Toothpaste Sampling

A couple days ago, I was at one of the two supermarkets in Mengzi doing some shopping. I needed some toothpaste and was surprised to find that in the toothpaste aisle, every flavor of every brand of toothpaste had an open tube on the shelf that you could "sample" before you buy. Part of me finds this odd . . . are you supposed to taste the toothpaste? just smell it? squeeze some into your hand and then do what? should I have brought my toothbrush? But, having made the mistake of buying "green tea" flavored toothpaste instead of mint in the past, I actually did flip open one of the sample tubes and sniff it to make sure I wasn't making that mistake again (I've also learned to recognize the characters for "mint"). I can't quite make up my mind about leaving open tubes of toothpaste on the supermarket shelves--is it a nice, customer-friendly gesture to help people avoid the horror of accidentally getting green tea or magnolia flavored toothpaste? Or is it just a really odd thing to do? Maybe people were already opening all of the toothpaste boxes to smell the toothpaste so the store figured they'd try to avoid that by just giving in and having an open tube available? How long do they leave the tubes there before they get rid of them? If they get rid of them, do the workers keep the open tubes or are they just thrown away? Is it a subtle way to promote dental hygiene? Should costumers squeeze the sample tubes from the end or the middle? Does this help contribute to a more "harmonious society" in some way?

I have this funny image in my head of a spoiled, bratty, chubby 4-year-old (you know, the ones in grocery stores that start screaming when they can't have every single thing they see) coming down that aisle and squirting toothpaste all over himself, the floor, and all 10 supermarket workers who are stationed in that aisle before his helpless mother or grandmother comes over and drags him away kicking and screaming but smelling minty fresh.