Breaking Stuff at the Grocery Store
 

Today I stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few things, and, somehow or another, when I set my basket on the edge of the conveyor belt, it fell off and a carton of delicious Dole Paradise Blend juice busted open and spilled on the floor.

Well, I didn't think anything of it, I told the girl checking me out that it had broken and that I was going to get a new one. The thought of paying for the busted one never crossed my mind.

So that got me thinking, if you were to break a bottle (accidentally, of course) in a grocery store, would you vounteer to pay for it? What would you do if they asked you to? And am I an [censored] for not paying for the busted juice carton?

Re: Breaking Stuff at the Grocery Store
 

i would be annoyed if they expected me to pay for it.

Re: Breaking Stuff at the Grocery Store
 

They want your repeated business. They won't jeopardize that by asking you to pay for something you broke.

Re: Breaking Stuff at the Grocery Store
 

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They want your repeated business. They won't jeopardize that by asking you to pay for something you broke.

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I would never even think of not paying for it. I hadn't considered the business' willingness to eat the loss.

Re: Breaking Stuff at the Grocery Store
 

When I was little I knocked over a display of glass bottles and they shattered around me. My mother offered to pay for them and they refused.

Re: Breaking Stuff at the Grocery Store
 

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They want your repeated business. They won't jeopardize that by asking you to pay for something you broke.

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I would never even think of not paying for it. I hadn't considered the business' willingness to eat the loss.

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This is strange, becuase I feel just as strongly in the opposite, I have no idea why though.

Re: Breaking Stuff at the Grocery Store
 

As the saying goes: You break it, you buy it.

If it breaks on its own, then that's a different story. I was walking around the store with a bag of spaghetti about a month ago and the damned thing ripped open on me. Pasta spilled all over the floor. However, since I wasn't screwing around with it and the bag just broke, I simply picked up the spaghetti and threw it all in the trash.

Now if I'd been goofing off and ripped the bag, I would have felt obliged to pay for the pasta.

Re: Breaking Stuff at the Grocery Store
 

I own and operate a store and when people break stuff or drop ice cream for example. I never charge them for it even if they are kind enough to offer.

When I am the customer and I break something I always offer to pay for it. If they do not allow me to pay I leave a tip that is at least the size of the item I broke. I also say sorry and offer to help clean up the mess I made. If there is glass on the floor I don't want a kid or old person to get cut if they don't see it.

I'm not saying this is the correct or right thing to do. It is just the way I operate. I don't need free stuff and I know how hard it is to run a profitable business. Plus I like to look like I have some class and breaking stuff and not trying to make up for it is not classy imo.

Re: Breaking Stuff at the Grocery Store
 

I always offer to pay. I've never been taken up on it. It'll show up in the "shrinkage" entry on their P/L. They factor it in as a COB.

Confession: As a kid I did my share of shoplifting. Maybe it's just my conscience bothering me when I offer to pay.

[img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

Re: Breaking Stuff at the Grocery Store
 

nh

Re: Breaking Stuff at the Grocery Store
 

stuey, your avatar makes me feel funny...

Re: Breaking Stuff at the Grocery Store
 

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stuey, your avatar makes me feel funny...

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Checkout the nsfw full version. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Re: Breaking Stuff at the Grocery Store
 

I think the store is really helping itself by not forcing people to pay because many people would be put off and not come back.

But really they are forcing people to get their own things as opposed to having runners get everything. So even with the breakage costs, they are still ahead cost-wise.

Re: Breaking Stuff at the Grocery Store
 

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Checkout the nsfw full version.



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Now that's a screensaver!

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Re: Breaking Stuff at the Grocery Store
 

As long as you didn't do it on purpose, breakage is just a part of their business cost. Don't worry about it.

Re: You have already paid for it.
 

You have already paid for the broken package. The price of the product is set to cover a percentage for breakage, the product going out of date, and theft that occurs.

Re: Breaking Stuff at the Grocery Store
 

I worked in a grocery store as a kid. I'm not sure if all places have a setup like this, but any defective products that we received, the warehouse would eat the cost and it was kind of a "take your word for it" thing. Most products that employees or customers broke fell into this category.

Whether this is wrong or not I don't know, but I'm sure other places do the same.

Re: Breaking Stuff at the Grocery Store
 

As someone who once worked in a grocery store, i can tell you that it would be against store policy if they accepted payment

Re: Breaking Stuff at the Grocery Store
 

actually tonight i was going to buy some english muffins and broke a glass car of jam. i didnt even think about paying for it, i just picked it up and went and paid. this was at a chain grocery store. not ambiguous at all. if it were a mom and pop joint deli or somethign similar i would consider it under some circumstances.

Re: Breaking Stuff at the Grocery Store
 

A couple years ago, I had been planning on moving to Florida and to make extra money, I got a job overnight stocking shelves at Shop-Rite. So anyway, my first night and I have to put papertowels away. I am stacking them up on the top shelf and I only need to put up like 3 more rolls. I force them in and all of a sudden I hear this loud crashing sound that goes on for like 10 seconds. I walk around to the other side of the aisle, and I had knocked over about 50 jars of salsa and hot sauce. My boss tells me to grab broom and clean it up. So I start cleaning it up and the smell from the salsa causes me to gag. I'm thinking, "[censored] this, it's not worth the money and aggrevation.". So I go and punch out and just leave w/o telling anyone. As soon as I open the doors, the alarm goes off and my boss comes running up. After he turns the alarm off, I tell him I left something in the car. Never saw him again.