Breaking Stuff at the Grocery Store

[Tron]

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?

[gorie]

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

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

[RunDownHouse]

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

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

[Randy_Refeld]

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.

[Tron]

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

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

[/ QUOTE ]

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

[fluxrad]

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.

[Stuey]

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.

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.

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nh