Gaming the System... Or is it stealing?

There’s only one question you need to ask yourself: If everyone did the same thing, and the station quit selling coffee and creamer because they were losing money, who’s better off in the long run?

Ask the station owner. It’s possible it’s not, but yeah, it’s stealing.

The fact that cream is offered free with coffee come with a built in assumption on the part of the seller that people will only take the cream necessary for the coffee they purchased. If everyone took a cupful of cream, the assumption would be adjusted and the price would go up accordingly.

You could say your just gaming a system based on a flawed assumption, but then that’s not much of a defense as you have the power to correct that assumption or at least inquire to its accuracy – basically willful ignorance isn’t a particularly valid defense.

Legal, yes…. ethical, no.

Just because something is not illegal does not absolve one of the responsibility to act ethically. The easy test: If you were the station owner, what would be your opinion of somebody who does this?

You just learned a lot about his character.
1) He is one cheap SOB.
2) He puts no value on his time.
3) He is a finicky coffee drinker and will no doubt never be satified with anything that does not go his way.
4) He is not to be trusted.
5) He can justify anything and therefore cannot be trusted.

His admission was a cheap lesson for you. You got the best deal of all.

I can’t wait to show him this thread.

Theft and morally repugnant. What a jackass.

If you don’t like the price of something, you don’t buy it. You don’t steal something else to “compensate”.

Maybe the store owner should make a recording of the guy in action and post it on Youtube. “It’s perfectly legal. But is it ethical?”

There’s a difference between being frugal, and being a cheap bastard.

He’s abusing a courtesy offered by the gas station so he can save a miniscule amount of money, even if what he was doing cost next to no money for them, he’s trying to justify it with really crappy logic.

By his reasoning, it should also be perfectly okay to murder homeless people because they are a “minor” drain on society and they will not be missed when removed.

It’s amazing how much you can learn about a person’s integrity and character for less than $2.

I can’t believe that this ‘friend’ actually told you that he was doing this! This is stealing, no two ways about it.

The station makes their money off the coffee. The creamer is there as a complimentary perk for customers who buy the coffee, although the price of the coffee is probably factored to cover this, maybe a few cents a cup. The creamer itself is not for sale, and if it were, it definitely wouldn’t be $1.70 for 24 ounces.

You said the $1.70 was about ¼ the price of retail. It’s hard to know what the owner of the station is paying wholesale for the creamer, but dairy is always the most expensive part of making a cup of coffee. It’s very possible that the $1.70 is less than the wholesale cost of the cream- or in other words, not only is the station not making any money off this, but it costs them money every time your friend does this.

Being frugal means getting a good value. This is dishonest, and it’s coming out of somebody else’s pocket.

Well I just had breakfast with my buddy… You should have see the look on his face when I presented him with a printout of this thread… ahahahahahaha

All he said was, “You’re an ass”, to me.

“Well this ass is your friend… and he doesn’t befriend theives”.

I then presented him with a Walgreens coupon for two 16oz Carnation Creamers for $3. He now understands that the big deal wasn’t such a big deal after all.

Thanks everyone… I think a criminal has been reformed… hahahahahaha