Is removing pepper stems a way to save money? Journalist Katarzyna Bosacka pointed out in one of her videos that peppers can be bought cheaper. "Do you know that when you buy peppers, you overpay when you weigh them with... stems?" she said. Bosacka calculated that buying five peppers without stems costs about 15 PLN, while with stems it costs about 16 PLN. "So, the stems alone cost us one zloty" - she emphasized. In other words, customers "additionally" pay a few to a dozen cents for the pepper stem, which ultimately ends up in the trash.
Inflation forces Poles to save. Police issue a warning
What other "methods of saving" do Poles use during inflation? An employee of a supermarket in Włocławek noticed that customers put vegetables and fruits on the scale without a bag. "The customer first takes the carrots or even potatoes out of the bag, weighs them, and then puts them back in," she explained in an interview with "Fakt."
Although removing vegetables and fruits from bags is not prohibited by law, there are cases where customers place more expensive products into cheaper packaging. "For example, eggs. It happens that large free-range eggs end up in cartons of the cheapest small eggs," said the supermarket employee.
Due to incidents of cheating during product weighing, the police issued a statement. "Remember, it's not only cheating during product weighing that can have serious consequences. The same criminal liability applies to someone who changes a label – swapping the price tag of a more expensive product for a cheaper one or adding an item to an already weighed product with a printed price. Fraud is a crime, as stated in Article 286 of the Penal Code. It's important to note that the amount of financial loss is not relevant for committing this crime".
Removing pepper stems - a way to save money? A lawyer explains
Can removing pepper stems really be called a smart saving method, or is it fraud? Dr. Mikołaj Małecki, a lawyer and president of the Krakow Institute of Criminal Law, explained that if the stem is removed but the pepper is not purchased, it constitutes damage to the "whole" pepper. The same applies to cauliflower and removing its leaves.
"Goods without stems may be less attractive to other customers. If the value of the damage does not exceed 500 PLN, it is a misdemeanor," he explained. The lawyer added that if a customer removes the stem and buys only the fruit, leaving the stem in the store, the stem must somehow be "accounted for" legally.
"The customer buys the pepper without the stem, thus benefiting from the weight difference – they pay slightly less than for a pepper with the stem. The value of the damage depends on the weight of the stem itself: the difference between the full-value product and the damaged product. Up to 500 PLN, this is a misdemeanor," he concluded.
