Dishonest to Save Money: Is it worth it?

[Jeremy]

[yourbeginnings]

Jeremy love the drama picture. That is hilarious!

[redsoxmaniac]

I would be uncomfortable with it personally. When I have stuff that is close to expiration I bring it to a local foodbank so that it will get used. Usually there is some leeway on the time.

[rolltimer]

I don't think "dishonest" quite applies here. I don't see it as a big deal. It's not like it was shop-lifted and then returned. It was returned to the store that sold it. Several years ago I returned a shirt to Kohl's that I had bought for my dad for Christmas. He never got a chance to wear the shirt as he was diagnosed with cancer and died that February. When I returned the shirt some weeks after his death, I didn't have the sales receipt and was paid less than $2 for a shirt I'd bought on sale for $15. Still deep in grief at the time, I felt like it was a statement on the worth of his life or something. To say the least, I walked out that that store as deflated as if all he had been worth to me was $2.

[Milehimama]

I posted a reply here, but it disappeared. Is it possible for someone else to delete it?

[hermione]

I personally wouldn't feel right about doing something like that. I feel it is dishonest, and just because a business is big and can "afford it," it doesn't make it right. It's important to save money but unethical if it's done at a cost to someone else (especially someone not at fault for the situation).

Also, did you drive to the store for the sole purpose of returning these jars of sauce? With gas prices the way they are and a chance of not getting your refund/credit, you might have ended up losing money depending on the distance (which for me is 15 miles each way to the grocery store).

The IRS mileage allowance for vehicles used in business (calculated based on price of gas, associated wear-and-tear and maintenance) in 2007 was $0.485 per mile. So if you drive 3 miles to a store and 3 miles back, that's a cost of $3.00.

[72Tiger]

Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't do it. It just seems wrong to me. Under desperate times, who knows?

[BamaRo]

It's not something I would have been comfortable doing. Especially since you would have been able to use it for a while after it "expired". JMHO though, but I wouldn't have done it.

[rstlne]

One or two people may be able to take unfair advantage of a store's liberal returns policy but if too many people do that, the store will start requiring receipts to return items. That will hurt the rest of us who might need to legitimately return an item but misplace a receipt. Please don't do that in the future. If an item is BOGO, the amount you ought to get for returning one of that item is half the price.

[purplefdu]

I can't say I would ever return sauce that long after I bought it. Many stores allow such things but I often wonder about the safety of doing such things (temperature changes can effect the quality of canned or bottled products). I always plan based on what is in my cupboard so such things don't "expire" and buy based on the marked date if I plan on storing longer. While I think its wrong I know people who do such things and worse so if you are willing to live with yourself and the chance you might ruin it for everyone else, thats your decision. I learned long ago I can't change people's opinions of right and wrong, and worrying over it just makes me ill.