To be annoyed with Sainsburys

[bigbluebus]

In recent weeks I have bought items of clothing from 2 different Sainsburys stores. On both occasions, upon leaving the store the alarm has been activated. The first time it happened, I went back into the store to the customer service desk and queued for 5 minutes to have my items checked. They were checked for tags - there weren't any - and I was told to just ignore the alarm as I left the store. Today I have been into the 2nd store and bought a pair of PJ's amongst other items. On leaving the store, once again the alarm sounded. I returned to the till I had just bought the items at and told the assistant only for her to say "it'll just be your PJ's, ignore it".

Now I am one of life's honest people - the sort who always used to go red when the whole school got a telling off even though I knew I hadn't done anything wrong. Today's store is in a relatively small town local to me where I know lots of people (none whom I spotted today fortunately) and I do not want to be leaving a store feeling like a thief! I would be interested to hear from anyone who has either experienced this same thing (and if so, do you ignore or go back in like I did?) or anyone who works in Sainsburys who can explain to me why this happens - as to my mind it damn well shouldn't.

If there's no tags on the clothes I would suggest that something on your person is interfering with them causing a false positive. It happened a lot when I previously worked in a supermarket and it can be mobile phones, other electrical devices etc. That set them off (not necessarily even every time). The clothes won't be setting them off it they done have a tag on.

Did you use the self scan thing? I think that it doesn't deactivate the security feature on clothing

This has happened to me and didn't bother me at all. Just shouted loudly 'that was me!' so no-one would think I was being furtive and went back to sort it

thistimelastweek the first time I was pursuaded to use the self scan checkout by a staff member who was trying to promote it to customers, so whilst I scanned the items myself, I did it with the assistant at the till and she went and got tags removed from items whilst I paid. Today I went to an ordinary till and it was that till operattor that told me to ignore the alarm when I returned and casually shrugged it off as if it was perfectly normal for the alarm to go off BECAUSE I had bought a pair of PJ's!

hula008 Whilst I understand this is possible, I think it is unlikely as it only ever happens in Sainsburys - no other stores.

I was in Sainsbury’s last night and bought a bottle of wine. The alarm went off as I walked out. A shop assistant nearby asked if she could see my receipt. I didn’t have one as I’d gone through the self service check out and had selected no receipt! She asked me to go to the self service check out with her and luckily the guy there remembered me as he’d refunded my parking ticket and confirmed I’d paid. I didn’t think much of it at the time - just one of those technical glitches - but reading your post I’m now wondering whether they have something wrong with their system. I’ll think twice in future about selecting no receipt.

I had thus a few times at Sainsburys. A security guard told me (probably shouldn’t have) that if you tear the barcode it doesn’t happen
No ide if it’s true but if I self scan clothes I always do it and I’ve never set off the alarm

They might be “soft tagged” rather than the typical hard tag you need a magnet to remove. The soft tags get scanned and deactivated that way. That is annoying though I hate it when that happens. And it’s a bit lazy of the staff to not deactivate it if it is a soft tag.(I worked in retail for years and this is a common issue so I feel I can say lazy as in my job if people didn’t do it that’s what it was!)

I’ll think twice in future about selecting no receipt

Yes I do wonder about this if you pay cash.

Baileyscheesecake missing point of thread seriously always take a receipt when buying wine just in case you get home, open and it's corked! 🤮

I am always having to nag DH who has a nasty habit of buying pretty pricey wine and throwing the receipt away. 👹

Telling off over! 😂

Yeah, me too. New type of tag that’s supposed to be deactivated when they are scanned. But doesn’t seem to work very well on the self scanners. Annoying.

Nobody thinks that if the alarm goes off you have stolen something.
They think the system is playing up or the cashier forgot to take the tag off.
I just keep walking.

I once kept setting off the Sainsbury's alarm because of the boots I was wearing (had a metal buckle). Embarrassing!

I started a thread on this once (different user name). I couldn’t take my teen anywhere without him setting alarms off! Turned out he had some t-shirts from Everything5pounds and they had a small tag stitched into the side label. Once we snipped them out, we became law abiding citizens again. Look for really small labels on things like lipstick and mascara in your bag if it’s not labels in your clothes. Even your bag may have something sitting at the bottom causing the problem.

I usually ignore the alarm if I know nothing has a tag on. No one seems to care anyway! You almost have to go and find someone to let them know the alarm has gone off and I find it annoying. No one has ever chased me down to check.

I used to work in fashion retail full time, and as a result have spent an ungodly amount of time in shopping centres.

Store alarms go off all the time to the point that staff don’t really care. If I’m being honest, most of the time they go off when an actual customer has paid for their items as normal but staff forgot to remove tags rather than theft; shoplifters tend to remove tags.

They can also go off for random reasons and not specifically theft. I can’t comment on what people in your small neighbourhood may think, but if I saw you I certainly wouldn’t assume that you were a thief. If it happens again, your behaviour makes a difference anyway. Eg someone stopping or returning to the store vs legging it to the exit

This has happened to me and was really annoying. A blouse I bought beeped after I had paid for it when I went to the loo and on my way out. When it happened the next time I asked why as I was worried there was something in the garment that might set alarms off in every shop. (The metal tag had been removed). I was advised that they were also ‘soft tagged’ and to ignore the beep when I left, but as I was a bit anxious the checkout supervisor accompanied me to the door and told the security guard it was all ok when it went off. The soft tag is done through the barcode on the cardboard label apparently and obviously goes when you cut that off. Damned annoying though!

I used to set the alarm off in my local Sainsbury store. It happened when going in as well. Turned out it was my leather jacket I had bought in TK Maxx. It was in the lining

I agree kittyknit it is really annoying. How to they distinguish between a shop lifter and a genuine paying shopper if everyone ignores the beeping and keeps walking?

I had a bag that used to set Tesco alarms off. They went off on the way in too.

I've been visiting a Sainsbury's a lot recently to get lunch. The alarms seem to go off about every 10th shopper or so.

OP - I am also an honest shopper, but if I trigger the alarm, no way do I go back in and join a queue - I KNOW I don't steal stuff and all my purchases are paid for. If they want to come after me and ask nicely, they can check, but I am buggered if I am putting myself out after legitimately paying for stuff just because they can't use a proper security system. 9 times out of ten no-one bothers me even I trigger the alarm, but I am not worried as I know I haven't stolen anything.

I have set off the alarms in The Range and had my bags checked by a security guard. He told me that my library book had set it off due to the library's security tag inside the book.

Yes this has happened to me. I paid on the self service for clothing and earrings and sure enough the alarms sounded!

YANBU BTW OP

I had this, a while ago. Great big tag on a coat. I had bought it to go on holiday a couple of days later, and was a tad vexed to have to return it to de-tag it. Their systems don't seem to be great TBH.

My knickers from Next kept setting the alarm off. Turns out the scanner was on the label. Very embarrassing. Check the labels or cut off. That might help

This happens to me every time I use the self service checkouts to pay for clothes. Which is annoying as they’ve taken away the ‘basket only’ checkout so it’s either let the alarm go off, ask a member of staff in the area to deactivate it, which takes time as they have to go elsewhere, or queue behind trolleys to pay. None of which are great options. I complained over a year ago about this but it still happens.