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.

wgat a strange post, they reserve the right to rescan and it was yr turn today, and u cried!

This is why you don’t do this, not time saving and humiliating. Tills only you don’t work for the company

Don't overreact! My goodness it was a mistake and the supermarket will know that now. It happens all the time where I shop and nobody even noticed.

I’d go elsewhere, or go to a proper till. Self service tills are wrong on two counts 1) They take work away from people who need jobs. 2) You are not paid to self scan but you’ll be working for the supermarket who are making ever greater profits at your expense.

It probably flagged up because your bag didn't reflect the expected weight. You need to scan everything in your trolley, including yellow sticker items!

Thing is you were a thief, albeit an unintential one. Had you left the shop with bags unchecked, you would have stolen an item. Best to check everything has registered next time.

Any theft from shops puts up the price for everyone as the stores have to cover their loses, so being vigilant is not a bad thing. Plenty of people do steal and make things more expensive for the rest of us.

Also, using self scanners etc means someone is losing their job. All of this sort of self-scanning tech makes a worker unemployed, I won't use them on principle. I used to work at a big manufacturing company where it took 4 men (they were men, it was a long time ago) to mind each large machine but when computerisation came in it only took 1 man to mind 4 machines, thus making 15 jobs redundant and when PCs arrived the whole typing pool went.

Really I don't understand the fuss, the store employee was just doing their job and if they hadn't done it they probably wouldn't have had a job for much longer. None of it was a personal attack and its unlikely anyone was taking any notice of what was going on, everyone else was likely to be more concerned about getting through checkout and going home.

If they went back to human controlled checkouts none of this would be necessary and the people submitting customers to scans could be employed on said human controlled checkouts.

I think there are some really harsh comments on here, please don’t take them to heart; people can be really cold online. You’re completely entitled to feel the way you felt; I wouldn’t be happy either being treated like a criminal. Sometimes I arrange all my empty bags open in my trolley at Aldi and there have been two occasions now where they’ve asked me to lift up all the bags to check I haven’t stolen anything and hiding it; which I've found embarrassing. I do get why these companies have to do these things; I’m more annoyed at all the people who steal because there must be many of them if the shops are so frequently treating all their customers as thieves/suspects. Anyway, if I were in your shoes, I’d just never use the scan as you go system again to avoid that happening all over again! x

The exact same thing happened to me in Sainsburys in January. I felt utterly humiliated about it for weeks afterwards. So I haven’t been back there since, I shop somewhere else now, and I don’t use Scan and Shop anymore

I can't be bothered reading past this post.

The thing is @SensitiveSallySue you were a thief, you admitted yourself. Maybe an accidental one, but how else do you expect to be treated?

Why on earth would you feel humiliated? It sounds like you over reacted just as much as the OP!

The OP has explained why they felt humiliated. I was offering a solution which is to shop elsewhere/not to use scan and shop anymore. I did not over react at all these were simply my feelings when I got home so I was trying to show some solidarity with the OP. But to be honest I have only just joined Mumsnet so I am not sure how it works on here. Are we not supposed to show solidarity? Sorry I know for next time!

Trust me, on the issue of concern about other shoppers seeing you, nobody cares! All they want to do is worry about their own shopping, and get home as soon as possible.

Why? Are you part of the iphone generation. Short attention span

I actually completely agree with you on this and im not one for getting embarrassed or worked up over things like this. Needs a better system.
once i had a rescan on a small shop and i ended up queuing 3 times to pay! (the first rescan machine didn't work). Was also in a rush to get home to make lunch for my toddler before she woke up and her lunch was in those groceries. Sooooo irritating

See the other thread on here when a woman is asking if she’s unreasonable to be buying stolen goods off a drug dealer! That’s why shops need to check, it’s not embarrassing if you’ve nothing to hide!

And yet some of us like them! It’s personal choice but I for one do not want them to go!

I agree. I much prefer self scanning and being to pack as I go round the shop. It's much quicker on average, even allowing for the times when you have to have a partial or full rescan.

Its a sad indictment on society that supermarkets have to do this on a regular basis because obviously theft is on the increase. In the past I have heard the cost of living being an excuse for theft but these thefts just push the price of things up for everyone. Last year over £800 million pounds worth of goods were shoplifted in the UK. Not an inconsiderable sum so any effort to reduce that should be applauded as these losses are passed on to us, the innocent consumers.

It was most definitely not a personal attack so no need to feel embarrassed or victimised, it is, unfortunately, a sign of the times. The shop assistant was just carrying out protocol.

A rescan is an audit both ways. The yellow label didn’t scan, but did the full price barcode scan instead? Or did you double scan something else? Or just did it not scan? It was your first time using the Waitrose scanner and you were unable to accurately scan all your shopping, therefore an employee took you to get it redone. I don’t think anyone is assuming you’re a thief here but ultimately you do need to scan and account for every item you’re taking. Mistakes happen. But if you’re unable to do that, whether intentional or not, they have a right to refuse sale or rescan it themselves. This happens so many times every day.

To add to this, when you sign up to using scan, pay, go it’s in the terms and conditions that there will be random rescans.

I've been randomly picked to have my whole trolley rescanned before. Other than being the opposite of why I do scan and pack it's just a nuisance.

I also seem to get picked to have x number of items rescanned quite often. I sometimes think it's down to how many items I scan and then decide I don't want so remove them.

Op you sound very dramatic, you may have felt as if you looked guilty of something but others wouldn't bat an eyelid. Or they wouldn't have if your reaction would have been less dramatic and you had been taking care to repack and not crying etc.

Your reaction would have drawn attention and thrn people would think you had been caught thieving and regretted it.

You need to be more robust, the drama wasn't needed.

I haven’t used the Waitrose one but I assume all the supermarket systems are all similar. I do mine in tescos and make a point to hear the beep and a quick visual check that the item has appeared on the screen - we all know that when rushing or being distracted that a quick wave of the handset doesn’t always register. It’s just a habit I’ve got into…may take a few moment longer but hopefully means this scenario is avoided.