To think giant supermarket scales to spot shoplifting won't work?

[SwanOfThoseThings]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0rzvrjkklko

Tesco are trialling these giant scales to check trolley contents match what has been self-scanned. Surely this is going to be nothing more than a giant pain in the arse? They're never going to be sensitive enough to weigh small items, e.g. cosmetics, bar of chocolate etc. plus you might have your own shopping bags in the trolley to complicate matters.

This is not the way to go. Supermarkets need to increase the number of staffed checkouts.

Probably the odd one out here but I absolutely love self scan and am all for anything that helps me avoid conversations with till assistants in supermarkets.

Scan, pack as you go, pay and walk out. Shopping perfection for me 🥳

Yes, or a £500g thing of expensive meat vs cheap meat. Or even 500g of expensive meat scanned as a 500g bag of sugar.

That fine until you're chosen as z random check like my daughter was - 8 months pregnant with a toddler, having to unpack every bloody item sk a woman could check them against the receipt .

She's never gone back not that Asda are bothered I'm sure

Getting checked once in a blue moon (I've been checked twice, ever) is still better/quicker than going through the till process every single time.

The problem is each store can customise their loose produce and single items (bakery) on the tills but don’t.

There was a bloke who put everything through self checkout as loose bananas. The Sainsburys Local or Tesco Express in question didn’t sell loose bananas at the time.

How do these scales tell if shopping was packed loose in trolley or in quality tote bags?

Also some trolleys had their advertising panel removed from front of trolley. How do these scales know this?

It’s nonsense, as soon as you put any loose fruit or veg in your shop it’s not going to work for a start.

They either need to trust customers to scan for themselves or employ staff for check outs!

The problem is so many large supermarkets are not bothering to staff any till for a lot of the time. And they often won't open one if you ask. But I agree with you; I don't want to faff about scanning a full trolley - it's much slower and more annoying to scan shopping through a SS till because off all the checks and the poor set up of the packing area.

I expect in a few years a lot of shops will require you to scan to enter. They’ll be able to ban people entering too.
Shoplifing has changed from a few people to loads of people who don’t care. It’s rife in my local Sainsbury’s to go. So they’ll stop you even going in.
I’ve noticed supermarkets in town centres are clamping down more and more.
I don’t think it’s a good thing but it seems to be the way things go, once Amazon make their shop reading technology cheap it’s what they’ll all have.

Not to mention the issue of shoppers using different bags, a trolley being damaged so missing a bit of weight, children needing to be taken out of the seat etc!

Yeah, Sainsbury's just don't feel like they can be bothered any more. I only go there because it's close, but I resent the poor availability and the lack of staff. And those Deliveroo handsets constantly beeping! How do the poor staff cope?

Some of us prefer self scan!

But only if you happen to know the barcode number by heart for the beans and can enter it manually!

Unless you scan a cheap product and then do a switcheroo, you can only misrepresent things actually at the till as loose/non-barcoded items.

I agree that Scan & Shop can be quicker, but it's annoying that - because of the tiny chance it will want to check you with a staff re-scan - you can't ever pack goods as you go.

That would be best of all, but very open to abuse by customers/accusations from staff, especially if you've bought something from a different shop beforehand and it's already in your bag.

Self scan should be banned. it should all go back having manned tills.

It basically boils down to big shops wanting to save money on staff by trusting/expecting customers to scan goods themselves but then clearly not trusting any of their customers, and scrambling to find a solution having already rejected the obvious existing one.

It's a bit like somebody trying to invent a functioning wheel, but only having already fundamentally denied the existence of 'circular' as a shape!

They want to have their Mr Kiplings French Fancies and eat them!

Lidl have made all their self checkouts card only (in my area) which means have to open manned checkouts more frequently to let customers paying with cash.

I wonder if this could all end up in a big backlash, if supermarkets go far enough to make their stores too unpleasant for people to want to use.

Just maybe, we could see a groundswell of people returning to little local shops, where they go from a basic perspective of valuing your custom, rather than seeing you as an assumed thief until proven honest on each occasion.

I can only imagine how it would work with a baby in the trolley or toddler. Or other shopping from elsewhere. Will it be done with people with buggies? I can only imagine what a pain it will be and how it will be impractical

I have a "friend" who puts meat into the veg bags at Sainsbury's and weighs them as carrots! So it's never going to work.

That's irritating - especially as you wouldn’t even know which till to lurk at to convey "I wish to pay for my shopping, please" to any of the permanently skeleton staff who happen to walk past.

I remember the old days when all supermarkets - not just Lidl - would open all of their checkouts at busy times. Nowadays, even on Christmas Eve, they leave the majority of them closed, purely as decorative relics of the past rather than as actual working checkouts.

I know that Asda have cameras in their self-service tills, so they take a photo of any 'suspicious' items or ask an assistant to come over and confirm - say if you're buying the equivalent weight of three bunches of bananas at once.

Otherwise, I suppose determined thieves could still put a lining of carrots around the inside of the bag and on the top, and then hide something small but valuable underneath.

But again, why wouldn't they avoid all of that faff and simply slide it straight into their coat pocket?

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What an absolutely stupid idea

If I were Tesco I'd make it members only and introduce face or fingerprint id technology. That way you could give life time bans to thieves.

It annoys me that it almost seems sociably acceptable to steal things.

decorative relics of the past rather than as actual working checkouts.

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