Reader Colin was watching his groceries travel along the conveyor belt at the Kroger checkout counter when he noticed some of his fruit snacks suddenly vanish from the line of items. With his interest piqued, Colin looked carefully and discovered a strange hinged door at the end of the belt. Upon making the discovery, the cashier slowly raised the steel flap and discovered Colin’s lost fruit snacks along with a bounty of hapless groceries that had that had been arbitrarily swallowed by this clandestine trap. Because the items had already been scanned and purchased, the cashier offered them to Colin as a prize for unlocking the secret of the mysterious trap-door. Colin’s letter, inside…

Hello,
I had an experience tonight that I thought might help quite a few people save money when they grocery shop, especially nowadays when every dollar counts. I was doing some late-night grocery shopping at my local Kroger Supermarket and as is customary this time of night especially on a Sunday there was nobody around to help the cashier bag my groceries. While my girlfriend stood across from the cashier to pay for our items, I stood at the end of a second conveyor belt that pushes the items from the cashier to a larger area where the items are collected for the bagger.

I noticed, thanks to my vantage point where the bagger would normally be, that after the cashier scanned a handful of packets of flat fruit leathers that as they moved to the end of the conveyor they actually fell in a opening between the belt itself and a stainless guard at the end of the belt. I immediately informed the cashier as to what had happened. I was surprised that the stainless steel piece was actually hinged and even more surprised that when he opened it, there was far more in there than just my few packets of fruit leather. There were at least four large, flat, foil packets of tuna fish filling up the void at the end of the belt. As the cashier was taking the leathers out of the trap, the cashier mentioned that I could have the tuna if I wanted, as it had been paid for.

This left me wondering how may times I’ve lost Kool Aid packets, taco seasoning and many other similarly shaped items in a such fashion. Of course, none of these things are a big monetary loss, but a waste of money all the same. If it happened before an item is scanned, I’d say no big deal, however seeing as how this can happen after the item is paid for, I’d say that savvy consumers should keep an eye on their similarly packaged items and make sure that they don’t literally fall through the cracks!

Sincerely,
colinjay

We’re not sure what such a door is for, but to think that innocent Kool-Aid packets, seasonings and other slim groceries which have already been purchased, are being systematically abducted on a daily basis gives us cause for concern. Are there any shoppers or cashiers out there that can tell us the true purpose of this grocery-eating menace?

(Photo: Getty)

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