The Squished Bread That Wasn't & Salad Bar Nuts

[LillFilly]

At my movie theater we had a bulk candy cart with a 1.5ftX1.5 ft COLORFUL sign in 2-inch high letters 'CANDY $1.95 PER QUARTER POUND' People regularly filled bags to the brim with mixed candy then blew a gasket when the price came up to 18$. They then tried to put candy back in their bins, but we had to spoil it out because of cross-contamination; can't have sweedish fish that touched peanut m&ms, for example. Regularly, parents would let their kids scoop handfuls of candy (bare handed) into their mouths; eww.

At least we got to eat the 'spoiled' candy Some weeks we would have 9lbs worth or so.

[Argabarga]

I do not miss the times working grocery register when someone would cheerfully plop an empty container on the belt from the prepared foods section and say "Oh, and I ate this"

And it never failed, it was a by-weight item.

[Beowulf]

SixFortyK, I am sorry to hear that just seeing the salad bar is a stressor. I get that same way with certain locations, hence why I can't see myself going back to the Dominoes that I used to work at. Just too much negative reinforcement. Bleh.

[BlaqueKatt]

and sometimes when it would get low, but not empty, he'd cry pitifully,wanting more. I learned if I just moved it around, so he could hear it moving in the dish, but didn't add anymore, he'd think I did put more in, and eat it.

actually, cats don't like their whiskers touching things(sensory organ), so they eat out of the middle of the dish, and avoid the sides, you moved the food from the sides so he could reach it without bumping his whiskers, which was all he really wanted.

[HotelMinion]

What did the guy whom you showed your iPad picture to say??? That you were toooo prepared??? Lol. I hope the entire store laughed.
And your reaction to salad bars is mine to seeing a key card. Luckily they aren't often seen in other establishments I frequent...

[EricKei]

He'd carefully build a tower of salad

When I worked at a buffet place many ages ago, I did this with the soft-serve "ice cream." I could take a little dish meant to hold like 3 ounces, and "stack" the stuff up a good 6 inches high It's not hard if you get the timing right.

..."Oh, and I ate this"

And it never failed, it was a by-weight item.

Of course. Stores really should have a special code for those -- Can't really have it show up as "theft" on the receipts, tho that's what it potentially is Can just have it by quantity instead of by weight. If they hand you two banana peels, charge them for two pounds of bananas. If they complain, then tell them that this can be avoided by paying for the bananas FIRST, and taking the receipt with them while shopping for everything else.

One grocery I went to got around this by setting up the produce section such that you could only leave it by either going back out through the front doors, or by the one exit -- the produce guy had a scale and printer, ready to weigh everything before you left the section. After all, who better to operate that than someone who works with the foods there every day?

[cindybubbles]

I would do the same to frozen yogurt; pile on as much fro-yo and toppings as much as I want, but I don't mind paying the astronomical price that comes with it.

[sms001]

cats don't like their whiskers touching things (sensory organ), so they eat out of the middle of the dish, and avoid the sides, you moved the food from the sides so he could reach it without bumping his whiskers, which was all he really wanted.

Or, w/o the no-doubt true scientificcy stuff: "A human has not tended to my needs in minutes. I will have one rearrange my food now."

[XCashier]

These stories remind me of my last cat....He had dry food in his dish all day, and sometimes when it would get low, but not empty, he'd cry pitifully,wanting more. I learned if I just moved it around, so he could hear it moving in the dish, but didn't add anymore, he'd think I did put more in, and eat it. Like I said, not the sharpest tool in the shed!

My cats do that, too. They look at me like pitiful Oliver Twist pleading for a second helping of gruel. I move the food around in the dish and they're satisfied. I even tried to show them how to use their paws to move the food, but nope, they want Human Slave to do it for them.

Makes me wonder how they'd cope in the wild. "This bird I was eating has a hole in it! There's not enough food now! WAAHH!!"

Wouldn't it be cheaper at some point to just ... buy a bottle of salad dressing? Then you can slosh all you like on, and it's gotta come out to less than $20.

Silly Bells, using that logic stuff again! You know SCs don't do that!

[wolfie]

I do not miss the times working grocery register when someone would cheerfully plop an empty container on the belt from the prepared foods section and say "Oh, and I ate this"

And it never failed, it was a by-weight item.

