# This grocery employee really loves her deli meat. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 8, 2018, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-grocery-employee-really-loves-her-deli-meat/821020 "2018-09-08T20:17:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2018, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-grocery-employee-really-loves-her-deli-meat/821020/1 "2018-09-08T20:17:14Z")
I’ve suspect this happens a lot in the food service industry. The people in the produce department probably eat a few grapes or an apple for a snack. It’s pilfering but not that unexpected. Supervisors should catch this pretty quickly and take action. Early reports indicate charges were filed. Glad that’s incorrect. The store should have caught this employee years ago and put an end to the snacking. She must really love ham. I’d get tired of it after the first month. 😉 [https://www.google.com/amp/www.cantonrep.com/news/20180907/giant-eagle-employee-charged-with-eating-9200-worth-of-deli-meat%3Ftemplate=ampart](https://www.google.com/amp/www.cantonrep.com/news/20180907/giant-eagle-employee-charged-with-eating-9200-worth-of-deli-meat%3ftemplate=ampart) > [@](#): > > The Giant Eagle loss prevention manager received a tip that the employee had been nibbling on the meat at the deli, eating about three to five slices of ham nearly every day over a space of eight years, Hale said. She occasionally ate salami. > > The loss prevention manager calculated that the ham that had been eaten was worth about $9,200, Hale said. > > “She was very cooperative,” the deputy said. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2018, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-grocery-employee-really-loves-her-deli-meat/821020/2 "2018-09-08T20:28:12Z")
I must admit this loss prevention officer reminds me of Officer Kirk on _Happy Days._ Especially the way he/she so carefully calculated to the penny the value of 8 years of snacking. A firm chewing out by the employee’s supervisor would probably be sufficient. Termination if it continues. ---
**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2018, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-grocery-employee-really-loves-her-deli-meat/821020/3 "2018-09-08T20:31:39Z")
At that price, she must have liked the good stuff! Maybe she was just sampling it. To make sure it was okay to serve? ---
**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2018, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-grocery-employee-really-loves-her-deli-meat/821020/4 "2018-09-08T20:36:22Z")
I worked in the supermarket as a kid and, it did seem par for the course. Some places are quite mellow about sampling, and other times one manager or another can be pretty harsh. This is loss, or shrink as it was called, which includes things that aren’t sold, or spoil or have a damaged package. Bit unfair to do it and say, “Just this once…” then cause lots of loss. Taking the efficiency guy at face value, I calculate USD $4.60 per day (assuming 50 week work year, and 5 day work week, YMMV.) I generally spent about 5 bucks for lunch, so, yeah, seems about right. That’s awful lot of salted meat to eat with no bread or topping. But I’d seen worse – one day a worker ran into my produce backroom, he was ducking the supervisor, as he quickly made a Wonder bread and ketchup sandwich to wolf down. I was warming up to say, “Uh … don’t steal, don’t make me complicit, and what the hell man, steal something _ **good** _, at least” when the supervisor came in. “Hey, unload the delivery. Just … jus… take the sandwich, I don’t care, but unload the truck.” Some working people don’t have money left over for food. Or time to cook after their commute. Some people may not have the space, in their place of residence. I knew a guy who slept on some families couch. He was allowed to keep soda in their fridge – but nothing else. No food was provided for him. He wasn’t allowed to cook there, all his eating was out. I don’t know what his bathroom privileges were like, but probably the minimum as well. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2018, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-grocery-employee-really-loves-her-deli-meat/821020/5 "2018-09-08T20:40:53Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > …$9,200… For a full time employee over 8 years, that’s about 50 cents of ham an hour. Not the crime of the century. ETA: ninjaed by Arkcon on the calculation ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2018, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-grocery-employee-really-loves-her-deli-meat/821020/6 "2018-09-08T20:43:40Z")
I suspect the store was pretty relaxed about snacking. That would explain how this employee did it for so many years. Maybe the store got sold? New management comes, wants to show their authority. Now they crack down. \ that’s life at a job. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2018, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-grocery-employee-really-loves-her-deli-meat/821020/7 "2018-09-08T21:49:40Z")
Its easy to tell yourself "It’s just me, a few pieces of ham, a bruised apple, why not?"If every employee did that, just think of the cost. OTOH, stuff that would otherwise get thrown out, I see no reason not to give it to employees or soup kitchens. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2018, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-grocery-employee-really-loves-her-deli-meat/821020/8 "2018-09-08T21:54:32Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > OTOH, stuff that would otherwise get thrown out, I see no reason not to give it to employees or soup kitchens. In practice, you can only do the latter unless there’s some strict way to police it, otherwise stuff that employees want to take home would just tend to remain unsold and find its way into the “stuff to be thrown out” pile. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2018, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-grocery-employee-really-loves-her-deli-meat/821020/9 "2018-09-08T22:02:44Z")
I worked as a grocery store night crew stock person many years ago. You want to see food revenue lost? Lock a group of 20-year-old guys in a (closed) grocery store for 8 hours. Management knew there would be some, er, _snacking_, so there was an envelope where we would leave money every morning for the food we consumed during the previous night. Most guys put in a dollar or so. mmm ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2018, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-grocery-employee-really-loves-her-deli-meat/821020/10 "2018-09-08T22:06:06Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Its easy to tell yourself "It’s just me, a few pieces of ham, a bruised apple, why not?"If every employee did that, just think of the cost. OTOH, stuff that would otherwise get thrown out, I see no reason not to give it to employees or soup kitchens. Just think of the cost? I’m thinking… Well, lets say it’s $8 a lb. And each slice is an ounce. (Both estimates are more than a bit high.) That means that over the course of her shift, she consumed $1 to $1.50 worth at the retail price. Given that the store is not paying retail price, that is for customers, it would be less, but we’ll stick with using price for shrinkage calculations, rather than cost. So, we are looking at something like $0.12 to $0.17 an hour. If every employee did that, then it would be $0.12 to $0.17 an hour, times the number of employees they have. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2018, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-grocery-employee-really-loves-her-deli-meat/821020/11 "2018-09-08T22:38:38Z")
