Waitrose incident.

[SensitiveSallySue]

I am not sure if I am being sensitive or if I should complain.

Every Sunday morning I go out for a coffee and read my book, then do the weekly shop without the children. I like to be back before midday so I can spend the rest of the time with my children, including 9 month old baby. We have every supermarket local to us, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, M&S, Asda, Tesco, and I always use the ‘scan and shop’ to make the shopping as quick and easy as possible. I’ve never had an issue until today in Waitrose. I’ve only used it a couple of times in Waitrose and never for a big shop.

After scanning my entire shop, strategically packing it so it’s easy to unload at home, I went to pay. When I beeped the scanner, it flagged up as needing to be checked. I thought that was fair enough, it happens sometimes, and I haven’t done a weekly shop in Waitrose before using the ‘scan and shop’ option. The worker came over and said she needed to rescan 30/58 items. I thought that was ridiculous, in every other shop they scan a random selection of a few items, not over half your shop. It seemed pointless to me to have even used the option in the first place, but I didn’t say anything and the worker started to empty shopping bags full to rescan items. This was taking ages, but I just stood patiently waiting for her to finish.

Then, she came across one that I apparently hadn’t scanned. I know I did, but it was a yellow sticker packet so I can only assume that it hadn’t registered properly. She repeatedly asked me if I had scanned it, and I repeatedly told her I had but it clearly hadn’t registered.

She told me she would need to rescan my entire shopping trolley, then took me over to a till, and I stood on the end whilst she unpacked every single one of my bags and scanned every item individually. It was completely unsubtle, in front of all of the other customers, and obvious that they were rescanning the entire shop in case I was attempting to steal things. I felt like an idiot and a thief. To make matters worse, I am a small business owner working with children, and had already bumped into several of my clients in the shop. I was absolutely mortified thinking that they may think I am a thief.

I was thoroughly embarrassed and teary eyed, and hastily shoved everything back into bags whilst the Waitrose worker apologised. Half of my shopping is crushed as I was shoving things back into the bags indiscriminately. I promptly paid and left but it has really upset me. By that point, I’d spent around 20 minutes having everything rescanned.

AIBU to think that if Waitrose are going to have a system that is open to abuse, they need to have a solution that doesn’t involve treating customers like thieves? I have never had an experience like this in any other store and whilst I realise they have to protect themselves from theft, surely this is not the correct way to go about. It’s not the Waitrose workers fault, it just seems like a very poor system and they shouldn’t offer ‘scan and shop’ if this is the way they treat customers.

This is the bargain with self scan, from their point of view something wasn’t scanned so yes they’d have to do it all again, shop worker only doing their job. Theft in retail is incredibly high. Annoying yes, but part of the deal.

I do find it annoying though there is a slow yet gradual shift over to self checkout, yes of course there will be odd errors and time taken in delay is annoying - I’ve been there. I think they should employ more checkout staff to old levels and also self checkout for choice, often now there is little choice.

I wouldn’t look twice at someone having their shopping re-scanned, can happen randomly anyway.

In the Waitrose I shop in, you don’t know if something hasn’t been scanned during a re-scan thus to avoid being embarrassed and also to protect employees. You get an email saying you’re not allowed to use th scan & go. I wonder what happened in your Waitrose?

I highly recommend Lidl - they chuck the stuff through so fast you’re out in no time🤣 and I never see anyone I know in mine !

In which case they can go back to all manned tills then Sick of people wanting it both ways

You need to just hold your bag open as they chuck it down the non existent packing area! 😂

Yes, person was doing her job but she can do it in a sensitive manner, as you'd clearly made a mistake and she had to check. I remember a few years ago, shopping at Asda, when it came to pay, the bill was considerably more than I expected. When I looked at receipt, I had been charged £50 for a £5 item! I went to customer services who then called over the worse (and most unsympathetic) assistant I have ever come across. Considering it was their mistake, she made it seem as if I had been caught doing something wrong and just like you, I was quite well-known in community as I worked in local school so it was extremely embarrassing. There are ways of treating people.

I voted YABU. I think you are overthinking this and being too sensitive. I have had the same experience in Sainsburys, minus the unscanned item. Mostly, when it happens, it’s just a sample of items, but once it was the entire shop. It didn’t occur to me to feel concerned about what anyone else thought. It happens to everyone who uses the system at some point. I found it really irritating, though not the fault of staff member if course. It’s the price I just to pay to use the system I prefer.

