I cut the tough, woody ends off the asparagus...in the store. Did I steal?

[cosmosdan]

@Cat_Whisperer

The rationale people always use for sampling from bulk bins, eating grapes before paying for them, etc. is that they’re only taking one or two. The problem is that you are not the only person in the universe - if Safeway has a million customers a year, and each takes one item out of the bulk bin, that’s a million items stolen. It’s the same logic as why you need to stay on paths and not pick flowers in national parks; one person doesn’t wreck things - a whole bunch of people wreck things.

This is it. I’ve worked in retail a long time and seen things change. There’s a strange mind set where people justify actions and over time more people justify that same action until it becomes “acceptable” and enough people are doing it and it becomes a problem.

people pick stuff up to look at or consider buying and then drop it anywhere if they change their mind. I see people in my relatively small store walk 5 or 6 steps and drop something on another shelf rather than put it back where they found it. Very few people instruct their kids to put things back where they found them anymore. It’s creating extra work for people who already have plenty to do.
The rent for free syndrome is one of my pet peeves. It’s had the financial effect of major chains changing their return policies to address it. Buy what you temporarily need then return it for a full refund when you’re finished using it. The problem is now the used item is reduced in value so you intentionally robbed the store of that profit margin.

[cosmosdan]

@Joey_P

I just walked out in my store and checked that, at an average price of $1.99, it worked out to about 50¢. Might not seem like much, but keep in mind, someone has to pay for that and it’s not going to be me. It’ll get passed along to the customer. (By that I mean, if enough people are doing that, it’ll effect our bottom line and we’ll have to mark things up higher to account for the shrinkage.)

Right. That’s what people will miss or ignore when they are doing shit they shouldn’t do. We have a real problem in our store of people opening brand new merchandise in a sealed box so they can “check it out” It reduces and in too many cases destroys the value and small profit margin we need. In the long run , to maintain a profit we have to spend more and charge more to make up for this.

The same with the rent for free crap I mentioned earlier. It’s short term selfish thinking and all to prevalent in our me me I privileged society.

[cosmosdan]

Originally Posted by** Gruntled **
Right. I saw that the asparagus was sold by weight. Then I noticed that about 5/8ths of what I would be buying was inedible and done that way on purpose to maximize the store’s profit. That annoyed me, so I found a solution.

I never said I didn’t think it was dishonest. I was just musing about exactly how it’s dishonest.

Now that our grocer explained to you that you hacked off **all **the profit and perhaps more, do you feel differently?

You knew it was dishonest from the start and chose to do it anyway right?

When you transfer the stores profit into savings for you without dealing with them it doesn’t matter if it’s technically stealing or not. It’s unethical and dishonest and that should be enough.

I think people often justify this type of action by fooling themselves into thinking that because it’s a business they must have plenty of profits and what I’m doing won’t really matter. That’s very far from the truth. The profit margins are often smaller than you think and when unethical dishonest practices like your action gain popularity it becomes a real financial burden that winds up as added exspense for honest folks who wouldn’t do that.

I think customers depersonalize it as well. It’s a business not an individual so it’s okay. Believe me, those type of actions affect real people. IMHO it comes down to personal honesty and respect and consideration for the merchant you do business with.