Knowing your fruits and veggies

[foodie52]

  I must have  I told the checkout woman that they should look at the tags on expensive items because people were cheating bigtime.  It's not like the guy was starving for food. grrr.

Ah yes...we have a bulk department in our store where you weigh your own items. Produce department operates that way as well. Some people get a thrill out of labelling Kona coffee as Mexican Altura. There's no way of knowing, of course. But I'd say that 95% of our customers have moral standards and don't do that sort of thing. Maybe even more, I don't know. I just feel sorry for them: what else can you do?

Cashiers try to look at what they are ringing up. I cashier occasionally and catch the odd chanterelle tagged as button mushrooms for example.. I'll let the customer know that they mislabelled something, and would they like for me to get it reweighed and relabelled?

Oh: and by the way: most shoplifters we catch look quite well to do. My favorite was the middle aged man who got caught lifting about 10 pounds of ribeye. When caught, he called his wife on his cell to let her know that he'd be home late. He was driving a Mercedes.....

And, an interesting piece of trivia: the most common product shoplifted??? Guess.

Shrimp..

Usually stuffed down the pants.

I'm serious.

[Al_Dente]

And, an interesting piece of trivia: the most common product shoplifted??? Guess.

Shrimp..

Usually stuffed down the pants.

I'm serious.

Is that a shrimp in your pants, or are........

Sorry, nevermind.

[Jake]

Jumbo shrimp or the tiny salad size???

[NulloModo]

I didn't realize grocery stores even had shoplifting problems... Never have I thought about someone actually trying to shoplift food (well, other than kids trying to sneak out candy bars from convenience stores).

Learn something new every day. And shrimp..... how bizarre.

[lorea]

I was just reading through this thread this morning, and today, I ran into a little problem at the checkstand:

Checkstand Manager(that's what her tag said) - "What is this?"

Me - "It's flowering kale"

CM - "Oh. Do you know how much it costs?"

Me - "$1.99 per bunch"

CM - "Um....how do you what a bunch is?"

Me - "All the leaves are connected to a single stem!!"

sigh. And it was the check stand MANAGER too, of a huge brand-new Safeway.

[foodie52]

I didn't realize grocery stores even had shoplifting problems... Never have I thought about someone actually trying to shoplift food (well, other than kids trying to sneak out candy bars from convenience stores).

Why do you think your food is so expensive?

A grocery store's profit margin is usually around 1 1/2 percent. Without the markup of 20 % or so, they'd barely break even. Shoplifting is a huge problem. Some of it is internal, of course. But you have no idea how much stuff leaves without being paid for. I've found empty boxes that contained pricey balsamics countless times. Or truffle oils. They disappear. And vitamins. And anti-aging creams from our Healthy Living department.

What do you do? Put stuff behind glass? Tell someone that they can't have a pound of tiger shrimp because they are wearing baggy pants?????

[NulloModo]

Interesting. I used to work in consumer electronics/computer retail (overall another fairly low profit margin business), and I know we always had shoplifting problems with big-ticket but small in stature items... I just never figured someone would be petty enough to try to steal food (at least in the USA where dying of starvation isn't really something anyone rightly has to deal with....)

[foodie52]

Shoplifters aren't dying of starvation. They're trying to get away with getting something for free.

Let me edit that....the store where I work is very high end.

If you are starving, you go and apply for food stamps. Or you go to the local generic mart and steal what you need for your children. Ironically, I don't have a huge problem with that, although I know, I know....morally it's wrong. Thank God I've never been in that situation . But if I had to feed my kids, darn right I'd steal.

The shoplifters in our store are either flipping product for cash or doing it for the thrill of it.

Edited May 12, 2004 by foodie52 (log)

[KateW]

Not produce, but here's an exchange:

Cashier: I don't like sushi. I've tried it a couple times and I just can't develop a taste for it.

Bagger: Do you like shrimp cocktail?

Cashier: Yeah.

Bagger: Well that's raw fish...

Cashier: I know.

I wanted to say something but then the bagger complimented the color of my hair and I figured I should just let it go. It's going to bug me all day though.

[annanstee]

In my city (Vancouver, BC), there are guys who come up to you in bars (particularly slightly downmarket bars) and try to sell you food they have lifted. It is pretty disconcerting to have a guy come up to you and flash you a HUGE block of cheese! Recently, several pizza shops were busted for having walk-ins completely stuffed with stolen cheese...

[chefs13]

This past weekend, for the second time in a month, I bought fresh porcinis at portobella prices

Sometimes them not knowing can surely pay off