Most retail environments operate not on the assumption that goods won’t be stolen, but that the majority of customers are fundamentally honest human beings who won’t steal even when given the opportunity to.
If you figure out how to get away with stealing stuff from a store that doesn’t make you smarter than everyone else. It just makes you an asshole.*
(*Excepting genuinely destitute/starving people who steal out of pure desperation)
Especially if the apparatus happens to malfunction, or if the customers themselves make an error; that bricks the machine, and then they have to wait on a human employee to come assist them anyway.
I suspect that more loot goes out through loading docks than through the self-checkout stations.
Self-worth has nothing to do with it. My proposed living wage, though, assumes a very high standard of living.
See my comment about loading docks.
I’d imagine that the grocery stores are ok with the loss they experience at the self-check-out lines as long as it doesn’t exceed the amount of loss they experience at a traditional check-out plus the cost to staff it.
Depends on the person, though, and I really don’t wanna get caught, which is why I won’t ever cheat.
I once grabbed an organic avocado, couldn’t find a code on it, looked it up and punched in the code for the non-organic one. (I refuse to buy organic produce, and I didn’t realize I got it from that bin.) The checker somehow knew that it came from the organic bin, and made me change it. When I walked back through to the exit, I saw where it had come from and realized he was actually right. I guess you see a lot of fuckin produce during the day, you can spot that kind of thing?
And then you’ve got the people who clear your alcohol purchase without even looking at you.
I would rather pay someone to do the job, so there will be fewer unemployed people near where I live.
Then there’s (at least in some if not most states) a law that requires anyone ringing up alcohol purchases to be 21 or over. I guess those six-packs and whisky bottles emit Evil Alcohol Rays™ that turn anyone underage into raging alcoholics. Magical thinking at its finest!
It’s the age verification for purchasing alcohol that drives me insane.
There should be a code embedded in your discount card with age so as not to hold up the line.
Not a trick but was dirty. Self checking out at local grocery mart, tried to scan the ‘take out’ container for a whole cooked chicken when the juice/fluid from the chicken poured onto the surface scale and ran down the side disappearing into the inner workings of the machine. Immediately wondered what else has managed to seep down there. Told the “check out cashier” (teenager) and they just waved their hand and said, “don’t worry about it”.
Somewhat related, I ordered lunch today at Panera using their new kiosk system. I made a mistake in regards to ordering two cookies and asked the girl behind the counter and she said “Don’t worry about it! Take three or four.”
If they are using the banana trick to steal expensive steak instead of just buying the bananas, they are still jerks. It’s one thing to survive by stealing. But sheesh!
BTW, if you are desperate but have a few dollars (or are a tightwad) here’s an interesting page. It even looks like a college shopping list. Seems sort of scammy, but the list is interesting.
I do self checkout to avoid getting a plastic bag for every single object I buy. I try to use reusable bags but sometimes I forget. It seems every time I let somebody check me out they completely undo the good I’ve tried to do over the last six month of using cloth bags. Seriously. One. Plastic. Bag. Per. Item.
Hah. I use my PetsMart card at the QFC, etc. Dunno who has the account on the other end but I am sure they get coupons that make them go WTF.
They suck for vegetables. Most fruit now has a tasty sticker with a bar code on it. Veggies that you bag yourself require all these lookups. I’d rather use a cashier’s brain for that than mine.
This is a little off topic because no stealing.
The self check out line makes me a little sad when the nice machine lady stops talking to me and I have to finish my purchase on my own.
Maybe in a few years, I’ll have to milk the cow, pluck the chicken, and do God-Knows-What to obtain a bag of Doritos!
They grow on trees, right? You’ll just have to pick 'em.
