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grocery stores

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We may never reach an agreement on this.

To snack, or not to snack while grocery shopping? That is the question. At least, that’s been the question for as long as grocery stores have existed: Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer through "hanger" and cravings, or take into your arms precious sustenance that fuels you through the shopping trip, so long as you pay for it later.

Apparently, there is very little gray area with this subject. People seem to have very, very strong opinions as to whether or not eating food at the grocery store is appropriate behavior.

Case in point—the heated comments that were ignited after TikTok influencer Cecily Bauchmann filmed herself placing an empty sushi container on the checkout conveyor belt.

“I also opened this in store. I’m sorry, I was so hungry!” Bauchmann explains to the cashier through a giggle.

As she revealed in her caption, this is a regular shopping routine. “Me every time at the grocery store,” she wrote. “Opening food at the grocery store is a normal thing.”

@cecilybauchmann OPENING FOOD IS A NORMAL THING AT THE GROCERY STORE K?🍓✨#relatablemom #relatablemomlife #groceryshopping #groceryhaul #grocerystore ♬ original sound - Cecily Bauchmann

And thus, the war was waged.

“My mama never let us do this and I get lowkey embarrassed when anyone I’m with does this :///” one person wrote.

“Idc how hungry I am, I'd never do this,” another wrote.

One even called out: “It isn’t mine until I pay for it. In my head it’s considered stealing.”

On the other hand, several sided with Bauchmann, saying that they do it themselves when hunger strikes.

“I do that too. If you pay for it at the end then I see no problem,” one person commented.

Many noted that for parents with hungry (and impatient) kiddos, pre-checkout snacking is the only real option for a smooth shopping experience.

“My mom only does this sometimes if we go grocery shopping and my lil siblings really want it,” one person shared.

“I let my child eat a bag of goldfish we hadn’t paid for yet while at Target. I didn’t know this was a controversy?” another seconded.

Even cashiers couldn’t seem to agree.

“When I’m a cashier I get annoyed sometimes when people hand me their trash to scan,” one noted.

Another argued, “I’m a cashier, it’s pretty common lol. I just offer to throw it away for them if it’s empty.”

Still, another wrote, “I worked at a grocery store for 5 years. As long as you don’t eat food that’s cost is by weight and you don’t make a mess it’s fine.”

Zero consensus to be had.

Morals and etiquette aside, what’s the legal stance on this? In the UK, the answer is definitive. It is against the law to snack while you shop. But in the United States, things aren’t so well defined.

According to Betty Wang, attorney and contributor to Find Law, U.S. law requires two elements in order to define an activity as shoplifting. One, taking the item (duh) and two, intentionally evading checking the item out.

Therefore, the argument of “as long as they pay for it later” does somewhat hold up in court, so to speak. However, things change when an item is priced by weight, since you are technically not paying for that which was already consumed.

Also, most stores have individual discretion known as shopkeeper's privilege, meaning that, legally speaking, there really is more of a gray area. Basically, unless you get called out for the snacking by an employee or loss-prevention officer, it’s pretty fair game.


Will there ever be a general consensus on this? Maybe not. We humans have very different moral codes a lot of the time, even when it comes to mundane activities. Sometimes you never know what seemingly harmless thing to you is actually a social faux pas to someone else. But hey, it keeps things interesting.

Since plastic was first invented in 1907, over 8.3 billion tons has been produced, of which 79% has either wound up in a landfill or the natural environment.

About a third of this plastic are single-use products such as straws, cutlery, and shopping bags. Plastic bags now kill over 1000,000 marine animals a year and the Great Pacific garbage patch has grown past 1.6 million square kilometers.

Unfortunately, plastic production on Earth is showing no signs of slowing. According to The Guardian, plastic production is set to skyrocket over the next 10 to 15 years, with over 360 million tons produced in 2018 alone.

One way we can work to decrease the amount of plastic produced is to change how and where we shop. Greenpeace has taken the lead by ranking 20 of America's top supermarket chains in terms of how they're fighting the plastic crisis.


Unfortunately the news hasn't been positive. Across the board, "U.S. supermarkets are failing to adequately address the plastic pollution crisis they are contributing to," Greenpeace said in a statement.

"Grocery retailers across the country sell obscene amounts of products in throwaway plastics every single day, yet none of them are acting with the urgency needed to address the pollution crisis they're causing," Greenpeace Plastics Campaigner David Pinsky said in a statement.

"Not only do these companies have the resources to reimagine their stores with refill and reuse systems, they can use their buying power to pressure consumer goods companies like Nestlé, Coca-Cola, and Unilever to act as well," Pinsky continued. "The question is whether retailers will take responsibility for this mess, and act."

The supermarkets were ranked on a scale of 1 to 100, and the top performer, Aldi, received just a 34.6. Aldi achieved a top score by instituting several initiatives that most others do not: a specific plastic reduction target, a more comprehensive plastic reduction plan, greater transparency, and commitments to implement reuse and refill systems.

Here are the top and bottom 5 supermarkets according to Greenpeace.

