Should I have gone back to the shop?

[Bennifer]

I went shopping this weekend and was buying a lot of stuff for my new house. I went to a big homeware shop (it?s a big national chain) and had a trolley full of pillows, bins, etc. At the till, it came to £140, which was less than I was expecting. I mentioned this to the shop assistant who said there was a sale on. When I got home and checked my receipt, I noticed that I hadn?t been charged for the biggest item at a cost of around £75.

I was umming and ahhing over the correct thing to do. In the end I went back, but I was so tempted to keep the item. Would you have gone back?

SDTG, yes, it is theft. Morally, it just doesn't bother me that much though. Does that make me a bad person?

If you are yellow then so am I. Not that I give a toss.

GlueSticks - when you said that this thread is being contributed to by a bunch of liars, is that aimed at the OP and others who have said they would take something back to the shop, or indeed that they have taken something back to pay for it?

Because I did take a sherbert dip back into the supermarket because I'd forgotten to pay for it (it had fallen underneath my handbag in the trolley and been overlooked at the checkout) - and I am telling the truth - and I am also sure that the OP is telling the truth.

Yellowraincoat - what you do makes you a shoplifter. Do you want a police caution or a conviction for theft? And whilst I would not accuse someone of being a bad person, I would say that what you are doing is reprehensible and doesn't give a particularly good impression of you.

A question to all the 'don't be stupid, keep it and enjoy it, I'd be celebrating' posters - why should all the honest people pay extra for the things we buy because some people are dishonest?

And another question that occurred to me as soon as I hit 'post' -

All of you who are happy to keep things you haven't paid for - would you be equally happy/unconcerned if your children were caught shoplifting?

Shrug. I'm sure there are things that you do that I would find morally questionable too, SDTG. Maybe it's because I'm a big old lefty - I just can't bring myself to be bothered about corporations.

I have never scanned something cheaper through on a self serve. Never. And I never would either. That's not being a big old lefty, that's being dishonest.

actually shrinkage doesn't affect the amount charged at the tills for things because if it did and that shop then became more expensive than the shop down the road, people would not spend their money there

shrinkage directly affects the amount of payroll available to a store

many retail staff are on very short time contracts and depend on their overtime to pay the most basic of costs such as housing

by contributing to store shrinkage you are preventing people earning a living

the OP did the right thing in going back to pay

for those that say she raised the point about being under charged, she didn't, she commeted on how cheap it seemed -during sale time this is a comment cashiers hear all the time and would not prompt them to re check everything they have scanned

thank you OP -customers like you really are appreciated (and I would have knocked you 20% off as goodwill )

gluesticks I'm also not a liar. I would have taken it back. I have taken thngs back.

I once walked out of Sainsbury's having not paid for a 12 pack of loo roll which I'd hung on the back of the trolley (as you do) and forgot to put it on the belt. If I hadn't I'd have felt the shame of my cheeks turning red every time I wiped my arse

And imagine being arrested for taking loo roll.

Thank-you for making that point about staff pay, workshy - I was just coming back to comment on that, having read Carol Midgley's column in the Times this morning.

According to Carol, self scan theft costs hundreds of millions of pounds a year, and grazers (people who eat food on the way round the supermarket that they then don't pay for, because they dump the packaging, or because it can't be weighed once eaten) consume a whopping £2,7000,000 worth of food each year - and this cost is passed onto the staff (as well as in higher prices, because all supermarkets do include shrinkage in their price calculations) because they might not get a pay rise.

So, by shoplifting via the self-scan till, you could be helping make sure that poorly paid shop staff don't get a pay rise that they deserve and need. I would feel guilty about that - do you?

Carol also made the point that many small suppliers are paid according to the amount of their product that is sold, not the amount that is delivered - and stuff that is stolen will not be included in the amount sold - so the small supplier will have to bear that cost. You are literally taking money out of their pockets if you steal stuff provided by small suppliers. You could even be contributing to them going bust, meaning more and more goods on supermarket shelves will come from big business, which isn't entirely a good thing.

