Put That Back!

[Andara Bledin]

So, yesterday was payday, and thus, shopping day.

Thankfully, I don't run into the complete asshattedness that Lupo, Mytical, or some of the other regulars do. But I get isolated incidents, here and there.

Yesterday was largely uneventful. Got to stock up on SoBe on sale. Love that stuff.

So, we trundle our full cart (we'd only gone in for 5 things, but sales were in our favor) on up to what looked to be the most promising register. I watch as the woman ahead of us starts unloading her cart and frown as she stuffs one of the items into the impulse-buy rack.

"Hey, don't leave that there," I tell her.

I get a glance for my troubles.

"Give it to the checker so she can put it back. Don't just abandon it," I say, a bit louder as she's moving further away and I thought I caught the word "refrigerated" on the side of whatever it was.

She looks back at me again, but still leaves the item in the rack.

I grab the item, which is at the near end of the belt while she is at the far end, across from the clerk, and see that it is a refrigerated item. I make some sound of disgust and comment about how this sort of stuff effects prices to my boyfriend.

I guess she finally must have decided that I wasn't going to shut up about it, and she took the item back from me and ended up buying whatever it was.

So, this makes the second time in as many weeks that I've basically talked someone into not abandoning something they'd picked up in the impulse buy stuff. Both times it was something refrigerated, and both times the woman in question ended up buying it. I don't get that, but whatever. *shrug*

^-.-^

[LillFilly]

I'm glad you said something. That drives me nuts. Last time I think I found pork chops in the cereal isle. Alas, it was far too late to save them!

[Ben_Who]

There has been an absolute PLAGUE of this at my local supermarket. Either they no longer have enough staff to police the aisles or they have one particular customer who gets off on it or something. I have taken down cereal boxes to find a full gallon of milk behind them. I once got some coffee off the shelf and saw a carton of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. I found sunglasses in the meat department, a children's toy in the dairy case, and a carton of eggs in the wine and beer aisle.

I did once catch a woman doing this in line, though. She took a product out of her cart, looked at it, thought for a minute, then not-terribly-subtly stuffed it on the shelf next to the Almond Joys. Later, as I was unloading my cart, as she was fumbling for her checkbook, I plucked this product from the shelf, looked it over, nodded approvingly, then added it to my own purchases.

And - I swear - she opened her mouth as if to ask for it back.

A beat later, she returned to scribbling her check and scurried out of the store - burning with shame, I'd like to think. I'm pretty sure I pricked her pride. On the other hand, the product made a really good chicken curry...

Love, Who?

[Marmalady]

I swear I must spend 25% of my time at work putting things back where they're meant to be.
Underwear festooned over the hardware section, scented candles lurking by the pick 'n' mix sweets, baked beans next to the silk flowers. But yes, my personal great hatred is finding the perishable goods stuffed in / behind / between other things, we have no choice but to write them off.
Then of course we have the ones who pick up a pie or pasty or sandwich, unwrap it, take a bite, don't like it and leave the rest wherever they happen to be (yuck).

[MaggieTheCat]

We were once in the checkout line behind a large family and the mother left a cucumber on the magazine racks as they were unloading their groceries. I grabbed it when I could get close enough and said loudly to my husband, "I can't believe people do this kind of crap. How hard is it to hand this to the cashier and say you don't want it?" Then when the cashier started checking us out and the family ahead of us was still nearby getting ready to head out, I handed the cucumber to the cashier and again loudly said, "The people ahead of us couldn't be bothered to give this to you when they didn't want it." I dunno if they actually heard me or not. I wish I would've just confronted them about it like Andara did.

[dalesys]

Underwear festooned over the hardware section...

Seems appropriate.

[Gerrinson]

That was a major problem at the grocery store when I worked there. Still is, if my occasional perusal of the impulse racks is any indication.

The worst that occurred in my time there was pretty nasty. Someone had gotten 4 lbs of fish from the seafood department. Then they threw it (we assume) up onto the top shelf on the pet food aisle, so it wound up behind the 20 lb bags of food on the top shelf.

The fish wasn't discovered for a week, despite the horrible aroma. It was finally located when one of the grocery dept guys found thick stinky fluid dripping down the back of the shelves onto the bottom shelf of dog food.

Turns out the leaking fish wasn't even above that spot. The stuff leaking from it had seeped into bags of food and run down the uneven shelf for nearly 20 ft before it found a gap to drop down to the lower shelves. The store wound up damaging out several hundred pounds of namebrand dog food.

