Accused of stealing a bag for life

[MindfulMess]

I went to my local supermarket this afternoon to pick up a few bits and pieces. We’re in a big city and I’m in there almost every day. There’s only one checkout with a person working it; the rest are self-checkouts.

I got chosen for a random check. No drama, it happens a lot. Then I was told I hadn’t scanned my bag for life. No , I said, it’s mine. I just took it out of my pocket. The woman repeated that I hadn’t scanned it, and I repeated that it was mine and had just come out of my pocket. She called a supervisor and they told me to wait.
A few minutes later the supervisor came back, and the first woman said (without looking at me), “You can go”. Nothing was said about what had happened but I assume they reviewed security tape or something and saw that yes, my bag had in fact come out of my own pocket.

I pointed out that they had been quite rude and was pointedly ignored. I was shaking. I’m shy in public at the best of times and I really didn’t know what was going on or what was going to happen. I mean, you wouldn’t expect they’d call the cops over a bag for life but I had no way of proving I hadn’t stolen it. They were, if anything, even more rude once they said I could go.

What should I do? I’m honestly quite scared to go back. None of the usual staff seemed to be working today (I’ve been in there perhaps every second day for over a decade, quite a few of them know me by sight.) But it’s my local shop…

(By the way I am well aware that regulars steal things too, and I have no issue with being checked. The attitude, though, was awful. When I questioned it I was basically told to leave the shop now please madam!)

A bit embarrassing, sure, but I think you're overreacting, why would you be scared to go back?
I've had a whole trolley load rescanned because my daughter put something in it without self-scanning! Not a nice experience, but one of those things. Don't give it anymore headspace.

I take the odd bag for life for my wage for scanning my own shopping I press 1 bag when I’ve used 2.

I know you think it's being clever, but you are just an everyday shoplifter like all the rest. In fact, it's almost worse than helping yourself to other goods, as the government doesn't demand that the shop charge for - and therefore make sure that they receive payment for - almost every other product on sale in the store.

The self-service tills are supposed to be a choice for your own convenience (whether you value this/it turns out that way or not). The obvious solution is to use a checkout with a person behind it.

I agree that it is counterintuitive expecting people to co-ordinate taking bags from other supermarkets in every time and/or not keeping bags in good condition so that they are clearly 'used', thus reducing the amount of times a bag can be used. It's ironic that, if you deliberately tore your bag for life in two on the way in, you could quite legitimately use it as currency to get a free one at the till. Not really the point at all, mind.

You could also, if you were that way minded, pay for a number of bags on one occasion and then keep the receipt in your purse/wallet, ready to produce every time you stole bags in future - at least for as long as they kept them at the same price and used the same design. It is annoying that there are obvious ways for the thieves to cheat the system further and get away with what is still actually a crime - however funny and ridiculous this may seem to people with low morals and self-respect - whilst the honest people, being honest, would often be too naive to think of doing this in the first place.

I always press the button to get a receipt, however little I've spent; but I do agree that they can't look to be saving costs by not giving one automatically and then not give you the benefit of the doubt when you return something and/or have no proof that you have paid for something. They can't have it both ways - not that this excuses actual theft at all.

Get an indelible black pen and write in big letters 'I have already paid for this bag. Twice!' Then maybe under where it says 'Tesco' write 'are thieving bastards'

I see exactly where you're coming from - and I'd be tempted to do the same myself if they kept challenging me as well - but this does very much remind me of the precise kind of thing that my DGM would have done. She suffered from severe mental illness and would also shout at the telly and 'in response to' (entirely non-existent) accusations from the neighbours that she was 'a thief' 'a drug dealer' or other things that would indeed be appalling to be accused of, if indeed that's what anybody was actually doing; so do make sure you keep a sense of balance and proportion!

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll I shout at the telly too

You’ll have to go back and steal a bag now to get your money back!

I got questioned in Tesco the other day. I was going round to my sister’s and had put a bottle of wine in my voluminous coat pocket and thought I would nip in and see if they had something better. They didn’t, so I left and got stopped. Luckily the wine did have an identifying mark from the other store I’d bought it from (though it came from my wine rack.) It wasn’t pleasant to be questioned and could have gone badly wrong if the wine had been stocked in Tesco as well.

You’ll have to go back and steal a bag now to get your money back!

That would not be stealing - that would be purely just!

Blimey! There's some self-righteous people on here tonight!

