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…

I honestly don't think you are grasping that what you are doing is a criminal offence.

Your post heading presupposes that posters will agree with your view of stealing from supermarkets ie that it's a valid thing to do. You said 'no judgement' but clearly you are judging very negatively the responses you've received from posters: the overall response hasn't been what you anticipated so your judgement is positively raining down.

'Pearl clutchers' to describe posters who don't steal from supermarkets and are perhaps a bit shocked at the assumption that loads of people do... well, it's not really an appropriate description. 'Pearl clutchers' describes delicate creatures who are faux morally-shocked, hypocrites even. People who believe it's wrong to steal because you can are not pearl clutchers. You've also resorted to attacking mumsnet as a whole. Given your view of its members, why on earth would you expect posters to declare themselves to be a bunch of thieves?

Your posture is that of a teen rebel railing against 'the man', the evil capitalist vultures. Sometimes in life there might be a reason to steal something: someone is starving, has no money, has several children... And in a society increasingly being run by a few mega-wealthy individuals, there is a great deal of corporate behaviour to feel very concerned and angry about and to protest against. But how that justifies stealing food for a lark I can't see.

The current situation in many shops where 'shoppers' are brazenly walking out with full carts without paying or grabbing handfuls of clothes etc and heading for the exit, is a national blight. Your 'cheeky' little bit of thieving from supermarkets is the start point for the entitled attitudes of the more blatant thieves.

It’s quite amusing watching you twist yourself in knots trying to justify your dishonesty!

Absolutely never. That is me being honest, and yes, I've been on the bones of my arse before now. I've never knowingly walked out of any shop or supermarket with items I haven't paid for.

Stealing is NOT OK, though for some reason you seem to think otherwise and I do judge you for it.

I absolutely fear having made a genuine mistake at self-service checkouts and I check in a paranoid fashion all the way round the supermarket that I have scanned everything.

Not quite stealing but I accidentally forgot to pay for an entire trolley full of shopping once, doubt anyone can beat that 😩😂

FGS OP theft is theft, whether it’s a banana, a child’s bike, jumper or the Brinks Mat gold bullion from Heathrow. Theft is theft. You clearly have zero moral compass, and a very poor role model for any children you may unfortunately have.

No, decent upstanding people DO NOT do it. You’ve said you do it more when money is tight, if money is tight you don’t help yourself to a bottle of wine. You are a serial shoplifter however you try to dress it up. A mistake is one thing but to deliberately go out to steal is another. Go have a word with yourself OP and imagine if you were being stolen from.

I’m sorry but stealing from shops is not normal behaviour. You can try and make a joke out of it and pretend that ‘everybody is doing it’ but they really aren’t. The fact that you and your entitled friends are comparing stories and bragging about it speaks volumes. And this opinion has nothing to do with the nature of Mumsnet. It’s about right and wrong - knowing the difference is not being superior.

What did you do? Did you keep it?

You sound incredibly immature. It’s not either or you know. It’s not a race to the bottom. Just own the fact that you lack a moral compass when it comes to stealing and you are a thief. That’s it. No need to compare it with other personality traits.

You make yourself look more immature with each subsequent post. Esp when you accuse everyone of pearl-clutching and worse, yet apparently you are ‘kind and compassionate to others’ and don’t ‘degrade’ people. It’s comical!

Or the “odd bottle of wine” here and there, 3 or 4 times a year, because the poor op was so broke and she needed to feed her family 🙄
I’d love to know how many meals she made that wine last, whilst she was feeding her poor hungry children with it 😂
Judge? Of course I’d never judge…
And the reason I don’t steal is because I’m just not a thief, like pretty much everyone else has said.
Honestly, op, if you were stealing the absolute basics to feed your kids because you’re genuinely on the bones of your arse, that would be one thing, but to be stealing (multiple) bottles of wine, and even finding it funny, suggests you just steal because you enjoy it and you like the feeling of getting away with it.

😆😆😆😆
Did I say I had done it? And I said a colleague not a friend, a colleague in a high level position actually, the horror!

You’re really clutching at straws here in a desperate attempt to make your poor behaviour feel ok to you. And that’s a problem for you to manage. Our judgement of your behaviour is neither here nor there; we are not in any position to stop you doing what you do.

The problem you’ve come up against, I suspect, is that you are actually beginning to examine your behaviour and are having trouble justifying it to yourself.

Your behaviour is not ‘kind and compassionate’. It is not kind and compassionate to cheat your fellow humans (many of whom will have less money than you but still do the right thing) out of more of their cash.

No I never have.

used to work on them the main way was all veg weighed as onions (cheapest veg)

I have never done this. I don’t think it’s a normal thing people do either.

Oh have a word with yourself, OP. Stealing is wrong and criminal behaviour. You know this. Trying to distract from your poor life decisions by throwing around ‘but, but, but, you’re all bullies….’ is pathetic.

The bigger stores probably know that people can steal using the hand scanners or self service tills, but it’s still cheaper for them than having to pay staff to go on the tills all the time and keeps the profits higher.

What is it that would stop you doing it…fear of getting caught or feeling like you’re a “thief” and feeling bad about yourself cos you’ve got strong morals?

It wouldn't be just feeling like a thief, you would be a thief. And I'm not a thief so it wouldn't occur to me to steal something.

I know that 'micro-looting' is having a moment in the USA and seen as some sort of justifiable act but I think people who steal are utterly despicable. I have never stolen even at my poorest. It wouldn't cross my mind.

Nope. I’ll continue to do things exactly as I am thanks, as that is what works best for my child. And as you can see from my original post - the only time I have ever forgotten to pay for something I immediately rectified the situation.

Yes we'd eaten most of it by the time I checked my bank account and saw i had about £200 more than I expected 😬. When i went back to do my next shop and explained what happened and offered to pay they said they couldnt go back to check and couldn't put a payment through. Id said can you not check my clubcard record but I dont know if that was too much effort for them, just got told no not possible, enjoy the free shop! And we did 😃

OP, you aren't just a serial thief, but also a stupid one at this.

People stealing from shops occasionally is not the reason supermarket prices are rising.

Retailers lose hundreds of millions each year to thieves like you. It's direct loss, but also they had to introduce expensive measures to try to limit theft a bit, e.g. security guards in many stores, which again impacts their bottom line. So we all pay for your crimes.

You should be disgusted of yourself.

Never. I got in a paddy in the middle of the night and the assistant put it all through for me. When got home I realised I had a bottle of gin that hadn't scanned but on camera, it would have been clear that I was standing well back and all of it was done by someone else. I didn't drink it for weeks in case I got the knock. I've always lived in fear of getting a Police record. My Dad would turn in his grave and I wouldn't want to let his memory down basically.

Never. I don't steal things. It is very low grade behaviour and it drives the prices up for everyone. I don't want to be that type of person.

Not sure if this will go down well, but I always brought my children up not to expect something until it’s paid for. Therefore, they never got food before the till in a supermarket either.