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…

'Pearl clutch' is completely unwarranted in this situation.

It's quite rare that Mumsnet threads are so united, so trying to dismiss the majority disagreeing with you as being 'judgmental' may make you feel better but it's completely untrue.

Further to my earlier explanation of why I wouldn't do it: I could lose my job if I have a criminal record due to the nature of it, so there's another reason. There are many varied reasons as to why which don't make anyone disagreeing with you 'Pearl clutching'.

She’s right though! I read some threads and some people are really nasty, I completely get her point.

committing a criminal offence doesn’t make you a bad person. I use to work in a cafe when I was 17, and I’d always be giving old ladies some free cake if they were taking ages to find change. I’d be like ‘it’s on the house’… does that make me dishonest because it wasn’t my cake to give way for free? Definitely doesn’t make me an awful person

never ever

I once stole an onion by mistake at Christmas about 20 years ago - DC was sat on it in the trolley and didn't find it until I got back to the car and put him on the car seat.

I'd spent £160 (a lot in 2006), was flustered by the whole experience and didn't go back to pay 5p for the onion.

I've never ever stolen from self-pay. Even by accident.

Literally never and I would absolutely judge someone who did.

Well you’ve said yourself that the shops are making huge profits, and yet prices continue to rise. They aren’t passing a share of the profits back to the customers, so the losses they do make are paid for by us.

You'd hate my husband - he won't use self service because he thinks they are putting people out of work.

I do use them sometimes but I don't steal. Clearly I have the cognitive abilities of a child and can't understand the "complexities" that make some (your) thefts ok.

Never.

There are cameras at those checkouts...is it really worth it, OP? We are all struggling out here, but we aren't turning into common criminals.

Ooooh

The OP is the one emphasising the banana to make posters sound like they’re over reacting to a very minor theft when in fact she’s admitted to stealing wine, nappies and laundry detergent and steals a number of times in a year.

Right at the start of the covid lockdowns I was incredibly stressed. My DH had a cough and the supermarket was already stripped bare. I took my pathetic basket of crap that we would never normally buy to the self checkout. I scanned the lot and then a woman started screaming and smashing bottles on the floor. I took my bag and left in a hurry. Once home i was telling my DH about how it felt like the start of an apocalypse film and I realised I couldn't remember paying. Checked my bank and I had stolen the whole bag of shopping. I then got a cough, didn't go back, and now I'm too scared to.

The places that have cameras (not all do) on the self service arent capturing whether people have stolen though so the cameras arent effective against stopping non-scanners.

im not sure it’s as clear cut as that. Their costs do go up and they want to keep their margins the same so costs will rise for us. But also they can just charge us more, what are we going to do. They can do that if we steal or not. I suppose I’m just saying I don’t think that’s the reason to not steal or at least not a very important one really. And that I can’t really judge people that much for stealing, im just surprised by how angry some pp seem about it.

A criminal record can have massive consequences for someone's life. If she's caught.

OP I find it bizarre that you think that anyone who doesn't steal is a "pearl clutcher". To my mind, being a "non thief" is the default for most of us. Your question about why we don't steal is also strange. I don't steal because it literally doesn't occur to me. I wouldn't shoplift any more than I would, for example, wet the bed rather than use the toilet. Paying for things in shops is automatic, as it should be for everyone.

Don’t understand this logic at all. No one here is feeling sorry for Mr Tesco or Mr Sainsbury’s. We’re pissed off that we’re paying for the losses made by supermarkets due to theft. Like you, I don’t agree with their decisions to put prices up for all the other shoppers, but guess what? Mr Tesco and Sainsbury’s don’t give a shit what I think! So while I agree that they shouldn’t put prices up for other customers, that is what they do and that is why we’re having this conversation.

Never. But I regularly go over on my parking and occasionally "forget" to pay for parking.

I use the self checkout every week, and i've never stolen something! Why would you? If you can't afford something, then you don't have it!

And Aldi. I once put 3 of my 5 bananas through to see what would happen. What happened was that it knew I'd put more bananas in the bag than I'd scanned! It beeped like a very cross thing until an assistant came to rescue me and re-scan my 5 bananas 😳

Never and not because I'm morally above stealing in some situations, I just figured I'd get caught and that'd be mortifying.

I think it makes people angry because we’re frustrated. The vast majority of people do the right thing the vast majority of the time; because that’s how community and society work. If everyone just put themselves first all the time and helped themselves to what they want, then society would completely fall apart. We do our bit and other people do their bit- that’s how the ‘contract’ works.

It’s frustrating to make efforts to be part of a decent society and to see other people not bothering. I feel the same about people who drop litter or fail to pick up their dog’s shit. It’s all low-level stuff, but I genuinely find it upsetting every time I realise that a proportion of people simply don’t care about anyone else.

Another one chiming in to say never. Or at least never intentionally. I agree with previous posters that stealing from a shop is the same as having someone steal from my home, I wouldn't do it and I wouldn't try to justify it either.

Though there was that one time in 1967 when I stole a packet of chewing gum from the shop outside junior school under a lot of peer pressure and feeling the need to prove that I was as cool as a friend who I greatly admired. I felt so bad about stealing from the nice couple who owned the shop that I went back and reverse shoplifted the packet of gum the next day, which was just as nerve wracking as the initial theft. An early lesson that I wasn't suitable for the life of a hardened criminal that has stood me in good stead.

Never.