I would never do this, and if I were with someone who did this, I’d be embarrassed.
Did you use the scoop at least? 
I was in the local Superstore today, and some kid was handling all the produce he could get his hands on while his mom shopped. That’s the real reason I was my produce - because of all the other people who groped it in the store.
I’m definitely not in grape-growing country, and the grapes vary wildly in quality here, from so sour you can barely eat them to very nice and sweet.
That reminds me of that joke about the monkey eating the pool balls. 
Alright, who let this guy in?
Sure, a joke, but this far into the thread on grapes without a grapist reference? For shame!
And me, no, I don’t sample the produce unless there’s an obvious sample being given out, that’s hopefully been washed already. I inspect carefully and usually have good results once I’m home with whatever I bought.
What about taking more ketchup packets or more napkins than you need at the local fast food joint? Is that stealing too?
What if you used their bathroom with out buying anything? Is that theft of services?
What if I’m in the grocery store and find a nickle on aisle five? If I stick it in my pocket, is that stealing too? Shouldn’t I turn that nickle into customer service so they might reunite the nickle with its rightful owner?
And I object to you taking my reply out of context and making it personally about you. Which it wasn’t. You asked my objections to the practice and this is the pertinent portion.
If the crappy shoe fits, that’s hardly my fault.
This is ridiculous, and I’ve raised two kids so I know more than you. If you teach your kids to eat during every shopping trip, then it becomes a problem. If you give in to tantrums, you are creating a problem. But if you occasionally let your hungry child eat something non messy and that can easily be scanned and paid for, while shopping, then you’re fine. But, that takes a parent who is willing to explain, repeatedly, why something might be okay one day and not another. Like saying, “No, we just had lunch, you don’t need a cookie.” or “Yes, it’s going to be awhile before dinner, you can eat a granola bar.” Since most people shop at least once a week, there are ample opportunities for these distinctions and lessons in self control to be taught. And no, we don’t sample grapes or other produce.
(I used to try and pay for the item before eating, but it always seemed to make the store personnel more nervous because they’d worry that you would consume the product you paid for and use the receipt to get another item for free.)
Bad habits do not make one smarter no matter how often you repeat them.
So you’re still a sanctimonious twat then?
Good-O. Nice to see that some things never change!
You’re gonna get mod’ed for that. But thank you for this.
Wrong on three counts.
I was asked my reasoning. I gave it and have been taken to task twice. Name calling and defensiveness are sure signs someone hasn’t got a position worth defending.
Nothing out of context there–it’s quite simple: I had said that I feed my kids out of the package before buying it, and you responded by saying doing so was inherently “crappy parenting”. That’s not some kind of tortured leap I’m making, so please spare me your disingenuous bullshit.
Again with the partial quote so you can be some pathetic martyr? What say you address the issues I raised and explain how it isn’t crappy parenting?
Crappy parenting is leaving your little kids alone in the house while you go out partying.
Crappy parenting is not changing your kid’s diaper because you’re too busy snorting a line of coke.
Crappy parenting is making your kids eat ramen noodles while you eat quality steak and seafood.
Crappy parenting is beating the kids to a mushy pulp because they wouldn’t eat their noodles.
Crappy parenting is pitting one kid against another.
Crappy parenting is telling your kids you wish you’d never had them.
Crappy parenting is a whole lot of things…but giving your kid a grape at the supermarket is not one of those things.
Ha! Nice one.
Very well said. No one is denying that this is among the most petty of petty thefts (if it is theft at all, which is disputed but has been chosen by half the poll respondents, far more than the number who have said it is a perfectly fine thing to do). Many of us don’t want to push the boundaries of what a company is willing to tolerate. Even in cases where a company has explicitly guaranteed they will go along with actions taken by people with unbelievable levels of chutzpah (NPR reports that L.L. Bean has given refunds on returns of “a live Christmas wreath that had turned brown and a shirt ripped by a rescue crew after a car accident”), it doesn’t mean the majority of us are going to see it as anything but cringeworthy when someone takes full advantage.
I can’t endorse the banana idea, because those are sold by weight. Anything involving a food that leaves behind a bar code that can still be scanned after the food is eaten, I’m with you 100 percent.
But of course the margins matter. This is why you can go to an art gallery and get free wine and cheese, because the sale of one or two paintings more than pays for it. If your margins are razor thin, the sacrifice of packaged food may be too much to absorb, especially if more than a certain number of people take advantage.
http://www.wrensolutions.com/company/news/resources/no_margin_for_error.aspx
http://www.brokersavant.com/blog/supermarkets-dying-can-commercial-brokers
This is laughably incorrect. The idea that is being advanced is that taking a grape is stealing somehow, though on a very small scale. The margin the store earns on a given purchase has no impact whether that it is permissible or not. You get that right? Just because the Ferarri dealer makes great margins, doesn’t mean I can take one that’s just sitting on the lot. It is a binary situation - either it is stealing or it is not. If you think the margins on a product enter into that decision then you are utterly incorrect.
My position of course is that it is not stealing because the store owner doesn’t object.
Well sure. But if the question was “If you sample produce in a store where they don’t mind or encourage sampling is it theft?” then there wouldn’t be much of a thread.
Oh, give me a break. If the question was “Is it theft if you sample produce in a store where they consider sampling produce theft?” then it would be equally uninteresting, but that seems to be what you’ve assumed about the question.
The question was whether sampling a grape in a grocery store is theft. If the truth is that a large number of grocery stores don’t consider it theft, then saying (as you did) that it’s unequivocally theft is simply wrong.
I did not say that. For someone who writes legibly, you certainly don’t read very well. Thanks for not addressing anything I was actually talking about.
Theft is taking the property of another without permission or compensation. The opinion of the taker is irrelevant. If the store encourages sampling it is not a theft. Because the property is freely given. I personally have never been in a store in which sampling was encouraged. If there isn’t a store policy allowing it, it is theft by statute. Regardless of your opinion.
Bullshit. The store need not encourage it or have an explicit policy on it. If they consider it acceptable that people take samples in absence of explicit permission, it’s not theft.