Forgetting Something...?

[XCashier]

I've done this myself once or twice. Of course I went back and paid, feeling like a dork the whole time.

:sigh: Do they make Gas-X for the brain?

[Banrion]

In college my housemates and I left a case of beer on the lower part of a shopping cart, drove 20 miles home & discovered the loss. Despite the low odds of recovery, we drove back and it was still there!! I believe "the killer weed that leads to communism" might have been a factor in our forgetfulness...

I was on the opposite end of this one. I pulled into the packie, and grabbed a card, and found inside a paper bag with a very large, expensive bottle of liqor in it. I took it back to the clerk, she knew who it belonged to, he was a regular. The next time I went in, she said the man was very grateful, and had left $20.00 for me.

[Retail's Bitch]

I actually did something like that myself once.

I went to the local K-Mart a few years back to pick up a few items. I found everything except for one item. I was holding the items that I had already found, and went to the service desk to ask about the missing item. It turned out they didn't carry it, so I walked out of the store...

...forgetting one minor thing. Namely, the items that I had in my hand, which I had not paid for. I got about halfway to my car, when I realized what I had just done. I think my heart skipped a beat, as I said, "Oh shit!"

Worrying that they were about to come charging out the doors any minute and chase me down as a shoplifter, I quickly went back inside, back to the service desk, and explained what had just happened. Turned out, no one had any idea what I was done, and as she was ringing up my items, she expressed surprise that I had actually come back.

I'm basically an honest person, but I'm so scatterbrained at times, it isn't even funny.

I had a family member do that a few Christmases back... Unfortunately they DID notice and had him charged with shoplifting. The kicker? He had over a grand in his wallet. And the guy who nabbed him said. "Sir, are you planning on paying for those things?"

"Oh? What? OH! Yes.. of course.. Let's go back and do that.. I'm sorry."

"Nope. Sorry it's too late... You'll have to come with me sir." ????

The thing that boggled my mind was why did the guy ask him if he planned on paying for it - if that wasn't an option. So he was charged for shoplifting a package of socks and a pair of underpants.. Which he had clearly in his hands, made no attempt to conceal them at any time...

He did get off though.. Charges weren't dropped, but he only had to pay a fine.

[Zombi]

I had one of those customers once. If there isn't a huge queue behind them, I'll usually help them pack their groceries, and they pay when that's finished. I had one woman load all her stuff into her cart, then start to walk off. I just said "Um, excuse me, that's [price]". She was so embarrassed, and apologised so profusely, that I'm pretty sure it was just an honest mistake. We all have those "Forget my own head if it wasn't screwed on" moments.

As for leaving stuff behind - why, oh, why, must it always be meat or dairy? Fruit, vegetables and canned stuff we can leave under the counter in case they come back, but we have to put the meat and dairy back straight away, or it has to be thrown out. We have rump steak for about $6 per kilo, and we sell it in portions of half-cow size, which run to about $30 worth of meat. So, when somebody forgets that, we have to call one of the floor guys over and get it into the fridge in case they come back for it, because if it's busy (which it usually is - we don't stop until about 7pm), we can't leave the checkout to sort it out. It's a pain, I tell you. So please, leave your canned stuff, but not your meat!

I once had a guy in a chef's uniform come through - he bought some other things in large quantities, and 4 or 5 kilos of apples. So he pays and leaves, and I go to serve my next customer, and I realise that there's a big bag of apples still sitting on my scale. So I apologise to the guy I'm serving, grab this bag, and rush out to the car park to see if this other guy was still there. He was, fortunately - I can only imagine what would have happened if he'd gone back to work without the apples.
"Dude, where's the apples?"
"...Shit."

You know what? Running with 5 kilos of apples in your arms is not fun. Especially when you're a really crap runner and your balance is terrible.