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…

This is timely. Yesterday I had a supermarket delivery with some weird multiples in it - I’d ordered one box of eggs for example but got four. Overall I got about a dozen unordered items, I’ve not been charged for them.

I’m not proposing to do anything about it, I assume they won’t collect food in case it’s been tampered with. Am I a thief?

You"'re a bit self deceptive .

Never. They could leave all the tills open and I wouldn’t touch a penny.

There’s this really weird attitude on MN sometimes where, if you’ve asked if you do something like steal or smack children and you say no, you’re then told you’re ’sanctimonious’ or ‘holy’.
I’m not either of those things, I just don’t commit crimes or hit kids.

I think this is their mistake, it's their responsibility to pack the delivery and charge you correctly. Also presumably the reason you got the delivery in the first place was because you didn't want to go to the shop, it's unreasonable for them to expect you to go back to the shop to correct their error. I suppose you could call them and let them know. You're paying them for a service though, and they got it wrong. That's very different to shop lifting.

OP reminds me of a "friend" I played the 80s game "Scruples" with. If you are unfamiliar, the game poses all kinds of questions like "If you were on a solo vacation and had the opportunity to cheat on your partner with your dream crush, and no one would ever EVER find out, would you do it?". You play in a group and as the game went on, this one friend admitted she would do every thing posed by the game, and thought the rest of us silly prudes. After that night, she lost every one of us as friends as we had confirmation that she would steal from, cheat and lie to all of us if she thought she could get away with it.

I wonder what ever happened to her...?

Not read replies yet but people definitely steal by using Scan&Go more than they admit as it's so easy.

I don't - and I'm not sure how you could actually because even when I am trying to be honest it starts shrieking "THERE'S AN UNEXPECTED ITEM IN YOUR BAGGING AREA" when there isn't.

If it helps you get over it, crime require a mens rea, or mental element, as well as the act.

Never ever.

The OP is the reason we need to bring back public stocks

Nope. I’m not a thief.

You know shops close down because of shoplifting. Esp now that it's rampant. Big shops work on tighter margins to give lower prices.

Never!

OP knows but clearly doesn't ’t care.

No, it's not the same. But I'm using hyperbole to make a point. Well, two points actually:

1. It's the Internet, nobody is under any obligation to accept your conditions for participation
2. It is unreasonable to admit to wrongdoing and ask people to set aside their opinions on that wrongdoing while answering a narrower question

I get that 4 bananas isn't a lot. So why don't you just pay for them??

Never!

It’s not a binary choice - I don’t steal items and I would like to think I try to be compassionate and kind to others. Why would you think you need to choose between them?

Just to add, if you steal from a multinational, you're just passing the cost to the other customers. So you're stealing from them, not the company. They keep their profits!

I’m in my 60s

The last time I stole from a shop I was 10. It was my parents’ shop that we’d just moved to and I suddenly had access to sweets and chocolate. What started as “oh this is broken and can’t be sold, you can have it as a treat” turned into me breaking things on purpose to justify taking it for myself. Got caught because I didn’t hide the wrappers well enough. The shame I felt was excruciating.

Now it just wouldn’t cross my mind.

People who steal always seem unable to believe that not everyone does it. It's weirdly normalised for some people.

Never

Same here
It's not that hard - just don't do it

I know. Weird.