Money Moral Dilemma: Is pick and mix nibbling theft?

wildthing01

i think there are plenty more important things in the world to be worrying about than someone nicking the odd pick and mix sweet - i don't think it's going to bring down the ecomony, or result in lifelong kleptomania, or do any real damage is it? yes, technically it is theft, if you're purchasing by weight, but really, get some perspective.

anyway, on a practical note, i doubt one or two extra sweets would push the overall price up enough to make any real difference would they?

alexhawk

I regularly used to sweep up to a pound of sweets off the floor after a busy day.
Should people be charged for the sweets they drop ?

gjs1701

I work in a cinema.

It is theft. Report someone for doing it - no. Even seeing a customer do it, nothing is said or done. I have told kids off for putting their hands in the hoppers and stuffing sweets in their mouth though.

Prices - yes cinema snacks are expensive. The profit margin is high. Films on the other hand actually make a relatively small amount for the cinema. Also, it is convenient - motorway service food is expensive too. If the price is a problem, bring your own food and drink. (I know some chains don't let you do that, but most do).

Oh and pick and mix - if you saw the number of people who don't bother to use the scoops and simply stick their grubby hands in the sweet as I have, you wouldn't go near.

alduncan

This is very hypothetical- I'd NEVER go and buy pick n mix at the cinema, it's extortionate and I'm a money saver! Instead, my wife takes in a few nibbles in her handbag!

yes, of course it's theft, but my advice is stay away from those money-grabbing places!

jamespir

its theft as you havent paid for it

alduncan

alexhawk wrote: »

Just had to pull this one up.
In the law someone has commited a theft if he or she has dishonestly appropriated property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it.
It's the bold part that's important. The item has to be taken, and you have to show intention to permanently deprive (ie, walk out the store) before you've stolen something.

So you're going to walk out of the store without the thing you've just eaten... what, throw up first??!

adsteps

Billionpounddreamer wrote: »

Cinema prices ARE extortionate.

What you have described is a "transaction at arms length" whereby in a free market the price of a product is the meeting point at which the seller is willing to accept for his/her product or service and what the buyer is willing to pay.

In a cinema, the company has a monopoly over the price of popcorn. There are no competitors offering it at a lower price. We cannot choose to go elsewhere as the cinemas enforce bans on bringing food in from the outside. And I feel sorry for the person who does not feel that popcorn and a drink are not a part of the cinema experience, so yes we have to buy it.

Therefore the cinema has total control over their prices without fear of loss of custom. Forcing people to pay heavy prices for such cheap commodities is, by definition, extortionate.

Do you know the profit margin on popcorn? According to a recent article on MSN, it's over 10,000%. That's higher than cocaine. Tell me that's not extortionate.

Not even the banks charge that kind of margin on overdrafts.

I'm not sure where you are getting the infomration about 'Cinemas banning you taking food and drink in' as I've NEVER had this problem. We always take our own food in, usually in a see through ASDA bag and have never been stopped. Also, if you were to take in a bag of food/sweets that they couldn't see into, they have no right to ask you whats in it or search it.

I used to work in a cinema when I was a student, and they actively trained us to not stop customers entering with food, as this particular chain tried that approach and ended up with a front page headline along the lines of 'Cinema makes 7-year-old cry by refusing sweets for film' etc which resulted in substantial losses in profit!

So...ALWAYS take your own food in, never accept that you're not allowed, and if there is ever any issue, politely remind the manager that a local headline might not be too good for profits!

adsteps

alexhawk wrote: »

Just had to pull this one up.
In the law someone has commited a theft if he or she has dishonestly appropriated property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it.
It's the bold part that's important. The item has to be taken, and you have to show intention to permanently deprive (ie, walk out the store) before you've stolen something.

But surely, at the point of 'eating' the item, in its current unpaid for state, you are permanently depriving the owner of it as I'm sure they wouldn't want it back in any other way? this covers supermarkets too as eating something makes it permanently unrecoverable, and if it hasn't been paid for first, its therefore by definition theft!

Lakeuk

I wouldn't be anywhere near my mate as I would of muggled my own cheaper sweets in - is that worst?

Paisa

Pick N Mix ....Agggh did you know that 1 sweet worth a penny cost about 10 pence in the cinema!

You have the be crazy to want to pay for them at those prices!