by Sara McGinnis posted in Life

My two boys are mortified each time I take half the grapes out of the pre-filled bags, but hey -- at least I'm not the lady snapping the ends of the asparagus!
By my reasoning, I'm paying for our grapes by the pound. Taking some out isn't even close to stealing (as my kids somehow twist it to be), it's being a smart consumer who doesn't want to pay for more than we'll eat. Meanwhile snapping the dried ends of asparagus is a much darker area of grocery store sinning, in my humble opinion.

One might argue the shopper I recently witnessed doing this was using the same logic I do with the grapes -- she doesn't want to pay for what she won't be eating -- but though both items are priced by the pound, it's implied that's the cost for the produce in an unaltered state. It's fair to say snapping asparagus is the equivalent of plucking grapes off the stems to avoid extra weight of parts that won't be eaten, right" Both are too far in my book, but it does get me wondering about other gray areas.
Where's the line on buying only the amount of asparagus you need" Last week I ended up chatting with a woman who lived alone and didn't want as much as was rubberbanded together. She was unsure, but I told her I didn't see a problem with separating just what she wanted.

Let's also consider where other produce items fall in the penny-pinching etiquette book.
Is it ok to separate the very best tomatoes from their buddies on the vine" How about p...