Do you eat before paying at the supermarket

The home box store I buy many materials at always has soda frigs at the front by the checkout stands. The contractor entrance is very close to the checkout lines. I have one a couple of occasions selected a soda. Taken a few drinks of it and placed it in my cart. They know me well, it has never been a problem but I would never "hide" the bottle in the store after I consumed a fair share of it.
You gotta live with yourself and your conscience, we all know what the difference between right and wrong!

No what I am saying is use some common sense and exercise some discretion in the matter. A store that calls the cops over a $2.50 item is wasting a massive amount of taxpayer resources. On something petty like this simply have the accused shoplifter sign a form at the store saying they can’t return to the store anymore or they understand they will be arrested for trespassing.

Government funds/resources in this area should go towards catching professional shoplifters and others that take high value items not over some bullshit waste of time like this were the person very well may have forgotten about it. In our country that funny little document called the Constitution guarantees you that you are innocent till proven guilty not that you are guilty until you prove you’re innocent.

Because I was curious, I searched for this story there are some details some of you might find interesting.
https://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/05/MNMU1LON6S.DTL

I hope they stick it to Safeway and get a rather large payout. They deserve one.

Walmart has fried chicken? That is freakin nasty.

I'm just not getting the"saving the wrapper to be scanned at the register". If she fully intended to pay, the wrapper should have been somewhere in the cart and handed to the clerk at the register. Oh yeah, "hope they stick it to Safeway, get a large payout, they deserve it". For what, stealing? Regardless how you look at it, that's exactly what happened.

When my now adult son was a toddler - he always wanted to eat a banana in the grocery store - so, to stop any tantrums - I would give him one and then ask the check-out clerk to weigh one of the other bananas twice. This is bringing back memories - he also needed to have a book or puzzle each store visit - as the youngest of 4 he was just slightly spoiled!

Since I was in the store 3-4 times a week at least, the clerks certainly recognized me and my little red-headed terror

I used to be a cashier as extra job years ago when we needed the money as a second job. I heard all kinds of stories and had people steal in all kinds of ways. We had a lady one time bleeding from the head and almost called a ambulance before if was discovered she had a roast hidden in her hat.

My favorite is where people eat 1/2 a bag of grapes and then expect to weigh and pay for what is left.
I love when people open bags of chips for their kids and leave it sitting at the store on a shelf 1/2 eaten.
I went to buy some donuts for work and found that people had opened the packages and taken 1 out and put it bck.

I have o patience for people like that , and no I do not think she "forgot" she tried to get away with it, and it will make her think twice before pulling that stunt again.

Indeed, that "innocent until proven guilty" thing does raise the price of justice. On balance, though, it's pr'bly a good idea.

Sharia Law is cheaper. And it results in interesting nicknames for miscreants brought to justice, . . . like "Lefty Leroy" for theft and "Headless Frank" for apostasy.