The policy is in place to deter and prevent theft. If there was an item in the shopping that wasn't scanned, it's totally the shopper's fault. An unscanned item could be an expensive item, therefore the staff should have every right to rescan shopper's items.

Technically you’re supposed to pack on the shelf by the window 👍 but no one ever does anymore 🙄 including me …🍺sighs … standards …..

Exactly. You probably made yourself look more guilty... if you had acted like nothing was the matter, none of your clients would have batted an eyelid.

I’m really sorry, I started laughing read this post. You can’t be serious surely? Get over it, life really isn’t that serious.

Checking at sainsburys has ramped up recently. Including having a full load checked - that's what the system told them to do, so not connected to them finding anything.

You're being g unreasonable for using g self scan on first place Your reaction is overly dramatic too YABVU

It's happened to me before-not a problem or a drama. In Asda they have randomly told me that I have to have the whole shop rescanned. Annoying but they are only doing their job.

It’s happened to me several times. Once was just a few weeks apart. Nothing was amiss ever. My issue is the whole self scan is a faff anyway, as you have to scan it all and that takes time and can’t just lob stuff in the trolley. Annoying if two of you are shopping as you are always handing the scanner back and forth. And then you think great I’ll be out of here in 10 mins. A rescan can add half an hour or more. It’s a massive pain in the bum. I complained to customer services centrally and they said it’s just random. Fair enough. NowI just don’t self scan or use the so called loyalty card. I use the old fashioned checkout. Let Waitrose pay staff and not waste my time or effort.

But why should they give people that they think are shoplifters the benefit of the doubt? Sorry have not read all the thread and somebody may have already said this, but you can't tell who is a criminal just be looking at them. You are not special, you were suspicious.
Do you really want shops to give everyone the benefit of the doubt? Our local shopkeepers are already up in arms about shoplifting and a couple of them have told me that sometimes the most unlikely people have stolen from them.

Our local supermarket normally has three people working in the self-checkout area, they're really quick if you have a problem, I'd never bother with "scan and shop".

The system is there to prevent people from leaving without paying for an item and as a deterrent . If it wasn’t there how much do you think would be stolen? If anyone could take what they wanted unchecked the supermarkets would stop having the scan and shop system. For the convenience of having the scan and shop in the first place I am happy to have random checks and I don’t really care how many items are selected for scanning ….. it’s still a lot quicker than going through a traditional check out. I’d also much rather they scan everything in a separate place if they need to than me queue and go through the whole checkout process . She explained why she didn’t want you to touch or repack the items. You sound very dramatic and easily offended .

I would see you ……and think you were just being randomly re scanned 🤷🏻‍♀️ .
I occasionally use Waitrose , I’ve been rescanned maybe 3 times over the years.
only annoying if I have ice cream 🍨 in the shopping

Err we were talking about scanners not self service tills!!!

I've had to have my whole shop scanned a couple of times, once was their mistake, once was mine (scanned one thing twice, put two in my bag, but one was a different flavour, I hadn't realised) It's a pain in the arse, but it happens. It didn't occur to me to think anyone would think I was a thief, because it's not what I think when it happens to other people. I like to think most people are honest when doing scan as you shop, but sometimes make mistakes, just like I have done.

It is annoying when I've packed my shopping perfectly and then it's all messed up. I only grump to myself about that though.

Try not to let it upset you. I had my whole shopping scanned in Tesco and there were three items I hadn’t scanned and four items I had scanned twice. Tesco was financially better off 😊
I was mortified but the young man just smiled and said that was pretty normal. I now look at the scanner more often.

This almost exact thing (although I didn’t cry I was angry as the shop assistant was being very rude about it and basically saying I had tried to steal an item that hadn’t scanned). I walked off when he said he.was going to scan the lot, because I wasn’t being spoken to like that by anyone, and took my shopping to a normal till and put it all through there.

I refuse to use the scan and shop after that. It annoys me because it was either an error by me or an error of the scanner thing, and the supermarkets bring these things in, NOT for your convenience, but so they can save money on till workers with you essentially doing their job for them for free. The supermarkets need to accept if they want to save money that way they’ll need to accept some user (or scanner) error will occur and not treat their customers like thieves when the inevitable happens.

Just to add the whole rescanning thing also makes the “”convenience” of the scan and shop completely pointless.

I had a similar feeling when they checked my shop. It does make me self conscious, it only happened to me when I had a high priced item in the bag. It had luckily all scanned properly. But I did feel very awkward having my stuff checked and people did watch!