My last few trips to the grocery store have me wondering about consumer etiquette.

When fall arrives, nothing beats stocking up on fall produce! Especially corn! I find I can really never tire of eating corn with almost every dinner. Whenever we get it at the grocery store though, I always see people pulling back the ears, peeking and then throwing back the cobs which are less desirable. Other people strip the corn right there, leave the ears behind, and simply bag the cobs. I never do this. I give it a look over, if there is nothing yucky on the outside, into the bag it goes. So am I missing something here? I am the only person who is willing to take their chances? Am I being naive that the corn should be decent and its the luck of the draw. Would you open up the milk carton, take a swig then decide to put it into the cart?

Another thing I noticed recently, was also in the produce section. It was people ransacking through the bags of grapes. And I mean not just picking through, checking out the outside and selecting but actually going through the grapes. Yesterday, I watched a woman selecting small bunches of the best grapes and collecting them all into one bag. She walked away with a perfect bag of the biggest and best grapes...leaving the rest of us with mediocre to mushy ones!

So really, are these people going to far? Is this just another view of people's self-centered attitudes? Or are they simply ensuring that they only pay for what they want, and what they do pay for is top quality? What's your opinion of shopping etiquette? Or do you have any other such consumer tales to tell?