One day several weeks ago, I went to the store to purchase a few things. While I was standing in the check out line, I noticed the family in front of me. There was a little boy (I am going to say about 3 years old) eating bite size candy bars from a big package in the hand basket. There was a girl (I am going to say about 10 years old) and an older lady (for appearance reasons, I am going to say was the step-mom or friend) who were also eating the candy bars. As they neared the front of the line, the older lady whispered something to the girl, handed her a carton of eggs and the package of candy that she took from the boy. The girl went back into the aisles and when she returned… yup!! Empty handed. No candy, no eggs, no nothing! I stared in sheer amazement not able to do anything. I came home and told Ken the story.

Since then, while shopping, Ken and I have seen countless bags of opened candy, half finished bottles of cokes, and even boxes of fresh pastries with only 1 of the 4 left. Now, I KNOW this is not the same family traveling to all these stores and eating their meals this way. I just do not get it! Are there no cameras in the stores? Is there no way to prevent this kind of theft? Do the people think it is their right to be able to eat samples of the food while shopping? Do the stores just believe this is one of those things they have to put up with?

This is one French custom I think Ken and I will not be participating in while we are here and even more so…. I will be checking out all the packages of food we buy from now on!

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

Local Tags: , , , ,

Format this post for printing Format this post for printing