# "Sampling" grapes: theft, uncouth, or perfectly legit? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 7, 2014, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sampling-grapes-theft-uncouth-or-perfectly-legit/685521 "2014-04-07T01:53:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sampling-grapes-theft-uncouth-or-perfectly-legit/685521/21 "2014-04-07T05:23:12Z")
When my husband needs a serrano or jalapeno pepper he gets a bunch of them. Not me. If I need two serranos, I will select two serranos. If I only need one, I’ll get one. Every time I get one, it doesn’t register on the scale, and the store just gives it to me. (Note that I would probably never go to a store JUST for one pepper so I am always buying other stuff along with it. Usually lime and an avocado, actually.) I think if you wanted to sample one grape of a bunch, to make sure that bunch was generally grape-flavored and not bitter, no one would mind. I further think that if you decided to be honorable and buy that one grape before deciding whether to purchase the whole bunch, it would register even less than the single serrano pepper and the store would give it to you. I think if you asked the produce manager if you could sample one grape, said manager would say, “of course.” So I wouldn’t consider that theft. If, on the other hand, you started at the produce section, grabbed a bunch of grapes, and ate them throughout the store as you shopped, then that would be theft. Sometimes the grapes are packaged in a mesh bag so you can’t sample. I don’t buy those. I wish I could do the same for strawberries. But then, with strawberries you can pretty much rely on smell (until the stores wise up and start pumping in strawberry fragrance I guess). ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sampling-grapes-theft-uncouth-or-perfectly-legit/685521/22 "2014-04-07T05:38:24Z")
The only time I’ve done it is when shopping with very small kidlets (app 6-12 months) who are perched in the kid-seat in the trolley, and are just AMAZED when I squirt a grape full of juice into their mouths! The look on their faces is just priceless and worth far more than the 0.0001c that the grape itself cost to the retailer. Yeah, it’s technically theft, but I’m not going to lose any sleep over it. I spend more than enough in the markets and supermarkets to compensate for the odd grape I’ve nicked over the years. And VERY different to people who open packages and eat the contents whilst they shop (without presenting the package to be scanned at the checkout). ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sampling-grapes-theft-uncouth-or-perfectly-legit/685521/23 "2014-04-07T05:48:34Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > This poll is not really valid because it’s missing a crucial choice: “I don’t do it often, but from time to time (with fruit that is often bad), it’s acceptable to do.” Or something like that. IOW, there’s a difference between abusing the custom (i.e., doing it even though you have no intention of buying), and doing it when there’s a high risk of getting ripped off by bad fruit. > > By leaving this choice out you have built in bias to the poll. Not just that, but he editorializing the hell out of the options for those who have eaten grapes in the store. I know this isn’t scientific, but at least try a little. At the very least make the the options for those who have and have not done it similarly worded. That is, if you’re going to word the first half of the options that way, the options for those who have taken grapes should read “I have done it, and I consider it shoplifting,” “I have done it, and I consider it uncouth but not theft,” and there’s no way in hell the last one start with “I do it all the time.” What is that? ---
**Author:** ![Inna\_Minnit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Inna\_Minnit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inna_Minnit)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sampling-grapes-theft-uncouth-or-perfectly-legit/685521/24 "2014-04-07T06:16:28Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > Why you you care if the item is being paid for? As another poster mentioned, there is the mess. Not just in the check stand, but all over the store. Then there is the “oversight.” The parents who “forgot” that junior had eaten that package of cookies until I asked them if the were going to pay for them as well? Naturally, they destroyed the barcode so I had to close my line, go get the identical item off the shelf so I could scan it. But mostly, because if you haven’t paid for it, it isn’t yours. Intentions don’t count for crap. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sampling-grapes-theft-uncouth-or-perfectly-legit/685521/25 "2014-04-07T09:45:41Z")
I do this whenever I buy loose grapes, and I consider it just part of the shopping experience. It’s not grazing, it’s sampling, just with grapes specifically (and no other product) there’s a societal expectation that it’s OK, that there doesn’t need to be an organized sample tray for you to check the quality. OK, I do live in grape country, so maybe it’s just our societal expectation and those of you who live where grapes are an imported delicacy have reason to consider it stealing. I don’t. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sampling-grapes-theft-uncouth-or-perfectly-legit/685521/26 "2014-04-07T11:01:57Z")
