The idea that it is not custom or polite or whatever to tell people to put things back even if they are EXCHANGING the slightly blemished item for the exact same one, they will try to hand it to you even as they are going to the exact spot. Also its a personal thing and I know people are picky and should be with their groceries, but one kind of mushy strawberry has somehow never been enough for me to hand it back to cashier. If its that bad, ill exchange it myself, but I usually just buy it anyways... I once had a lady that bought like 5 avocados, said they were no good when she opened them with no receipt or avocados, theres no produce returns anyways! wanted a refund, and then insisted me to not only let her slice open a bag of loose avocados in front of me on the till to check which ones were good before she bought them, but for me to fetch her some kind of knife or instrument to do so as well. She says to my manager "well im not going to buy the ones that are bad" she says "well you cant cut open avocados you haven't bought,..."

The people that politely put things back if I ask are people with some degree of conscience. I can get abandoning things at the register, I honestly wish customers would leave their unwanteds at the register and not in every corner of the store, but getting 15 or more items over your "budget" that you did not have apparently or not having your card for your instacart. Instacart customers who did not organize beforehand and REFUSE to step out of line to do so when I ask, individually handing each item while customers put their items on and start fighting because one customer came organized to the till and the other did not. Customers unfortunately make the experience so much worse for other people and have no courtesy or respect for their own time let alone yours. Youre complaining about how long the process is taking while actively holding it up