Yellowraincoat - I am sure it comforts you to assume that I am as dishonest or amoral as you, but I am afraid that I do do my best to live by my principles, and if I become aware that I have done something wrong, I do my best to rectify the situation - I apologise if I hurt someone, or I go back into the shop and pay for my sweets. And I have certainly never set out intentionally to steal from anywhere - and you can't say that, can you.

Sorry - I made a mistake in that post. Grazers don't cost supermarkets £2.7million a year - it's worse than that - it's £207 million!!

SEA asked the question I'd like answered OP, what was the store's reaction??

I've worked in 2 places where any mistakes came out of my wages. I once finished a shift at a well known chain of restaurants owing money because a diner claimed that I had taken the order down wrongly and demanded 4 completely different meals. I hadn't- they had changed their minds. But " the customer is always right" so I paid for the first 4 meals.

Still rankles all these years later. So I would never, ever do anything which might risk thwt happeningto someone else.

You should of waited a couple of days then took it back for a 'refund'

< hardfaced >

When I went back, it wasn't out of its box, and I showed my receipt. I explained the problem to the customer services adviser. To bes honest, I think she thought I was a little odd for bringing it back. I paid in full and didn't get any honesty discount

"The bastarding thing developed the most awful squeak after a few uses, so bad that I couldn't bear it. I also couldn't take it back and complain - talk about karma!"

Euphemia that's really funny . . . have you ever heard the old saying that if your shoes squeak it means you haven't paid for them?

Are any of the " so much more comfortable because it was free" brigade over on that other thread cheering on the woman who reported her friend for benefit fraud?

Just wondering........

Nope.

I think I'd have phoned them. It's not up to me to drive all the way back there to correct their mistake. TBH it would be more about the time and effort for me than the free thing.

I do admit I kept an extra packet of ham from my online shop last week, for the time and effort reasons. I was busy, and basically CBA to sort their mistake.

But I don't steal from self serve checkouts.

workshy actually shrinkage doesn't affect the amount charged at the tills for things because if it did and that shop then became more expensive than the shop down the road, people would not spend their money there. shrinkage directly affects the amount of payroll available to a store

I used to work in retail and if shrinkage was too high in one outlet of a large chain then they would not reduce wages. The shop would be instructed by the area manager to investigate why shrinkage was too high and to reduce it. If it was found that a particular cashier was accidently missing out the odd item when scanning then they would receive further training. Although it's much more likely this was a one off mishap then an incompetent cashier. This one off incident would not have affected anything long term.

OP I am still very interesting in knowing OP if you asked them to deduct the cost of your petrol etc from the price after you went out of your way to return to the shop?

No-one is saying that wages get reduced, GlueSticks - what they are saying is that staff may not get pay rises, or may get smaller pay rises.

The bottom line is that supermarkets want to make profit - so they are not going to allow the costs of shrinkage to reduce their profits - and the money has to come from somewhere - by factoring it into prices, and by factoring it into overheads. They are not going to want to let the overheads go over a certain amount, otherwise it will impact on profit, so they will seek to cut costs where they can - and one of the ways that can be done is by reducing or cutting out pay rises altogether.

When that has happened and I have got home (strangely happened a couple of times this year in different stores), I have phoned up the store and always been told to keep it. Double benefit in that I dont have a guilty conscience and still got the stuff for nothing. I think if it was a cheap item (say less than £5) I might not bother, not sure.

i wouldn't have. but i would prob feel bad for a day. then recover.

gluestickseverywhere

when shrinkage is high the shop does take steps to reduce it however a loss still comes off the baseline profit of the store
payroll overtime spend is a contrllable cost and it one are of the budget is over spent ie shinkage, another area needs to make a saving. As rents & utilities etc are usually fixed, you look to make savings from your controllable costs -over time spend!

shrinkage doesn't reduce hourly rate but it does reduce the amount of overtime hours available to the staff and therefore directly hits them in their pockets

According to the Times today, shrinkage costs add about £180 per year to every shopper's bill - and frankly I resent paying that so that other people can get their 'five-fingered discount'!