Is it rude to borrow an unused power outlet without asking?
Sometimes I'm at the doctor's office, at the library, or even at the grocery store and see an unused power outlet. My phone is dying. I feel weird plugging in, but I feel even weirder asking for permission.
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From a (US) financial perspective, a phone charger takes about 5 watts of electricity. At $0.010/kWh that's $0.0005/hr (or ¢0.05/hr) of charging. This is utterly negligible.
For reference, a worker at the federal minimum wage of $7.25/hr would be paid that much after 0.25 seconds of working. It's not even worth paying an employee to tell you to not plug in, which would probably take at least 15 seconds.
Naturally, some businesses may want to discourage people from loitering, but more often than not, they probably want your business (library, grocery store, coffee shop &c) or understand that reality happens.
It depends on the charger. Fast charging can pull around 20W (1 second of minimum wage worker time, so maybe worth it if they ask very quickly), and PD allows for wattages over 100W, which would cost 1 cent per hour or more, though you'd still leave on your own long before then because your device will be charged.
In really high traffic places like poorly supported airports, it does tend to wear out the outlets which is a bit more money over time.
Realistically, most places can afford to provide charging facilities. I'm still carrying a battery pack with me though.