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

Then on entering the store you should be made aware of this system so you can decide whether you wish to continue or not.

Or maybe most people can grasp that showing a receipt really isnt a big deal, will take seconds and means they wont be detained.

Do you do the same at train stations that won't let you out until you've scanned your ticket?

It's a pain in the arse and adds time, and I always set it off with a Brita filter 🤦‍♀️. It also causes a traffic jam when someone can't get their receipt to scan.

Depends where you live I think. Nothing like this round my way (dull as fuck rural middle) but I had to get a security guard to wrestle the gigantic plastic box off a block of cheddar in Birmingham. You chose OP - nightlife, deliveroo, uber, public transport plus extra security in the supermarket, or none of this and a slow quiet slide towards death (I love where I live btw but I am so jealous of people who get take aways delivered).

Putting the barrier in the self service area means you at least have to buy SOMETHING to get out, you can’t simply walk straight on through.

Why should you have to buy something? What if they don't have the thing you were looking for?

And this attitude is how we end up in a society with more and more restrictions and surveillance.

‘know exactly what you mean. Tesco staff are awful for this. They literally act as though you are on day release and they're your probation officer.’

Do you speak from experience of the probation system, OP?

I’m picturing this poster screaming in the ticket hall about all the sheep mindlessly scanning her ticket!! You will not take her, it’s a free country!!

In reality this poster barely leaves their house and lives an incredibly narrow existence day to day, letting out her release by ranting on mumsnet. Awesome.

@S0livagant you don't attempt to leave the shop via the self service checkouts if you aren't buying anything.
I just leave by the same way I entered if I'm not buying anything.

How is it restricting to have to prove you've paid for something before leaving the shop? Hasn't this always been the case?

You can't in our Tesco. They have one way gates with a display blocking the single 'out' gate. You can slip out past someone coming in or else need to leave via the self service.

treating you “like scum”
”like dirt”

You sound like an extra off Eastenders OP

Plenty of women walk out with trolleys stacked with goods without paying. It most definitely isn't just young men. And the vast majority isn't people desperate to feed the family. It is mainly organised gangs. Most days we have attempted trolley pushes of in excess of £600

i bet the OP is “known” at these shops and watches like a hawk!

No that hasn't always been the case. It goes against the code of our society. Innocent until proven guilty. If they think someone has committed a crime then deal with that....this system turns that on its head. You are being told you must prove you haven't committed a crime before you are allowed to leave.

I’m just disappointed at having never been strip searched…!

Your other thread goes hand in hand rather well with this thread OP 😆

www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5114580-do-you-ever-worry-youre-too-annoying-for-anyone-to-tolerate-and-everyone-will-eventually-abandon-you

I haven't used Sainsburys since they started trapping people in the store. Well, I did once, to buy one item and I managed to tailgate another couple so didn't need to scan my receipt. I disagree with it on principle.

They won't employ the staff - well, they can't have it both ways, Either trust your customers or don't.

I won't go to Aldi since I found out they search your bags, either.

Yes shopifting is a problem but the "pens" never stopped a shoplifter, they just cause problems for honest customers. Funnily enough, there was a lot less shoplifting when there were more staff.

Easy solution, really.

@TinyGingerCat not necessarily true in terms of locations. I happen to live in a very affluent rural location and we do have some of the named security measures (such as the receipt scanning pen in Sainsbury’s)
I think obviously they are more prevalent in urban areas that perhaps have a higher crime rate, but they seem to be being rolled out nationally.

So how do the pens help? A gang will just smash and grab.

The only thing that helps is locking the doors when you see them come in.

Which also inconveniences honest shoppers who want to pay for their stuff and go. I'd be really annoyed if I eg missed a train or late for work because I was trapped in a shop.

Bloody. Hell. OP

you are pissed off with SO much in life according to your other recent threads 😦

@S0livagant if the gates at the entrance are one way and I want to leave that way I generally just politely ask the security guard that's there to let me out.
They always oblige happily.

not very “organised” if they’re getting caught

. Exactly. I have zero sympathy for shops. They choose to have self service checkouts to increase their profits. They are denying employment to the communities they operate in. Then they moan that people are stealing and decide to tackle this by treating everyone as a criminal unless they can prove otherwise