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The other day I was faced with a moral dilemma that rocked me to my core.
I was at my local grocery store, Food Bazaar (a much better store than Food Bizarre), and I went to the canned/packaged fruit aisle to get some applesauce. I buy the 6-packs of single serving applesauce cups and include them when I pack my lunch on weekdays. Now that I say that, I guess that sounds kind of fruity, but I'm not here to debate the masculinity or lack thereof of my lunch.
As I reached for the package I wanted, my big fat clumsy hand bumped another package of applesauce, which fell of the shelf and plummeted to the unforgiving tile floor. Two of the cups instantly burst open, splattering applesauce at my feet like intestines.
First, I just stared at it, hoping perhaps to undo it with the power of my mind. After a moment it became clear that I lacked the ability to send it to another dimension, so I realized I had two options: I could just walk away, abandoning my responsibility for what had happened... or I could inform an employee of the store and offer to pay for it. I mean, I didn't do it on purpose, but still... I did it.
Of course I didn't want to pay for it. It wasn't even the same as the applesauce I buy... This was the organic stuff, the stuff hippies buy, and also the stuff that costs about $2 more, because hippies are very, very rich. And if I paid for it, I would get to keep what was left, but that would still mean paying full price for only four out of six cups of applesauce.
So what do you think I did?
Well, I'll tell you. I made sure nobody had seen me, then I walked away.
But by the time I got to the beans aisle, my conscience was nagging me. So I went back, put the applebustedsauce in my cart, and explained the situation to the cashier when I went to pay. She put it in a bag and told me I didn't need to pay for it.
So I'm glad I did what I did. If I had just left it, I would have known for sure that I didn't have to pay for it, but I probably would have been troubled by the idea that I hadn't done right by Mott's. This way, both my debit card and my conscience were free and clear.
What would you have done?
Comments on this post are closed. |
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| There's no way a grocery store employee would be invested enough in the store's merchandise to make a customer pay for something like that. Especially when they probably have people suing them for inadequate product-stacking. So I would definitely tell someone there was a clean-up on aisle five, but I would leave it there and go about my shopping. Now, if I broke something one-of-a-kind and expensive? I would have to think about that one a bit more. How much is a guilt-free conscience worth? Probably not worth going into debt at least. |
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Yeah, I'm sure it wouldn't have been such a big deal to most people. But I have to overthink everything I ever do.
...or do I?
If it had been an antique vase I had knocked off the shelf? I think I still would have come clean, even if no one saw me. But hopefully I'll never have to find out. |
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I would totally shop at Food Bizarre.
"Now that I say that, I guess that sounds kind of fruity, but I'm not here to debate the masculinity or lack thereof of my lunch."
It IS fruity, being applesauce...*bad dum ching* |
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I would have pointed it out, but not offered to pay for it. It's just applesauce.
And now I'm hungry. |
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Hey, if you got some farmer from Oregon to sell applesauce could you call it "Oregonic
Applesauce?" |
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You did the right thing, but more importantly, they did the right thing by not charging you for it.
It should just be chalked up to overhead for them. They should be more concerned about losing a regular customer than a potential $5 sale. And there's always a chance that the product would expire before they sold it anyway.
Besides, I'm sure that in the future you will give them more than enough profit to make up the difference.
And where DO hippies get all of their money to buy their all-natural organic stuff? I thought that hippies were poor. |
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As a regular customer, I have given them a lot of money in the past.
Maybe there's a secret hippie vault somewhere, just loaded with cash, but only people with really long hair and hemp tote bags can access it. |
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| I'm so glad to know that we raised you right. I would have let someone know as well, figuring that they wouldn't charge me. That kind of thing happens all the time. That's why you hear them saying "Clean-up on aisle 5" so often. |
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My first impulse was to type, "Blame it on you," but I probably would have done what you did.
Everyone's always cleaning up on Aisle 5. Who will clean Aisle 6? WHO? |
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