They used to have 8 plus cashiers... I won't steal but I don't need to report it.

I always liked the quote, "If you see someone stealing food, no you didn't."
- My community hasn't had a good couple of years. It's sad to say but it's better just to assume it's tough times for everyone... So I didn't see a thing.. especially when they cut another 20+ jobs and tell me to do the job they cut...
- I'd rather them seek help with a local charity than to steal. I donate and occasionally volunteer. If you are in financial distress or you think you can not pay your rent please seek help. There are programs to support you.

The lack of a person watching you check out does not mean no one is watching. They absolutely are and you are being recorded the entire time you are in the store.
- Also, these stores have tools that can tally up losses associated to you, and they’ll pull in the cops when the evidence is enough to warrant serious penalty.
  
  Target is notorious for this. Loss Prevention has literal evidence binders for repeat offenders. They’ll tally up everything you’ve stolen, and then sit on it and continue tallying until you have stolen enough to be charged with a felony. Once they have a dollar over their local felony amount, they’ll send their LP team in to pull you aside and you get arrested for felony grand theft.
- I was very uncomfortable with the level of digital surveillance at Fred Meyer yesterday, and I'm a paying customer. I generally don't show at those types of stores, so it was surprising, and disgusting.
- Remember that even if you cover your face, they're probably monitoring for your gait. Put a small rock in your shoe to change that...
  
  And a vibrating sex toy in your butt so that you walk strange at random intervals.

Hey hey hey, no snitching on people who take food. Corporations won't starve, just because a starving person took some food from them.
- No snitching period. Why would you side with a massive corporation that steals from mentally disabled people and old people, decimated America as we knew it, destroying every local economy, and demanding prices so cheap from brands that they've made shittier products with slightly different labels to meet that demand? Fuck Walmart. If you rat someone out for stealing from Walmart, then you're a brainwashed asshole.
- That feels like an eye for an eye logic. Shoplifting has a very real impact and incentives dystopian surveillance even more.
  I don't normally mention people stealing but that's mostly because it is plain obvious as they are terrible at being inconspicuous. They only time I mentioned that I saw someone stealing is at a dollar general where there was a single employee.
  Also if you do see someone stealing do not approach them or accuse them of stealing. That can go very badly and could lead to a serious escalation.
  
  Fun fact, dollar general has a habit of locking employees in the store and demanding they do work off the clock.
  Dollar general has stolen now more from it's own employees than anyone has ever stolen from dollar general. That's before you get to the horrifically unethical shit they get up to that's legal.
  Fuck em.

Walmarts around me have cameras at each self check out.
- Yup. I was using self checkout once and it flagged me when I was trying to pay but didn’t say why. The supervisor was on top of it and unlocked the terminal and it made him watch a 5 second video of “suspicious activity”, which was me moving my reusable bag to the other side at a low angle. Some AI they use saw that as trying to sneak an unscanned product past the scanner.
  I thought it was terribly clever but he just rolled his eyes and apologized for the inconvenience. As if an underpaid Walmart employee is going to waste their time arguing with a shoplifter.
  
  which was me moving my reusable bag to the other side at a low angle.
  Seems like a system like that would be easily fooled by confidently moving an item across the scanner and into the baggage area without scanning it.
- If you're ever feeling too confident in your appearance, go through the Target self check and watch yourself on the screen. I'm a pretty normal looking person, but goddamn.. not at the Target self check. Maybe people steal less when they feel bad about themselves..?
- My local walmart recently significantly expanded the self checkout area with the new scanners. Currently they either don't have functioning cameras or they display a gray camera icon where it normally would show a live view.
  
  Not that it matters here specifically, fuck Walmart. But don't assume that just because a feed on a public screen is blank, that it isn't being recorded or actively viewed elsewhere.

They know that loss increases with self checkout. They just did the math and figured it's less than the cost of hiring all the extra cashiers.
- Yep. That means you should get your value worth. If you accidentally don't scan an item once in a while you shouldn't worry about it too much.
- Probably some dystopian security system

Just had a conversation with my buddy who does security and hes adamant the only reason prices are going up is because of theft. I asked what came first the jump in thefts or the price gouging to which his tuned swapped to "They gotta pay to get these locked shelves and they keep reducing security head count" which of course I had to explain that the one time purchase of the cabinet is immensely cheaper than head count so based off that the prices should actually be dropping by installing them.

I've always had much better much at the non self checkout with cashiers getting distracted or forgetting to scan certain things. Especially at home depot I got a free 80 dollar shower head because my puppy was in the cart
- Reminds me of going to Walmart and getting a free 30 dollar bike basket. The register person assumed it was my 'bag' cause I had the other stuff I was buying inside of it and didn't scan it, they just passed it to the other side and chucked my stuff in there.
- You really should take it back and explain what happened. You really don't want to to be on the persons of interest list.
  Better yet, check your recipe before you leave to make sure everything rang up correctly.

I'm sure it depend on the area. Also Walmart has cameras with facial recognition so I personally wouldn't want to try to rob them.
Where I'm at there is also an exit check with a person that checks your receipt
- Legally speaking, walmart can ask to see your receipt, but since it's not a membership store, or has it in their Terms and Conditions of purchasing goods there, they can't stop you from just not showing it
  
  I just say no thank you and keep walking. Never had a problem.
  
  That's what the illegally armed and outfitted off duty police officer at the front of the store is for.
  
  Very true. However, I am happy to comply

Just remember, keep it under 500$ (may vary depending on where you live)
- That's total, not per trip. They can still add up all of your trips if they have the evidence.
  
  And they can and will wait til you pass whatever the local threshold is to nail you wth a felony.
- I'm curious if the system being confusing, annoying, and not notifying you if you made a mistake is enough of an excuse to get out of this. I know I've been really frustrated by self-checkout (and hence never use them if I have a choice, unless I'm checking out with like one item), and I'm a pretty intelligent and technologically advanced person. I can see plenty of accidents happening with people walking about without having paid for something. This could add up fairly quickly. Is it still illegal if it's because of choices the store made?

this feels relevant.