Self-scan shoplifting at local tesco

[justcurious4]

Checked instore stock at local tesco for DDs soya milk and it said they had some. Went in and they didn't. Asked and the member of staff said 'its showing 25 in stock but theres none here and none in the back so these have been shoplifted during self scan'

aibu to think that self scan is causing more problems than fixing them?!

Seems weird that someone has stolen 25 soya milks in a day... Is it a baby product?

Why is it the machines fault there's none on the shelf and not the persons who stole it?

Wouldn't be in a day, would be from their last delivery of it, its a toddler soya milk and they are sold singular but stored in packs of 8. I self scan my shopping and it would be easy to purposely not scan a few and get away with it but I would never! I get the cost of living is hard, im on UC myself but petty theft get's nobody anywhere.

I live in a wealthy area with a Tesco express. There’s a guy who often walks in there, helps himself to a sandwich, lunch, whatever, and just walks out without paying. The staff are helpless as there are only a couple of them and they can’t chase him while leaving the shop unattended. Many times when I’m in there the staff are following some suspected shoplifter around. Madness.

Did the staff member go into the storeroom and physically check? Maybe it was from stealing, maybe its just their system hasn't been updated with sales, maybe the stock just arrived and hadn't been unloaded. Hard to say.

I've been to various shops where it says they have X amount in stock- to arrive and find none. I assumed it was a delayed tracking system/computer issue. I guess you'll never know OP.

@justcurious4 I'm not picking at your post. I guess I just have a different thought process than you. Not so curious after all.

Off I piss.

OP- I'm unsure why you were so incredibly rude to @Wyndam ??? I completely agree with their view!

You’re very rude, op.

To answer the question, yes people use self scan to shoplift. But 1) most of the people who do that would be shoplifting anyway by other means; and 2) the small amount of additional shoplifting is more than covered by the money saved on staff.

I think because if the machine didn’t exist, then the stuff would have been scanned by the cashier. The machines opportunities to shop lifters, removing them removes these opportunities

Shoplifting happened before self scan - surely the stores will weigh up the risk/cost/benefit of their checkout facilities

I'm sure the supermarkets have crunched their numbers and decided that the losses from self scanning are more than covered by the savings in employing fewer staff.

I'd just think the assistant was making up an excuse and really had no idea.

It's not the machine's fault because machines don't have self determination (yet!)

But there have been studies done and a terrific amount of people admit to stealing via the self scan system, far more than admitted to stealing previously. Usually by scanning an expensive item as a cheap one.

I don't know why you're so quick to inform us that it's something you'd never do, OP. Guilty conscience??! 🧐🧐

Personally I'll always take a carrier without paying if I need one, when using self scan.

Plain old fashioned shoplifting is probably easier than taking it to the self scan checkout and just not scanning it though ?
those machines weigh everything and if it doesn’t agree it freezes and summons help.
I absolutely hate self checkouts , but I think if someone’s thieving tubs of formula they’ve been shoved under a pushchair tbf.

What store is it

Apparently shoplifting went up around 30% in the two years that self-scan became prevalent and 4% of items that should be scanned are shoplifted. But stores still report it's more cost effective than staffing a full store of staffed tills. I know someone who is very open that she "forgets" to scan every third item.

Never mind just re read the title

I'm really not rude, its just I see far too many posts where the OP is belittled for their thoughts or opinions by people making snide conments and if you genuinely had a question @Wyndam then at-least read the post properly, I wasn't blaming the machines :)

@CC4712 yeah she had gone to check and I also get that it could be a system issue but just raised the question in my mind that especially during a cost of living crisis, it must be causing more theft than before the crisis

@Mtande - not a guilty conscience just genuinely never thought it was a thing until the staff member said it was a problem. Then I started thinking about how u would do it and its too bloody easy for it not to be a bigger problem now (due to the crisis) than when the machines first came out

Also, this is quite a small town, i know i have friends and relatives in bigger cities and they don't live near any self scan shops, so yes there must be a formula to where they keep them based on % of projected loss

I do think that it goes on a lot. People take items to the self scan, scan it and then just walk out with it without paying.

If you're going to treat customers like staff, then they're going to give themselves a staff discount.

I always go to the human cashier where possible. I'm disabled, and I struggle with the self check out.

I use the hand held scanner and scan as I walk around. There was a time when I was spot-checked every 3rd shop but not anymore. I don't see anyone else getting spot checks neither.

Tescos must loose loads to thieves.

To be honest the old system which I prefer was great, no room for error and everything goes through with a smile.
The new system you get all the best offers if you scan on the phone or the little machine, but the amount of times we got home and looked for something on the receipt and it's just not there is ridiculous. And we often stop before going into the till area and double check we've scanned everything.

Even with the self checkout machine that weighs everything, one time we scanned everything and the till froze just before we paid. The staff including manager couldn't fix it and it was after closing by then, so they helped us scan on another and repack quickly and we paid in a rush and left. The bill seemed low the second time so we looked when we got home and basically we hadn't paid for 2 bags of stuff in the fluster. And that was with 2 staff helping.
So I don't think it's customers all to blame for the loss rate, I think it's just the nature of this way of shopping.

I can only assume that the amount they lose is still economically more sustainable than extra staff members.

A full time staff member at the check out will take a fair bit of shop lifting to cover.

This 👍

These huge supermarkets won't do self scanning without thorough research /guesstimates...profit /loss calculations which will continue over time when being rolled out. It's ALL about what's best for their business.... Maximising their profit...

My local supermarket has 12 of these machines versus about 5 old fashioned tills... The self scanning has one staff member supervising... So as long as the theft stays under the cost of 11 people's salary?? (and NI!), they're quids in!

Although often dressed up as good for customer.... 🙃

All I can think about is it's gone very Charles Dickens hasn't it, if people are having to shoplift baby milk which is very sad.