Top 5:

1. Aldi

2. Kroger

3. Albertsons

4. Trader Joe's

5. Sprouts

Bottom 5:

16. Giant Eagle

17. WinCo Foods

18: Meijer

19. Wakefern

20. H.E.B.

Greenpeace doesn't just want to prompt supermarkets into taking action, it believes that's our job as well.

After learning about your local store's record, it asks you to take the scorecard to your supermarket to show the store's ranking to the store manager. Greenpeace also asks you tell the manager that "customers want to see less single-use plastics and more refill and reuse options."

Greenpeace also suggests you take photos of ridiculous single-use plastic packaging and post it on social media at #BreakFreeFromPlastic.


Even if our local supermarket isn't doing all it can to reduce its plastic footprint, we can all improve by shopping with reusable bags, purchasing loose fruit and vegetables, and shopping at farmers' markets when possible.

True
Starbucks Upstanders

Anyone can have a good idea, but it takes a special person to follow through. Maria Rose Belding is one of those people.

While volunteering at a food pantry, Maria Rose noticed that huge amounts of good food were being tossed out at the end of every day. The food pantry couldn’t share those resources with neighboring towns because — even in the internet age — it was incredibly difficult to get hold of the necessary people in order to do so. Maria Rose was only in the eighth grade, but this flawed system didn’t sit well with her.

Years later, she found herself in a position to do something about it. Take a look:


You see, we have enough food in this country to feed everyone. Still, there are about 49 million Americans who are food insecure.

"If we had a crisis that was affecting one in six Americans, that was strongly associated with not finishing high school, with not going to college. That was strongly associated with bad health outcomes, with mortality, with incarceration, with behavioral health issues. If we had a crisis that was doing that to one in six of us, we would be freaking out," Maria said.

"And that’s exactly what hunger is. It’s not going to be easy, and it’s not going to be quick, but we can fix this. And we should."

All images via Starbucks. Used with permission.

She points out that the effects of food insecurity — not being able to rely on access to affordable and nutritious foods — go far beyond an individual’s health.

"You can’t strategize about getting a job, about finding higher-paying employment, about continuing your education, about taking care of your kids. You can’t think about any of those things if you haven’t eaten anything today," she said.

Knowing how deeply the food was needed and then watching surplus donated food get thrown away was mind-blowing to Maria Rose. She knew there had to be a better way.

Maria Rose enlisted her coder friend Grant Nelson to help her build a nationwide database for food banks: MEANS.

The premise is simple: Food pantries and restaurants — really, all places with extra food — indicate in the database excess food that they have available. Nonprofits in the area are alerted via text or email and are able to go pick up the much-needed food and get it to hungry people.

What’s incredible is that Maria Rose saw a problem and figured out a way to do something about it. Her actions transformed the way food banks are able to communicate with the rest of the community. MEANS makes it possible for so many more people to eat — a basic necessity and human right.  

Today, MEANS works with over 800 organizations in 45 states.

Thousands of pounds of food that would have otherwise been trashed are being redistributed every month thanks to MEANS.

A single person had an idea and acted on it and revolutionized a process that has a direct effect on so many people’s lives. It started with her deciding to take action. Imagine what else we can accomplish.

What are the chefs at Restlos Glücklich serving today? Waste.

Food waste that is.

This Berlin restaurant is giving blemished ingredients a second chance by turning them into exquisite, mouthwatering meals.


Chef Daniel Roick holds a creation made from discarded groceries. Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images.

Restlos Glücklich (which loosely translates to "completely happy") works closely with an organic grocery store chain to procure its ingredients.

Most of the bread and produce they receive is imperfect and might otherwise languish on the shelf. And incorrect deliveries can result in accidental surplus, so the restaurant puts that to use too.


Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images.

From there, chefs let the ingredients inspire appetizing and inventive vegetarian dishes.

Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images.

And they serve them in the restaurant Wednesday through Saturday.


Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images.

There's even a three-course fine-dining option available on the weekends, where you might enjoy these bite-sized appetizers...

Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images.

...or this delectable entree — deep-fried sesame balls in carrot sauce. Yum!

Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images.

From end to end, the process has an eye toward conservation and sustainability.

Not only does the restaurant work to minimize food waste, workers also pick up the daily haul on bicycles.

Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images.

And their effort doesn't end with the restaurant. The staff hosts cooking classes to help kids and adults learn to cook more sustainably using ingredients they may already have.

Efforts like Restlos Glücklich highlight the moral, environmental, and economic impact of food waste.

Each year, around $1 trillion in food is wasted in production or consumption (what you scrape off your plate or leave behind in a restaurant). That's about one-third of all the food produced worldwide!

Volunteer workers sort food waste and rubbish for recycling at the Glastonbury Festival. Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images.

In the U.S. alone, each person contributes over an estimated 20 pounds of food waste per month. It's no wonder organic material is the second-most common item in our overcrowded landfills.

And all of this while millions go without. There's got to be a better way.

That's why it's important to take responsibility for our production, consumption, and waste habits.

Whether it's using exploring how your local stores handle damaged or blemished goods, cooking more with less, starting a compost pile to give organic refuse another life, or stopping in to Restlos Glucklich, we're all capable of doing something to better our community and minimize waste.

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.