AIBU to think stores wanting us to use self-scanning devices and self-service tills should not make customers feel like criminals?

[Nenen]

I want to start by saying I understand shops need to prevent shoplifting and if any store had a legitimate reason to suspect me of doing so I would be happy to let them search me. However, AIBU to feel aggrieved that stores using self-service tills and scanning systems can dispense with the premise of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ and insist on doing random checks on customers using the systems they do their best to get us to use in the first place?

My adult son (who had his 3 little daughters with him at the time) has just been stopped in a supermarket when he went to pay for a full trolley of goods he had used the store self-scanning device for. Security staff told him they had to do a ‘random spot check’. He and the girls (a baby, a 2-year old and a 4-year old) were led by security staff to a staffed till where all his goods were unloaded from the bags he had filled as he went round scanning. Staff then rescanned each item to check the total. This took the staff 20 minutes, during which time the baby started crying and the 2-year old got understandably fed up! At no time did the shop staff try to help my son pacify the children or apologise for the inconvenience. Suffice to say, his scanning had been absolutely accurate so he was allowed to pay and leave. However, the gross inconvenience and embarrassment factor of being publicly stopped and checked like this was enough to make him say he will never use self-service tills and scanners ever again.

If something like this ever happened to me, I think I’d refuse to cooperate and tell the manager they either trust me to scan my items or they don’t! If they don’t then I’m leaving and they can keep the whole trolley load! If they don’t trust customers who have not done anything suspicious then IMO they should not let them use the scanning devices in the first place. They can’t have it both ways, surely? These stores want it all their own way without any customer care at all.

I dislike using self-service tills for many other reasons too, not least because every time I’ve tried to use one, something has happened that resulted in me having to stand and wait for a member of staff to come and sort out an issue (often more than once for a single load of shopping). Therefore, I am prepared to queue for a little longer to pay at a staffed till.

My biggest gripe until now has been that several times I have waited in a queue for the staffed till at our local CoOp, only for the member of staff to leave their queue waiting to go and sort out a problem another customer was having at a (supposedly) self-service till! These customers had waltzed straight past the serviced queue and then got preferential service while we waited even longer!

To add insult to injury, self-service mechanisms obviously reduce the company spending on staff wages but I’ve yet to see any reduction in the prices I’m paying for their goods.

Self scanners are so convenient. Save so much time. I only use them for baskets rather than large trolly shops. My weekly shop is done online.
That means if they do a random check I'll only be inconvenienced for a really short time.
The staff are only doing their job.

It's a random check. How on earth is it embarrassing. However you right about the self service. Hate them. Try and use a till even if it's a longer wait.

I had a rescan a couple of times when I used to use the fast scanner. I wasn't led off by security though and it was just the assistant putting all the items through the till. A pain in the backside but I realised it was just routine. I also wasn't treated like a criminal if something hadn't scanned properly. If you have a crate of wine that you forgot to scan, that might be a different story.

So yes these things are routine, but it very much depends on how the shop deals with it with the customer.

I now just get the bulk of the shopping delivered and only buy a few bits in store. I wouldn't use a self checkout for a big trolley load. Even with a few items there is usually something that needs approval or the attention of the assistant.

The thing I hate most is the machine constantly not detecting lighter items or if you shift bags about they then can't detect the right weight and the machine pauses until someone sorts it out. In some stores it can take ages for someone to come and stick in their code.

I adopted the scan app on my mobile for Sainsbury’s during Covid. I used it for most of my shopping for 3-4 years. Occasionally got randomly picked for someone to check a few items. I get it. Everything was fine.

However the last 3 shops I’ve done there I’ve been pulled over for a full scan of my entire shop. All of the stuff scanned ok, but they have a large area at the back of the store (near the alcohol) where there is a black hole in their WiFi.

So I have to put stuff in my trolly and wheel it back into the centre of the store to actually scan my goods. I would think it catches a lot of people out which I think is unfair.

So my last shop there last week, I went through the proper tills. Actually spoke to a nice lady about the weather, and trundled out feeling that it was a far better experience than the self scan option.

I use them all the time and much prefer them to going through the checkout.

ive never felt like or been treated like a criminal even when I did forget to scan something.

it’s annoying when they stop you, but it’s not that often and the convenience every other time makes up for it.

So all the theives need to do to avoid being checked is take small children with them.

