To be really sick of supermarkets treating paying customers like scum

No that hasn't always been the case. It goes against the code of our society. Innocent until proven guilty. If they think someone has committed a crime then deal with that....this system turns that on its head. You are being told you must prove you haven't committed a crime before you are allowed to leave.

i bet the OP is “known” at these shops and watches like a hawk!

Plenty of women walk out with trolleys stacked with goods without paying. It most definitely isn't just young men. And the vast majority isn't people desperate to feed the family. It is mainly organised gangs. Most days we have attempted trolley pushes of in excess of £600

treating you “like scum”
”like dirt”

You sound like an extra off Eastenders OP

You can't in our Tesco. They have one way gates with a display blocking the single 'out' gate. You can slip out past someone coming in or else need to leave via the self service.

How is it restricting to have to prove you've paid for something before leaving the shop? Hasn't this always been the case?

@S0livagant you don't attempt to leave the shop via the self service checkouts if you aren't buying anything.
I just leave by the same way I entered if I'm not buying anything.

I’m picturing this poster screaming in the ticket hall about all the sheep mindlessly scanning her ticket!! You will not take her, it’s a free country!!

In reality this poster barely leaves their house and lives an incredibly narrow existence day to day, letting out her release by ranting on mumsnet. Awesome.

‘know exactly what you mean. Tesco staff are awful for this. They literally act as though you are on day release and they're your probation officer.’

Do you speak from experience of the probation system, OP?

And this attitude is how we end up in a society with more and more restrictions and surveillance.

Putting the barrier in the self service area means you at least have to buy SOMETHING to get out, you can’t simply walk straight on through.

Why should you have to buy something? What if they don't have the thing you were looking for?

Depends where you live I think. Nothing like this round my way (dull as fuck rural middle) but I had to get a security guard to wrestle the gigantic plastic box off a block of cheddar in Birmingham. You chose OP - nightlife, deliveroo, uber, public transport plus extra security in the supermarket, or none of this and a slow quiet slide towards death (I love where I live btw but I am so jealous of people who get take aways delivered).

It's a pain in the arse and adds time, and I always set it off with a Brita filter 🤦‍♀️. It also causes a traffic jam when someone can't get their receipt to scan.

Do you do the same at train stations that won't let you out until you've scanned your ticket?

Or maybe most people can grasp that showing a receipt really isnt a big deal, will take seconds and means they wont be detained.

Then on entering the store you should be made aware of this system so you can decide whether you wish to continue or not.

Me neither. And I buy a lot of alcohol! They don't have security tags on the wine, at my local Asda, they do on the spirits though. Is it really a big deal to show your receipt though anyway? First world problems.

I suspect your attitude and general demeanour must be influencing how people treat you.
Most people don't attract this sort of attention at all.

Indeed. I certainly think it's a shame so many people are such sheep that they will comply with being detained by a shop until they prove their innocence.

I had this recently in a Tesco - I asked for the tag to be removed when the assistant came over to the self scan to confirm my age. She didn’t do it, I asked her to explain and she sort of said “after you’ve paid”. I was really confused. So I paid, packed my bags, and then had to wait for her to come over again. Now it makes sense. I don’t usually shop in person and think they’ve changed how they do it.

Not really, a private business is private property and has every right to enforce its own rules and ban would be customers who don’t comply and make a commotion every time they come into store wasting their resources.
If you don’t want to cooperate with their policy then your only right is to choose not to shop there, not to go and do whatever the fuck you like.

Some of you on this thread are so bloody dramatic.
I am so glad I don't work in retail anymore.

Some people actually do just love a winge don’t they🤣 all of these things do reduce theft. Putting the barrier in the self service area means you at least have to buy SOMETHING to get out, you can’t simply walk straight on through.

Of course they need to check you’ve paid for the wine/spirit before they take the security tag off- that is literally the point of security tags.

OF COURSE if you set the security alarm off when leaving a store they can check to see if you only have the items you’ve paid for or any additional.

ALL of these things reduce theft, or at least discourage people as they know there is at least hoops to jump through to be successful. If there was no security tags, no receipt scan to leave self checkout and no security on the door then it would be incredibly easy to just pick up a bottle of wine and walk straight out without paying.

My Tesco doesn't have security tags on wine so there's none of that going on.

Have no clue what you're talking about. Never experienced any of these things. And yes i use self checkouts and yes I buy alcohol. I've never had to scan a receipt to get out either