Would you have unpacked your shopping and repacked?

[SweeetFemaleAttitude]

Just did a huge weekly shop at Tesco and as I was leaving I was asked for my receipt, that was fine. Then after a pause the shop assistant and security explained they were doing random trolley checks, and asked to check the receipt against the shipping.

I wasn’t impressed, but calmly stood back and said ‘please ensure everything goes back in the correct bags, I’ve sorted it for a reason’.

They then said they expected ME to unpack items as they ticked it off the receipt.

I just laughed a bit inside at the idea. I’d just done a big shop and pissed around with a self service machine wasting a lot of time compared to a human scanner. Red lights for no reason, waiting for tag removal, waiting for another random fault, waiting to weigh my own bags and check them before I started. The idea of then standing there and unpacking for their pleasure was not something I was prepared to do! I’m talking a big trolley load of stuff, and a big job to stand there bending over it lifting. Not like a Costco check for the big items, loads and loads of tiny bits and cans.

I just calmly said ‘no’. I was told it was a policy to do random checks and I wasn’t suspected of theft. I said they may have a policy, but I didn’t work for Tesco and therefore they were unable to direct me to complete any tasks. I’d fulfilled my contract, paying for goods. If they had reason for concern then I’d wait for them to check it themselves, or go through cctv but I expected it to not delay me unreasonably or my shopping to be left unpacked or manhandled.

Ended up with ‘permission’ from a grumpy manager to leave, who had been watching from a distance and came over. I was honestly calm and kept my tone polite, I was quite annoyed by the self check out already and was making an effort to remain calm knowing I was a bit irate. Never been to this store before, not planning to go again! My usual store always has a open checkout to use with a person.

aibu- you’d have stood there and unpacked, it’s policy

yanbu- nope, you don’t work there and it’s not your job to facilitate their security checks.

Well done @SweeetFemaleAttitude!

Quite right OP. Unpack and repack?!?!? You're a customer not a bloody prisoner!!!!

Give your head a wobble Tescos - and while you're at it give us humans on the tills!!!

Well done for keeping your composure👏

You handled that brilliantly. I Wish you’d been in Aldi with my mum! The checkout lady got out from her chair, came around and frisked my 91yr old mothers empty carrier bags for no reason whilst she was waiting to pay. Then she announced that it was ‘store policy’ as “old people often put things in their bags without realising, they don’t mean to, they just take things and we have to check”. Her bags were just reusable Waitrose bags ready to put her shopping in. Mum does not have any signs of dementia but she is a bit deaf so wasn’t sure what was going on and just said “they are not Aldi bags, they’re my own”. Her 13yr old grandson was with her but he didn’t say anything.
Bloody cheek!
You were FANTASTIC.

Good for you. If they want to ensure no one is stealing, employ more actual humans and open more flipping checkouts !

Good for you! I'd never shop there again and make sure Tesco knew it.

I didn’t even know this was something they do. But as others have said, you are often in a hurry when shopping. I wouldn’t agree to this either if I were ever stopped. It seems bizarre being told what to do like this by supermarket staff.

That’s age discrimination surely?!

I’ve always understood self-checkouts to be for small loads, otherwise a manned checkout should be used. However, if the store has no manned checkouts then it’s a pain putting a large shop through a self-checkout and I hope I would do what OP did. I feel cross that supermarkets are cutting manned checkouts.

It sounds as though this was a supermarket that has done away with manned checkouts.

If you have a massive trolley full, don’t use self check

I’ve always understood self-checkouts to be for small loads, otherwise a manned checkout should be used.

I do my big shops with scan as you go, not the self scan at the till. You pick up a handset as you enter the shop and scan items as you pick them off the shelves and put them in the trolley.

Not sure where it's offered, but you can do it in our local Tesco, Waitrose and Asda. That said, my local Asda has a self scan at the till for larger shops with a conveyor belt rather than the space for one bag.

They are ridiculous. Id have said no and just asked for a refund and left my shopping

Well done you. I would probably have cut off my nose to spite my face and asked for a refund before walking away from my shopping I would have been so pissed off but your approach was so much better.

That manager was way out of line. He or she may have had problems with shoplifters but the way this was handled is against all rules of commerce. Yes they have the right to re-check your purchases, no they can't make you do it for them. Only thing you're supposed to do is show them your ticket and give them access to your full shopping. I have been in a comparable situation, more than once, big-shop and being picked out for verification. In all those cases only a few items of my shopping cart were selected and re-scanned/compared to the ticket. At Ikea self-checkout (max.15 items) sometimes a quick count of your purchases is done.

@21ZIGGY great minds 😁

Good for you. I wouldn't have a problem necessarily with a random check as shoplifting is rife but they could do the work and quickly.

This is why i no longer do scan as you shop. It's too much faff. Every time i have been selected for security checks they have scanned the whole shop. I am not against security checks per se but think it ought to be quick like costco.

I have never been to a single large supermarket that makes that distinction in the trolley area of the self-checkout so really no idea where your understanding comes from. Is it just what you choose to do?

You do realise that by installing the self service tills they are reducing staff??
i can understand why people are so against using them

I would’ve been really pissed off and just asked them for a refund !

For those wondering, no manned checkouts were open. They had about 6, but closed. The trolley self service area was huge, separate to smaller self service basket tills. It was very quiet, I’d guess why the tills were closed.

I didn’t ask for a refund as I wanted the stuff! Hungry family and tired.

I’m usually a Lidl shopper, our local one only has tills. Plus I do some shops online. I was just away from home and in an unfamiliar store, maybe that’s why I hadn’t encountered these checks before. I did thing it was just this store or I was singled out.

i won’t use them on principle. If I wanted to work for a supermarket I’d apply for a job.

Ours only has the self service after 9pm. During the day there are only about 3 tills open and the queues for them are massive, so your only option is to scan as you go or go to self serve tills. Unless you have limitless time to queue, which I don’t

Well done, 👏i hate those self scanners if they want to know shoppers are being honest put staff back into scanning shopping on a till.

No, there’s another option which is to pressure them to open more tills. If everyone with more than three customers ahead of them in the queue politely requested another till to be opened they’d have to do it. We seem to have forgotten that we’re the customer. Those massive queues are showing that supermarket exactly what its customers want, they’re fools if they don’t listen.