Ahhhhh, Central Market! Love that place. Just wish we had one where I live. When in Houston I always have my cooler in the backseat and we load up from CM, Epicurian Market and WF. Great groceries in Houston.

DH always samples all things that are sampled out in the local grocery or at Sam's Club. I don't. If he likes the way it tastes it usually goes in the grocery cart. Heck, I didn't even know that you could buy frozen cut up onions and bell peppers until a few years ago. I never waver from my grocery list so I'm not looking for new products. I can't figure out why I'm in such a hurry to get out of the store. I know I'm missing out on new improved products...or maybe not?

I did try a new Acai juice a couple of weeks ago at the Sam's Club. Accccck! It was awful but good for you. I bought a jug and opened it last night thinking the nutrition value would be a good thing. The juice is a reddish color but when I opened the top green slime had formed around the inside lid. That, I suppose, is all the nutritional goodness. UGH! It's still stinking awful tasting. I think I'll stick to the Light Cranberry juice that I love so much.

Costco does the sample thing too...I almost never take anything. I don't know why...when I'm shopping, I'm not thinking about eating or drinking, and so it doesn't appeal, somehow. Plus, if it is nasty, then I'm stuck with a nasty taste in my mouth.

My husband always tries things, and occasionally he'll talk me into trying something if he likes it a lot. Once in a while we have ended up buying something because of those samples...not too often. Generally, they're sampling out something that we don't ordinarily eat, like convenience foods or sweets.

We did try some chicken-gouda sausage once that we both really liked, and bought some, but then they stopped carrying it. Same thing with some chicken burger patties that had blue cheese in them. Seems like they get us with the chicken & cheese combos, but then they drop the item. :D

I HAVE bought a few things at Costco after doing samples. Otherwise it's just too big a bag, so I think it really does make sense at Costco.

And I do have a bag of something I sampled at Trader Joe's once in the freezer, but I'll try normal sized items without sampling first.

I've always passed on samples at our lackluster grocery store. Last time they had Oreos. Now I happen to really like Oreos, but where in the store am I supposed to scrape off that white crud they put in the middle of them?

Cheeses. I have been guilty of putting a cheese in my cart that I've tried a sample of and liked. At Central Market and Whole Foods you can ask to sample any of the cheeses, but I either feel too shy, or can't find a person to ask, or am in too big a hurry, so I don't do that, but if I see a plate of cheese already cut up and ready to grab a bite, I'll bite. If it's not way too expensive, and I like it, I'll put some in my cart, because I'm a cheese-a-holic. The other type of food I might succumb to is fruit. If they have samples of pineapple or something like that, and it's particularly tasty, I'll take one. Of course, there's no guarantee that the pineapple I'm buying will be as good as the one they've cut up, but I figure there's a good chance. I've never bought a processed food that they're sampling. I don't know why, but usually it's just too pricey for what you get, even if it does taste good.

Sally

Of course I taste the samples....most of them.
At my grocery store it's most often fresh fruit or cheese.
I bought some wonderful cantalope last week at $.99 per....because I sampled and they were sweet and flavorful.
And I tasted the smoked gouda and passed on that....ugh!
I have been enticed to change dinner plans and have salmon or shrimp when they are sampling that at Sam's.
Linda C

It depends. Often I see 'new' things and wish they offered samples because I hate to spend the money, then find out I don't like the product.
So if it is something I've been wondering about, it looks or sounds 'interesting', I will definitely try the sample.
Often I try samples just because inquiring minds want to know.
If I like it, have use for it, I buy it.

Personally, I think samples are a very good way to acquaint the public with a product.
It also builds good will with customers.

Rusty

Never tried a sample of anything, I don't think.

I rarely take any of the samples at our local grocery. The reason is most of itis packaged, processed stuff that I would never buy anyway. Things like frozen pizza, processed luncheon meats, packaged dinners, etc.

Once in a blue moon they'l have something I will try, but not very often.

When I visit Chicago, it is an entirely different story. The grocery stores there have much better samples....fresh cheeses, fruits, freshly made dishes along with the recipe, etc.

