Why do older people steal cracker packs,sugar packets etc etc along with wrapping up the rolls in a napkin?

Question

And smuggle all this stuff into the ladies purse when they eat out??

Answer 1

Older people grew up knowing what it was like to go without a lot of the basic necessities of life, something later generations never had to experience. Hording behavior is a holdover from times where everything was scarce. Go easy on them, they've probably had very hard lives.

Answer 2

My Mom and Dad will take the crackers and a roll for the dog...They paid for the food...the rolls would have been thrown in the trash. I had been a waitress for years...I know that many many people take little things...what's the difference between taking a dogie bag? If there was a problem with quantities of sugar or jellies...they would not be on the table to be used as desired. Another thought...allot of older folks lived during a time where sugar and extras were not available...sometimes the meal that the older people are having may be their one main meal for the day...taking food items from the table will help add to their next meal or snack at home. With limited incomes and every time they turn around electric rates and medical expenses rising...I'm sure they feel every penny they can stretch is a plus.

Answer 3

I don't believe they think this is stealing. After all, they DID pay for a meal, and this stuff is FREE anyways, right? And besides, things like rolls, the restaurant would throw out, right? So they're just not wasting food. I can tell you it's definitely not the money. Last I checked, a googol of sugar packets costs on the order of $3.

Answer 4

It varies from person to person. Some view what they are doing as getting confinsation for perceived over priced food. Some of them are on fixed incomes, and actually need the food for later. Others are live in a retirement community where they are on highly restricted diets. Often survivors of disasters develop a certain degree of hoarding compulsion even years later. (Many elderly lived through the Great Depression, and their experience weighs heavily on their minds as their savings shrink.) A fair number are suffering from any number of psychological conditions like obsessive compulsive disorder. (Generally hoarding is just another sign of a larger issue.)

Note that grabbing the left over rolls in many cases is more a sign of not wanting things to go to waste. (Left over rolls are just thrown out at a restaurant.) It really depend an if the rolls were just provided, or asked for. Anyone who has ever been hungry for a period of weeks knows that rolls are wonderful for filling an empty stomach. So they are a common target of food hoarders who have experienced sustained hunger in the past.

Answer 5

It simply because they grew up during the era prior to WWII or the Depression era when times where tough financially. They grew to appreciate everything and not take anything for granted for they never knew where the next bit of food was coming from Resources were scarce growing up in the 1920's -1940's. Things younger people do such as throwing out unwanted food was unheard of - as there was no unwanted food! Food rations and being hungry was the norm. Growing up being very close to my grandparents, I was always very surprised to hear of their resourcefulness in their tough upbringings and how they never complained despite it all. They made tomato soup from ketchup & hot water when they were children! It was amazing... And yes they did take sugar from McD's and ask for a doggie bag for every last bit of food at a restaurant. I wish I was as frugal as they were - and they rarely had to spend the extra money at home for napkins for there was always extra McD's ones at their home. God bless the seniors of today - I could never have grown up when they did, that is for certain!

Answer 6

Tw o reasons: 1, sometimes due to poor financial planning the elderly cant make ends meet, and things like sugar and rolls cost money and contribute to another meal.
Also, the older generation had less and don't beleive in waste.

Answer 7

My Grandma sure did LOVE those saltine crackers with her tins of 9 lives!

She was on a fixed income but then again she used to tell me stories about the depression and how horrible and scarce things used to be.That's why CAT FOOD was a part of her staple diet.

I do seem to remember also how funny her sloppy joe's used to
taste.

Answer 8

A lot of them either lived through the depression, or else were raised by those who had. For them, it is ingrained in their nature to never waste anything, and the little packets are often something seen as free to them, that they can take to save for later.

Answer 9

People who lived during the Great Depression and the war years were used to having very little, so they learned to save whatever they had and be resourceful with it. Even though our economy isn't in such a pinch now, that way of thinking and acting often still directs their way of life.

Answer 10

Comes from the depression era where you did what you had to so you could survive...food was hard to come by when you didnt have any money and older folks remember their parents pocketing crackers and stuff so they could have something to eat later during the depression era.