> [@Kansas\_Beekeeper](#): > > I wish stores would post a sign that it’s OK to sample one grape, because very occasionally you run into some that are very sour. People aren’t sampling them for a snack. Really? Maybe that guy at the Aldi’s a couple weeks ago “sampling” a full handful just had a big mouth? Yeah, some people actually do eat their fill doing crap like that. Sometimes, they’ll take a package with them to the checkout and pay for it, but I was brought up that you don’t open up anything and start eating until AFTER you pay for it. ---
**Author:** ![Speak\_to\_me\_Maddie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Speak\_to\_me\_Maddie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speak_to_me_Maddie)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sampling-grapes-theft-uncouth-or-perfectly-legit/685521/27 "2014-04-07T11:06:31Z")
Sometimes I think American culture has cut its ties to its puritanical heritage, then I see a thread full of folks sanctimoniously extolling their personal virtue and piety by not sampling a supermarket grape, and I see the spirit of Johnathan Edwards alive and well, immortally inhabiting the American soul. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sampling-grapes-theft-uncouth-or-perfectly-legit/685521/28 "2014-04-07T11:24:08Z")
I used to think it was sampling but the people at the liquor store set me straight about that. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sampling-grapes-theft-uncouth-or-perfectly-legit/685521/29 "2014-04-07T11:24:49Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > This poll is not really valid because it’s missing a crucial choice: “I don’t do it often, but from time to time (with fruit that is often bad), it’s acceptable to do.” Or something like that. IOW, there’s a difference between abusing the custom (i.e., doing it even though you have no intention of buying), and doing it when there’s a high risk of getting ripped off by bad fruit. > > By leaving this choice out you have built in bias to the poll. I agree. I don’t do it “all the time”, but my daughter loves grapes and occasionally I taste one if they don’t look great to make sure I’m not buying something for her that will spoil in a day. I can’t stand grazers in the store and never let my kids eat stuff as we shopped. But a single grape, on occasion, to see if I want to purchase the whole bunch, seems ok by me. It’s only grapes I do it, never an apple or plum. Just grapes. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sampling-grapes-theft-uncouth-or-perfectly-legit/685521/30 "2014-04-07T11:31:31Z")
> [@chiroptera](#): > > I’m pretty sure I’ve “sampled” grapes at least once in my life but I do consider it stealing and I voted accordingly. I don’t know if I’ve ever done it with grapes, but I’ve sampled bulk bin food (sorry **Cat Whisperer** ) and I consider it (very minor) stealing. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sampling-grapes-theft-uncouth-or-perfectly-legit/685521/31 "2014-04-07T11:58:24Z")
It is all in the intent of the tasting IMHO, if you are sampling with the consideration to buy then it is sampling and not stealing. Where that line is drawn, what size, type of foods would be acceptable to sample? Judgement call, how sensible is it to ask to be charged for that product sample, how practical is it to ask? ‘Can I get a price check on 2 grapes’ at a register holding up the line and having a employee tend to this does not seem reasonable. But sampling a apple that is sold per unit and saving the produce tag to tell the cashier if they would ring up the apple you ate would be reasonable. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sampling-grapes-theft-uncouth-or-perfectly-legit/685521/32 "2014-04-07T12:12:47Z")
My produce guy only seems to mind when I ask him to wash the grape off before I steal it first. Who wants to eat unwashed grapes? ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sampling-grapes-theft-uncouth-or-perfectly-legit/685521/33 "2014-04-07T12:21:29Z")
I prolly wouldn’t do it myself, certainly due to my introvert status rather than ethics, but I’m gonna continue to think this a problem with the moral seriousness of how someone not me ties their shoelaces. > [@Speak\_to\_me\_Maddie](#): > > Sometimes I think American culture has cut its ties to its puritanical heritage, then I see a thread full of folks sanctimoniously extolling their personal virtue and piety by not sampling a supermarket grape, and I see the spirit of Johnathan Edwards alive and well, immortally inhabiting the American soul. 🆒 > [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > I used to think it was sampling but the people at the liquor store set me straight about that. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sampling-grapes-theft-uncouth-or-perfectly-legit/685521/34 "2014-04-07T12:30:32Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > It is all in the intent of the tasting IMHO, if you are sampling with the consideration to buy then it is sampling and not stealing. Right. If you grab a grape because you’re hungry and don’t intend to buy the grapes then you are stealing. You’re stealing an amount not worth bothering to care about though. If a grocer doesn’t want people sampling the grapes he can seal up the packages and put up a sign that says do not sample the grapes, and then he can throw out most of the grapes he bought because people won’t buy them. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sampling-grapes-theft-uncouth-or-perfectly-legit/685521/35 "2014-04-07T12:54:06Z")
