A "mad experiment" that explored morality

[Gob]

Computer glitch leads to supermarket free-for-all

April 25, 2011 - 8:25AM


Shoppers who took advantage of a supermarket that accidentally opened with no staff could be considered part of a "real life candid camera" or patients in a "mad experiment" that explored morality, a professor of religion says.

About 24 people cruised the aisles at Hamilton's Mill St Pak 'n Save in New Zealand on Good Friday morning after a computer glitch incorrectly opened the doors at 8am without a checkout person in sight.

About half paid for their groceries using the self-scan service, but that stopped working when someone scanned alcohol, which requires a staff member to check a customer's age before the system is unlocked.

Police were alerted at 9.20am by a report of people leaving with "truckloads of groceries".

Victoria University's professor of religious studies, Paul Morris, said the Easter-time ethical test placed customers in a tricky situation. "It is like real life candid camera where people are clearly faced with this series of moral dilemmas."

There had been a debate about whether you needed to be religious to be moral, he said.

"The Christian Right have tended to think [that] without the Ten Commandments and God's divining hand we would never have been able to develop a plausible and sustainable morality.

"This [Pak 'n Save incident] is like some mad experiment, because you've sent off to church the religious and it's the secular who have gone shopping on Good Friday ... and you've put them to the test.

"Most acted morally and responded in very appropriate ways by trying to pay by using the self-service area. But clearly others saw that fortune had smiled on them in some perverse way."

Supermarket owner Glenn Miller was initially furious over the incident, fearing that thousands of dollars of groceries might have walked out the door. But after reviewing the shop's security footage during the weekend his mood had mellowed.

"I can certainly see the funny side of it ... but I'd rather not have the publicity, to be honest. It makes me look a bit of a dickhead."

The security footage showed shoppers were not aware that there were no staff in the supermarket, Mr Miller said.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/techno ... z1KUQGXk9l

[loCAtek]

At that time, on an Easter morning, most Christians are at church...

so, we're judging the morality of the atheist, agnostic or non-Christian?

[Sean]

Best check your facts before blundering in Lo... On Good Friday Christians tend to go to church in the afternoon... you know, the time the crucifixion took place.

Therefore most of these people were just as likely christians getting the groceries in before going to church.

[oldr_n_wsr]

"This [Pak 'n Save incident] is like some mad experiment, because you've sent off to church the religious and it's the secular who have gone shopping on Good Friday ... and you've put them to the test.

Unless someone check their affiliation (and whether they were practicing) this statement means nothing.

[loCAtek]

.

Best check your facts before blundering in Lo... On Good Friday Christians tend to go to church in the afternoon... you know, the time the crucifixion took place.

Therefore most of these people were just as likely christians getting the groceries in before going to church.

Granted, but many Catholics don't work on Good Friday (as I can attest at my shop, that lost a third of it's work force) The owners of this shop fully intended to respect the religious holiday, however the patrons that day, did not

[alice]

I don't mean to wade in with big boots here, but my very christian mother would be just as likely to go to a shop on Good Friday, Easter Saturday, Christmas Day, or whenever the shops are open, if she needed anything. She even regularly goes to the shops on Sunday, the sabbath day, in and around whatever time she goes to church.

Good Friday is a public holiday here, and it's not a matter of whether the shopkeeper intended to respect the religious holiday - it's one of the very, very few days of the year when the Government directs that these shops are not allowed to be open. It's a bit controversial and I'm sure it won't be too much longer before the shop owners get a choice in the matter. But they don't at the moment. So because it's so hard to find anything at all open on Good Friday, if one was opened, it would be inundated with shoppers - religious or not. It could even be speculated that some of the people nipping in to get basic items like milk and biscuits etc were getting them for their church morning/afternoon tea.

[loCAtek]

Maybe, meaning they weren't Catholics.

[Sean]

Bloody hell... you don't know when to take you foot out of your mouth do you Lo?

Do Catholics not get to have morning/afternoon tea? Or is it that they can't eat biccies on a Friday?

[loCAtek]

No, they're fasting; or didn't you know that?

Day of Fasting
Crucifix prepared for veneration

The Catholic Church treats Good Friday as a fast day

[Sean]

LMAO - Of course I did. But did you know that Good Friday's fast allows one full (meatless) meal and two collations for Catholics? It doesn't mean hunger strike...

[loCAtek]

It doesn't mean alcohol either. It was the unfaithful, who got busted on that.

[Timster]

I agree with 99.9 % of what you wrote Sean. However, according to the bible, and especially involving the chronology of Good Friday- Passover- and Easter Sunday [[[Saturday is the Sabbath]]] hence Jesus observing the sacred day according to the Commandment even in death! You heathen. LOL!

God bless your Mother's heart.

Tim- recovering legalist- but know my bible front to back -ster

[Sean]

It doesn't mean alcohol either. It was the unfaithful, who got busted on that.

Catholics can't drink alcohol on Good Friday? Bzzzzzz! Wrong answer. Citation on that one or did you pull it out of your arse?

Do really think that Ireland would be a Catholic country if they were not allowed to drink alcohol for one full day every year?
The pubs there are closed (by law) on Good Friday so every bugger spends the day with a day-pass on the trains, which can still legally sell alcohol.

[The Hen]

I love the owners reaction:

I can certainly see the funny side of it ... but I'd rather not have the publicity, to be honest. It makes me look a bit of a dickhead

[The Hen]

I take it that most religious people don't suffer from alcoholism seeing as grog is forbidden on Good Friday. (Unless of course they were stealing it for Saturday.)

[MajGenl.Meade]

Hmm. I've not heard of church services later in the day in connection wih the time of the crucifixion. My own experience has been of early morning services on Good Friday.

Ours this year was at 8 am so by 9:20 Margaretta and I probably were looking for an open supermarket - which we could not find anywhere in Bloem. Well except for Aljo's where we footled around with a cart for a bit and then left without buying anything. (And without taking anything either!). I wasn't aware of any deadly evil in shopping on Good Friday.

Now Saturday was evil. The lines of cars along the street at the Waterfront waiting to get into the shopping mall were so horrendous that I went away (twice). Ended up at Woolworths where their total failure to have matzoh and mandarin oranges forced me into yet another trip to the Northridge shopping centre whre Pick'n Pay stood in the gap. That was after sheltering for 35 minures outside Woolworths while the heavens opened up - thunder, torrential rain. darkness............... oh dear

Meade

[The Hen]

Our local shopkeep, Nick, saw us right through the holidays. He was open each day and he still made his church services.

[Sean]

It's 3pm for Catholics General. IIRC that's the time Jesus died.

[Timster]

And the sky grew dark. . . .

[The Hen]

What is the appropriate alcohol to go with Crucifiction?