Refused to sell me chocolate.

Lay off him a bit... while 10 is a bit old to be naive about the
dangers of the world, it can happen. Also, we don't know if he was
actually alone, his mother could have been shopping nearby. This is
the same kid who wrote about enjoying the insanity right after
Thanksgiving, and some of you are doing a complete 180 in your opinion
of him. :) I think he understands now. :)

You don't need 20 pieces of chocolate, you need to invest your money
in some fruits or vegetables; this cashier did you a favor!

You don't want to be that guy sitting at the bus stop sucking on a
pork chop do ya?

My first question is: Why would you even consider buying a box of
chocolates that had been opened?

I have nothing more to say!

Someone may have put something dangerous in the candy as a cruel
prank. Unfortunately there are mean people in the world who do such
things. The cashier was looking out for your safety, because if
someone HAD put something dangerous in the chocolate, you could have
become very very sick. You should be thanking her for looking out
for you, not complaining about her.

It makes sense to me. If someone else opened it they may have tampered
with it. If you got sick from candies that had been tampered with your
parents may decide to sue the store for selling it to you. The store
would be in big trouble and lose a lot of money. They're protecting
themselves and you. I'm impressed that you're writing letters. Keep it
up! :)

First of all, WHY would you even want to risk buying something that
had already been opened by God-knows who??? What if someone else had
opened it, all the candy fell in the floor and they simply picked it
all up and put in neatly back in its place? What if someone injected
it with rat poison? (I'm being sarcastic with that one.)

And second of all, I'm sure that wasn't the only package of that
particular chocolate in the whole store. For reasons mentioned above,
it would have been just as easy (and probably safer) to just get
another package.

Why waste the time complaining about this? It's ridiculous.

richard E.

Hi Ross age 10,

The problem I think is not with you or the chocolate, This time of
year being near to Halloween,and getting closer each day, you have to
be cautious with sweets of all kinds, and candy especially, but mostly
chocolates more than anything else.

Rumour has it, that a few years back, I'm not sure and I haven't
looked it up on snopes yet, but I will the first chance I get and if
it's there, I'll come back and let you know it was misinformation on
my part.

So, like, anyhoooo, You see, this man had been caught putting things,
i'm not sure what things, but it must have been bad things that I
can't recall at this moment because it was close to Halloween and
stuff and all like that.

He got caught. Which is a good thing, because I think it's good that
he got caught because it really made me worry. Maybe you should stick
to jolly ranchers, the candies, not the happy drunk people who work on
ranches, because there's very little chance that things could be put
in them, and I'm not sure if the man who put things in candy,
especially chocolate, got put in jail or not, and there's a slim
chance he may be out, stranger things have happened.

Make sure your mom or dad or parental unit equvalent checks all your
candy before you try anything!! You write very well for a 10 year
old!!

Gino, Age 49 3/4

Ross,
There are a few evil people in this world and it wouldn't be a good
idea to eat anything that has been opened. Who knows what someone
might have put in it.
Don't feel bad bacause the cashier didn't want to sell you the candy;
she had your best interest in mind.

Mack Isenhour

I have a question: Was this a multi-pack of candy bars that were
individually wrapped and normally sold individualy (such as 20 Hershey
bars, or something to that effect)? That was my impression, but it
seems everyone else is assuming they are unwrapped chocolates (such as
Russel Stovers). I didn't think of that until I started reading the
responses.

If they were wrapped bars (such as the ones sold in the checkout), I
will have to agree with you. Sometimes these films just get torn.
However, if they are unwrapped pieces, you are certainly better off
without them. Even if they weren't tampered with, you don't know who's
dirty fingers have been on them, or even if they had fallen on the
floor and been put back in the box.

Ross - don't buy opened food. You have no idea of what it has come in
contact with or if it has been tampered with.

I'm glad to see the cashier was looking out for you. She didn't accuse
you of opening it but was more concerned about your safety, which
ultimately protected you from any potential problems it could have
had. If you ever see another open bag, report it as opened too, you
may also be protecting someone else from problems.

This time of year being near to Halloween, you have to be careful with
the candy especially. A few years back, a man had been caught putting
things in Halloween candy bags. I can't remember the specific details
of it but it horrified me just knowing it could be done so easily.

Wow. So you're so trusting that you'd eat chocolate that someone could
have possibly been tampering with. Bravo. Nice to see you keeping some
faith in a world of meth, LSD, and roofies.

What is wrong with you! Did no one ever teach you not to eat
somethihng when you don't know where it's been?

In Canada, our people know these things for we had a commerical with
singing blue dusters with a guitar.

I agree with the other posters. The cashier was protecting you (and
Walmart) from being harmed. It is hard to believe that people do these
terrible things, but it happens. Poison in Tylenol, etc. Years ago a
creep actually put some kind of poison or drug in baby food and
several infants died, more were very sick.
Next time you are in Walmart, thank the cashier.

The problem is that they don't know what has or has not been done to
that bag if it wasn't you who opened it and they don't want to be
responsible if the chocolate inside was messed with.

I know you are too young to know this, but many years ago, some joker
put poison in bottles of Tylenol and it seemed to appear that one
pharmacy chain (I want to say I think it was Rite Aid, but I do not
know for certain) got hit the hardest. Even though the store had
nothing to do with it, nor did the manufacturer, they got slammed by
angry customers who got sick from what they THOUGHT was Tylenol.

In a perfect world, it wouldn't have been a big deal, but in this
case, I think she was right to be carfeul about it.

I just have one question why would someone inject something and tamper
with it. If they do that they can do it with sealed chocolate bars.
These did have wrappers on them it was just open.

I agree. Who knows.. someone could have stuck a very small needle in
the package and injected it with something. Highly unlikely but you
never know! At my store (staples), if a package is open, we take it
off the sales floor. Because of course no one will buy it (yanno..
business people, snobs, etc. lol)... I HATE it when people get a candy
bar, open it, eat it in line then get to me and pay.. TECHNICALLY
thats stealing. But yet if I told them that, I'd have hell to pay.
Good letter though Ross!

There was also a case. I think it was a medical science show where a
woman broke up with her boyfriend. He worked in a lab where they test
rats by giving them cancer in hopes to find a cure. A small dosage of
this could kill a person. He went into the woman's house opened up
her fridge and poured the whole bottle in her lemonade hoping to make
her sick. She did not touch the lemonade because she does not like
lemonade, but it was a hot day and her grandfather was working outside
and had two big glasses and died a few days later, so did her infant
brother. She had a six year old sister who got really sick from the
substance. So sick that she had to have a kidney removed to save her
life.

It was for your safety, someone could have tampered with the product
in such a way that it could have made you sick.

It was for your safety. What if someone had done something to the
chocolates. I would very wary of opened boxes of any kind of food.

Where were your parents? I have a 10 year old daughter and I wouldnt
let her shop in Walmart by herself.