I love that there is a Dilbert comic about this! Thanks for posting that. > [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > My produce guy only seems to mind when I ask him to wash the grape off before I steal it first. Who wants to eat unwashed grapes? I think that might be part of it: eating grapes without washing them is gross, so it contributes to the sense that this is a uncouth thing to do, separate from the question of whether or not it counts as shoplifting. > [@Inna\_Minnit](#): > > As another poster mentioned, there is the mess. Not just in the check stand, but all over the store. > > Then there is the “oversight.” The parents who “forgot” that junior had eaten that package of cookies until I asked them if the were going to pay for them as well? > > Naturally, they destroyed the barcode so I had to close my line, go get the identical item off the shelf so I could scan it. > > But mostly, because if you haven’t paid for it, it isn’t yours. Intentions don’t count for crap. So you think I am the guy who won’t even “sample” a grape, ever, but will try to steal a an entire box of something for my kids (talking about a preschooler and a toddler here, BTW)? Um, no. Nor do I leave a mess or give in to tantrums, something I am so against it practically makes my head explode to be accused of it by someone who doesn’t know me. I seriously question whether the checkers would prefer that we go through the line with one item and then go back to shopping. If I thought that was actually what the store wanted, that’s what I would do. Overall, I suspect that they would like us to take our time and get everything we are interested in getting rather than racing through and buying the bare minimum and spending less. I am not taking anything I’m not paying for, unlike the grape samplers. Still, I did say I feel sheepish about it. It just seems like the better of suboptimal choices. > [@MeanOldLady](#): > > Not just that, but he editorializing the hell out of the options for those who have eaten grapes in the store. I know this isn’t scientific, but at least try a little. At the very least make the the options for those who have and have not done it similarly worded. That is, if you’re going to word the first half of the options that way, the options for those who have taken grapes should read “I have done it, and I consider it shoplifting,” “I have done it, and I consider it uncouth but not theft,” and there’s no way in hell the last one start with “I do it all the time.” What is that? I made it clear where I was coming from right off the bat. but it seems to me that a lot of people coming from my perspective would not have thought to add the choice “I have never done it, but I consider it socially acceptable for others”. Six choices is quite a few for a poll IMHO. And if you have done it, and think there is absolutely nothing wrong with it, why would you _not_ do it all the time? Or at the very least, why would you be offended at having to choose this option as the closest? I sense some cognitive dissonance there that you are not owning up to. > [@chiroptera](#): > > I’m pretty sure I’ve “sampled” grapes at least once in my life but I do consider it stealing and I voted accordingly. This is a perspective I have respect for. I don’t really have much problem with someone who is being kind of nihilistic or “punk rock” and grabbing grapes in a sort of cheeky, impish way. It’s people who think they are perfectly upstanding citizens, but also think nothing of doing this, that I side-eye. > [@sangfroid](#): > > Regarding the OP: > > **SlackerInc** ; good question. Thanks for posting it. > > That said, I have to add that your wife is almost spot-on perfect in her guess (at least in my neck of the woods - northern Vermont) about the percentages. After years of observation, were I to put a number to it, I’d have to say about 20-30%[…] > > If they are uncomfortable just doing so themselves, they can always ask. I never say no. Ever. > > And no decent produce seller should. > > Let me know if you want any clarification to my response. You are welcome about posting the question, and I want to thank you for giving us a response from a pro. You sound very conscientious and I applaud that. The guy I talked to this morning at the supermarket seemed to come from that same laudable place. My son is recovering from pneumonia (after being hispitalised, getting oxygen, the whole nine yards) and has struggled with his appetite, so I offered to go to the store and