Shoppers Behaving Badly
By roberten
@roberten (3128)
United States
January 5, 2008 6:50am CST
Are you a retailer's nightmare? Do you consume products before you buy; if so, do you pay for them at the checkout? How the heck do you pay for a piece of fruit, like a banana after you've eatten it? Do you open packages to get a better look at items that catch your eye but end up not purchasing? Do you open a package find it is exactly what you want but return it to the shelf only to purchase the exact item in an unopened package. Do you know over product, toss it aroung, mix it up with other product and generally make a mess for store employees to clean up? Do you let your kids run wildly about will you shop? Are you the shopper from the underworld? Come on, be honest....
2 people like this
8 responses
@lexus54 (3572)
• Singapore
6 Jan 08
I am not the shopper from hell like the ones you described. My wife and I are really very good and compliant shoppers, who do not mess things up in the shops or supermarkets, or indulge in inconsiderate acts. The worse we've done was to open a bottle of drink and finish up the bottle before we reach the checkout counter. But we still present the empty bottle at checkout and pay for the drink.
I have seen people pressing fruits to check for freshness, before they decide if they should buy them. They take one, press it, then put it back and take another one to test. That's terrible I feel because they may damage the fruit, then who's going to buy it? I have also seen shoppers open packs of socks (three or four socks in each pack), then take out one or two and exchange these with others in other packs, just so that they can get the socks of their favorite colors. They mess up the boxes and leave what they don't like for others to buy. I think that's very inconsiderate of these people to pick and choose when the boxes come in fixed combination of socks colors. There may be other examples of shoppers from hell, but these are the ones that I can remember most.
@lexus54 (3572)
• Singapore
7 Jan 08
Thank you for your very sound advice, Roberten. In my last 20 years of shopping, I have only done this twice if I remember that correctly, and more so because I was very thirsty. Usually though I will pay first before opening any items.
I remember any example of poor shopper ethics. Sometimes, people take things off the shelf, put them in the trolley and later change their mind about wanting to buy the items. What the inconsiderate ones do is to take the items out from their trolley and put them back anywhere other than the proper shelves where they first took the items. If enough people do this, it will be a nightmare for the supermarket staff to put things back correctly. Shoppers may think this is the shoddy work of incompetent staff.
@munhozmib (3837)
• Sao Paulo, Brazil
5 Jan 08
Hello!
I have never opened a product inside the shop. It is a lack of education AND respect towards everyone. You should not eat inside the Supermarket, but outside. So, if I am buying something and I want to eat, I wait until I pass my products and buy them, and I go outside to eat.
Respectfully.
@munhozmib (3837)
• Sao Paulo, Brazil
7 Jan 08
Hello.
Who knows? Perhaps we are brothers, hahahaha!
Have a nice day!
@annettenasser (2992)
• Kuwait
5 Jan 08
Of course not,,, im not the kind of person that forget the etiquette and manners in buying stuffs,, i believe that people just be equal.. if you are looking for something good then check in a right way.. and if you are the seller please provide a good stuff to sell not a low quality just to earn moeny and forget the true sense of provide stuffs and needs of the people,,we should care to each other,,,
@kgwat70 (13388)
• United States
6 Jan 08
I have never opened anything at the store as I think it is inconsiderate. If I want to see something that is in a package, I will ask the store person if I can get a better look at it and let them open it up. I certainly would not eat or open something up and then put it back where it was or put it somewhere else. I think it is terrible that people would do that.
@suehan1 (4344)
• Australia
6 Jan 08
i am one of your good shoppers.i hate grocery shopping ,and i am in and straight out of a supermarket.i would not have the time to eat an apple or taste test items before i got to the checkout.i avoid taking my children to the shops with me,as they end up making me spend more money
@roberten (3128)
• United States
6 Jan 08
You are special and rare; I market inside stores quite offen and for some parents, going to the store with their kids is like taking them to Disney World. The kids run wildly about without regard to their surroundings and cause havic for other consumers. They are left to play in toy depts, where they take things off the shelf and open others and creating a mess. I don't know why some parents do not fear their children being taken. Leaving them at home is the best way to go; a day of shopping is torture for most kids; take them when the shopping is about them, otherwise, leave them at home or at a sitter's. We as consumers should not only respect retailers, we should, as you do, respect our children.
Good shopper award earned!
@garnet80 (349)
• Australia
6 Jan 08
I don't know how people can act like that. When I go shopping if my son wants to eat an apple as we walk around the grocery shop I always pay for it first before letting him eat it. A man I used to date would eat a chocolate bar whilst shopping and then pay for it at the other end. I thought that was rudeness but he really didn't see the problem with it. I guess some of us are brought up different to others.
@roberten (3128)
• United States
6 Jan 08
If you haven't paid for it, it still belongs to the retailer; if you go ahead and consume it b4 paying for it, you have stolen it. Atonement at the register is not complete if you have every intention of continuing the behavior--you have not truly repented. If you allow your children to commit these offenses at their hand or yours, you are teaching them to steal, and that rules do not matter and need not be followed. Paint it or dress it up anyway you want, bottom-line is you have taken something that belongs to someone else without permission; even if it is in your cart, it is not yours until you pay for it.
Thank you for training your son in the way he should go, you are making him a better man.
@nichole1983 (1187)
• Canada
5 Jan 08
i have never eaten a peice of fruit or anything like that as it is done by weight,... if i am buying from the bins yes i will test before i buy as i have had problems in the past of it being stale and old... (1 peice never hurt anyone) i rather know before than having to come back... i have opened thinking like drinks and chips cookies or whatever and paid for them i have never and would never put them back on the shelf... nope my girls dont run around like maniacs in the store.. they have more class and respect than that.. they dont throw tantrums either.. but my little girl does look up at ppl and go mum mum mum mum mum and try to grab them... thats her in thing at the moment...
@KingPiccolo (95)
•
5 Jan 08
I once say a person eating some plastic fruit in a store so I guess he's a retailers worst nightmare, if thats what your thinking about, funny thing after he said it tastes like crud (implementing a slightly less graphic word), and I guess the retailer was thinking, "your not supposed to eat it your flipping idiot"
