Consumer Alert!!!

Hi Everyone,

I have blogged about common sense for almost 2 years now and I thought that my excellent common sense would always help me. Not!? This is a true story of what happened to me and how you can protect yourself from it happening to you.

So there I was last week, doing my grocery shopping at our ShopRite store just like I have always done. I got to the check out and there was an employee packing groceries for customers. Most of the time I pack my groceries myself, but the employee was there and I allowed her to pack. I told her to use double plastic bags for the heavy stuff since I have had single plastic bags rip one too many times. The packer packed very fast and loaded my cart with my purchases. Before I knew it, she was done and walked away with an arm full of plastic bags. I paid my bill and went to my car to load it. As I finished loading the car, I kind of thought that I was missing some groceries. I went back to the cashier to look and ask if I had left anything. The cashier said that I had not left anything behind.

So I drove home and unpacked. It didn't take me long to realize that I was indeed missing 10 items. I searched the car for the missing items to no avail. I immediately went back to Shoprite with receipt in hand and told the cashier that I was missing items. She brought me to a manager. I told the manager that I was missing 10 items and showed her on the receipt which ones were missing. The manager asked me who the packer was and I told her it was Teresa. Luckily I remembered her name. The manager then rolled her eyes and said, oh her. I showed the manager my receipt and the 10 missing items were all in a row and all were kind of pricey refrigerated things. The manager surprised me when she told me to go get the 10 items and bring them to her. When she checked to make sure I had the same items that were missing, she initialed my receipt and sent me on my way. I thanked her and told her that I hadn't expected them to replace the items.

Even though my items were replaced and I was made whole, I still can't believe that I was ripped off right under my own nose. When Teresa walked away with the arm full of plastic bags, she also had my bag of groceries. I never thought that I should watch a packer since I never had missed anything previously.

A word to the wise, when checking out of any store, my common sense now tells me to keep an eye on the packer, if there is one, to make sure you don't get ripped off. I never thought that this kind of thing would have happened to me, but it did and now my guard is up as so should yours.

Til next week.

Peter