Woman under fire after letting her child eat from store shelves before paying

A woman has sparked quite the debate on TikTok after detailing her negative experience with a Tesco cashier who didn’t like that she’d let her son eat some food before checking out.

Tesco is a prominent grocery store chain in the UK and one of the top five food and beverage retailers in Europe.

A woman is going viral on TikTok after detailing her experience shopping in the store with her sick young child, saying she had a less-than-stellar time thanks to the cashier who was scanning her items.

Self-described “proud mama” Samantha uploaded a video to TikTok on December 29, claiming that her sick youngster hadn’t eaten much in about a week when she took them on a shopping trip to Tesco.

Unsplash.com: Shashank Verma

Mom outraged after Tesco cashier scolds her for letting child eat snacks before buying

During their walks down the aisles, she said her kiddo seemed keen on some ‘baby pouches’ and yogurt — and since he hadn’t been eating due to his illness, decided to let him snack as they shopped.

When she went up to the checkout counter, Samantha said she separated the eaten items from the rest of her haul and handed them to the clerk to scan, apologetically explaining what had happened… but the cashier wasn’t very understanding of her ordeal.

Instead, Samantha claimed the clerk “gave me the most disgusted look” and “didn’t say a word,” but merely scanned the half-eaten snacks and “threw them in the bin.” This prompted the mom to explain that her son wasn’t actually done eating them.

Samantha then said that the cashier “huffed” at her, took the items out of the bin and put them to the side. The mom apologized if she’d “put [her] out” due to the ordeal, prompting the employee to finally grace her with a response.

“Oh, I just don’t think it’s right that people let their kids eat stuff… on their way ’round the shop,” Samantha claims the clerk said. This response pushed Samantha’s “mum button,” prompting her to make a complaint to the employee about her behavior.

The conversation has sparked quite the debate on TikTok, with some users agreeing with Samantha, while others say it’s not good etiquette to eat items before you’ve purchased them.

“It’s 100% her job to let you know you’re NOT allowed to eat or drink anything before you’ve paid for it,” one viewer wrote. “I use to work at Tesco, and you are the worst.”

“You are absolutely in the wrong,” another said. “Tesco isn’t an all-you-can-eat buffet where you pay by plate at the end. Not buying your child was that ill, otherwise he wouldn’t be outside the house.”

“I work at a Tesco on checkouts, and mums let their children snack on their shopping,” one viewer claimed. “I don’t mind them doing it, whatever helps them get ’round the shop calmly for them.”

“Former Tesco checkout employee – I used to always scan eaten items. It was normal, so don’t feel you’ve done anything wrong,” yet another commented.

Is it legal to eat items in a grocery store before paying?

So, is it actually stealing if you eat items before you actually buy them? According to TikTok legal expert ‘Haseeb’ with Haseeb Legal, it is actually considered theft to do so.

“The property ownership of an item before you checked it out belongs to the grocery store, so your consumption of it before you actually own the product is technically theft,” he said in a viral video back in August 2023.

Kens5 news also caught up with a police chief and an attorney in a June 2023 report. While Police Chief John Jahanara said that it is illegal, and that the goods are considered “unpaid merchandise,” legal expert Betty Wang said that it “may be akin to shoplifting.” Ultimately, it comes down to whether or not the business in question chooses to prosecute.

While this isn’t always enforced in markets, it’s generally a good rule of thumb to avoid eating items before you’ve bought them.