Be honest, zero judgment - how often do you steal from supermarket self-checkouts?

[Alwaysthelastone]

My theory is, “decent, up-standing” people do it a lot more than they’d ever admit. Let’s try to stop this thread descending into judgement and criticism of people who are just answering the question honestly. Otherwise they just won’t be honest. No judgement from me, as long as we’re talking large chain supermarkets only. I’ll admit that I sometimes forget to weigh fruit & veg, get to the till and can’t be bothered going back so don’t bother paying. Occasionally in the past when money’s been tight I haven’t paid for a few of the more expensive items like laundry detergent, nappies, the odd bottle of wine. But we’re talking 3 or 4 times I year. I’m not some sort of serial shoplifter and I consider myself a decent person (although I’m sure I’ll swiftly be told I’m not on here 🤣) anyway, would be interested to hear how often the mostly upstanding, middle-class MN population really does it…

It's called having a conscience

Their leader said a crackdown on shoplifting is criminalising poverty.

I must be missing out then as it’s never and never occurred to me to do it .

It’s like when you see things like smoked salmon in security cases. If you’re desperate and hungry smoked salmon shouldn’t be one of your shoplifting targets. It’s pure greed and poor morals to steal ‘luxury’ goods. If the shoplifting at my local store was out of genuine need it would baked beans, bread, pasta that needed security tags not smoked salmon and fillet steak.

I wish there was a poll, on this, but I'm relieved to see that the first page response is largely (if not entirely) "never".

Phew.

I'm also in the "never" crew.

I'm in the, "check my receipt at home and take something back to the shop if I've been undercharged for it so I can pay the correct amount crew".

In M&S in Shenfield, Essex, they keep the bags behind the counter because people weren't paying for them. The staff member gave me one on request, and said we have to keep them here or people steal them, so I said yep that's what I would do 😂She looked bemused. I just cannot believe the nerve of making us scan our own shopping, which is really inconvenient because the machines are always wrong or temperamental. I think a free bag is the least they can do.
What would be better is a reduction in your shopping bill for doing it yourself as an incentive - think of the money they've saved and all the staff that have lost jobs because of them.

They don’t just charge due to cost it’s partly to stop waste.

Literally never done it, except for one time when toddler ds put a bottle of garlic mayo in the trolley when I had my back turned. Got home, found random garlic mayo, he giggled. 🤷🏻‍♀️ After that, I kept a better eye on him.

I dobbed a shoplifter in to M and S. She was taking a huge pile of trousers into the changing room. They called the police and they came. Very satisfying.

When I was a kid, the nearest shop sold penny sweets. I took 20 sweets instead of the 10 I paid for by accident and I still feel guilty about that. I wouldn’t steal from a shop on purpose, self service tills don’t make it ok.

Absolutely never. I am surprised if anyone is?

Their leader in England and Wales.

I've never been undercharged for anything in a supermarket, does that honestly ever happen? I'm always being over charged - eg. BOGOFs not going through, yellow stickers charged at full price etc

It's a sign of entitlement. Entitlement however small is a sign of psychopathy and narcissism. Petty theft isn't a victimless crime whatever the size of the company.

Never I got an extra kettle on my online order once. I returned it to the store I showed them my order because I had only paid for one kettle.

An NZ Green MP was done for shoplifting.

Same for me.

Plus I wouldn’t risk my family, my career or my reputation.

There’s so many other options to help people who have nothing.

Why would taking a huge pile of trousers into the changing room mean that someone was going to steal them?

I don't vote Green.

They put several pairs on in increasing sizes then walk out.

It would be a lack of integrity.

Being a good person is doing the right thing when no one is looking.

That's the person I want to be.

You very much ARE a serial shop lifter.

I honestly never have.

I had a friend at uni who used to do it all the time with small items, and I couldn't believe it.

To be honest, it's the fear of getting caught that would stop me from ever doing it, the embarrassment and shame of that would be awful. I suppose you could try and say you just made a mistake at the checkout, but even so...the stress of that is not for me.

Who does?

I rarely use self check outs as I prefer to have some interaction with a real person and I would never dream of stealing anything from a supermarket. It's no surprise prices are so high, the amount of stuff which gets stolen.