One of those things I’m never sure of is the practice of handing out free samples of various foods in grocery stores. I understand the intent: if people try it now and like it, then they’ll buy it and the store will make money. But I’ve never been able to suppress that little shudder of uncertainty at whether or not the people tasked with handing out those freebies are content with their task or not, and if they’ve possibly poisoned their offerings.
This uncertainty is most prominent at the local big-box supermarket, where it seems there’s a little old lady with a hairnet on handing out samples of anything from meatballs to crackers to fish sticks to special sauce to dishwasher soap on every aisle. You walk past and they stare at you with an expression that suggests you’d better not approach, but if you do you’d better like what they have to offer– or else. I usually drop my head and scurry past, hoping that somehow they didn’t actually see me (I’ll develop those invisibility powers yet!).
But sometimes I’m tempted. Take those little fruit bowls, for instance. I am a fruit fan. I’ll admit it. There was never an apple or orange I didn’t like. So when someone– even someone who looks like they might murder me with a stiletto for a few bucks– offers me a free fruit bowl, I usually find myself drifting over to that side of the aisle, smiling a nervous smile, and partaking as fast as I can. They don’t generally permit you to eat an entire fruit bowl, of course (that would cut into profit and you can only go so far when offering free merchandise, after all), but if they did I wouldn’t complain.
In sum, free food at supermarkets unnerves me. Unless it’s fruit. In which case it still unnerves me, but I really have no choice but to risk it.