Mom says cashier scolded her for letting kid eat food in supermarket before paying: Who was right?

[jas]

Until it is paid for, it's stealing. You can't put it back if you change your mind and as someone mentioned, what if your card is declined? Then what? Why can't people either bring something for their spawn or their selfish selves to eat while shopping or God forbid, grab something, PAY FOR IT in the express lane and then shop. Seriously - the entitlement and the non caring about others entitlement is sad.

[jas]

When I used to be a cashier, this would only bug me when a parent would hand me her kids empty banana peel and then say, "Oh he had a banana" and expect me to charge her for it. Bananas were by weight. I can't friggen charge with just the peel.

I would have put it on the scale and added my thumb for weight.

[Quorra2.0]

Until it is paid for, it's stealing. You can't put it back if you change your mind and as someone mentioned, what if your card is declined? Then what? Why can't people either bring something for their spawn or their selfish selves to eat while shopping or God forbid, grab something, PAY FOR IT in the express lane and then shop. Seriously - the entitlement and the non caring about others entitlement is sad.

Here’s what gets me, her justification was that she had brought snacks, child had been sick, hadn’t eaten for a week, didn’t want what she brought wanted what was in the cart. 1- If your child has been too sick to eat, why do you have said child in a grocery store? And 2 why do you think it’s acceptable to hand the cashier something your sick child has been eating from?

I agree it should have been paid for first.

[Momto2boys973]

Unless the item needs to be weighed, I don’t see the big deal with snacking on an item that you’ll fully pay for it. Personally, I don’t do it, but I don’t think it’s wrong.
But I also think that the customer may be adding some personal perceptions to the story, like the “huffing” or the “nasty look”. She does sound like she’s a bit of an over sensitive person and maybe she was bringing her own questions of whether this is right or wrong to judge the cashier’s reaction.

[Olioxenfree]

Until it is paid for, it's stealing. You can't put it back if you change your mind and as someone mentioned, what if your card is declined? Then what? Why can't people either bring something for their spawn or their selfish selves to eat while shopping or God forbid, grab something, PAY FOR IT in the express lane and then shop. Seriously - the entitlement and the non caring about others entitlement is sad.

Here’s what gets me, her justification was that she had brought snacks, child had been sick, hadn’t eaten for a week, didn’t want what she brought wanted what was in the cart. 1- If your child has been too sick to eat, why do you have said child in a grocery store? And 2 why do you think it’s acceptable to hand the cashier something your sick child has been eating from?

I agree it should have been paid for first.

That’s the only area I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt for (because I definitely don’t agree with eating before paying), because we don’t know what the illness is. It could be something contagious, which of course she shouldn’t bring him to a store, or it could be something not contagious and chronic. My sister has some chronic health issues that would leave her “sick” for weeks as a teenager, as in gi issues, aches, etc. but it wasn’t contagious and also wasn’t going away any time soon so she either had to go about her day with it or spend half her life in bed. Life had to go on. But, this mom seems so self focused that I wouldn’t be surprised if the kid was actually sick sick.

[Olioxenfree]

I doubt the cashier scolded anyone. She likely makes minimum wage or slightly above.

With that said—let’s play devils advocate. Mom can’t pay because her card declined and doesn’t have any cash. Then what? Was it still OK for the kiddo to eat?

I can say for sure that I did this once. Opened a package of cereal bars because my kiddo was melting down—it took me a minute to realize it was my fault because I hadn’t given him breakfast because he got up late. Even so, it would have been theft had I not been able to pay…and that is what it really boils down to.

It honestly just happened to me yesterday. I don’t keep all of my forms of payment together in case I ever lose or have my wallet stolen. I went to the store to grab a handful of things so I just grabbed my wallet with one credit card in it. The night before I bought my nieces and nephews tickets to an expensive attraction in a city they are going to be visiting as a birthday gift for two of them. Because it was in another state and cost a decent amount of money, the bank put a freeze on my card. I didn’t know that until I was at the self checkout and my card was declined. I put the groceries back and then called to have it cleared up, but it took 45 minutes on the phone with customer service and the fraud department so thankfully I hadn’t let my kids start snacking away.

[Quorra2.0]

Until it is paid for, it's stealing. You can't put it back if you change your mind and as someone mentioned, what if your card is declined? Then what? Why can't people either bring something for their spawn or their selfish selves to eat while shopping or God forbid, grab something, PAY FOR IT in the express lane and then shop. Seriously - the entitlement and the non caring about others entitlement is sad.

Here’s what gets me, her justification was that she had brought snacks, child had been sick, hadn’t eaten for a week, didn’t want what she brought wanted what was in the cart. 1- If your child has been too sick to eat, why do you have said child in a grocery store? And 2 why do you think it’s acceptable to hand the cashier something your sick child has been eating from?

I agree it should have been paid for first.

That’s the only area I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt for (because I definitely don’t agree with eating before paying), because we don’t know what the illness is. It could be something contagious, which of course she shouldn’t bring him to a store, or it could be something not contagious and chronic. My sister has some chronic health issues that would leave her “sick” for weeks as a teenager, as in gi issues, aches, etc. but it wasn’t contagious and also wasn’t going away any time soon so she either had to go about her day with it or spend half her life in bed. Life had to go on. But, this mom seems so self focused that I wouldn’t be surprised if the kid was actually sick sick.

It could be a UK thing, but most people with a chronic illness will say chronic illness, not necessarily what it is but that it’s a chronic condition. Not that they are sick or unwell which was why I am leaning towards sick sick, but your right being that self focused it wouldn’t be surprising at all.

[Baconqueen13]

Not sure how it's attention. Just calling you out for the obvious.

I knew you would respond and also respond in a dumb way

And you're here sniffing around desperate for attention. Like usual.

You really are the lamest F***ing troll on this site.

[SisterSomeone]

Eh. The cashier was technically right, but whatever. This is such a non-issue that I literally can't imagine wasting any amount of brain space on it. I've done this for my kid when I needed to, I've done it for myself as a full grown adult, and I'll carry on doing it when I need to. It has a barcode and I'm gonna pay. If the cashier doesn't like that, they can live with it.