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Grocery Store Accidentally Left Open On Holiday, But Nobody Stole Anything

Updated September 5, 2021

Seldom are stereotypes earned. They're the broadest of broad generalizations that often have little basis in reality, and usually they're not exactly flattering. I won't get into any specifics here because we've all heard a few of them on the playground, right?

However, sometimes reality steps in and shows you why a country might have earned a reputation. For example, Canada. We think of it as a nice, polite country — except perhaps during hockey games — but surely there are rude, inconsiderate Canadians out there.

And then they go and do something that makes you really wonder if there are.

Where else but Canada could you find a grocery store, left wide open and unstaffed, that people weren't willing to loot?

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That's what happened in Kingston, Ontario, according to Kingstonist.

On February 18, a provincial holiday called Family Day, a Food Basics store was supposed to be closed. However, for some unknown reason, the doors were left open.

People apparently had some confusion about whether the store was supposed to be open or not, because shoppers still showed up.

It's not like you stop needing things just because it's a holiday, right? And it's not like everything gets closed up for every holiday, so the confusion was real.

So, when people showed up and found the doors unlocked, they figured they could shop.

Maybe the shoppers should have figured out what was going on when no staff members were around.

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You know, nobody stocking shelves, nobody sweeping floors, nobody at the cash registers.

And not everybody was fooled, as many folks mulled around outside trying to figure out what was going on, while others wandered the aisles.

It was a situation that was a cup of Tim Hortons away from being a wonderfully stereotypical Canadian scene.

"I was standing there trying to decide what to do, and a guy comes out of the store with two packages of cherry tomatoes," said one eyewitness. "So I asked, 'Hey, buddy! You just taking some tomatoes?' He said 'I left $5 on the counter.'"

That person decided it would be best to alert the local law enforcement authorities to what was happening.

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It was already late afternoon by the time police showed up to the scene, at which point they contacted the store's manager.

The manager came down to the store right away and, amazingly, found that nothing at all had been damaged or stolen.

"It looks as though there was no damage, and the situation wasn't out of control or anything," police said.

"The doors were open, and we don't know what's to blame for that, but it appears that the store manager indicated nothing was seriously damaged or stolen."

Only in Canada, eh?

h/t Kingstonist

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