Iowa, Have You Been Stealing From One Grocery Store Without Knowing?

I like to think of myself as a pretty honest person.

99.9% of the time, I make sure to always follow the rules and never steal.

Sometimes I come off as a bit of a goodie two shoes, but that's totally fine by me! I usually stay out of trouble thanks to this.

Now, I'm worried that the cops are going to break down my doors as I'm typing this now.

If you don't hear from me after this is published...they got me and I'm sorry.

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For the past six or so months, I've started shopping at ALDI. I can grab the essentials I need when it comes to groceries plus I get cat food here that my two kittens have gotten used to.

It's affordable and seems to be making them happy and healthy!

They've gotten so much bigger since this photo was snapped last October!

Usually once every week or two, I head out to ALDI and grab a large number of wet cat food and a bag of dry food to tide them over for meals.

Sometimes I bring my own little bag to put my goods in, but most of the time I just snag a brown paper bag when I'm checking out.

They are convenient and free!

Or that's what I thought!

If you've never been to ALDI, when you go to check out they have a slew of bags to your left that you can use for your groceries.

Some of them are plastic reusable totes that you can purchase and the other ones are brown paper bags...that you can apparently purchase too!

For the past six months, every single time I come to that final question on the checkout screen asking,

"Have you scanned all your bags for purchase?"

I tap the yes button...even though I technically didn't!

Sidebar...this looks like a pretty wild purchase. All I bought was cat food and one bottle of ketchup. Sounds like a crazy weekend, right?

I had no clue that you actually had to pay for the paper bags too. In my mind, that question was regarding the plastic totes that they sold, not the brown bags.

So, I don't want ANYONE to say, "BUT THEY ASK YOU IF YOU SCANNED YOUR BAGS!! HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW?!?"

ALDI Bag Policy

Last year, the grocery store chain began charging for plastic bags, according to reports. The goal of this initiative was to cut down on plastic bags. Officials claim that they have eliminated 15 billion bags from landfills due to this new policy.

This year, nationwide the grocer is getting rid of plastic bags entirely.

ALDI encourages shoppers to bring their own bags.

According to the official grocery store HQ website, this is their policy;

"At ALDI, we believe in bringing our customers the highest quality products at the lowest possible prices through a number of operational savings," officials said.

"The end result is that we not only save our customers money – by avoiding adding the cost of the bag to our prices – but also precious resources."

All in all, I might have taken maybe $15 from the grocery chain in total. Even though it's a relatively small amount, I feel so guilty about this.

Going forward...I have learned my lesson and will not be stealing from any grocery store anytime soon.

By the way, I need someone to tell me that I'm not the only one who has done this, please!

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