Register needs a "hot deli item eaten in store - estimate by volume" function. How much should this item charge? Find the item with the highest density to convert volume to weight. Next find the item with the highest cost per pound to convert weight to dollars. Now double it. For example, they snacked on 500 ml of potato wedges valued at around a buck (but since the container is empty, you don't know what they ate). Container can hold about a pound and a quarter of soup. Popcorn shrimp is $8/pound. Since they chose to eat it in-store rather than cashing out first, their potato wedges cost $20.

[Shalom]

Store I work at on alternate Sundays (for now) doesn't have a salad bar, but does have a pickle-and-olive bar. All the olives are $7.99/pound, regardless of if they're colossal greens stuffed with garlic or sundried black (to give the two density extremes) or anything in between.

However, olive juice, which is essentially water, is also $7.99/pound if you happen to get it in your container. This is why there's a slotted spoon there to take your olives with. There's also a small ladle; if you want to take olive juice separately in another container, they don't charge for it.

If you want, you can even get your olives priced (if there's anyone at the deli counter) and then go back and backfill the container with juice; this could theoretically be abused, but I believe, or at least hope, the clientele of this store is honest enough not to cheat.

(It would be simple enough for them to prevent it: every kosher deli has tamper-evident sealing tape at the counter, to provide evidence that the food hasn't been opened since it left the control of the kosher supervisor. I suppose if the pricing guy was suspicious, like someone handing him a quart container with an ounce of olives in the bottom, he could tape the container shut. Or he could just step around the counter and watch, I guess, but they never did either of these things with me. I suppose I have an honest face or something. It doesn't matter if nobody's there, as you'd then have to weigh it at the register and pay for whatever's there anyway.)

Oh, and they also have purple pickled turnips, but they were out last time I was there. Love those things, and so does my 4-year-old daughter. They're purple because every tenth piece or so is actually a beet rather than a turnip. We called these things "reebl" in Yiddish; I didn't even know there was an English name for them until I was grown.

[simplyanother]

Our salad bar is sort of situated between the fronts of produce and seafood. For some reason, the customers have decided that this means that Seafood is in charge of the bar. "When are YOU going to put out more lettuce?", "ugh, is that ALL the ham?"

Never, and beats the hell out of me. Would you like a shrimp?

They sell these little packets of dressing, I think they're 50 cents each. People just grab like 20. And pocket them.

There are some special people who are bad at math. A couple of the items on the salad bar are also available in the seafood department. Salad bar is 4.99 a pound. People will fill their containers up with just those items. Said items are both 3.99 a pound in Seafood. Literally steps away.

[Dreamstalker]

I don't even try to argue with someone who convinces me they want to pay more. I'm not talking about BOGO or quantity sales, I've had SCs try to argue the price up. SC picks up a pound of butter, it's say $2.29. Sees a sale tag for a more expensive butter reading 2/$6 right next to it. The butter they get rings up as it should, I've had a few cranky bats be dead certain that it should be $3 because it's 'on sale'. One of my shift leads has given me the 'authority' to charge the higher price in those cases.

wolfie, I love your idea (I've done something similar a few times; just weigh a more expensive item and enter it as generic produce). Anyone who grazes without buying anything should be charged triple the highest possible price in that department.

I admit to having a pocketful of the brand-name deli horseradish sauce packets in my locker, only because we rarely have them out so I grab em when I see em.

[Jay 2K Winger]

I do not miss the times working grocery register when someone would cheerfully plop an empty container on the belt from the prepared foods section and say "Oh, and I ate this"

And it never failed, it was a by-weight item.

Most grocery stores that I've been in with that kind of prepared-food section has the items pre-stickered with their prices already. Especially if they're price-by-weight.

I understand that may not be the case everywhere.

[AccountingDrone]

I admit to having a pocketful of the brand-name deli horseradish sauce packets in my locker, only because we rarely have them out so I grab em when I see em.

I am particularly fond of Arby's horsey sauce [I can remember when they used to sell it in little plastic squeezy bottles.]

Have you shopped over at minimus.biz? They have all sorts of tiny condiments - it can be a great way to see if you like a particular brand, or of tiny travel toiletries. And you can get some interesting stuff in their sale stuff.