Not sure why the OP thinks it is up to supermarket staff to entertain his children. I’m sure he wasn’t involved in the check so could have his full attention on them.

I like self service and have no objection to occasional random checks. I am really surprised that your DS was discombobulated by this . There are plenty of open tills where I usually shop also so people have a choice. I sometimes go to another supermarket which is almost all self service and where there are never enough support staff to help with glitches or scan alcohol and this is annoying.

OK, then maybe not.

First of all, I use my bike and don't drive to shop, and secondly these shops are all within 250 metres of each other in the town High Street. It probably takes 15 minutes longer than doing it all in Sainsburys.

It takes a little bit of effort to use local shops but the prices are good, often cheaper and the products far nicer than the supermarket and the service far better.

From an economics perspective, the money I spend is also far more likely to stay in my local area.

Do you have a basket on the bike and hang around with a chimney sweep?

Your reference is pretty insulting. There are better ways to shop and to eat but no, I have a set of panniers and it's an ebike. Try it sometime, or you carry on getting rescanned and I'll carry on supporting local businesses and eating decent food.

I online shop because I don't have enough time to do a physical shop. If I bought an ebike it would be stolen or vandalised in 20 mins if I chained it up in the high street. Our local area also has no butchers, no bakers, no green grocers or hardware stores. We have farm shops and butchers around but you'd need to drive around for about 2 hours to get a weekly shop. If I wanted a vape and a bubble tea then the local shops might be more relevant.

I think you are being unreasonable and that random checks are reasonably.
They are annoying but they don't happen that often and I can understand why they have them.

@traybaked that sounds like a familiar high street and what the heil is the fascination with bubble tea it's bloody every where .

Last time I was spot checked they just checked they could find 3 random items. I think it may have been asda? Rescanning the whole shop sounds really annoying. I agree if they are that worried they shouldn't allow self scanning

Or just slam it down really hard, seems to work!

Exactly. So many people don’t seem to believe that a random check is not chosen by the staff, not targeted at an individual and not because they think someone is guilty.
Some industries have random drug and alcohol testing too. They don’t pick out individuals. The randomness is the whole point.

The only thing I probably would complain about is them taking 20 minutes to do it. That’s a ridiculously long time and suggests that those staff don’t know what they’re doing.

I try to avoid using self service for many reasons but I'm aware that if I use them there's the risk of inconvenience of checks etc.
If you disagree with it strongly or don't want to wait, I do know someone who refused and left their trolley of shopping behind.
I also know a couple who scan their shop using 2 different accounts to make sure they get their vouchers from each account taken off their joint weekly shopping and then got checked randomly and that really did take a long time to sort out!

Wish posters would understand that there is a difference between self scan and smart shopping or scan n pack

You don’t get selected for checks using self scan which you pick up items and scan them at a self scan till.

Scan n pack or SmartShop is when you use the supermarket’s handsets or your smartphone and use the app. Then download the data using the QR code on screen. This is when you can be selected for checks.

The only time I’ve ever had a full trolley rescan was when the staff member accidentally scanned the wrong barcode. I had bought a multipack of drinks and she scanned one of the individual drinks inside. It was her mistake and she apologised repeatedly but everything had to be rescanned. Frustrating but not embarrassing. Anyone caught in a random check is not going to be viewed as a criminal by others because we all know it’s computer decided. 🤷‍♀️

If it ever happens to me it's a small trolley or basket as I get my main shop delivered so I don't mind too much.

If I had a full trolley and my kids I'd just say I don't have time right now so I'll have to leave the trolley.

Some people are so very easily offended!
The amount of theft from shops is at ridiculous levels and although supermarkets can trust a lot of customers there's a hell of a lot of other customers who can't be trusted and so they have to put measures in.
Also they are random checks but also there are algorithms to your shopping habits that will prompt a check, strangely enough I do scan and shop at the same store 1-2 times a week, I've had one check this year! It's always lower priced shops though but not sure if they check in other ways like cameras ect, I don't care though as I'm not nicking anything!

You do know all they can do is ban the shoplifters. They don’t call the police as they don’t come out now.

I always see the usual ones and hear them getting told out as they are barred but the kids well fhey can nick what they like and no consequences because the police won’t come out to escort them home because they’ll get met with “my social Worker ……”

I went into another branch of JS today for an emergency kettle. It was security protected but the cashier said that didn’t matter and didn’t do anything.

As I walked out I set off the alarms ( as I expected) but I wasn’t stopped….