“I decided on option number three, which was to put back all my groceries and walk away”
There is NO WAY that would have put anything back. I would have just left them the shopping cart full of items...and most likely they would be required to throw out the perishables.
I work for the parent company of Bottom Dollar Foods. The cashier should have told you the truth. The store was designed to take as much cost out of grocery shopping as possible. Plastic bags cost money... not so much about tree hugging as it is about thrift. It’s a great concept. Go back save some money... how conservative is that! I wished we put one in my area.
Only if they were taken out of the store.
When I worked at a grocery store, nearly every day I’d find perishable items like expensive cuts of meat and seafood or frozen items placed on shelves where for some reason or another, the shopper decided that they didn’t want the item after all, so instead of walking a few feet and putting it back where it belonged, I’d find the item, often hours after it had been abandoned on a shelf of cereals or canned goods or sometimes sitting on the floor. Of course those items couldn’t be returned for sale and had to be placed in the “spoilage” area to be inventoried and written off as a loss. And who do you think pays for that loss? You and I do.
Why not just stuff the items down your pants and walk out of the store without paying for it? The end result is just the same.