buy him basically anything reasonably healthy that he wanted. He requested pineapple, which is not something I’m accustomed to buying. So as I looked them over, I asked the guy who was putting out bananas if he could offer advice. He was very helpful, asking how soon we would eat it and how juicy we wanted it to be and so on. He then picked out one he said ought to be good–or if it wasn’t, to bring it back and he would get me a different one. That struck me as so nice, although I can’t imagine returning a partially eaten pineapple unless it was just absolutely inedible. (Whereas I’m pretty bold about returning nonfood items to Target or someplace like that – something my introverted wife is very uncomfortable doing.) I was so close to asking him the question about grapes; but I couldn’t quite bring myself to do so, because I had too much fear that he would think I was one of the “samplers”, asking if it was okay! LOL I just don’t want to be seen as in that camp even if the produce managers don’t mind. Even where you are, you say that the vast majority (or at least “close to vast” majority) do not do this, after all. ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sampling-grapes-theft-uncouth-or-perfectly-legit/685521/36 "2014-04-07T13:06:08Z")
I’ve been offered (without asking) samples, say when I’m mulling over the choices in the deli, or contemplating cured meat at the butcher counter. The store is pretty much guaranteed a sale from me if they’re nice enough to offer me a taste of something. So I think it would be acceptable to ask for a grape. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sampling-grapes-theft-uncouth-or-perfectly-legit/685521/37 "2014-04-07T13:18:34Z")
My supermarket has little sprinklers that keep the grapes fresh and cold. I don’t consider sampling grapes to be stealing. It’s certainly less expensive than sampling cheeses, which many grocers will offer to customers for the asking. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sampling-grapes-theft-uncouth-or-perfectly-legit/685521/38 "2014-04-07T13:35:01Z")
Asking for a sample seems completely different to me. Unscientific, yadda yadda–but I note with appreciation that three-fourths of the respondents to the poll so far believe that taking a grape without asking is at minimum “shady” or “uncouth”; and two-thirds of the disapproving group believes it is in fact full-on petty theft. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sampling-grapes-theft-uncouth-or-perfectly-legit/685521/39 "2014-04-07T13:57:39Z")
You know someone sneezed on that grape before you came along and ‘sampled’ it. ---
**Author:** ![Inna\_Minnit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Inna\_Minnit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inna_Minnit)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sampling-grapes-theft-uncouth-or-perfectly-legit/685521/40 "2014-04-07T14:00:09Z")
> [@Speak\_to\_me\_Maddie](#): > > Sometimes I think American culture has cut its ties to its puritanical heritage, then I see a thread full of folks sanctimoniously extolling their personal virtue and piety by not sampling a supermarket grape, and I see the spirit of Johnathan Edwards alive and well, immortally inhabiting the American soul. It’s a poll question. None of us are sanctimoniously extolling our virtue. We are answering a question. It’s not like we run and get the grape police when we see you heathens stealing the produce. > [@](#): > > So you think I am the guy who won’t even “sample” a grape, ever, but will try to steal a an entire box of something for my kids (talking about a preschooler and a toddler here, BTW)? Um, no. Nor do I leave a mess or give in to tantrums, something I am so against it practically makes my head explode to be accused of it by someone who doesn’t know me. > > I seriously question whether the checkers would prefer that we go through the line with one item and then go back to shopping. If I thought that was actually what the store wanted, that’s what I would do. Overall, I suspect that they would like us to take our time and get everything we are interested in getting rather than racing through and buying the bare minimum and spending less. I am not taking anything I’m not paying for, unlike the grape samplers. Still, I did say I feel sheepish about it. It just seems like the better of suboptimal choices. I raised a child. And never, not once, did I pull something off the shelf to feed her. Aside from the objections listed above, I’ll add another. Children live in the moment. Especially at that age. They don’t get the connection “it’s ok mom/dad will pay for it later.” What they see, what they learn, is “I want it now, I can have it now.” The don’t learn not to steal, they learn to grab what they want. They don’t learn self control. They don’t learn waiting, or delay of gratification. They learn that their appetite rules every decision. That’s crappy parenting. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sampling-grapes-theft-uncouth-or-perfectly-legit/685521.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sampling-grapes-theft-uncouth-or-perfectly-legit/685521.md?page=3)