Question

Apropos of nothing, let's say a person bought many purchases in a large chain store.  The sales person rang up her many purchases and the total was lower than expected.  On the way out she checks her receipt to find that one item was never rung in.  She grins happily and is on her way to wrap said purchases, never once actually contemplating returning to the store to rectify the mistake.

Is that stealing?

The more I think about it, the more I believe it is.

Hmmmm

Josie

Comments

crafty said…
fuck that shit. There should be one and only one word in your head right now: SCORE!!
Josie said…
LOL Gary, you're back! Score! you can help me with my kindle!
crafty said…
Happy to. My price: Make a red sauce. Meatballs, sausage, hunks of pork. You will provide the plate; I have my own fork. Have we got a deal?
badbilly32 said…
if it was a "mom and pop" family type operation id prolly go back and pay...if it was any type of chain store, im snap walking away,whistling a tune!....."score"would seem to be the apropro term in this spot 9 outta 10
SirFWALGMan said…
Inherently Evil Thief.
Josie said…
@gary, Deal!!!!

@billy, exactly. This was Bob's Stores and I did spend about $200 there...

@waffles - look who's talking. Ahem, $5!
KenP said…
No, it is not theft. There isn't a legal issue here.

The issue is ethical. Arguing that is best left as a midterm question in Philosophy 101.
badbilly32 said…
if your making"a red sauce", id want neckbone, some pork chops and a couple of sticks of pepperoni.......im just sayin
Josie said…
lol billy, you'd love my mother's gravy...and mine too.
crafty said…
not really into gnawing meat off a neckbone, and though I like pepperoni I prefer real meat in my sauce. Plus I was kind of cheating - what I mentioned was what J puts in her gravy, and it's incredibly good. Of course, I'm legally bound to say my wife's is better, but, um, "Osie-Jay's is etter-bay."
Josie said…
LOL Gary - I'm glad your back! My mom puts pepperoni in her gravy and I do too sometimes. The point is it flavors the entire sauce with that certain spiciness, much like what chorizo does for many mexican dishes.
badbilly32 said…
ummmmmmmmmmmmm pepperoni!!!!!!thats real old school guiena shit there! pepperoni has now become a must, as ive gotten older! and gary u dont "knaw" on neck bones. the meat just falls off and ends up in the gravy half the time anyway i bet your mom makes bragole(sp) too!

how about pizza joe? does mom make it square with a nice parmesian? (instead of round with mozzerella)then cooks up some sausage and rolls it up in the za?......

f.m.l. now im hungry for some "italian"!
Josie said…
Pizza is my weakness and my mom's is without a doubt the best. She makes it round,but yes, never with mozzarella. She uses parmesan and romano. now I want pizza!
Josie said…
Did you just call me a guinea?
crafty said…
when I think of neckbones I think of the traditional food of my people, eastern European Jews. And there's nothing I like to think of less than that inedible garbage, so neckbones are guilty by association, sorry.

Oh my GOD now I'm hungry for some pasta.
badbilly32 said…
lol, not you directly, but t.b.h. you should think of it as my italian term for your"biatch",think of as, ummmn what did you tell me... a term of endearment lol! :)
Josie said…
LOL In that case, thank you!
Zin said…
Score Score Score!!! A family own and operated store i would take it back and pay for it, a Chain Store that screws us day in day out the hell with them.
The hell with the sauce, how about some good old Texas Style Brisket and with the fixings mmmmmmgd.
Josie said…
Mmmm slow cooked brisket...with bbq sauce I presume.
Rakewell said…
You're leaving the store with an item that you know you didn't pay for. The better question is, "How is that NOT stealing?"

It obviously makes not one speck of difference whether the store is a national chain or a struggling family-owned business.

Suppose it's the latter, and it's the owner who is ringing up your purchases that day, for whatever reason. He inadvertently charges you twice for some item. As you're walking away, his eye catches the duplication on his copy of the receipt. But rather than stopping you so that he can correct the error, he thinks, "Score! Free money!" and lets you go.

Is he stealing from you?

As long as your answer to that is "no," then go ahead and consider the answer to your question "no," too. However....
josiesboytoy said…
The question is what would you say if your son asked you the same question? Thought so...... Gee and you thought I was just a pretty face
Josie said…
@lightning, of course he was calling me short.

