Blogic

Can other people touch my groceries before I buy them?

Saturday, July 05, 2008 at 2:50pm
Found in the meditations Observances  Toronto  

I was in the checkout line at the grocery store.  All my groceries were on the conveyor belt and the cashier had started to ring them in, when I noticed that the guy in line behind me had picked up a lighter that I was buying for my propane barbeque.  He was just looking at it, probably thinking something like “I should buy one of these”. 

Instantly, I found myself feeling a little uncomfortable at the idea of a stranger handling my stuff, until I realized that technically speaking, it’s not my stuff yet.  It wouldn’t be until I paid for it.  So why was that so objectionable to me? 

I wondered if I would be more offended had he picked up food that I was buying.  Some might say that’s worse due to the sanitary implications, but aren’t other people constantly touching food before you buy it anyway?  You’d have to expect so.  You touched it when you put it in your basket…Maybe before that, someone handled it and then put it back? 

Is it my implied intention to purchase the item because I’m at the checkout that makes it inappropriate for other people to handle it?  Imagine taking something out of another person’s shopping cart to get a closer look at it.  Surely that would draw some confused looks, and I guess that’s because once it’s in their basket, it’s effectively theirs.  But how different is that from picking it up off the shelf, really?

Let me know your thoughts in the comments.