So I’m just at the Panera, getting a coffee. Panera seems to always have a little sample basket of some bread or pasty, one would assume to try and give patrons an opportunity to try something and perhaps buy on an impulse. On my way out I notice a woman who has bought a coffee. She has taken a couple of napkins and put them atop her folded newspaper to make a sort of tray area. She then loads enough “bearclaw” pastry components to effectively complete a full bearclaw. I’d guess between 15 and 20 large bite sized pieces.
Now, obviously one sample piece is not stealing. One could easily argue that two is just a way to get a second opinion. But enough to form an entire pastry seems to be pushing the envelope. To be fair there is no signage, that I noticed, that says “one to a customer” or anything of that sort. So hypothetically one could empty the entire contents of the sample basket, which was about 3-4 pounds of pastry, and still be okay. But that just seems wrong.
It’s tacky, but I would assume that Panera does this knowing that it’s part of the deal. This isn’t to say that every retalier/restaraunt knows that some people will shoplift/skip out on the check, and because of this knowledge that makes it okay.
They probably put the sample basket out hoping that people will take one or two, decide that they can’t live without it, and buy it. If someone take’s a pastry’s worth of parts, however, the manager isn’t going to tell the customer that the jig is up.
I often wonder what it would be like to have no shame. I’ve tried to satisfy my curiosity by asking people whom I see doing things like that, but usually, it turns out they *do * have shame, it’s just of the timed-release variety.
Shameless, most certainly but NOT stealing. If it’s been put out for free, you can’t steal it. I think this falls under the sin of gluttony more closely.
I regularly get to see a far more ludicrous version in the food court near where I work. Several of the takeaways have an all you can eat plate for about $7. It is a common sight to see the shameless piling up tottering mounds of low grade Chinese takeaway to take to a distant table where the accomplices wait.
If I can get away with it, I like to bump into them and make them spill all their ill gotten gains.
Not really but I would like to be the guy who would.
My aunt used to own a store ina rural community. Once a year, she had a free fish-fry for the community. Once, she was absolutely floored that she had seen one woman load a cardboard box full of fried fish and scurry away with it. She took so much that there was no way she and her family could consume it before it went bad.
I used to work in a hotel that offered a free continental breakfast. I was amazed at the number of people who would clear out the place. (I’d have to restock after they left.) They’d take all of the little boxes of cereal, wrap all of the slices of bread in a paper napkin, cram the donuts and croissants into their bags, and empty the bowls of butter packets into their pockets. I was always bemused by it-- the boxes of cereal I could understand, but who would want twelve unwrapped slices of bread? And what do they do with the foil-wrapped packets of butter? How do they keep them from melting? And who wants a sticky donut covered with napkin fibers?
It’s not stealing, per se, but definitely tacky. I’ve been known to go back to the little Panera basket for seconds … and even thirds, if it’s that good. But not a whole damn pastry. Get a smaller coffee and buy your breakfast.
Do you live next door to my mother, because not only is her pocketbook filled with napkins from Burger King, McDonalds, KFC and Hardees, she’s also got a lions share of salt and pepper packets, ketchup and straws, straws and more straws. I absolutely refuse to hold her pocketbook if she’s in the store trying on clothes because (1) it’s so damn heavy and (2) if the McDonald’s Police finally catch up with her, I don’t want to be an accomplice.
I’m just kidding about the McDonald’s Police. I know there’s really no such thing, except for the Hamburgler and that fat purple fellow, but if they approach me, I’m heading in the other direction.
I used to have a friend who had no shame - “used to” being the key words.
If we were at Panera and saw a tray of free samples, I’d take one and she’d be like the woman in the OP, taking enough to make up a whole pastry. If I said, “You’re only supposed to take one!” she’d reply, “They’re free and I’m hungry.”
She honestly saw nothing wrong with taking as many as she wanted; it just didn’t occur to her that other people might want some, too.
She had a huge sense of entitlement.
