To be really sick of supermarkets treating paying customers like scum

[OptimismvsRealism]

Sainsbury's traps you in the self service pen of shame until you scan your receipt like a good little girl

Tesco won't take the security tags off your wine until you've not only paid but they've examined your receipt in detail to make sure your wine is paid for - sort of a performance so you remember your place

Waitrose makes a bit song and dance about doing the rescan of self scanning shops (I don't do self scanning because why would I sign up for this extra work?)

Just in Lidl and my wine set off the security alarm even though I've had the tags taken off and the security guard chased me out the door to try to get me to show him inside my bags (er no fuck off pal)

Aldi staff try to look in your shopping bags as you queue

Does anywhere NOT get a kick out of treating their profit drivers like filth any more?

I will probably just have to live off UHPs from the local Greggs at this rate

You're just arguing like a 4 year old now, op. Of course they stop theft.

I want to be treated not even with respect just a neutral absence of contempt.

Then why is theft going up and up despite most supermarkets acting like low security prisons?

@Kitkatfiend31 I worked in retail before self service checkouts were invented.
Shoplifting was unbelievably high even then.
The company I worked for went bust......

I’ve worked in a supermarket and it’s not just the addicts who are stealing high value items. You’d be surprised how many respectable looking people are fleecing supermarkets using the handheld scanners and self scan.

I understand that it feels shit to be double checked but it’s worth trying different stores and different times of day because I don’t recognise some of your observations in my local stores. Your attitude towards the security guard who tried to stop you when you set off the alarm is shitty because that’s literally his job.

Where do you live? I haven't experienced any of this and local Sainsbury's certainly doesn't have a scanner for your receipt.

How does proving you've paid for something prove that you aren't shop lifting?

I wonder.

It's not his job to look in my bag and he doesn't get to. I just spent a fortune (for Lidl) so he can ram it. I didn't tell him to fuck off I just completely ignored him but he certainly can fuck off.

I've never experienced this in the UK and I live in a place that always comes up on the list of MN places to avoid when someone is asking for recommendations about where to live, because <whisper> poor people live there .

They did however have 'the pen of shame' in Eroski in Ibiza (but not the Mercadona down the road) but we found it amusing rather than annoying.

The first time we shopped there, DP was just about to drop the receipt straight in the bin until I noticed we needed to scan it to exit the store. And it played an alarm for the 10s that the gate was open to alert staff that someone was attempting to leave the shop.

Only do online shopping now, I’ll quite happily never set foot in another supermarket

Do they let the men shopping just walk through, then?

You overly angry about this and why would you not show your receipt to prove you've paid for something if the alarm went off?

Very bizarre.

God, you sound exhausting, op. I bet you think you're being all edgy and sticking it to the Man. You just sound like a not very bright teenager pissed off at their mum.

It's partly culture changing over time, more awareness that police won't do anything unless there's excessive violence, and some of it seems to be organised crime. Again likely worsened by the state of the police and how stretched they are, which is again worsened by societal changes.
CoL will contribute to some cases, and gives them more customers, but it's far from the only cause otherwise it would be widespread across young families rather than primarily being groups of 18-30 males.

No, but you seem to be rudely enhanced.

You either need to scan a receipt to exit or you don’t, the same with having an item that has a security tag. A pair of balls is irrelevant.

If I have to scan the barcode receipt to exit....then I tear through the barcode and ask if they're detaining me. I think it's an outrageous policy

It doesn't. It only proves you've paid for what's on the receipt, not everything you are taking out of the shop.

The main reason people shoplift is that, unless you work in a regulated profession, you've no reason to fear a shoplifting conviction. Absolutely no reason not to just take what want besides personal morality. The only way it will stop is if the law changes. But instead of focusing on that businesses choose to play twatface with the customers who don't pilfer.

However the supermarket near me which was doing that seems to have abandoned it which speaks volumes.

It doesn’t help that there are no consequences for low level theft (I heard a rumour that the police won’t be called unless the theft amounts to over £250. Unsure whether that’s accurate or not though!)

You do realise that the people you're causing drama and confrontation with are doing their job?
They aren't the ones who thought up the security measures.

@OptimismvsRealism sometimes products have security tags on that the till doesn't always de-tag like they are supposed to.
Some stock arrives at store pre-tagged and it's not always noticed.
Not the fault of the staff nor the customer but just one of those irritating things.
If you HAVEN'T stolen anything why does it matter if the security guard needs to double check.
You'd be pissed off if you got home and discovered a clothing tag still attached.

You’re very cool.

Yeah in Sainsbury's I have just rammed the thing and chuckled as everyone stares at the alarm but I'm not giving them my money.