What the...? Really? Public Pony Buying Horror Stories

[Sarah-Bee]

I haven't seen this happen but when I was shopping for G1 dolly mix ponies I saw loads of opened packets with the ponies taken out

[BrightIdea]

Thankfully I have never had terrible pony buying experiences like these.  They keep blind bags near the checkouts a lot of the time, so I guess that cuts down on people ripping them open.

Speaking of stealing, I used to work at a grocery store, and saw this guy park himself in front of the bulk food section (you know with the scoops, candy, chocolate, etc). He then proceeded to eat handfuls of candy and chocolate... for like 10 minutes straight. I really forget how this situation ended, but c'mon people, it is not a free buffet.

Also to diverge from the topic, this little kid at the grocery store once ran up and started eating ice off the fish table. Grooooossss!  I turned around and was like  umm you should stop that and the kid ran away again. I have no idea where his mom was. What if the kid had a fish allergy? So yeah, parents, don't let your really little kids run rampant at the grocery store (easier said than done I am sure). They might find an inappropriate snack to eat. At least in this case, the kid wasn't scarfing down raw meat directly or finding delicious blue liquids in the toilet cleaning aisle to drink.

[rybett]

Yuck!

[lolaandbean]

I used to work retail. A woman came up to me and said saw some guy stuffing pony and Barbie items in his bags. I told the manager. She checked his bags and nothing was in there. Then the manager chewed me out for making her look like an idiot. right in front of the customer who didn't steal any thing. After that I never said a word.

[Marigold]

Well that seems unfair Lola, your manager should have been understanding. 

[amylynnamylynn]

I've seen the blind bags open and empty at Walmart, but never at TRU.  My bf and I also collect the DC and Marvel characters that come randomly in small plastic balls, and we see these opened all the time at Walmart as well.

People steal at my work too, and I work at a thrift store!  How low is that?

[Mkia]

The walmart by my house had a box of BBs, so of course I wanted to snatch them up. But after looking into the box, I saw that the bags had been opened...and then someone at walmart im assuming...had taped them shut again.

[Dragonflitter]

At least in this case, the kid wasn't scarfing down raw meat directly or finding delicious blue liquids in the toilet cleaning aisle to drink.

I wonder how some kids live to adulthood!!


On a more serious note, yeah this really stinks. :\ When BB's first came out, I never saw this. But unfortunately lately just about every box I see has one or two empty packages at the bottom, under all the rest. Or just a card lying there, with the figure and bag gone. It really stinks that people think they can just take what they want. :\

On the other hand, you know, there could be a really easy solution to this. The blind bag figures should really be moved to the 'trading card' area that most stores have at the front, near the cash registers. I really have no idea why all three of the major stores (Walmart, Target, and TRU) insist on putting these boxes waaaaay far away from the registers where no one can keep an eye on them.

I guess it's because there's like a million small toys in the toy aisles and they can't all be moved to the front of the store. But these blind bangs in particular are smaller than your hand and with the flimsy packaging, it's just too tempting for lazy/dishonest people. At least if they were at the front between the cash registers people couldn't take the time to paw through all the bags without attracting the eye of an employee.

[TwistedWindSox]

Thankfully, I haven't witnessed anything like that.
But, I find empty bags at walmart all the time. It's really disheartening. Do you really need a tiny plastic pony so bad that you have to steal it? Really?

[Binny]

Ugh. I'd have a really hard time not chasing after people like that if I saw it, and I'm a very shy person. I just hate theft that much.

I also hate how these stores don't even let the employees go after them when they see it happening.

[hathorcat]

A lot of "blind bag" characters bags - Lego and Moshi - are now sold in hard plastic security cases in a couple of supermarkets I have gone into. I wouldnt be surprised if thefts continued if the same thing started happening to MLP. If people cant play nice then retailers will come up with a solution...and in some cases that may be the decision to simply no longer stock an item if its more trouble than its worth.

[rtattles]

Thankfully I have never had terrible pony buying experiences like these.  They keep blind bags near the checkouts a lot of the time, so I guess that cuts down on people ripping them open.

Speaking of stealing, I used to work at a grocery store, and saw this guy park himself in front of the bulk food section (you know with the scoops, candy, chocolate, etc). He then proceeded to eat handfuls of candy and chocolate... for like 10 minutes straight. I really forget how this situation ended, but c'mon people, it is not a free buffet.

Also to diverge from the topic, this little kid at the grocery store once ran up and started eating ice off the fish table. Grooooossss!  I turned around and was like  umm you should stop that and the kid ran away again. I have no idea where his mom was. What if the kid had a fish allergy? So yeah, parents, don't let your really little kids run rampant at the grocery store (easier said than done I am sure). They might find an inappropriate snack to eat. At least in this case, the kid wasn't scarfing down raw meat directly or finding delicious blue liquids in the toilet cleaning aisle to drink.

OMG that totally cracked me up, HARD! Thanks for making my day!

[Sweetie-Swirl]

I've never had the problem of opened BB's (as here in Belgium they aren't being sold), but I do ocasionally see some opened packages of ponies.

I guess it's also the fact that there aren't very much ponies sold here (or I'm looking at the wrong stores), there's even a shop where they still had some G3's and G3.5's!

[Rosencrantz]

I saw my first blind bags in the wild today! I was pleased to see they hadn't been torn into, but I was very careful to check I actually had ponies in my bags.

...unfortunately I didn't check too carefully what kind were in and I don't really like the blue bag set so now I'm trying to trade my three for others. ._.

[ButtercreamDream]

It wasn't pony related, but this weekend I was grocery shopping, walking next to a family, and heading out of the store after making our purchases.  One of the kids, a 10-12 year old, grabbed a bag of doritos from the entrance as he was leaving, and just left with it.  All his parents said was a very apathetic "You shouldn't do that *kids name*".  Seriously?!  I kind of stared at them all, totally stunned for a moment.   Your kid just shoplifted, and that's all you are going to do?!  What a complete and total parenting fail!