Theft And Battery

Our local grocery store is having a sale on packs of batteries, so I pick some up. The way our store is situated, batteries are at the customer service desk with the cigarettes so that they cannot be shoplifted easily by teenagers.

When I get home, however, my batteries are nowhere to be found. I drive back to the store with the receipt and tell the customer service desk what happened. Amid jeers from the people in line behind me, the employee at the desk finally relents and gives me the batteries.

The next time the store has the sale, the same thing happens. This time, I call the store and mention that the same thing happened last time. The manager gets on the phone and says that the teller forgot to put the batteries in the bag and they’ll be waiting at the customer service desk if I can come back in to get them. So, I make a fourth trip to the grocery store.

This time, I realize that the employee must be doing it on purpose.

On another occasion when they have a sale, I make another trip to buy batteries and only batteries. I march up to the customer service desk.

Me: “I want to buy batteries.”

Employee: “You have to come up here after you’re done with your shopping and pay for it with the rest of your order.”

Me: “I’m not buying anything else.”

Employee: “No, I can only sell batteries after you finish buying your other things.”

I grab a jar of cherries and go back to customer service.

Me: “I’m done shopping. I want to buy batteries. And no bag.”

Employee: “I have to put it in a bag.”

She pulls a pack of batteries off the wall and puts it in a bag with the cherries and my receipt and hands it to me. This time, I take no chances, suspicious of the requirement that I buy something else and put it in a bag. I plop the bag right onto the desk in front of her and pull out the jar of cherries and the receipt and set them next to the bag; sure enough, no batteries. I turn the empty bag upside down.

Me: “So where are the batteries?”

Employee: “Oh, here they are; I set them under the counter for a minute and forgot to put them in the bag.”

The receipt had a customer service survey that I filled out, detailing the problem with buying batteries in the store.

The next time I went to that grocery store, there was a long line leading from the customer service desk which was unstaffed. I don’t know if they fired her or if she recognized me coming and was simply hiding, but I finally bought batteries without issue.