To be really annoyed by this at Sainsbury's

[dcsp]

I was at a large branch of Sainsbury's yesterday evening. None of the staffed checkouts were open, so I went to the self-checkouts. On the way out of them they have fitted gates which don't open until you scan your receipt.

If there was a person barring my exit from a shop until I showed them my receipt, I'd feel insulted by what was effectively an accusation of theft. Having a machine perform the same role felt similarly insulting.

I appreciate that retail theft has increased, but treating every one of your customers as if they're a thief until they prove otherwise is not the right thing to do! (also I expect most theft at self-checkouts happens by people who do still check something out therefore have a receipt).

Which is still a bit annoying. On machines which currently don't allow you to say no to a receipt I just leave it in the machine. I didn't ask for it so I don't consider it my responsibility.

So it will still mean me having to take a receipt I don't want. Still only a mild annoyance and nothing like the insult OP feels.

Hope they have bins for receipts right after the barrier.

A sense of humour 🤔 did you say something funny?

Have you seen what is going on in the world at the moment? Go outside and get some fresh air, spend time with your loved ones. Stop starting arguments with random people on mumsnet when hundreds of people are being killed. Get some perspective.

I would be pleased and I like it when they count at Costco.
I saw a man steal about £100 of meat and booze from Tesco and the security guard was too busy on his phone to notice! I am sick of paying for thieves.

Accuracy on previous checks affect how soon you get checked - so if you get checked every time, it's possibly because of a previous errors.

One other thing I've noticed seems to trigger a recheck at Tesco is minusing things off - the times I've done this (e.g. when I've picked something up, then got to the end of the aisle and seen a similar thing on offer) multiple times in one shop I've been rechecked.

My sainsburys has this and it bothers me because the stupid thing barely ever recognises your receipt so you have to wait for a staff member to come over and let everyone out

it doesn't give you an option to decline a receipt, it just spews one out automatically.

It's interesting how shops always go on about reducing waste when it suits YOU ("Do you need a receipt? Think of the environment"), but when it suits THEM, they don't even question it.

Like with WH Smith, where you have to specifically ask if you want a receipt - and if you do, they sometimes look at you like you've just asked them to spread jam on their shoes - but it automatically spews out three or four spurious 'offer' coupons every time.

Before long, this will all be obsolete anyway, when all shops scan all goods as they leave the store and scan you on your way in, so that they can automatically charge you. Children will probably find it hilarious to slip small but very expensive items into people's pockets and bags for a prank, so they'll end up paying a load for something they never wanted and only discover it when they get home. Alternatively, shoplifters could use you as a 'mule' by slipping something into your pocket and then distracting you outside the store so that they or an accomplice can 'reclaim' what they made you unwittingly pay for.

Items in the baggage area are weighed. The receipt should match.

But what about expensive items that people never scan or weigh in the first place? Or if people weigh a bottle of expensive wine as if it were onions, so the expected weight will match?

I think this would be interesting from a legal point of view, as they're stopping you from leaving with no cause to suspect you of a crime - would this potentially count as false imprisonment?

Can people please stop berating OP and others on this thread for caring about anything else, because of what is currently going on in Israel? If we're never allowed to discuss anything on MN that isn't the most important thing happening in the world at any specific time, we may as well just cancel MN - and 99% of the internet - entirely.

Have you, your the one saying that you got stuck behind 2 million people trying to get out of shop because of this

This was not an option as all 'manned' checkouts were closed and they all have those metal barriers when they are closed. There was no way out.

The self-scan checkout I'd used had run out of paper roll, hence no receipt and it took me over ten minutes to find a member of staff to be able to leave the store. It was absolutely ridiculous.

There speaks someone who doesn't know a) the small profit margins as a percentage that supermarkets have. (The reason they have such huge profits is because their businesses are massive. Statistically my massage business is more profitable) and b) how competitive the market is.

Yes, they exist to make a profit. Their costs are going up - minimum wage went up from under £9 per hour to £10.42 in just over a year. Staff is one of their biggest costs. But if they were to change their business model to be non-profit making the cost to the customer would go down by something like 3 to 5%. It's tiny.

My massage business, despite being very very part time, has a much bigger profit margin than that.

I don't mind an equal measure of self service and manned tills. Self serve will always be my go to for small quantities - and self scan for trollies.But now it has become disproportionately skewed in favour of self service. And the staff covering the increased self service are too few. Customers are often left waiting for someone to come. Their profits are maximised but customers time is not seen as valuable. The customer service angle is being overlooked. We don't draw a salary from them so why are we putting in the work just to buy their stuff. Why are we left waiting because they don't put enough staff by the self service.

If you now need a receipt to exit, the machines should not ask you whether you want one - it should be automatic.

If supermarkets are facing increased shoplifting because of self service they need to rethink their decision to make them the main form of paying. They took the decision to do this, this is the consequence. I don't want to be automatically be thought of as a criminal at a self service, but it kind of feels that way.

