Waitrose said it was because I put something back on the shelf and deducted it.
That’s ridiculous. Plenty of people probably realise they haven’t quite got enough money and so decide to put something back. Also, some items’ prices aren’t always clear, so the obvious thing is to scan it to see the price before deciding whether to buy it or put it back.
I abandoned a scan once when I realised I couldn’t pay in cash, in the trial stores you could but when rolled out you couldn’t.
It then meant the next time I couldn’t take out a scanner.
I did that in Asda the other week – it was just before pay day and I didn’t have anything left in my account, only a £20 note on me – and I forgot that you couldn’t pay with cash with scan and go. I didn’t abandon my shopping as such, though, I just removed all of the items and put the scanner back having ‘completed’ my ‘shop’ comprising zero items – before heading over to a normal till to scan my stuff and pay with cash.
When I went in again (after pay day!), I was able to get a scanner as normal.
On balance, the probability is that they were trying it on and knew that they hadn’t scanned half their stuff (or accidentally ‘forgot’ two or three very expensive luxury items); however, it isn’t a foregone conclusion.
I can well see how you might have been in there ages, collecting and scanning three trolley-loads – and then, instead of just paying and going home, it’s as if it’s all been for nothing as you potentially have another long wait ahead of you – time that you simply may not have available, if you need to be somewhere afterwards urgently. I understand the need for security and to minimise theft, but it does completely defeat the object of scanning as you shop in the first place.
You ‘invest’ the time during your shopping to save it at the end, with a modern, convenient, time-saving system, and then it ends up taking you longer overall than if you’d just shopped the ‘old-fashioned’ way and not bothered in the first place.
Also, I can see how some people might not be thieving and might not be in any kind of hurry, but might see this scenario as a time-wasting charade and deliberately register their displeasure by –flouncing—terminating the transaction, even if it is very much cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Some folk might also interpret it as an accusation of shoplifting and find it very embarrassing - especially if they're seen by people who know them - if they're maybe not so used to the modern ways of shopping/computing and don't appreciate the completely random nature of the additional checks and rather see it as a deliberate slur on their good name.
I suppose some people could be neurodiverse and/or extremely shy and be just about in their comfort zone being able to shop without talking to another person – and then they discover that their comfort zone has been ‘invaded’ and it just all gets too much for them.
As I say, these people were most probably on the rob, but there are other possible (innocent) explanations.