Do you contend that this is not theft?
Depending on the season, the entire bunch of grapes doesn’t really cost that much. I can buy a pound of grapes for $.99 when they’re in season. So if I ate the entire damn thing, I’d only be costing the store less than a buck, which makes it OK by your standards, yes?
I don’t eat my grapes in the store (since that would be stealing, as they can’t weight what’s in my stomach), but I do pick the bad grapes off the bunch and not buy them - is this dishonest too, do you figure? I just figure that I don’t want to pay for bad grapes, and I don’t want them making the rest of the bunch bad if I don’t eat the grapes right away.
I think that eating some grapes without paying for them is theft, because you took those grapes without paying for them. However, I don’t think trimming the less desirable parts off the asparagus is theft, because you aren’t taking anything from the shop without paying for it. It does seem to be fraud to me, however.
The store presents items for sale, and their cost. You decide if you wish to make that contract.
You don’t get to change the contract without notifying the store.
Assuming that the store had the asparagus priced per pound and not per bunch, you change the terms without notifying the other party involved. Fraud sounds about right.
You just took me eating a 100th of what the total weight is and exaggerated it to be the whole damn thing, no?
A 100th? Where do you shop that you’re getting a bunch of grapes that has 2,000 grapes on it?
When I buy grapes I buy a lot of grapes. I love me some fruit.
I paid $5.95 for a bag of seedless green grapes the other day, but I didn’t pay attention to the weight. That felt like a high price, though.
Yeah, OK. In the real world, a bunch of grapes weighing a pound is going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 grapes, so those 20 grapes you popped are more like 10% of the total, and not 1%. Approximately. Either way, you took something without paying for it, regardless of how you want to rationalize it.
Sailboat, that does seem awfully expensive for grapes, but then this kind of thing varies wildly by region. The most expensive I’ve ever seen them around here is maybe $2.99/lb, out of season.
Bring on the pot-kettle-black if you wish, but to me, eating grapes without paying for them is cut-and-dried theft. You took something out of the store without paying for it. It’s irrelevant if you are holding the goods in your hand or in your stomach.
A bunch of 10-20 grapes weighs around 4 ounces, which is a quarter-pound. How much are they charging per pound for the grapes?
I was being serious about the amount of grapes I buy but I completely understand your viewpoint.
As for my rationale, I think of those 10-20 grapes as a taste test.
For all intents and purposes, it shouldn’t matter how much the theft is. I get that.
I’ve told them that I ate a few before in the line, I’d happily pay for them.
You stole from yourself, - the best part of the asparagus. Next time, get out your peeler and peel the woody “skin” off before you steam it. The white part inside there is the sweetest bit.
I have been known to remove one or two bananas from a bunch before purchasing by weight. I think this is slightly different though, because it is conceivable that someone else who is looking to eat them right away may buy those two bananas, whereas I’m looking for bananas that will be good in 3-4 days.
It is inconceivable to me that anyone would choose to purchase your leftover woody stems. They are just too hard to peel when they are short like that. 
I think what you did could be characterised as “Price Arbitrage.” It would analogous to setting a delay on your electical meter such that your “peak” use entered the meter during “off-peak” hours, thus allowing you to pocket the price difference. You essentially purchased untrimmed asparagus at the “trimmed” price.
On the scale of bad things you could do, it’s not so bad. On the other hand, think of the damage: You are still thinking about it, and will continue to do so because you are a basically honest person. Further, think of the damage to the produce worker who finds and deals with your wreckage; they probably make much less money than you do, and will recognize that this is a small act which will affect the amount of money available to pay them. The view that person holds of human nature could be changed substantially - are you really willing to accept the Karmic hit for that over 30 cents worth of yummy stems?
P.S. Grape eaters: It is stealing. Hardly Grand larceny, and I’ve done worse in my life, but yeah. I used to put a pack of gum on the scale with the grapes whenever my Mother did this.
I don’t see how that’s a “rationale”, unless your supermarket has a policy of allowing their produce to be sampled by customers at will for free taste testing.
In my experience, free taste testing in supermarkets is generally limited to separate little stalls or tables where they have individual samples of some particular product that they invite you to try. I don’t consider myself entitled to taste-test any other supermarket merchandise before buying it.
discussing some legal issues and not discussing the ethics involved or the philosophy of property.
in some places, maybe many, if you eat food (except for obvious free samples, don’t fall for it they make you hungry so that you impulsively buy more) in the store it is theft. there is no actual way to pay the store for the grapes now that the bunch weights less. you could present a partially full bag of cookies or empty candy bar wrapper and pay the actual price for those. in either case you could still be arrested for theft because you might have discarded the grape stem or candy wrapper before the checkout and paid nothing, store employees have no way of knowing your intent and the law favors the property owners point of view. curb your impulsive eating to be safe.
On a completely related note, have you never bought “bad” grapes? Or any other “bad” fruit for that matter. As someone upthread mentioned pulling off the bad looking grapes of the bunch, is that stealing? It is highly unlikely that someone will arbitrarily buy just those bad grapes so those grapes are now lost.
On items that I can try (grapes being one), I eat a few to see what this batch of grapes will taste like.
Most other fruit has certain other things you can look for to judge sweetness (color, firmness etc) Grapes can be the most beautiful looking thing in the world only to get them home and they are sour as hell.
johnpost I do that to candy bars all the time. I always tell the cashier but there have been times that I have to grab a separate candy bar so they can scan it.
I have never bought a bunch of grapes that were all bad, no. I have sometimes bought underripe peaches and the like, but I don’t feel that this entitles me to take a few bites out of a peach and then put it back if I decide I don’t like it after all.
One or two might be “taste testing”.
The rest is just snacking on the company dime.