All because some jackass couldn't be bothered to just hand over $20 worth of fish that they didn't want.

[chainedbarista]

in some of those cases, it sounds almost purposely done, as if they're making some sort of weird and silly personal statement about...something.

the others sound like they're playing what someone here has dubbed 'a version of an easter egg hunt,' only not as fun and with no prizes at the end.

[Kogarashi]

I'm too non-confrontational to call out other customers at the store when I see them do that, though I do at least try to hand the cashier any perishables I find in the impulse rack. When I was still cashiering, though, I would call out the customers when I caught them, since I had a bit of "authority" backing me up. Mostly I'd just say, "Hey, if you don't want that you can hand it to me instead," and give them my biggest grin. Only once did I have a customer say, "Oh, no, that's okay," and continue stuffing the product in the rack, at which point I responded, "Oh, I really do prefer if you just hand it to me. It makes it easier to put away and doesn't leave a mess all over the candy." I got a sheepish look and the unwanted product after that.

My worst find used to be the whole gallon of milk (room-temperature) tucked way in the back behind and under some beach towels when I used to work the toy/seasonal department. That took deliberation to stash the milk there. It's since been replaced as worst, though, by a misplaced item I found as a customer: dripping meat in the middle of the bagged sugar. Ew. I didn't want to handle it, so I found the nearest employee and told them.

[Andara Bledin]

I semi-regularly find things like banana peels, empty pudding cups, etc laying about. I make a point to either bring opened items that aren't yucky for management to sort out, or let the MOD know about the yucky ones.

The store is generally very clean. Now if only the SCs could stop screwing that up.

^-.-^

[bainsidhe]

And then you have the folks who try different shades of nailpolish and make up, then put the polish back on the shelf for some unsuspecting customer to buy. I wish polish and makeup all had the safety seal around the cap, but that's dreaming on my part...

[ozcatbug]

You all know about the floods we have had here down under. In Queensland we have had some trouble getting deliveries. So I was in the supermarket last week. There are signs all over fresh produce, dairy, and meat fridges saying there is a short supply. So I was having a look at the dried fruit and saw a packet of fresh garlic bread. It was room temperature so I handed it to the nearest worker.

Later I was looking at some ice cream and happened to glance further down the aisle. I then saw an SC putting two trays of meat in the freezer and walking off. I called out to her, but she ignored me. I got a look from another customer but I just went a picked up the meat and returned it to the butcher, and told her where I had found it.

These are probably the same people complaining that there is nothing on the shelves, yet they are destroying perfectly good food because they are too lazy to turn around and walk half an aisle to put the food back in a fridge. Doesn't matter if it is the right place, just as long as it is kept at the right temp. Makes me angry, and I haven't worked retail in over 3 years. Guess it has a lot to do with the floods and the food shortage, but still I will never understand why people will open a freezer door and put a packet of batteries in rather than leaving it on the other side of the aisle with the toilet paper.

[ThirdGenRetail]

I once found a gallon of milk behind a TV at Wal-Mart...

The worst beyond that tends to be the back board of the shelf in the toy section of that same store, covered in the silly string that's on display right there. Or, of course, from work... Customers testing the spray paint. Um, hello, please don't do that... Being a cashier, when I spotted a customer doing that, I let a Paint Department person know and he put a fast stop to THAT testing

[Pagan]

Underwear festooned over the hardware section,

Completely off-topic, but there is something about the word "festoon" that I just love!

in some of those cases, it sounds almost purposely done, as if they're making some sort of weird and silly personal statement about...something.

the others sound like they're playing what someone here has dubbed 'a version of an easter egg hunt,' only not as fun and with no prizes at the end.

I wonder that, too, because some of this crap takes a hell of a lot more work than just putting back where it came from.

[Brojekk]

And then you have the folks who try different shades of nailpolish and make up, then put the polish back on the shelf for some unsuspecting customer to buy. I wish polish and makeup all had the safety seal around the cap, but that's dreaming on my part...

Quite a few years ago I saw a couple of pre-teen girls trying lipstick then putting the tube back on the shelf. I kept track of which tube it was and took it off the sales floor. I should have said something to them along the lines of them being the 3rd ones to try that particular tube

Serously I would love to find these people.....go into their homes and leave alot of stuff where they don't belong. Salt shakers on top of the tv....todays newspaper stashed behind the microwave....tv remote in the fridge....etc. See how they like it.