Ethical dilemma
I confronted one of those modern ethical dilemmas today, like you read about in the magazine lift-outs of weekend papers.
I was shopping in the Bi-Lo supermarket at Myrtleford when I noticed some tender chicken breasts selling for about $3.50. Similar merchandise in the cabinet was double the price.
I looked for a use-by date or some other catch, but there wasn’t any, until I realised the chicken had been incorrectly labelled as mince beef. It quickly landed in my trolley and I sheepishly put it through the checkout hoping no alarm would ring and store detectives pounce on me.
That suggests my conscience believes it was wrong to snaffle the mistakenly identified chook. But was it?
Legally I was entitled to the goods at their marked price.
However, if it had been John Smith’s grocery store instead of Bi-Lo, and especially if I knew and liked John Smith, I would have felt compelled to point out his error, or I simply would have taken chicken at the accurate price or none at all.
I still don’t know the answer to this one. On one hand it’s not worth worrying about $3, but ethicists around the world grapple with similar concepts.
I sought Juliet’s opinion and she simply asked why I didn’t buy more chicken masquerading as mince, when I confirmed there were others!
It tasted great tonight with spicy tikka masala.
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