There must be a massive cost saving in staff now - fewer needed on the shop floor. So shoplifting on one hand (including by their staff) and savings by getting rid of humans.

Supermarkets are one thing. The Marks & Spencer ones in the clothes department are another. In certain branches you are directed to self service, rather than the manned till. In the Kingston branch of the men's department in M & S I saw a fairly elderly man trying to buy a suit and other bits. So having to scan and stuff them in a bag. That's not on if you are spending a lot of money and being directed to do it yourself. He was having difficulty and the staff member was helping someone else. He just abandoned the shop and left empty handed.

The shoplifting epidemic is increasing and customer service is declining fast. Customer service has always been a joke in this country, now it's much worse. Serve yourself and feel like a criminal and pay for the privilege.

PS - The Uniqlo self service tills are next level genius!

I haven't rtft but I think it's great that they're trying to tackle shoplifting.

Asking everyone to scan their receipt stops anyone from feeling singled out, claims of prejudice and so on.

I guess some people will feel insulted and stop going there. Fair enough. I'm more likely to go there now.

In the context of making money, I can do a Tesco click and collect for £1.50. Someone else picks my shopping, the van and driver take it to my local Esso/Tesco garage. I can't believe how that makes them any money and yet they want to cut down the staffed tills.

It's almost a reversal to my grannies day when the local grocer would deliver two boxes onto the kitchen table, gratis and on account.

All those posters saying we shouldn't complain about this treatment - why not?
If supermarkets had more actual staff in the stores then most of these scenarios would not arise. If you ask ordinary customers both to do the supermarket staff's tasks, then wait in another queue to prove we are not thieving idiots you are not going to build loyalty or a customer relationship. We simply go elsewhere. Sainsburys went to the dogs years ago and has never really recovered is former position.

I don't have a problem scanning my self check receipt on exit if required so long as the gates are quick and efficient. I do have a problem being talked down to and made to queue up again like a naughty child for the privilege of doing their job for them. A lot of this security is also performative rather than effective with the current patterns of shoplifting.

Delivery or click and collect also frees me from 'the local supermarket' tie.

Agree wholeheartedly with this and I've also had difficulty with self serve checkouts as a customer with a disability.

One branch of WHSmiths had a set up where self checkout was the only option and it was an odd set up which needed two hands to be coordinated - I'm disabled, I couldn't comply with the machine's demands.

The only member of staff looked me up and down as if I was something the cat dragged in, shrugged his shoulders and said he wasn't on tills. I left the goods there and haven't been in a Smiths since.

Its possible to do automated checkouts well. Stores which do not invest in good, customer friendly automation simply don't care about their customer's time so why should I care about them?

This! 👏👏

Our local Sainsbury’s gives you the option whether to even have a receipt 😩

I imagine it saves a staff member the conflict of having to check people’s bags or watch them - people can be very rude and aggressive.

Presumably they still have the problem of people scanning things at a lower price and so stealing that way.

They are in Aldi, apparently...

https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/aldi-staff-told-refuse-serve-30617384

These sorts of condescending replies make no sense.

People have always needed a 'permit to travel'. It's a requirement of EVERY customer wanting to use that 'service'.

Not remotely the same as being encouraged to do a supermarket cashier's job - then being asked to prove you've done so honestly.

Jumpingthruhoops It isn't remotely the same but exactly the same. The OP is whinging that the supermarket requires proof she's paid for her goods. The airline requires proof we've paid for our flights. Doing someone else's job is irrelevant.

Those of you "not caring" about this should be careful of where this may go next.

I lived for a while in Australia where it is "accepted" that you open your handbag or shopping bag as you leave a store and let check out cashier or security look inside.

Of course it proves nothing as if you have stolen you would put whatever at the bottom of your bag or inside your clothing. It is however IMO an invasion of privacy and should not be encouraged.

I remember being with an Australian friend doing a supermarket shop and she opened her bag to the cashier as she paid. The cashier asked to see inside my handbag and I said no. My friend was astounded that I would take that attitude. The cashier, of course, has no authority to do this but Australians are being brain washed in to believing this is how to behave.

Not sure why people keep posting this as if it means anything.

It's just another in a long list of reasons for me never to go there, not something I'd aspire to.

A lot of this security is also performative rather than effective with the current patterns of shoplifting

Ain't that the truth? As with airport security where I used to get singled out for random extra attention when travelling with young DD presumably on the basis I wouldn't moan about it in front of DD - absolutely zero to do with bombs on planes.

Isn't that a bit different though?

You have to apply to be a member at Costco, which presumably includes signing something accepting that as a condition of shopping there - just like many employers require you to agree to certain random searches as a condition of working there.

In a normal shop however, that doesn't apply so I think they would need some reasonable suspicion to detain you.