Well, I’m torn on this one. On one hand, you are taking something without paying for it. If 50 customers a day decide they want to taste a grape, the grocer would lose a chunk of change in a year. On the other hand, grocers encourage customers to taste at the deli counter and when they have the cooking demonstrations and samples. I must say, however, I don’t taste unless it is offered. I once saw a woman get a bunch of bananas and eat one before paying.

I don’t have a personal opinion on the subject, but I do remember an incident several years ago at the Walmart Supercenter in Bartlett. I’m a little fuzzy on the exact details, but the scenario was something like this: A vendor or delivery driver was in an employee-only section of the store, maybe by the loading dock. He was not in the store itself, and he was not a regular store employee. There was an open container of suckers or other wrapped candy. He thought they were put there for anyone’s enjoyment, so he took one. There was no sign by the candy to make him think otherwise. He was seen taking the one piece of candy, and management called the Bartlett police. They arrested him for theft and booked him. The media picked up the story, and Walmart later dropped the charges, probably to avoid more bad publicity. I don’t know if they appologized or not. I would bet they did not.
Jennifer, I’d be pretty careful with my grape testing at the world’s largest retailer!

Er, I should say your “colleague”. I don’t know WHY I said “husband”.

I’m sick. Leave me alone

I’m with Jennifer. People, let’s weigh a single grape. They are sold by the pound, not by quantity. How much does one grape weigh? My guess is the scale doesn’t move with the addition or subtraction of a grape.

We live in a modern age of samples. They are everywhere. If stores were smart, they could solve the problem by putting a sample bowl of grapes out with the strays so people could taste. Granted, there’s no open invitation for me to taste the grape, but I haven’t ruined a bunch of grapes by eating one, which wouldn’t be the case if I sampled an apple.

Nothing makes me madder than to get home and find out I bought a bad bag of grapes. Chances are I’ll get mad enough not to go to that store anymore (I almost said trade at that store!). So, would Kroger rather lose all my business because of a bag of grapes or if I taste my grape, by my bag and go home a happy camper and come back again, is all right with the world?

Part of what we pay for when we buy grapes is the stems. So what would happen if you picked up an extra stem about the weight of the grape you were tasting & pd. for that? I just this minute thought of that concept, so maybe it seems a bit stupid. But I am torn on this issue myself. I don’t taste things in the store unless they are offered. But if I saw someone putting produce out, mgr. or not, I think I would ask permission to taste one grape & see what they say. Or maybe if you were in a place where they make fruit baskets, you could ask to sample one grape from the ones they are putting in the baskets if they are the same variety you want to buy. If you go to one of the stores that have the automatic sprayers for the produce (which add weight to things, not to mention hastening spoiling, you could probably rinse the cooties off your grape that way. Another reason to taste is if the sign doesn’t specify seedless or seeded. I HATE to get home w/grapes I think are seedless & find seeds in them! If the sell grapes at the farmers markets, I’m sure the vendors there would be delighted to offer samples if you asked. Of course, you might not want to only buy grapes on Sat. & Weds., if there are indeed any grape purveyors there. I hope you get some responses from grocery store employees too, Jennifer. It would be interesting to compare their answers to the question: to sample or not to sample.

What, precisely, does a bad grape taste like? I generally have a rule of not eating grapes that look like raisins, and with that rule I’ve never gotten a bad one. Apples, potatoes, garlic, and onions have sometimes yielded unpleasant surprises, but grapes have been pretty consistent–if they look good, feel good, and smell good, they customarily are good.

ONE GRAPE, no more, no less!

after that it IS “stealing”!!

if God didnt want us ‘tasting’ grapes in this fashion, then why did she or he make it so convenient?

fortunately, no other food product seems to lend itself to such treatment, does it?

I’m super honest and still taste grapes. Cherries, too. I figure I’ve more than paid for what I eat with all the mealy apples, woody citrus and tasteless melons I’ve paid for and thrown in the trash.

There is an easy way to be totally honest. Have the cashier weigh and ring up the grapes, then pluck one out of the bag and ask her to return it to the produce section.

Allie, I agree totally about peaches & pears I find in the markets here. They are like little hockey pucks, but I seem to have a bit more luck buying nectarines. One year Easy Way got these oversized peaches from Missouri & Louisiana Creole tomatoes that were just wonderful, but I haven’t seen them since. Guess they were too fragile or something.

I cook green beans; if they’re tough, I’ll cook ‘em a bit longer. It’s the same principle as the strawberries and the blueberries, which can be salvaged with a little sugar. A bad bunch of grapes is simply a loss.

Let’s move on to olive bars, a topic which came up this morning. I would NEVER sample from an olive bar, but apparently there are folks who are OK with it. The way I see it, you can buy a tiny amount of a few different olives and if you like them, then next time you can stock up. I would never sample from a salad bar. Don’t know what it is about those grapes, though…

I’ve decided that as long as I’m not eating a snack or a meal, and it is truly intended as a sample-before-purchase, that if the store had a problem with it they’d lock the stuff up.

I smell soaps before I buy, and I sometimes wonder that they’re not hermetically sealed.. I think the mfrs. MUST know that people pop the tops open to see if they like the scent. Now, I would NEVER touch the product, and I’ll take from the back of the display if it looks like someone else has.. I’m sure the stores return some of these things, but it’s an absorbable cost. (otherwise they’d have safety seals!).

Similarly, you get to put your hands all over the peaches & melons (egads; no washing station!?), squeeze the Charmin, adjust the qty in a bunch of bananas, tap on the lobster tank, smell the flowers, husk the corn, pick up, put down, drop, pinch, poke and otherwise manhandle everything in a grocery store.

Produce falls on the floor all the time, or rots where it sits. If allowing customers a small taste improves sales, stores are ready to absorb that cost.

Just don’t act like it’s a buffet, and don’t taste things that are “standardized”, like candy.

I don’t taste the grapes often, but if the store yelled at me for it, I’d find another place to shop. I want to be treated as a CUSTOMER, not a potential shoplifter!

If it’s a store I go into all the time, I’ll buy the minimum amount of something & see what I think. Then if it’s OK I’ll buy more when I go back. I have had people ask if I have tried something & I have also asked people for their opinions. It’s really hard to buy a little tiny portion of grapes unless they are loose, though. I was at Easy Way yesterday & the “TN tomatoes” looked pretty anemic, so I tried a more expensive beefsteak one. I ate it for dinner & it was tasty, so now I would be willing to go back for more. I always do that with peaches, plums, nectarines, tangerines, & just about anything other than apples or bananas, which I buy according to my preference for variety of apple & on the green side for bananas. As for olives, I think we’re talking about something more expensive than grapes, & I would hesitate to sample without asking. The best idea would be for the stores to post signs by the grapes & olives if sampling is allowed or not, or leave containers for the pits & stems if they don’t mind sampling. I would venture to say they would sell more if people were allowed to taste before they had to buy & live with the quality at home.