For a few years I worked at a big box store. The behavior of far too many patrons was atrocious. They displayed a sense of entitlement that passed the bounds of civility and just plain common sense. The following are a few examples:

While shopping some customers use the toy department as a baby-sitting service, tearing open packages of toys for their children to play with until it's time to leave. They don't buy the opened toys but place them on any shelf anywhere in the store.

If they change their mind on an item in their cart, they return it to any shelf anywhere in the store. This is especially costly to the store when the abandoned items are perishables needing refrigeration or freezing. When found by staff, they are thrown out.

Those customers on food stamps load up their carts then let the cashiers ring up the items until they reach their card's limit. The remaining items, if cold stuff, will have to be thrown out. If the customer would use a simple calculator, costs a dollar, this waste could be avoided.

Then there was the woman who needed a diaper to change her baby. She tore open a package of disposables, removed one, changed her baby in the cart seat, stuffed the soiled diaper in the open package of diapers and went on. An employee who witnessed this asked her if she intended to purchase the open package. She said no, she only needed the one.

These egregious acts occur daily. There losses are passed on to the rest of us through higher prices.

Please, could we all be more considerate.

Kevin Johnson

Belleville