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 don’t steal but it’s mad people are worried about the odd banana or something upping prices for everyone else. Aren’t the supermarkets recording massive profits every single year? They do not care about the consumer or your rising costs so if someone wants to nick a banana then I couldn’t care less. The supermarket would prefer that over paying a worker to operate those tills 🤷🏻‍♀️

Yes, never. I’ve even gone back to pay for an accidentally stolen bulb of garlic. Surprised anyone thinks stealing is ok, or that stealing from large chains is a victimless crime. Do you think about the employees / managers who may be penalised for failing to stop you? What about everyone else paying higher prices to compensate for lost profit? It’s really antisocial to just take stuff you can’t afford or can’t be bothered to pay for just because you can.

Behave:

So if prices go up that's ok?

Any particular reason you can't supply your DC with something to eat that you bring from home?

I don't steal from shops and I'm definitely not a pearl clutcher OP. And have frequently been skint and hungry.

I don't think I would judge someone stealing nappies or baby formula etc if they needed them and had no money. I am judging you stealing bottles of wine just for the shits and giggles, I think that makes you a bit of a dickhead tbh

I agree, but the aggregate of lots of people doing this with pricier items will be priced in to their business plan and it’s not their ginormous profits that will take a hit.

So if having a good moral compass means you must follow the law to the letter but it’s ok to be a bully, degrade people, and add to their suffering, then I’d much rather have a poor moral compass but have the ability to be kind and compassionate to others.

Oh look, now we're not only pearl clutchers but bullies and tyrants while thieves are good kind people.

OP's going to spend hours untangling herself from her pretzel logic at this rate.

Never

I would never ever steal

They go up anyway?

Once every couple of months and I never pay for a bag

They'll go up more the more people steal

I inadvertently stole a swede from Sainsbury's in about 1992.

Because juggling a child with profound and multiple disabilities is really fucking tiring. My child needs 24/7 close 1:1 supervision so I can’t just pop to the kitchen and make a snack at will. Funnily enough, if you swan into the supermarket with a bag full of food that you then don’t pay for, they are more likely to assume you’ve stolen it, so you are creating more of an issue for staff. Also, he may be disabled but my child is a human being with free will. He may decide once we are in the shop that he would like something else, however he does not have the understanding to know about money, tills, and payment. So sometimes if he wants an apple from the pack or a piece of the baguette I let him have it on our way round and I pay for it on the way out. He is happy, it means we get to accomplish our shop, and therefore that is what I will continue to do.

Never

Never, even when I couldn't afford food for a few months when I was struggling to keep a roof over my head. Although I did once forget to pay a cafe tab when I was on holiday in Turkey, I had to rush to get the last ferry back to the hotel and totally forgot to pay. I was mortified when I realised and had visions of being arrested, but my hotel phoned the cafe for me and I went back the next day to settle up and left a big tip as I was so embarrassed - they were very nice about it.

Never ever. I once walked out with a bunch of flowers after thinking I had paid for them. When I was walking past the window I noticed two employees looking at the till I had been on and pressing the screen so I went back in to check and my card hadn’t gone through so I paid. I would never steal from a shop.

@Alwaysthelastone I would never judge someone who had to steal nappies or food or anything because they were so desperate. But I have never shop lifted and it has never crossed my mind, because I've never needed to. When I was a student on a tight budget I bought from lower priced shops or ate pot noodles. Again I was fortunate that I was never THAT poor. And then as my salary has increased, my standard of living has, and the CoL has hit us, but not to the extent of remotely considering shop lifting.

I think what I am saying is that for me shop lifting woud be the very last resort and I would assume that this was the same for anyone. If it's not, but is either a 'hah no one will notice', or a 'let's stick to these corporations' blasé attitude, then I guess I would be more judgemental about it?

Are you 14? You sound like it.

When i was much much much younger, a few times i would delibrately hold some of the weight of a salad tub on my fingers and then input for the smaller size.

But as an adult, never. Have some self respect.

OP whatever you say about moral compass or compassion, I still think you are scum for stealing. Somethings are black and white. There is no nuance. Theft is wrong, simple as. You steal therefore you are wrong. If you get caught you don't deserve sympathy.

You’re massively backtracking here. Your original post said you stole wine, nappies, laundry detergent. All high priced items. Now you’re making out that you’ve only stolen a single banana. Huge difference!

You rebel.☺️

Perhaps we should be questioning the morals of someone / a company that needs to make 1040million instead of just 1000 mil a year, whilst lots of people afford to eat or heat their homes, and then we can be less worried about the odd peach being put through as an onion, by someone who isn’t paid to work there anyway 🤷🏻‍♀️
so again, I’m not really arsed about ops laundry detergent or whatever. I wouldn’t do it myself but I can’t feel sorry for the supermarkets loss, or agree with any decision they make to put up prices for everyone else to absorb the loss they make. it’s a loss they’re making because they chose to stop paying workers.