This is why I never take an Asda bag for life into Asda or a Tesco one into Tesco for example. Because similar happened to me in Aldi. Not accused outright of stealing but
The cashier said I’ll scan the bag for you. I explained it was mine and I’d brought it in with me. She said it looked too new? I told her I’d only used it once before and it had been laid flat in the boot of my car ever since.
I don’t think she believed me, anyway she didn’t charge me for it but I make sure I never take the bag for life associated with the shop Im in.

I had an issue with coop I spent £30 in there but used the self check out, I had actually paid for 2 bags thinking I could fit it all in but I couldn't And there was still shopping on the check out so I couldn't pay for another bag until I had removed it. As there was nowhere to move it to I just grabbed another bag (I didn't think it was a massive deal it wasn't intentional and I would have paid had I been able to without having to move all my shopping off on to the floor to pay and then get a bag and pay for that separately.) As I was leaving the security shouted at me in front of everyone for not paying for the bag! Even though I had already bought two, he humiliated me in front of everyone and I haven't been back in since. Been 2 years now. I remember posting about it at the time and most people on MN thought I was a vile thief over a 30p bag which use to be free anyway and told me I must have known it wouldn't fit into 2 so I planned to steal an extra bag. 🙄 only see this type of attitude on MN tbh.

If you shop at Morrisons use Aldi bags. I keep a collection of these bags from different shops in my car boot for just such purpose. I never use the bags in shop I am shopping in.

You're a bit thick if you don't understand what overheads are

I'm always a bit paranoid about being accused of this kind of thing, ever since a teenage shop assistant stood guard over me and a friend at 4am in the local 24 hour Asda once when we were buying some bits for a long car journey. I think the teenager must have been watching Thelma and Louise or something....now I try to make sure I always have different bags for life (Asda in Sainsbury's say) or ones that have long since gone out of commission (really old Tesco Hessian ones, say). It's also one of the many reasons I am very grateful for online shopping and deliveries.

I would be writing an email of complaint, and if possible not shopping there any more. Like you I would have no problem with them asking about the bag, but they should have had the good grace to apologise. Life is too short to put up with this sort of nonsense.

Same

Anyone that thinks Tesco will take a hit in their profits because of theft is delusional. Every week we do a bag count and each box contains 500 bags, you'd be amazed how much we lose on carrier bags each week and naive if you think you don't pay for this loss with price increases.

Over the years I've seen customers try and take all sorts of things, the green trays that produce get delivered in are a customer favourite, I remember stopping one man from loading them up in his boot to be told they stack perfectly in his garage and we wouldn't miss a few. The point is if everyone had the attitude it's only a bag/green tray/trolley etc imagine how much supermarkets spend replacing these items. Baskets are a new favourite for customers who have forgotten carrier bags but won't pay for any so they think they can have the basket and we'll just stand back and let them. The next time there's no bags, baskets or trollies when you shop remember it's probably because they've been stolen and the stock count hasn't gone in for the week so the store runs short.

Unfortunately some people are thick and don't realise that we all end up paying for it in the end, or more likely don't care (by the some of the comments here, thick, cheap and proud of it!) 🤷‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Customers wouldn’t get away with this in France.
we have to show our empty bags at the till and in one store my dm went through checkout before me and wanted to return to find me.
The assistant made her leave her shopping at customer service!

My ds always forgets his bag for life and buys another. You could probably stock your store with bags for a week from his cupboard.

Oh and anyone who steals from Tesco this is who owns it so fill your boots.

do you have bags from other places you can use next time?

Do this next time but also I would complain to head office. Rude of them to be so dismissive. You can't accuse people of theft lightly.

If your gonna steal a bag why not steal all your shopping stealing is stealing. You can't just pick and choose what you want to pay for.

OP - go back in and point out they made you pay 30p when you didn't need to.

Pretty shocked by responses on this thread. Society, it seems, is full of selfish idiots without any sort of moral centre, who think people who behave normally (i.e. not stealing) are somehow beneath them and are to be mocked, or who at least think it's perfectly OK to take stuff they want without paying for it, just because they feel like it. And then we wonder why kids are so badly behaved and entitled...

I had similar, my tesco bag for life which I’d bought with me actually scanned accidentally as I moved it across!

Great suggestion thanks, I'll do that next time!

I had this. Really insulting and quite rude when I suggested I'd had it for over a year.

Same 30p a bag is a rip off

FFS you do realise you can actually take your own bag in with you? Which I think was the point of the OP's original post.

@MindfulMess sorry this stressed you out so much, but if people keep nicking the bags, then of course they will need to do checks. So blame people like @Bluearc77 for creating this situation.