Dear Apple Eater

Dear Apple Eater,

            I’m not sure if I find this one annoying, disgusting or humorous. Maybe it’s a little of each.

As I have said, my wife and I live fairly close to a Walmart, and we recently went on a vacation together and needed some apples to snack on during the drive. So naturally we went to Walmart before leaving. While picking out apples we found one that someone had taken a couple bites out of and then returned to the pile.

            Here’s why it’s annoying: if it was an adult who did it, what would ever make them think that was okay. If you bite the apple you just bought the apple. This is not Costco where they give you free samples and it’s not a shirt that you can just put back on the rack. By tasting the apple you’ve now ruined it.

            If it was a kid who did it I can be a little more understanding because they may not know that what they’re doing is wrong. However the parent should still take responsibility for it. If you child breaks something in a store you tell an attendant and offer to pay for it. You don’t put it back on the shelf and walk away.

            Here’s why it’s disgusting: your germs are now all over that apple. And I know I may overreact on this because I have a serious germ phobia, but because you put the apple back, every apple around that apple is now contaminated. So not only can I not take your partially eaten apple, I can’t take any of the five apples around it.

            Here’s why it’s humorous: because it’s Walmart, you kind of expect those things to happen. If it was a normal store I would have told the attendant stocking produce less than ten feet away from me. But instead I smiled at him as I took a picture of it.

            So Apple Eater, I’m going to give you a little slack because we were at Walmart. But that is still annoying and disgusting. If you’re going to taste it at least put it somewhere that an attendant can find it and where it won’t contaminate other apples.