Oh I see, so it's OK to steal ...

[Sapphire Silk]

I've had people come up to me with partially- or completely-eaten by-the-weight produce before when I was casheiring. I usually sent them back for another like item to weigh, or if they had more like it--like they ate one apple out of the five they were buying--I double-rang one of them. I've had customers complain about that, until I pointed out that the food is done by weight, so I have to, you know, weigh something in order to ring it up. Got some catbutt faces out of it, but few said anything after the explanation. Guess they didn't like getting called out on it.

Considering the alternative is, "If you don't go along, I'll call the cops and charge you with shoplifting," I'd say they were getting off easy.

In Britain, there's a perfect product on the shelf for a diabetic who needs a sugar fix rapidly. It's called Lucozade, <snip>

A bottle of non diet coke will do, in fact anything sugary to get blood sugar levels up to a decent amount before you eat a decent meal will do. A friend of mine is diabetic and he carries around jelly beans as his emergency food.

Anything with sugar will do, but you need to follow it up with some carbs. Simple sugars are processed quickly, which means your blood sugar will just drop again. That's why a lot of diabetics carry around Snickers: the peanuts give them longer acting sugars.

[Barefootgirl]

It was always the pick & mix sweets that attracted the thieves/nibblers/toddlers in my old store. I don't blame the toddlers one bit - their parents should be keeping an eye on them, and the sweets are SO enticing and easy to grab. The thieves were a nightmare though and even quite respectable people wpould walk past the display and help themselves to a sweetie as they went!

Proper pick & mixes have all but disappeared, they are all Candy King rubbish.

[EvilEmpryss]

Grazers just plain annoy me. Having once made the embarrassing mistake of eating something from the deli while shopping, only to get to the checkout and find my debit card was refused, my family *never* eats while shopping. My kids may be hovering like vultures at the checkout, waiting for me to give the go-ahead, but they don't touch the food until it's right and properly paid for.

If they're absolutely starving, I'll buy them something before we start shopping, and they're responsible for carrying the receipt and making sure the wrapping gets thrown in the garbage.

[Sapphire Silk]

And some groceries have sample stations near deli's or other parts of the store. Whenever I go to the warehouse store, I hit the samplers if I get peckish . . . and oftentimes find something worth getting, so I don't feel guilty about snacking on the "freebies."

[Gizmo]

I so would have weighed the bananas and then weighed one on its own again.

I am much less annoyed when people graze on something that at least has a fixed price and a barcode.

[roxtar]

type 1 diabetic weighing in on the topic.
BG will drop low if you miscalculate when taking insulin and stuff can go from zero to seizure in a matter of minutes. This usually won't happen until at least an hour after you've taken your meds. so you see how a person could end up in a store and in trouble where they need sugar NOW. fortunately I've never gone "seizure" low.

that said, fruit or most other things that are sold by weight don't get the sugar into your bloodstream fast enough. most grocery stores sell soft drinks, juice boxes, and candy. All able to be consumed quickly and then paid for by scanning the package. Also, when a diabetic is low enough to be in trouble if they don't immediately get sugar, there are obvious symptoms such that people would be more understanding. I get the shakes like crazy and go very pale. when a shivery pale guy with a medical bracelet apologetically pays for whatever he's already consumed, giving him a hard time about his medical condition just makes you look like an ass.

/hate grazers.

[EricKei]

Indeed If yer diabetic, you need what you need, when you need it. No questions, no hesitations. The SC in the OP's post was just a 25-year Sucktomer; she deserves to be retroactively charged for those bananas.

One store that I have been to before actually had a scale with a printer in the produce department, such that all produce was "supposed" to be priced (but not paid for) before exiting the department. That way, grazing was fine as long as the customer didn't eat the whole thing and hide the bag on a shelf en route >_>

[RavenStarr]

I would much rather for a diabetic to get a soda or something if needed and consume it before getting to the checkout. I would hate to see a diabetic go into insulin shock all because they were too scared to consume it before getting to the checkout. I don't have diabetes but it runs in my family. And yes you can go into insulin shock very quickly.

So when you get that shivery pale guy that roxtar mentioned apologetically paying for his eaten candy bar please.... Don't make him feel worse by giving a hard time. They are trying their best and...they did pay..

[EvilEmpryss]

See, I don't think anyone here is saying that a person who eats something and then pays for it is sucky. Sodas, candy bars, bags of chips, and whatnot are fine. The one diabetic I knew personally always carried those little quick-dissolve sugar pills, though, so she never had to make this choice. As I understand it, maintaining the correct blood sugar can be difficult for some people, so it concerns me that they wouldn't be prepared for those situations instead of risking a deadly serious reaction. I don't pretend to know for sure, though, so I'll try not to judge. . . especially if the person is shaky, sweating, and pale. Take the candy bar, please!

In the end, if they pay for what they eat, they're cool. It's the stuff that needs to be weighed first that people complain about. Picking the biggest apple out of display, eating it, and then bringing the smallest apple up to pay for it is what's sucky.

[Eisa]

My dad's a diabetic, although he doesn't have to do insulin injections yet--I'll have to tell him about the Snickers bar. The one time I know of that his blood sugar was really low, he had a glass of orange juice at home and his blood sugar went up by 60. So orange juice is pretty good, but may or may not be easy to get at the store.

I certainly think that no matter what the reason, grazers who pay without having to be coerced/demanded and don't give the CBF are fine to me. As long as it's not a dependent-upon-weight thing.

[Andara Bledin]

I so would have weighed the bananas and then weighed one on its own again.

I was thinking that it'd only be fitting to weight the entire bunch (including the empty peel) and then weight another one on it's own to make up for the eaten one.

^-.-^

[Captain Trips]

If it were me...

"You say you've been doing this for 25 years?
"MANAGER TO CHECKSTAND 3.
"I'm sorry ma'am, but I won't be able to finish ringing up your order until the manager clears my register to do so."

[HotelMinion]

I had a very short time working as a cashier in a groceries, and my jaw dropped when a lady put an empty box of cookies on the belt. She looked at me when I didn't start ringing it but stare in utter disbelief at her to the box. "What?" she said, shrugging. "...someone else saw it empty too, but I WAS going to pay for it..." she said defiantly. I've seen attitudes like this before, but this one really bowled me. Yeah, and how do we know that, stupid? I HATE GRAZERS! It is STEALING, no ifs, ands or buts. Ok, if it was a kid, I would understand, but a full grown adult? No. NO. Grr.

[EricKei]

Well, if it's something pre-priced, I can see it (I admit that I will occasionally chug a coke or a chocolate milk en route to the register, and then HAND IT to the cashier right away to be rung up when I arrive)...but an entire box of cookies?! o_O Not even on my best day could I have done that.

[Teefies2]

When I worked at WM there was one lady, that for some reason, always came to my register, with her kids in tow - eating green beans out of the produce department. The first couple of times I let it go (I mean really, what is one or two green beans to WM?) But when she made a habit of it, then I decided I would get her..... The next time they came to my register with the green-bean-eating kids in tow, I looked at the kids ... looked at her .... looked at the kids.... and back at her. And said, you DO know that those green beans your kids are eating are NOT washed before they are put in the produce bins, right?? Cue catbutt face and a screaming fit "Kids! Throw those away right NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I mean, really? You let your kids eat beans that someone or MANY someones have pawed through just before you got there???? Do you have a magic "germ dissolving power" that the rest of us don't know about? If so, I want one! :-)