# People Who Steal From the Grocery Store **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 19, 2008, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-steal-from-the-grocery-store/464380 "2008-09-19T23:34:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Abby\_Emma\_Sasha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@Abby\_Emma\_Sasha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abby_Emma_Sasha)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-steal-from-the-grocery-store/464380/61 "2008-09-23T09:54:05Z")
I will confess when I was a kid and went shopping with my mom we would get a package of nuts or grapes or something and munch on them whilst we shopped for other groceries. If we ate the whole pack mom would keep the bag so we would be charged for it. No one ever gave a fuck. Originally Posted by Niki Tiki Tavi The tampons or diapers I can almost understand. Maybe someone was having an emergency that they weren’t prepared for and had to make a mad dash to the bathroom? And were too embarassed to return and buy the rest of the package? Now this is bullshit. I have had this kind of emergency. I just go buy the shit and use it, or if I couldn’t wait, I’d use a pad and then buy the package. I mean, who cares, really? I’m a woman of childbearing years(please god let it stop)and I assume everyone knows I have a menstrual cycle(please god let it stop, soon). The “now this is bullshit” line is me. I can’t figure out how to quote more than one post now that the board has changed. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-steal-from-the-grocery-store/464380/62 "2008-09-23T11:26:30Z")
{QUOTE=Abby\_Emma\_Sasha}The “now this is bullshit” line is me. I can’t figure out how to quote more than one post now that the board has changed.{/QUOTE} Like that only with , not {}. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-steal-from-the-grocery-store/464380/63 "2008-09-23T13:18:43Z")
> [@Jaade](#): > > You can agree, but you are wrong. It’s simply a way of politely saying “we aren’t filthy rich, but we are doing well” without bragging. It’s a commonly used term. Yeah, no kidding. Has nobody heard of litotes around here? Zheesh. Can’t use a common idiom with getting jumped on by the literalists. ---
**Author:** ![criminey.jicket](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@criminey.jicket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/criminey.jicket)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-steal-from-the-grocery-store/464380/64 "2008-09-23T13:45:41Z")
Decades ago, my sister-in-law confessed to me that she would take the pickle in the center of the Vlasic pickle jars. She was a cashier at the grocery store. :o ---
**Author:** ![Avarie537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/48db29/32.png) [@Avarie537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avarie537)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-steal-from-the-grocery-store/464380/65 "2008-09-23T13:54:34Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > I like that idea. There are many of us who would dearly love to bring down vengeance upon the louts and scofflaws of the world with impunity. Can I work in the parking lot, yelling at people who can’t seem to grasp the concept of the cars go BETWEEN the lines? You are after my own heart today! I wish, oh how I wish I could be a parking lot cop. We used to tease my mother incessantly about that as kids - she would whine and moan about the parking lot assholes all the time. Now I wanna be a Traffic Stop Cop! ---
**Author:** ![butler1850](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@butler1850](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butler1850)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-steal-from-the-grocery-store/464380/66 "2008-09-23T20:56:55Z")
> [@Mr.Krebbs](#): > > I worked in grocery (as a stocker) for years. The frozen food thing is new to me. Sure, we had soda cases ripped open for a single can, damaged items placed back on the shelf, frozen foods left on non-refridgerated aisles, etc. but I’ve never seen individual items stolen from frozen food packages. > > Most damage caused to frozen food packages is from the box-knives used to open cases, in my experience. Any possibility that this happened? I’m amazed you’ve not seen it before, it was a very common occurance in the supermarket I worked in during the late 80s, early 90s. I’ve damaged plenty of boxes with the cutter. It has a completely different look than that of a customer opened box. What’s even worse than the customer thefts is what happens by the employees. I once cleaned out the top of our dairy back area refrigerator, and came down with 6 (yes SIX) milk crates full of “spent” whipped cream cans. One of the staff was a big whip-hit fan. Plenty of the staff would graze through the shelves to snack, or sneak something in to one of the back stock areas (the back freezer was a particularly good spot according to a few I found back there with there mouth full). Often the boxes would end up in the “vendor return” bins, as the staff thought it wasn’t really stealing. I’m sure much more was stolen/eaten than I ever saw, but what I saw was amazing in it’s quantity. ---
**Author:** ![Nikki\_Tikki\_Tavi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3da27b/32.png) [@Nikki\_Tikki\_Tavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nikki_Tikki_Tavi)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2008, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-steal-from-the-grocery-store/464380/67 "2008-09-25T00:33:16Z")
> [@Miss\_Woodhouse](#): > > I can’t excuse for this reason either. More than one mother has been caught unprepared and had to buy an emergency package of diapers for the baby. It’s even more understandable that a woman would be caught out unprepared. Not everyone’s cycle is perfectly regular after all. Taking an open box to the register probably wouldn’t even get you a second glance much less feed your embarrassment in any way. What if you didn’t realize you started until it soaked through the back of your jeans and you didn’t have any pads so you opened a package, snagged one, ran to the bathroom to put it on and then were too embarassed to stand in line to pay for the open package in your stained pants? Yeah, I’m reaching. On the rare occasions I’ve been caught unawares (thank you birth control, with your wonderful period-controlling abilities) and unprepared (thank you DivaCup, with your awesome non-toxicity) I’ve either scrounged up a quarter for the machine in the bathroom or made do with toilet paper. Damn grocery store thieves. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-steal-from-the-grocery-store/464380.md?page=3)