A coworker went to the local grocery store at lunch. While she was in the bakery section, a guy walked up to the counter and unloaded an entire basket of free samples (cut up lemon tarts, in this case) into a bag. He then left.
One of the bakery workers told my coworkers that this guy has done this for years – when they see him come in, they remove the samples from the counter.
This spurred a conversation among several people about the legality of taking free stuff, in which several issues came up:
Is what this guy did – taking all available free samples of baked goods – illegal? Or just unethical? (We’re all thinking unethical, but not illegal.)
My coworker said that when she worked at a bath and body shop people would take their tester samples – small bottles that were opened for people to try. But those people couldn’t be charged with theft, because the products had been zeroed out of inventory and so were valueless.
What about taking all the copies of a free newspaper from a location. Legal? I seem to recall that it’s not, but I don’t know what the legal line between taking a few copies and taking 50 copies is.
Obviously, legality will vary by state and location, but I’m just interested in what’s on the books in different places.
He can take as many as he wants, until someone puts a limit on it. Then you technically are stealing any quantity above the limit. They’re likely to just ban you from the store if your chronic sample filcher.
The store simply needs to add a sign, “One sample per customer” and then when he next takes everything, ban him from the store. Until then, I think he’s just a rude person whom they are tolerating unneccessarily.
I think you could ban him from the store without the sign. There are all kinds of non illegal behaviors than can get you kicked out of a store. They don’t need to have a sign and list them all.
Free newspapers often have that disclaimer inside that you’re limited to one free copy. Obviously, no one is going to care if I grab two, one for me and one for the office breakroom, for instance.
However, it would prevent Mayor Quimby from taking all the free copies of a local newspaper because he isn’t happy about an article.
Sure they could be charged with theft. Just because they were not “for sale”, or carried in inventory, does not mean they were valueless. The “open/closed” sign on the front door wasn’t carried in inventory, but it wasn’t valueless, and taking it would be theft.
I doubt you could prosecute him for theft, but I’m positive you can kick them out of the store and prosecute him for trespassing should he ever come back.
Just to be clear, none of us thought the store should actually prosecute him for theft, even if they could. It’s not a big enough crime to spend the time.
shelbo: the coworker’s reasoning didn’t make sense to me, either, but apparently that was what the store told its employees.
So is it stealing food if there’s a sign that says “Maximum two samples per person” and a person takes 15?
Good point. The tester bottles may not be saleable inventory, but they are part of the fixturing of the store.
I have no idea as to the “on the books” laws on this, but I’d think that the basic ethical answer is that the samples are provided as an opportunity to let you try something before buying it, not as a replacement for buying it. Therefore, taking samples in lieu of buying is stealing.
There is a little gray area there. Let’s say you are in the bath and body shop, and your hands feel dry, so you take a squirt of lotion from the tester bottle for your hands, even though you have no intention of buying. That’s okay, because there’s a chance that you might love the lotion, and end up buying it. Stores make a lot of money on impulse purchases. But if you worked in the store next to the bath and body store, and came in every day to take a squirt of the lotion for your hands, that would be stealing, because you are doing that as a replacement for buying it.
Well I think you would need to define sample. In the OP this guy took a single sample, that of lemon tarts. If they also had samples of cookies, then he could have taken both, but if they also had coconut cream pie samples, he would have to choose. (yes I know that’s not what they meant, but it is a loophole which would allow him to beat any charges.)
Zyada and I were in the store yesterday when she saw some samples of a traditional German cake. “Mmmm!” she says, grabbing a sample, “Stollen!” “No,” I told her, grabbing one for myself, “they’re giving them away. The second one would be stolen!”
Wow, this would never have occured to me, and I can’t believe people do it. And I worked in retail for years, so I’ve seen it all - or so I thought.
:rolleyes: Some people really have big balls, you know?
