Was this theft?

[Anxiousmess55]

Shopping in Sainsbury’s today and was at self checkout: there was a coupon left behind at the till stating 3.00 off next shop. I used it and now feel terribly guilty that I may have stolen someone else’s voucher even though it was one of the randomly paired generated ones you get with a receipt and the probably have left behind on occasion too.
Should I go back to store to explain?

Course it's not. You used a valid voucher.

Yes, but it wasn’t mine, previous customer had left it and hadn’t taken it to be used next time by them. I didn’t see this customer - I just saw the unused coupon. Ahh - too much thinking I think.

Don’t feel guilty, if you hadn’t of used the voucher the cashier working on the self checkouts would have seen the voucher on the printer and binned it. The customer who used the till before you left the voucher so I wouldn’t worry

Honestly, it's £3.00. stop worrying about it.

i would leave the voucher behind or give it to someone going in because I don't shop there often & it's not worth the hassle to keep on top of vouchers.

I always thought those vouchers had to be used with the right person’s nectar card to work but I guess I got that wrong!

it’s a big cheeky but as it was left there it’s fair game. The only vouchers I ever get from the sainsbos’ tills are ‘5% off pet insurance’ type things - I don’t think I’ve ever had actual money off my shop!

The coupons can only be used by the person who’s nectar card was swiped during the initial transaction, are you sure the £3 came off?

I usually give these to the person behind me or leave it on the til, cos I always used to forget I had them and they went out of date. Don’t worry I cannot see why anyone would see it as theft.

Maybe it didn’t come off then - thanks for the advice and will leave unused vouchers alone.

You're fine, I would have used it too. If it was one meant specifically for a certain person, you wouldn't have been able to use it without their loyalty card.