A former cashier put customers who eat food at the grocery store before paying on blast. Namely, she says she took issue with those customers handing her open packages of food when they got to checkout.
“The thing I hated the most about being a grocery cashier is when people would hand me the food their kids ate,” TikTok user Laurie (@imlauriee) starts her video. “I’m talking those baby pouches, open snacks, soda cans.”
“To hand me the empty containers. Mostly the baby stuff that’s slobbered with slob,” she continues.
Laurie says it was not only disgusting, but she believes munching on snacks before paying for them is unethical.
“Who raised y’all? … It was technically stealing,” she says.
Is it OK to eat grocery store snacks before paying?
There is much debate about whether or not it’s OK to eat the grocery store snacks and drinks before paying for them.
Some think it shouldn’t matter as long as they intend to pay for the item.
“As long as they pay for it why does it matter,” one viewer shared in Laurie’s comments section.
“Idk that’s literally how I grew up. how is it stealing if you PAY for it. I’ve also had friends who work in stores say that yeah it’s an okay thing to do??? I do it all the time only with drinks tho,” another remarked.
And others believe it’s morally and ethically wrong.
One viewer said, “the worst are the people who would eat the fruit that is sold by pound.”
“Or when they’re eating chips and spill them in front of the register and they’re like sorry he spilled and ur like wouldn’t have happened if it was closed,” a second commented.
The type of snack matters
A former Trader Joe’s worker and Delish writer Mackenzie Filson said it’s not as black and white, sharing that the type of snack matters.
Loose fruit, food sold by the pound, and wet food are big no-nos, according to Filson, who also got to the bottom of the legality of the practice. In case you’re wondering, yes, it is legal.
“These items are not only nasty to touch, but also trickier to ring up once they’ve been snacked on,” Filson wrote. “A good rule of thumb: If you wouldn’t want it dripping on you, don’t crack it open in the store before buying it.”
So what’s in-bounds?
For Filson, dry and individually priced packaged foods, like chips, and drinks with caps are OK.
Filson also recommends helping the cashier out by offering to read aloud the package’s SKU for them to enter it into their computer.
The basket offenders
Laurie’s grievances didn’t stop there.
“The worst is the people that would get the little baskets and then put them on the conveyor belt,” she says. “Like, are you that lazy that you cannot take them out and put the basket back underneath the conveyor belt?”
When the content creator was about to quit, she says she found ways to stop this.
“I would literally dump everyone’s stuff out of those baskets,” she shares. “Since then, every single one of those customers I did that to would take their stuff out of the basket, even if they weren’t in the lane with me.”
Her video received over 27,000 views.
@imlauriee Being a grocery cashier seemed like such an easy job, but people always tested my patients especially the moms with kids. No I don’t want to take your trash and scan it. I left the food industry, not to clean up after people. #thoughts ♬ original sound – Lolo
Laurie told the Daily Dot that she worked at a grocery stores for four months during the summer. She said such encounters with customers would happen very often.
“This happened at least 10-20 times a shift,” she shared via Instagram direct message.
Overall, Laurie believes that thick skin is a requirement for working at a grocery store.
“Working at a grocery store requires a lot of patience. People are not as caring as they appear. It really depends on what type of day they are having. They are either really nice or taking out all their frustrations on you. You kind of need a thick skin,” she said.
Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
