Bite-sized backlash.
A UK mother has sparked a heated debate online when she claimed a grocery cashier called her out for letting her child eat food in the store before paying for it.
“I feel a mix of both really cross and really upset,” Samantha Mary posted on TikTok Monday, adding she’s “never felt, in one moment, so judged by somebody.”
“I’ll be honest, I snapped,” the British mother said about handling the confrontation between herself and the employee.
Mary shared that she and her son Jack were shopping at Tesco, a supermarket chain in the UK, when her son began feeling sick.
The quick-thinking mom had pre-packed snacks for her son, but he rejected what she offered.
The boy’s eye caught a yogurt container in their shopping cart, and he asked if he could munch on that as his snack.
“He had not eaten, I was like, ‘If he wants it, he can have it,’” Mary explained in her video.
What she thought was a harmless act turned into a bigger deal than she could imagine when she reached the checkout counter.
“I said to the lady serving us, ‘I just wanted to let you know: Jack’s eaten these two on the way around — here they are, so that you can scan them.’ I wanted to point it out,” the mother explained, adding that she handed two empty packages to the cashier.
Mary then claimed the employee gave her “the most disgusted look” and took the used yogurt cartons, scanned them, and tossed them in the trash before they were finished.
“I said to her, ‘I’m really sorry but we hadn’t finished with them. I just wanted to pass them to you so you could make sure they were scanned,’” Mary shared.
“So she … huffed at me, got them out of the bin, and put them on the side.”
The mother apologized for the miscommunication and didn’t mean to “upset” her, but the cashier still wasn’t happy.
“She said, ‘I just don’t think it’s right that people let their kids eat stuff from the food shop on the way around,’” Mary claimed.
Mary said that at that moment, the cashier “pushed her ‘mom’s bottom.’”
“I said, ‘I don’t really think it is your job to be giving your opinion on what you think — my child is really unwell, he has basically not eaten properly for a week, he wanted something in the shop, so I jumped on that opportunity for him to have something to eat.”
The mom said the employee “huffed” at her again, and she became teary after the short rant, which prompted the cashier to give her a “half-apology.”
The video, which has amassed over 1.1 million views since it was posted, has TikTok users torn over whether it’s okay to snack on food while shopping if the shopper plans on paying for it.
“As a checkout operator being handed half eaten food stuff sticky lollies, half eaten apples, half eaten sandwiches I hate it,” one user commented.
“You should have told him you had snacks for him and he couldn’t have what was in the trolley before paying. It’s stealing if you haven’t yet paid,” another commented, sharing their own parental advice.
“It’s 100% her job to let you know you’re NOT allowed to eat or drink anything before you’ve paid for it. I use to work at Tesco and you are the worst,” one user stated.
Other viewers rushed to the mom’s defense, claiming they regularly do the same thing while shopping.
“Oh shoot, I let my daughter do that sometimes. Not yogurts, but cookies in a box or something. I didn’t think much of it…I did it as a kid, but now I will think twice lol,” one TikTokker wrote.
“I have done that before only because I am diabetic and I needed something with sugar. I told the cashier what I did and she was fine with it,” another shared.
“I work in Tesco and tbh yeah the colleague’s reaction was a little harsh, but it’s such a stressful time in retail — she might’ve just had a bad,” one user who claimed to work at the supermarket chain commented.