You really think this comparison is valid? What the … ?

How about … grapes are little? Technique also works for snow peas, f’rinstance.

Hmmmm, here’s hoping the RA think tank can nut out this ‘wicked problem’! My guesses would be: (a) to check they were ripe/ok to eat, and (b) because they’re small so ‘no one will mind’? I suspect that then, kinda like natural selection, it has just become the norm as no one gets in trouble for it…!
Maybe someone needs to start eating apples to see if it becomes allowed. If so, they might become free game to! Hahaha!
(Disclaimer: I don’t eat apples, grapes, cherries or nuts at the supermarket or F&V shop!)

Chillies are little, too.

It’s the Ned Kelly impulse.
I don’t do it, myself, and I don’t feel bad about about looking down on the ill-educated bogans who do.

I liked the suggestion that this strange phenomenon is unique to Canberra…

I have a relative who also thinks that this applies to apples, peaches, plums etc… Pretty embarrassing.

There are more ambitious taste-testers about:
I’ve seen half-eaten cakes and half-full {or half-empty?} soft-drink bottles left on supermarket shelves.

shirty_bear said :

You really think this comparison is valid? What the … ?

How about … grapes are little? Technique also works for snow peas, f’rinstance.

Also macadamia and pistachio nuts.

If they taste good and don’t have a pip, then I buy some. If they taste like crap I don’t. Never been questioned over this habit. Never brought home American grapes that no one would eat.

I also pull bits out of pineapples, closely smell cantalope and stick the finger in the ends of avocado. Fresh food, is good food, that gets eaten.

It’s an accepted customer, and though you may not have seen people take a bite out of fruits like Apple, many fruit and veg shops have pre-cut samples. And what does the OP mean about “Canberra supermarkets,” I was unaware only Canberran’s did it.

The Canberra bit was me trying to get some specificity onto the subject.

I’ll admit it, I do it. I was “taught” to do it as a kid by watching my parents do the same. I remember being an indignant, self-righteous 9 year old accusing my Mum of stealing. She said that she was sick of buying really expensive grapes in Canberra and then finding out they were unripe or blown up with water when she got them home.

As the one paying for grapes now, it makes complete sense to me, so I do it too. But I buy the bunch I picked one from and only ever eat one.

Happy to be yelled at for my anti-social behaviour though.

johnboy said :

The Canberra bit was me trying to get some specificity onto the subject.

I was going to say! I’ve never ever seen it happen in Dickson Woolies.
But you gotta think if you taste one and you like it – you might buy a kilo, whereas without the sample, no sale! If supermarkets were worried about it they’d spray a taste deterrent on them, instead of just factoring it in to their pricing. The same logic applies to dumping their trolleys in Sullivan’s creek

I saw an old bloke in the supermarket licking his fingers and feeling the grapes many moons ago, so I don’t taste them. I give them a good wash when I get home like I do with all my fruit and veg.

Auntyem said :

I saw an old bloke in the supermarket licking his fingers and feeling the grapes many moons ago, so I don’t taste them. I give them a good wash when I get home like I do with all my fruit and veg.

Ewww, flashback to a lunchcounter woman licking her fingers before picking up the greaseproof paper to put my lunch in.
Grapes are small and easy to pluck and being only a small part of the whole bunch possibly don’t really feel like stealing and it’s good to identify which have annoying seeds and which are seedless, but I have to say I’ve been disappointed more often by other things, broccoli for example. I’ll have to take my frypan and portable hotplate to the supermarket next time.