The issue of ethics defines and depicts a person’s morals and beliefs. It can provide one with information on whether this person has reasonable beliefs that respect one’s rights, safety and dignity. However, some of these aspects oftentimes get violated for a number of reasons: an underlying understandable cause, personal benefit or one simply being a delinquent person. In the following essay, I will discuss a problem I have experienced and explain what should have been done from a moral standpoint.
One day, I saw someone buying milk in a grocery store. Since this shop had employees fulfill your requests, such as bringing certain kinds of goods and customers cannot choose items by themselves, he asked for a carton of milk. I asked a cashier if it was fresh and it told me it was, thus, the customer paid for it and went home. Unfortunately, this was actually false, as the customer came back with a complaint.
He looked at the expiry date on the milk carton and it turned out that this product had expired 3 days prior to him buying it. Thus, the cashier lied to the man about the expiry date. Since employees would bring groceries to the customers instead of the customers doing this, the former need to be aware of expiry dates and the quality of the goods they sell.
While it would have indeed been better if the customer checked the expiry date himself, he was reassured that the milk was fresh. What the cashier should have done is review the sold goods for out-of-date items and dispose of them if there were any. Or the employee should have checked the expiry date on that specific item and given him another milk carton instead of the new one.
In conclusion, while it is agreeable that both sides are to blame to a certain extent, there is one fact that emphasizes the importance of the cashier’s duties. They ought to be aware of the quality and expiry dates of the goods they sell. That way, the customers will always have access to fresh groceries and will not have to experience food poisoning or other health issues.