People can often get really competitive, and not just in sports or PvP gaming. Shopping is probably one of the most competitive activities, universally speaking, and shoppers can get pretty aggressive and irrational when a sale sticker is put on a product, even on items they wouldn’t otherwise want. And that’s apparently what happened in a California grocery store when some live lobsters went on sale for $8.99 a pound. However, some of the customers who got the fresh seafood decided midway during their shopping spree that perhaps they didn’t want their lobsters after all.
“A grocery store near me had a sale on lobster($8.99/lb) and people lined up to get their order. I saw a few discarded in the aisles,” explained a Redditor, who was commenting on a post of someone complaining how a shopper had discarded some deli chicken in the soda aisle. “Chicken died for no reason cuz someone changed his mind,” the poster said sarcastically, pointing out that the food was probably ruined because it’s supposed to stay heated, but someone decided it wasn’t the food they wanted. As the Reddit commenter put it, “When you make something ‘cheap’ people treat it cheap sadly.”
As for the commenter’s story about the lobsters, a person asked if they were crawling about the shelves after people left them behind. “They were dead and packaged on a Styrofoam tray,” was their answer. Still, even though the lobsters weren’t roaming around pinching people’s shoes or clothes, the fact that the shoppers didn’t take their “live” seafood back to the tanks is pretty lazy and inconsiderate. “I know exactly why it happened too,” remarks another commenter. “Went to buy it an then saw the total because even if it’s on sale it’s 8.99 per pound and a lobster ain’t 1 lb.”
In other words, the shoppers who left the live lobsters behind to die were allegedly not paying attention to the “per pound” part of the sale sign. But instead of taking it back, they just left it for staff to clean up later because they were either too embarrassed or lazy. “People’s inability to read signs drives me insane,” adds another. “And not just a few people, a ton of people. Life makes more sense when you realize just how many people barely function independently.”
In the end, probably not much dollar value was lost, considering the grocery store was trying to get rid of the lobsters anyway with the sale. But it does show how people, sale-hunting shoppers specifically, are willing to be a little inhumane when dealing with something they perceive as worth buying, but in this case, then change their mind.