Sounds like they got a new manager with a serious case of newmanagerititis. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2018, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-grocery-employee-really-loves-her-deli-meat/821020/12 "2018-09-09T02:11:51Z")
Math doesn’t add up to me. Story says 3-5 slices a day. Then people are doing math to figure out how many slices she ate - Why? I know what ham costs at Giant Eagle. While it’s more expensive than Kroger, Aldi, Walmart, Target, and Meijer, it’s not THAT expensive. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2018, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-grocery-employee-really-loves-her-deli-meat/821020/13 "2018-09-09T02:15:23Z")
> [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](#): > > Then people are doing math…- Why? Because it seemed like the “loss prevention manager” was trying to make this sound like major theft by valuing it at $9k. Spread over 8 years, it’s minor pilfering of lunch, it’s not as though she was stealing cases of the stuff and selling it in the parking lot to support her crack habit. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2018, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-grocery-employee-really-loves-her-deli-meat/821020/14 "2018-09-09T02:37:46Z")
My first job with a tax return was at a grocery store. On my first day, I saw a guy take a lighter out of a package, light his cigarette, then put it back in the package. The grocery manager saw it, and fired him. He got fired for less than a penny’s worth of butane. They figured that if you were going to steal something small, you’d eventually steal something larger, and took shrinkage very seriously. As far as the cost of the ham this lady was eating, I calculate it to be something between 1.30 and .80 a slice. Either those were large slices, or she was eating really expensive ham ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2018, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-grocery-employee-really-loves-her-deli-meat/821020/15 "2018-09-09T16:11:48Z")
This is ridiculous. I frequently shop at Market District which is the top level of the Giant Eagle chain. Every time I buy deli meats there they ask me how thick I want it sliced, show it to me and give me the first slice. There have been times I’ve bought several different meats and they give me a slice of each. I can leave the deli counter full, and I see them do this to every other customer. How can they possibly care if they give away 3 slices a day to one of the workers? Sounds like an overly zealous loss manager. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2018, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-grocery-employee-really-loves-her-deli-meat/821020/16 "2018-09-09T16:35:06Z")
Looking for any updates to the story, looks like it was [referred to the prosecutor](https://www.wgal.com/article/grocery-store-worker-accused-of-eating-dollar9k-worth-of-deli-meat/23033988) to decide whether charges were to be filed. > [@](#): > > Tuscarawas County Sheriff Orvis Campbell said in a statement that only a report was issued at the request of the store and no arrest was made. It was referred to the prosecutor’s office to decide what charges, if any, would follow. Although, I did find this version of the [story to be most enlightening.](https://trendinghits.xyz/deli-employee-accused-of-stealing-13000-work-of-ham/) > [@](#): > > As investigations proceed, no prices have been laid as of September 8. > > “Whereas our workplace did take a report of the difficulty as requested by the shop, no willpower of prices has been made,” Sheriff Orvis Campbell mentioned in a Fb launch. How many languages was that translated through? ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2018, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-grocery-employee-really-loves-her-deli-meat/821020/17 "2018-09-09T16:52:31Z")
> [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](#): > > Math doesn’t add up to me. Story says 3-5 slices a day. Then people are doing math to figure out how many slices she ate - Why? I know what ham costs at Giant Eagle. While it’s more expensive than Kroger, Aldi, Walmart, Target, and Meijer, it’s not THAT expensive. There’s ham and then there’s ham. At the grocery store there is plain old boiled sliced ham for $3.99 a pound and then there are at least half a dozen different varieties - maple ham, tuscan ham, herb infused ham, etc. going up to $8 or more a pound. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2018, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-grocery-employee-really-loves-her-deli-meat/821020/18 "2018-09-09T16:58:43Z")
Huh. I worked in a supermarket deli during high school. The supervisor encouraged us to try all the meats and cheeses, and had no problem with snarfing a slice or two during a regular shift, in fact encouraged it, within reason. (Deli slices are usually sliced quite thin.) You can’t describe the differences to customers between the 20 varieties of ham, turkey ham, boiled ham, baked ham, honey ham, black forest ham, etc, otherwise. You do ordinarily get pretty sick of the food quickly. I doubt there are many food-service jobs where sampling/snacking isn’t a thing. It’s hard to fight human nature; easier to put reasonable limits on it. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2018, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-grocery-employee-really-loves-her-deli-meat/821020/19 "2018-09-09T17:48:28Z")
I’ve heard a lot of the small hamburger places would let employees have a free burger and Coke. Knowing they’d be thrilled the first week or two. Then quickly lose any appetite for food they were around day after day. I couldn’t snack on ham every work day for 8 years. That’s too much of a good thing. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2018, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-grocery-employee-really-loves-her-deli-meat/821020/20 "2018-09-09T17:55:09Z")
Am I the only one who read the thread title as if it were a double entendre? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-grocery-employee-really-loves-her-deli-meat/821020.md?page=2)