Linda

rachelEllen, you reminded me! I DID buy a package of presliced coldcuts/cheese at Costco the first time I went based on the sample. But I didn't like it much when I got it home. It didn't taste fresh. And I know better too! I never buy the precut coldcuts, I like them to slice them for me while I wait. So they got a few $ out of me on that one.

freshly made dishes along with the recipe
Ah yes! They do a lot of that at Central Market, esp. on weekends but sometimes on weeknights too. THOSE are my faves. But again, I seldom buy, in fact, I hardly ever even look at the recipe! LOL

I admit that I'm not a 100%-stick-to-my-list shopper. I do buy impulse items (such as the wine last night). But I mostly see the samples as a perk or good will as Rusty said.

May, You went to CM for one item? I can go to the 7-11 for one item, that's about the extent of my resolve.

At Costco/Sam's I will try the samples. Because of the size of packages, I don't want to make a "big" mistake. I have purchased something I've sampled that I wouldn't have had I not had the chance to taste it.

On the contrary, our Publix has a station where they prepare a meal, offer a small plate, and display the ingredients used in the recipes. I stopped a year ago because I had not sampled anything that I found appetizing.

LOL Cathy, Yes! You know, CM is about 2 minutes from my office, plus most of their stuff is $$$ so it's not like I do major shopping there anyway! But lately, they've been putting one or two things on sale at a Very Good price, so I've been stopping in, grabbing those, sampling, and running out the door! I'm not their target customer -- they're not making enough money off me!! LOL

*Never* go to Costco hungry. The last time I did, DS and I went from sample station to sample station and ended up buying an extra $100 worth of food that we never would have bought otherwise.

Granted, they were all good and I would buy them again, but I certainly hadn't budgeted for it that day.

Not after I saw a kid pick his ..., pick up and then put back a few pieces, or the time I saw someone turn away to sneeze over their shoulder and proceed to sneeze all over the food. (Unintentionally and not even aware of what they had done)

I will tastes samples that are overseen if I see them come straight out the oven or package.

"...CM is about 2 minutes from my office..." That could be dangerous placement for me! Although, I rarely go to Central Market due to their store layout. It's way to claustrophobic for me, especially on the weekends. I just don't go there during peak business hours, or they'd have a basket case on their hands.

Sally

I NEVER take those free samples. I will try new products when they come out, but only if they appeal to me.

I see people at Sam's Club on weekends apparently eating lunch with those free samples. The people giving out free samples remind me of barkers at the carnival selling knives and really overpriced cookware.

It's silly, I know, but I'm generally too self-conscious to take a sample. Reason being, I get so turned off by the people who are obviously jumping from sample to sample and making it their lunch, that I don't want to look like one of them.

One of my supermarkets has bread out so you can test their huge line-up of store brand olive oils. I recently took advantage and it was a real eye opener how different the oils were. In the end I took their standard blend which wasn't even offered for sampling, LOL!

Oh, I LOVE the samples. Well, not all of them, but on a good day, I will leave without any hunger left.

yes, I am one of the sample lunchers. As long as they offer, and it is stuff I will eat, even so not necessarily buy, I will sample it. ;)

Actually, I rarely buy the foods I sample.

Moni

Rarely sample (because of what Linda "doucanoe" said).
Even more rarely would I buy the stuff.

The stores where I shop don't have samples of dairy, fresh produce, or "condiments" and those are my primary supermarket purchases.

The exception is IF I go shopping hungry and they happen to have samples of something with protein, I might try it.
Bacon, sausage or seafood.

I stick to my list, I'm in, I'm out.
I hate taking DH with me because he tosses "weird stuff" in the cart. Not things I'd normally use and I do 99% of the cooking. I don't care about cereal or something like that, he's the only one who eats it, so if he wants to try something, that's fine. But, don't buy stuff I'm supposed to work into our diet.

Yeah, so I'm a bit of a control freak, but that's part of why we can stay on budget!!! :)

Deanna

Yeah, I know, those samples which are unsupervised are not necessarily clean! But I guess if I worried about that stuff I'd never eat out at all. I don't delude myself that restaurants in general are 100% sanitary and that the workers all follow rules to the letter. Oh well!!

And yeah, there ARE people who make a lunch out of it. Honestly, if you go to Central market on a Saturday morning (which I rarely do) you can't help but get a lunch out of it, and really, a very epicurian one at that!

I do only ever get one sample of any one thing. What bugs me is people who sort of hover over something, taking multiple samples.

The just opened a new HEB near me and they are having weeks of grand opening specials (great deals!). And the best samples: wine! Yeah baby! Quite lovely!

When I visit my parents in their smallish town with many many retired people, sometimes my dad suggests going to Costco for lunch. They have big samples at the local Costco, and only little old ladies for competition (he said it--not me!).

