It depends here often if the item has to be weighed or not. Eating an item that has to be weighed is indeed stealing. I go to a health food store near my home and will drink something in the store or eat part of a bag of something while shopping and pay on the way out and that's just fine with them. If I go to the salad bar though, I of course get it weighed before eating it! They also have a bar that serves alcohol and food that you sit in the store and eat where people will eat and drink and then get a bill at the end and pay afterwards like in a restaurant. 

I think it depends on the place here in the States and also which state or city. Austin in general is a pretty laid back and trusting place. 

I'm from Finland and I think it's not something people generally approve of but everyone doesn't agree. It seems that some people think it's okay if the person consuming the product is a child, so it would maybe be okay if you gave a child a banana or a juice box to keep them quiet and then paid it later because many children might be coming to the store straight from the kinder garten and having not eaten dinner yet, they're bound to be cranky and hungry. I remember drinking a juice box a few times when I was a child and my mom paid it later with all the other items. I would say it also depends on the item, no cashier wants to touch a slimy opened ice cream wrapper but they might be okay with an empty juice box. I'd also say it's okay to do that for health reasons, maybe if you're feeling dizzy or are diabetic or so on but I can't remember having seen an adult doing this in a long, long time.

Usually people don't do that. Neither do I.

It's acceptable depending on the situatuion I think.

If you feel thristy why not to open a bottle of mineral water.

And to pay for it in the end, of course :-)

Hi Mika,

I am from Germany and I have very very rarely seen this happen. I can recall two instances, but in both of them, the person was doing it so openly, they did not seem to care about what others would think and did not conceal the fact they were eating unpaid food. One guy was eating Pringles while waiting for his turn at the cashier and I noticed that everybody was sort of giving him disapproving looks. He seemed to have noticed to, but simply continued eating.

As a conclusion, I think most Germans would not consume their products prior to payment since it technically does not "belong" to them yet. Something to add that may be a little off topic - when I was a little kid, I always got a free slice of ham/ sausage from the butcher (that is part of the supermarket and you pay at the main cashier) every time my parents stopped by to buy meat. I am not sure if butchers still do that, but the idea is that the kids are allowed to eat the free sausage/ham immdiately because it is a gift.

Hi, I have to say that it is not very strange to see that kind of situation here (I´m from Spain), you can see teenagers but also parents doing that thing...I think that here in Spain we think that this behaviour is as a small fault...but that´s is, we do not care very much about it (that is my opinion, of course....maybe another Spanish will tell you another point of view).
In my case, I remembered that one month ago I was really thirsty and I entered into a supermarket, took a coca cola and drunk it...I did that in the middle of the store...I mean I wasn't hiding my action...after that I pay the empty bottle with the rest of the things that I bought ..
When I go with my kids and they are hungry I usually open something and give it to them...and after I pay for it.
Here people don´t look at you in a strange way: I guess that a) they think that you are going to pay for that after or b) it is like a bit mischief and they don´t care much about it.