The last several times I have been in Costco I have noticed people opening multiple packages of fruit and swapping out the ones they don’t want so they get all of the best fruit. At first I saw it with the bubble packs so they were getting the same quantity, but yesterday I saw someone opening the bags of apples so he could have been overfilling the bag (they don’t get weighed at checkout). I was going to buy apples, but didn’t because this guy was going through all of the bags. I have always looked at the pre-packed fruit and bought the pack I want. If they all have a bad piece, I don’t buy fruit that day. If you want to cherry pick, I think you should go to a grocery or farm stand where the fruit is separate and you pick the ones you want. Is opening the packs considered acceptable?
Not.at.all.
When they are prepackaged…NEVER acceptable.
Ummm, no.
It would never have occurred to me.
If it is a clear container I sometimes turn it over to look at the fruit on the bottom…but I would never open it. Yick.
I see some people sampling fruit (cherries, berries, etc) at Costco. To be fair, I see it with cherries at the regular grocery store as well.
I usually try to grab from a lower box to avoid the chances of someone having opened my package.
My husband always samples the grapes to see how they are, taking out one and eating it. The only fruit “tampering” I do, is to break off the 4 bananas I want from a bunch that includes way too many.
You can close the plastic packaging up just as easily as you can open it. I will open containers of grapes and blueberries to feel whether the fruit is firm or soft. Not to eat, not to switch product. If it is soft, I won’t buy it.
I don’t see any difference in that and checking the firmness of grapes or blueberries in a grocery store where the fruit is open at the top (tho still pre packaged).
I had the manager of the produce section of the Kroger that I shop in tell me to try a grape out of a bag. I always squeeze a grape to see if it is firm. The manager was watching me as he was refilling the section. He told me to try one. He said that there is nothing worse than getting a large bag of sour grapes. He told me to try one whenever I was buying them. I do, but I won’t do anything else except get a smaller bunch of bananas.
For me, part of the appeal in purchasing packaged produce is that it doesn’t have people’s grubby mitts touching them. Some people grab items from lower boxes because it looks to be better quality. I do it because it is less likely to have been opened and touched.
On the same note, in the refrigerated/frozen food section, I don’t take items in the front/top. I don’t like it when someone puts something in their cart, walked around, changed their mind and then puts the semi defrosted item back.
Besides the fruit pickers themselves and everyone else along the route to get that fruit from the field to the store.
Yes, of course. But hopefully they are complying with agricultural and food handling standards. I can’t say the same about other shoppers. This is especially true at Costco where a shopper may have licked their fingers after visiting the sample carts, or may have picked up a leaky package of raw chicken before heading into the produce section. Honestly, the shopping cart handle is probably dirtier than anything else in the store 
https://www.fda.gov/media/107298/download
Yup, very confident that the non-binding recommendations of the FDA are being followed in the vast agricultural fields during harvest. Probably followed as closely as labor practices for agricultural workers are being enforced.
Many times the bags of grapes and cherries at the supermarket are way more than my husband and I can eat. I will remove the quantity I want to purchase and put in a plastic bag. This is always weighted at checkout.
That’s interesting. I have never thought of doing that myself.
This is exactly what OP is talking about. If they are purchasing a 5 lb bag of apples, they want 5 pounds. If another shopper removes some of the apples, then the next person ends up purchasing less than the amount indicated on the bag.
The pre-packaged bags are not weighed at check out. It isn’t that you aren’t paying for what you purchase, but that the person purchasing the rest of the bag is being overcharged for what they think is a full bag of grapes/cherries.
All cherries and grapes in my supermarket are packaged in a plastic bag with no weights indicated. There is a PLU code associated with the fruit, you enter the code then put your bag on the scale, whic calculates the weight and cost.
At our local grocery store, when we scan pre-packaged produce, it does not prompt us to weigh it. And, as OP mentioned, Costco doesn’t weigh their produce at check out.