Like Linda and Deanna I seldom sample foods at Sam's Club, etc., because it's mostly the prepackaged, high fat/sodium/who knows what/chemically enhanced convenience stuff. Frozen pizza, chicken nuggets, hot dogs. Ugh. Nope, I don't eat any of it.

My small town independent grocery store has never had a sample that I can think of, LOL, and I did sample a couple of recipes at Trader Joe's but thought that I could probably do better myself. I will sample cheese, although I don't eat much cheese, because there's such a large variety that I nearly always find something I haven't tried.

Karen, I like to shop places like Trader Joe's, the gourmet food stores, farmer's markets, kitchen places, LOL. I hate the "duty" shopping at my grocery store, things like laundry soap and milk. I get in and get out and never look for anything new or different, I have my list and that's what I buy. I feel the same way about shopping for clothes, LOL, so unless I need new sneakers or a pair of black slacks, I am NOT going shopping!

I'd rather have a root canal than walk into a t-shirt place or souvenir shop. When I went to Tennessee to visit Elery's sister she wanted me to go to Dollywood and Pigeon Forge. I asked Elery to please not make me go, the only thing that would interest me at all would be the Lodge outlet! (grin) Now, a tour through the mountains? A hike in the National Park? The Lodge cast iron outlet? Oh yeah, I'd love it, but I'd have a breakdown after the first two souvenir shops selling t-shirts and key chains!

So, samples? With a few glaring exceptions, I don't eat them or look for them, I get in and I get out. If I had a Central Market? Now there's a different story altogether.

Annie

Not usually, but once and awhile I will like it enough to buy it. Sometimes it has the opposite effect. It is so bad I don't buy it. Then I am glad I had the sample so I don't have to throw a whole package out.
Clare

"she wanted me to go to Dollywood and Pigeon Forge"

May, she is saying she didn't go to Tablecloths and More. Incredulous!

We only sample the stuff if it's freshly out of the pot. Don't like cold food items who knows how long it has been sitting out. But we never buy any of it because it's mostly processed food. A bite here and there it's fine but I don't want keeping things like that around the house.

I enjoy the opportunity to try different things. But with the possible exception of cheeses (because there always seems to be room for one more), it would be rare for me to buy something on the spot.

As a Costco shopper I like being able to sample because I'm reluctant to buy big sizes of unknown products. (They supervise their samples, so I have no qualms about sanitation.) Occasionally, I find a gem, or get warned off something I might otherwise have bought. But it's also fun to find out what their processed foods (which I never buy) taste like.

LOL, Cathy, if I had to go to "Tablecloths and More" that might be interesting, especially since I actually use a tablecloth AND cloth napkins. However, Elery tells me that both of those places are largely tourist shops and art gallery/craft type places, neither of which are of interest to me. Ashley and my mother would spend their lives in those places but since I completely lack any decorating gene, I hate to go into them.

Elery says he got stuck in traffic a few years ago and sat waiting to get into Pigeon Forge for nearly four hours. He says he's NEVER going back, I can go right ahead without him.

I think I'd rather hike. (grin)

Annie

Off the Samples Topic:

Annie, you are fortunate that you didn't go to Mr. Tablecloth & More. I don't recall what possessed us to stop and go into the store, perhaps it was the promise of "More". I would rather poke my eyes out than go again but the memory of laughing it up with Lakeguy, RiverRat, and Lowspark was well worth it...that one time!

Mr. Tablecloths and More!!!

Mustangs said, "I would rather poke my eyes out than go again but the memory of laughing it up with Lakeguy, RiverRat, and Lowspark was well worth it...that one time!"

OMG! Mr. Tablecloths and More! What a great memory! And to think we were excited about going there. Remember, we passed the store several times, on our journey to somewhere, and the store name intrigued us so much...then we walked in.

ROFL here! Yes I remember tablecoths and more...lol. I remember the two guys (local I think) waiting out front for their wives to get done shopping. I think the place next door sold clothes for your yard animals...ducks and bears if I remember right. Great memories for sure ladies!

Okay, as far as the samples I pass them up for the most part. I'll stop for cheese samples, that's about it for me. The last sample I had at Sam's was beef jerkey. Yes, I bought some. I'm usually on a mission while shopping and just buzz on by and say no thanks. They don't sell liquor in our grocery stores so no samples. If they did...I might pull up a bar stool...LOL!

David