Self-checkout theft causing problems for retailers — and shoppers who despise receipt checks
Self-checkout theft causing problems for retailers — and shoppers who despise receipt checks
I started using grocery self-checkouts during COVID, but I've kept using them because there's rarely a line (and I'm a misanthrope). I'd probably go back to using regular human checkouts if I had to dig through all my crap to prove what I bought.
Having said that, I've noticed myself making mistakes. I've accidentally failed to scan an item, and I've accidentally entered incorrect codes for produce. When I notice, I fix them, but I've probably missed a few.
I guess the easiest answer is for grocery chains to reinvest some of those windfall profits and hire more cashiers.
Corporations want it both ways ...
... docile workers that will work for little or no pay, which make them poor and more apt to want to steal in order to get cheap food
... honest customers that won't steal, even if they become desperate because corporations refused to pay them a living wage to afford food
Economically speaking ... it's a no brainer ... pay people a living wage and pay for more cashiers to work at the front .. the company makes more money by securing purchases and keeping everyone honest and you maintain a workforce of highly paid people who go to spend their money with your stores anyway
Instead, we want to maintain a system where money and wealth continually keep getting shoved to ever smaller groups of people and we wonder why those of us at the bottom keep trying steal and rob the system just to get by.
'If you give a man gun he can rob a bank; if you give man a bank he can rob the world.'
AND LET THE CASHIERS FUCKING SIT FOR FUCK SAKE!
I don't use self-checkouts in retail stores, and I hate that some stores, like Shoppers, will try so hard to direct me to one when I'm in the queue for the cashier. I have put down merch and walked out of stores over this stance, and I no longer visit some stores (like Shoppers).
I'm not entirely against automated purchase systems. A completely touchless system would get a pass from me. I am against retailers forcing their customers to manually scan and check-out their products though, all while treating them as untrustworthy by dictating where they can place their scanned merch, weighing the merch as it's scanned, and checking the receipts after doing so.
Obviously, none of this addresses the question of whether fully-automated retail spaces are actually good for the working class as a whole.
What I do is deliberately go to a cashier, even if the line is extremely long, and I see more and more people doing the same. This forces more lines to open. One time they asked if I could use the self-checkout to speed up the process. I replied that if the items were cheaper at the self-checkout, sure, otherwise I'd stay in line.
At my grocery store, they added in a ton of self checkout, but they didn't give you enough room to bag your groceries. So you have a cart of food, but a mini-shelf to store them on. And yes, they are no limit. They typically now only have two manned lanes open during peak shopping times. I'm sure some theft is part of it, I'm also convinced most of the "theft" is from the stupid setup and the scales on the mini-shelves. Only place I stop for a receipt check is at membership places like Costco. Everywhere else is a firm, "No thank you," and I keep walking. Go ahead, call the cops. I have a receipt.
I prefer self-checkout because cashiers don't know shit about bagging groceries in a reasonable manner. I don't like dealing with people and I like my groceries bagged to my specifications. Self-checkout is a godsend.
That said...
I have made mistakes. I've accidently stolen from WalMart. I've been an employee of WalMart; I am not crying over this. WalMart is a shit employer and they have a ton of self-check so they can continue to refuse full time jobs to cashiers so they don't have to pay benefits. Fuck them.
"I'm not stealing, I'm just poorly trained at this job you're now expecting me to do without compensation."
How much is the loss really, in the grand scheme of things? Article says 23% of losses are self-checkout and theft, but what's the percentage of losses overall?
Because I'm pretty sure the overwhelming majority of people scan their items correctly. My local stores don't even bother enabling the scale on those machines.
IMO it's got to still end up cheaper than switching back to rows of cashiers, and self checkout is so much nicer and faster. I check my groceries out in less than a minute usually.
Or, if it's such a big problem, maybe they can license the tech Amazon uses for their physical stores. Literally grab what you want from the shelves and walk out and it knows what you took and bills you.
Wait, are receipt checks why Shopper's Drug Mart no longer gives me the option of "e-mail only" for my receipt? The garbage bins full of them by self-check-out are disgusting; it's so wasteful.
Edit: Also self-checkouts are entirely on the companies not wanting to pay for cashiers, so I have no sympathy for them whatsoever. Want to make sure people are checking all their items? Stop trying to automate people out of jobs.
All I can do is act with ethics and integrity. The rest is their god-damned problem. I can't say I have ever been harassed at the door though. Maybe this was just one security guard going overboard.
Then they should be delighted to hear that I refuse to use self-checkout. Problem solved, right?
I've never seen anyone stealing food and neither did you......
I don't feel bad from stealing from corporations. Not my fault they wanted to increase their profits by raising prices, lowering quality and firing people.
I know it varies by location, but I have been using self checkout for years.
There are always more self checkouts open than there ever where staffed lines. I don't get in the line that has someone argue over checks or coupons, when a spot opens up the next person gets to start. If I only have a few things I don't need to spend 25 to 20 minutes in line like I did before self checkout.
Other than a couple years of growing pains, self checkout has been a massive improvement for my general shopping experience. The fact that so many trips are for a few items probably impacts that, but even when picking up a week's groceries I prefer self checkout.
Any time I’m buying more than 3 items, I typically just go straight to a human-operated register.
The grocery store near me has the most annoying security feature on their self-checkout machines. After you scan your item, it must be placed on the checkout shelf before you can do anything else. If the weight is “unexpected”, you’re stuck asking for help. If you have a full cart of items, you can’t parallelize tasks because of this deadlock; the machine refuses to scan the next item until your current purchase is on the checkout shelf and verified.
FYI to anyone here, you don't have to show them your receipt or let them check your bag. Just refuse and leave.
Any before anyone says "they'll ban you from the store", they very likely won't. And even if you are added to the ban list, it's not really possible for them to enforce. I worked at a very high traffic Loblaws for a while as a self checkout attendant, and I would regularly have my friends in customer service point out people that had been banned checking out with no problems.
As non American with no self checkout available, what does the recipe check look like? Do you just show them recipe and they briefly look at it before waving you through or do they actually go through all of your groceries cross checking the items?
Because we still have to sometimes show the recipe to the security guards despite not having self checkout. But they don't cross check anything and the procedure takes 2-5 seconds as they sometimes sign the recipe.
Having said that, I’ve noticed myself making mistakes. I’ve accidentally failed to scan an item, and I’ve accidentally entered incorrect codes for produce. When I notice, I fix them, but I’ve probably missed a few.
Stores are 1000 percent alright with this. They don't want you to intentionally steal of course, but shit happens and people mess up, even trained cashiers.
The real problem occurs when people intentionally and maliciously steal, and these checks arent there to catch people like you.
Am I the only one that hands my stuff to the staff member standing there and asks them for help? I really don't mind saying I don't understand how those things work, as I truly don't care enough to pay even the slightest bit of attention to them.... If there's a staff member just standing there watching, why can't they help me as a customer?
I'm always polite about it, except that one time at Dollarama where there was 4 people standing there acting like I was being rude for asking them to ring me thru a till rather than use a self checkout. That time, I just put my stuff down and walked out. If they don't want to help me, I'm not giving them my money.
I won't use them at all. I'm not seeing any cost benefit from doing their employees' task for them as prices have never come down. Big box stores can DIAF for all I care.