Ugh, that sucks. I'm sorry. I could understand asking you not to open the food until after you've paid. But going on to accuse you of theft (apparently the least sly thief ever) and attempting to detain you?! There are no words for how ridiculous that is.
Speaking from WA, USA.i_idFebruary 13 2010, 21:30:15 UTC
I totally understand why you did what you did, but I understand his first reaction, too. (Not the rest; once you explained/offered to pay, the matter should have been over.) The law says that opening/consuming food product before paying for it is shoplifting, no matter your intentions. But the way he handled it was totally bad_service.
Re: Speaking from WA, USA.rainshowersFebruary 13 2010, 21:42:51 UTC
How is it shoplifting if he never left the store? If he was still in the process of eating the food he was supposedly stealing?
Idgi. If he had eaten it, put the bag down and started to walk out, by all means call the police. Eating something in the store while you're shopping and bringing it up to pay for it isn't shoplifting.
Re: Speaking from WA, USA.i_idFebruary 13 2010, 21:46:52 UTC
Because it's destroying product that the store is still, at that point in time, financially liable for? And every shoplifter ever caught in the act says that they were going to pay. The store isn't responsible for or qualified to judge a person's motives, so they have to assume the worst to protect themselves.
I am not saying this manager did the right thing. Once the OP brought out the money, that should have been the end of it.
Associate "Joe" was just doing his job. They're not psychic to know that you're diabetic. If I were him I'd have thought you were being rude holding your finger up to me, too. After you went to pay they shouldn't have continued to threaten you with the police, that part was bad service.
I have pretty much zero experience with diabetic people/diabetes, so if I had seen someone looking like OP (vacant stare, shaky hands, sweaty) just enter the store I worked in and head straight for the cookies and coke and start to chug it down post-haste I would have assumed you were high as a kite thanks to drugs and not a diabetic in need of sugar.
Maybe keeping a card on you where it says quite clearly that you are diabetic and you will pay for anything you consume to show employees would help avoid this situation in the future?
I have an alert bracelet on recommendation from my doctor as he's testing me on a new medication so I can stop doing injections, but I was excited and rushing that morning and hadn't gotten used to remembering it quite yet.
And I can definitely see how you would first think "stoned" (except the sweating part, but I'm in South FL so it's not freezing, therefore that could b expected as well), so "Joe" getting the manager was more than acceptable to me and I mostly put that part as backstory.
It's one of those things, isn't it? Sure, you probably would've been better off to mention it to someone before you opened product, or gone to the pharmacist, but you didn't. Ok, your bad. But when you explain and offer to pay, they should have either dropped it completely or at worst given you a *little* "just make sure you talk to someone first" lecture rather than trying to get the cops involved
Maybe in the future if this happens if you can get back to the pharmacy area and grab some glucose tabs. Or at least insist that you get the pharmacist involved in the dispute. The pharmacist will be able to figure out what's going on and understand that your options were sugar now or passing out much better than some random associate.
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Idgi. If he had eaten it, put the bag down and started to walk out, by all means call the police. Eating something in the store while you're shopping and bringing it up to pay for it isn't shoplifting.
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I am not saying this manager did the right thing. Once the OP brought out the money, that should have been the end of it.
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I have pretty much zero experience with diabetic people/diabetes, so if I had seen someone looking like OP (vacant stare, shaky hands, sweaty) just enter the store I worked in and head straight for the cookies and coke and start to chug it down post-haste I would have assumed you were high as a kite thanks to drugs and not a diabetic in need of sugar.
Maybe keeping a card on you where it says quite clearly that you are diabetic and you will pay for anything you consume to show employees would help avoid this situation in the future?
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And I can definitely see how you would first think "stoned" (except the sweating part, but I'm in South FL so it's not freezing, therefore that could b expected as well), so "Joe" getting the manager was more than acceptable to me and I mostly put that part as backstory.
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