Seriously, I was standing in the express aisle, minding my own business. The guy ahead of me has maybe 5-6 things, and the cashier is ringing them through. Suddenly I hear the cashier say something like, “What about that in your pocket, sir?” I didn’t hear the whole thing, but he was very polite. I look up and this fellow - 60 if he was a day - sheepishly producing a large red tomato from his pocket. I’m all
Seriously, if you’re going to smuggle something, shouldn’t it be less lumpy?
(I know, I know, he probably ran out of hands and stuffed it in his pocket. But still!)
Or, he stuck it in his pocket because his hands were full, then forgot about it. I’ve occasionally put things I was planning to pay for in my pocket for that reason, but I always remembered at checkout. Still, I can imagine you could easily forget.
He probably ran out of hands and stuffed it in his pocket.
That being said, have you SEEN the price of tomatoes lately? One of the local pizza parlors quit putting tomatoes on their salads and hoagies, and blamed a killer frost in Florida. Happily, they still used tomatoes in their pizza sauce.
The clerk handled the situation very gracefully. I vaguely suppose the man might have placed it in his pocket because of not enough hands. I really doubt it though. When I run short of hands in a store, the last thing I think of is my pockets. I set everything down and repack my arms or I look for a bag or whatever that will work. However, when dealing with the public you learn that all things are possible so you have to cut some slack when people don’t do what you expect of them. The shopper responded appropriately and no harm was done.
Maybe he was just too embarrassed to admit he’d put the tomato in his pocket hours earlier when he was fixing his lunch and had forgotten it was there.
I’ve been known to get a soda from the drink box and open the cap for a few swallows when I’m in line. Especially on hot days. I always cap it tightly and set it down for scanning when I’m at the cashier.
When I was younger I sometimes took a bite from a candybar. Carefully making sure the bar code didn’t get torn. So it could be scanned. Cashiers didn’t seem to mind.
Tomatoes WERE hit hard this year. I don’t know what their grocery store prices are, but I noticed when the Wendy’s I used to go to had stopped putting them on sandwiches unless you specifically requested you wanted one.
I have never once, in my entire life, been shopping and put something in my pocket before going thru the check-out line.
Is this common?
I can’t imagine a scenario where I would need to do this; if I just need one or two things and don’t want to grab a basket, I can obviously just carry my items to the cashier, and if I need several different things, I will grab myself a basket. Putting stuff in my pockets would never even occur to me.
