Posted on 10/01/2014 8:49:58 AM PDT by C19fan
In 2010, a Minnesotan named Erwin Lingitz was arrested in a Supervalu grocery store after spending an excessive amount of time at the deli counter. In the words of a Supervalu spokesperson, Lingitz had violated “societal norms and common customer understanding regarding free-sample practices.” While the charges were later dropped, the evidence remains incriminating: After a search, Lingitz was found to have stored in his pockets about a dozen soy sauce packets and “1.46 pounds of summer sausage and beef stick samples.”
Lingitz may have gotten carried away, but his impulse is more or less universal. People love free, people love food, and thus, people love free food. Retailers, too, have their own reasons to love sampling, from the financial (samples have boosted sales in some cases by as much as 2,000 percent) to the behavioral (they can sway people to habitually buy things that they never used to purchase).
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
People can be utterly clueless that they are blocking an entire aisle while chomping down on free food with the kids.
They’ll notice when you “accidentally” ram them with your cart, I bet.
Thank you. I am not alone.
Ago. it used to be just the fat ones, then they were joined by the ugly ones; now it’s just the fat, dumb ugly ones.
My favorite are the "savorers" who get their sample and then stand in front of the sample tray blocking access to it by anyone else while they slowly eat their sample.
The samples are nice but some of the shoppers are brain dead in their quest for free eats. They mill around and block the aisle and are too absorbed in it to notice others trying to go around them and get on with their lives.
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Casually and nonchalantly bump your cart into them. Smile sweetly and say “Oopsie. I’m sorry”.
They get the hint - they move - you get your free food.
People can be utterly clueless that they are blocking an entire aisle while chomping down on free food with the kids.
I was driving by a Sam’s Club with my daughter one day and asked if she wanted me to take her to lunch. I think she’s still mad at me.
The ‘psychology’ seems to slow people to a cattle-like shuffle as they leave their carts, kids and immense backsides blocking the aisles.
+1
Costco and one local Wal-Mart in particular are a chilling preview of what used to be America as these people and their hand-over-fist Third World pushy attitudes and lax approach to personal hygiene continue to breed like minks.
I’ve gotten some of the nastiest stomach flus from eating those handouts. Pleh. < |:P~
There’s no such thing as a free lunch.
They don’t mind people lounging in the aisles, but have you noticed that they don’t serve coffee at their little restaurant? They don’t want people lounging around after they’ve paid for their merchandise.
Until they have enough courage to post a sign that says “One sample per person per day, maximum, or we have you arrested”
then you can take as much as you want.
Esp. if you are hungry when you get there!
We have bought things at least twice because we tried the free samples.
They have a jarred bruschetta that is delicious, hubby buys that all the time now.
When Costco is giving away free samples of cheesecake, GET OUTTA MY WAY!
What "stain" exists because Costco pays employees what the labor market demands? All these employees are free to quit and work elsewhere whenever they like. It's a Thirteenth Amendment thing.
There are many of us who are silent sufferers, I am no longer silent, when I take my Mother for one of few outings and they try to push past her or run her and her walker over, I tell them, Loudly, exactly what I think of them and their manners. And they aren't all third worlders!
Funny you would say that. I’ve stopped eating the samples because I’ve picked up something bad a couple of times when I did.
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