stuff, and then complain that they are getting “dirty looks” and (_that’s_ the reason, they claim) they refuse to pay. They get arrested for shoplifting, but I guess they’re not hungry anymore for a while. - The store I work at loses far more money from people taking stuff from the freezers and then later, somewhere else, deciding that they don’t want it, and putting it down just anywhere within arm’s reach. This happens with anything frozen, but the seafood is particularly expensive. - MC ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2000, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grocery-store-question/33908/22 "2000-09-21T09:55:29Z")
As a teenager, I worked in various grocery stores. Had we been caught eating or drinking anything without a receipt for the item, it was out the door and don’t look back. To this day, I cannot eat or drink anything until it is paid for. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2000, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grocery-store-question/33908/23 "2000-09-21T12:45:53Z")
My supermarket has both coffee and soda machines for 50 cents. That solves the problem of being thirsty. I like to sit down and really eat, which I can’t see doing in the grocery. ---
**Author:** ![Stella\_Fantasia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/74df32/32.png) [@Stella\_Fantasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stella_Fantasia)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2000, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grocery-store-question/33908/24 "2000-09-21T13:22:46Z")
This seems peculiar to me. I mean, if I were THAT hungry, I would have eaten something at home before I went to the store. ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2000, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grocery-store-question/33908/25 "2000-09-21T15:27:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tatertot \* > **To all those people who sample grapes and cherries, do you know how many grimy, unwashed hands have been pawing all over them? I’m sure they are just teeming with fecal matter. Blech.** Where are you shopping for produce? India? I generally shop in stores frequented by customers whose hands aren’t caked with feces, but that’s just me… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![kjorsty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kjorsty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kjorsty)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2000, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grocery-store-question/33908/26 "2000-09-21T16:41:45Z")
you don’t need to be able to see it to have it on your hands. alot of people do not wash their hands after going to the bathroom and can pick up little bits of fecal matter that you can’t see. these people will invariably touch things you may come in contact with during your day. if you don’t wash that food or your hands, you could be inserting fecal matter into your mouth, as well as other little things that like fecal matter. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2000, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grocery-store-question/33908/27 "2000-09-21T17:31:58Z")
Well that settles it for me… from now on I’m boiling everything I buy in bleach before I attempt to eat it. Little bits of fecal matter?! :eek: Good lord!!! ---
**Author:** ![kjorsty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kjorsty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kjorsty)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2000, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grocery-store-question/33908/28 "2000-09-21T19:46:32Z")
it happens. i’m never _that_ careful about such things myself. i’m just happy to feed paranoia. (didn’t you know that you had little organisms crawling over all over your body and little three-legged, sheep like creatures live on your mattress. better douse everything with a good mixture of bleach and water.) excuse me while i wipe down the mouse and keyboard with antibacterial soap. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Tabithina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f04885/32.png) [@Tabithina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabithina)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2000, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grocery-store-question/33908/29 "2000-09-21T20:12:13Z")
I just came home from the grocery store. There was a woman pushing her cart just ahead of me in the produce aisle, who clearly had a bad cold. She didn’t sneeze on any food, but she sneezed into her hand, then touched the produce. So there’s rhinoviruses there along with the invisible fecal matter.I wouldn’t sample produce, but I might open a drink in the checkout if the line is long, and I’m thirsty. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2000, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grocery-store-question/33908/30 "2000-09-21T20:31:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by kjorsty \* > (didn’t you know that you had little organisms crawling over all over your body and little three-legged, sheep like creatures live on your mattress. better douse everything with a good mixture of bleach and water.) Well thank you very much for that mental image! Okay, now my skin is all crawly and itchy and I need to run home to have a super hot shower and scrub with ajax. :eek:\*\*10 ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2000, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grocery-store-question/33908/31 "2000-09-21T20:34:04Z")
I’m with lolagranola on this - sometimes if I’ve eaten too many carbs for breakfast with no protein, and I time it wrong, I’ll start to get low blood sugar while I’m shopping. If you’ve ever experienced this (shakes, loss of muscle control, mental confusion, extreme fatigue - can take hours to completely wear off), you’ll understand why I grab a power bar or something and tuck in immediately. Anything to head it off at the pass. And yes, NPR just did a [story](http://search.npr.org/cf/cmn/cmnpd01fm.cfm?PrgDate=9%2F20%2F2000&PrgID=2) on a study showing that many many people don’t wash their hands in the bathroom. And people sneeze into their hands and put that germy hand all over things. When I’m out and can’t wash my hands, I’ll sneeze into my shoulder to avoid this. Of course, I don’t generally have very juicy sneezes. For others this might not work. ---
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2000, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grocery-store-question/33908/32 "2000-09-21T21:41:27Z")
Yes, I’ve let my son eat something in the store, and I save the wrapper so they can scan it so I may pay for it. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grocery-store-question/33908/33 "2000-09-22T02:58:28Z")
Just PLEASE do NOT eat anything that has to be weighed. I remember some parents giving a hungry child a banana. Get another one, right? Well, we had an anal manager who said they might not weigh the same…good grief! ---
**Author:** ![Kaboodle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8edcca/32.png) [@Kaboodle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaboodle)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grocery-store-question/33908/34 "2000-09-22T04:20:42Z")
Through a FOAF I heard about store security (through video or two-way mirrors) watching a shopper that opened a package of food while shopping. They observed her the entire time while she shopped and finished the entire bag. But when she paid for the empty bag at the checkout it was okay. I tried to find the article from the paper but couldn’t. Within the last two weeks there was an article in the local paper about a woman arrested in a grocery store. She had found a bag of candy that had been opened with pieces around it on the shelf. The woman ate two or three pieces of the candy then walked away. Store security arrested her for shoplifting. The woman claimed that since the bag was open and the pieces were spread around that she thought they were free samples. I think the story made the paper because of how overzealous store security was. They didn’t ask her to pay for the items they just called police. I think this would fall under the same category as someone eating a grape or two. Personally I have never opened an item until I have paid for it but I suppose if there was something pre-priced and pre-packaged I might. Just as a caution to readers on the subject of shoplifting, (and I admit it was over 20 years ago). I was shown an article about a young boy Christmas shopping with his mother. He picked up a present he wanted to buy for his mother. Since she was with him and he didn’t want her to see it, he held the item inside his coat. He didn’t have it in a pocket, he just held it under one side of his coat. The young boy was arrested for shoplifting. You have to be careful. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grocery-store-question/33908.md?page=1)