@grump, I didn't leave the store with an item I KNEW I didn't pay for. as I said, the total seemed less than I was anticipating. I bought a lot of presents and didn't realize one item wasn't rung in until I was checking the receipt afterwards. Now if I was charged twice for an item, would I think the sales person was STEALING from me? No. I would think he was making a mistake and I'd correct it, but no, I wouldn't think he was stealing. In my situation though, I should've brought it back and paid for it. Obviously this has been on my mind....enough so that I signed the gift tag "Josie and The Sales Lady".

@my boy toy - you've hit the nail on the head. I'd march Sugar Bear back in there to pay for the item.
JT88Keys said…
If we're talking about the chain I'm thinking of, I can guarantee you from personal experience working for manufacturing company that they extort/steal a lot more from vendors than you ever could from a missed item or two.
Josie said…
JT you make a good point, but 2 wrongs do not make a right. it's been on my mind since it happened.
Rakewell said…
Josie, you wrote, "On the way out she checks her receipt to find that one item was never rung in."

I repeat, ON THE WAY OUT. To me, that implies that you were still in the store, or maybe between the door and your car. That is why I constructed my hypothetical the way I did.

If you actually meant, "After I got home," why did you say, "On the way out"?

Also, I realize that one would normally assume that a duplicate charge was an inadvertent error. That's why I gave the guy a chance to correct it, and he intentionally chooses not to. Given that, do you think he is stealing from you?

To make it better parallel the situation you now describe, suppose that he's trying to reconcile the books at the end of the day, and can't. He then examines the receipts for an amount that would explain the discrepancy and finds the duplicate charge on your bill. He remembers the transaction and knows that you didn't buy two of those items. He realizes that the scanner hiccuped and somehow scanned the thing twice.

He has your customer info and can easily contact you if he chooses to. If he does not, then is he stealing from you?
Josie said…
The checking of the receipt actually took place in the parking lot...in the car, certainly close enough to run back in, but i never really entertained the thought of doing so.

And yes if he discovered an error, like I did in the car, and didn't rectify it, I'd consider that stealing, which just confirms my gut feeling. Good analogy.
badbilly32 said…
i guess im just a morally corrupt son of a bitch, as long as i didnt go into the store with the intent of stealing it, id be pretty much over it...........


red sux got a closer! arent you extatic mizz josie

are you playing b.c.p. i cant figure out how to "find a player" to save my life though
grrouchie said…
I have not bothered to read your other comments because I didn't want my opinion to be tainted by what anyone else said.


Myself: I'm lazy and rarely ever look at my receipts - So I probably never would have noticed and went along my merry life without a care in the world.

This is really a tale of two grrouches.

In my younger days if someone screwed up to my advantage then I didn't give a shit and wouldn't say anything.

However, as I get older AND work in retail (for the past decade+) and have designs on opening up my own retail store at some point in my life I would do something to rectify the situation.
Go back into the store and pay for it - Call support and find out how much the item was worth and ask if they want me to pay for it over the phone or send a check, etc.
This is me hoping that eventually Karma will kick in and when I (or one of my hired help) messes up someone will be repay in kind.

I've got more to say on this so I best just make my own post instead of putting a bigger wall of text here for all these others that don't care lol.
Josie said…
Andrew Bailey baby! Yes I'm very excited about our new closer. I have a BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGG bet on the sox this year and I need them to do well.

yes i'm onn bcp -playing a 45 peep game and sucking. 13 peeps left and I aam in 13th place.
Josie said…
grrouchie, i agree. i knew you were a nice guy...perhaps not nice enough to add me to your blog roll, but nice nonetheless.
Zin said…
In my life time i have been over charged to many times to count and did not notice till i looked at the receipt, not one time did the store attempt to correct the problem. I pay every thing with a credit card i use like cash, i pay the balance in full every month, the stores have all your info phone# etc...so if the store wants to correct the problem the store should be able to contact the person.
grrouchie said…
Josie - you are added if'n you look again.

I never pay attention to how others see my bloggie thingie and thus I was under the misinformed impression that when I subscribed/followed/stalked a blog that it auto updated that as it auto updates the list that I look at.

However, I have rectumfied the situation and now you are one of the few, the proud, the elite.
And all 8 of my subscribers can see your blog link when they look at my words.

You are welcome!!!
grrouchie said…
also, if I get out of line in the future I'd appreciate just a little whipping :)
Josie said…
Zin baby! You're the guy with the gas...erm gas wells right? lol

grrouchie, what is this "just a little"? it's not in my vocabulary.
Memphis MOJO said…
Of course it's stealing, but there's stealing and there is STEALING. Like most things in life, it's a matter of degree.

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