Theft at the Self-Checkout Lines
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https://www.foodandwine.com/self-checkout-theft-rates-increase-lendingtree-report-2025-11869915
https://www.lendingtree.com/debt-consolidation/checkout-theft-survey/
Twenty-seven percent of users now admit to purposefully not scanning items, up from 15% just two years ago, according to a new survey from LendingTree released as the holiday shopping season peaks. The jump comes as grocery costs continue to climb and economic pressure on lower-income households grows.
Among those who admitted to stealing, 47% cited "unaffordable essentials" as their primary reason, while 39% said prices felt "unfair or too high." ...
I am surprised that theft at the self-checkout lines is now so pervasive.
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I’m not surprised. I’ve seen several stores where the self check registers have been removed.
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Ax asked about Christian conceptions (pun intended) of sin in another thread.
I'm am so old-school RC that the thought of cheating at a self checkout line is noxious to me. I would feel soiled.
@Piano-Dad said in Theft at the Self-Checkout Lines:
I would feel soiled.
I don't know if I'd go that far about myself, but I also feel strongly about not stealing.
This morning, we were going through self-checkout. I had two things of vitamins, and I thought I'd scanned them both, and both were bagged, no warning was coming up, but I could see there was only one in the running list of items that had been rung up. I called someone over to help me, but as the clerk was fixing it for me, I thought to myself "I probably could have walked off without paying and no one would have noticed. Or if they had, I could have just said it was a mistake."
But it would have been dishonest and that's not how I want to be as a person.
Also, I know that shoplifting is not a victimless crime, as some like to say it is, and definitely wouldn't want to do something dishonest where there's also a victim -- or rather, victims. Because we are all paying for the "product loss" or whatever they call it.
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I’m not surprised. I’ve seen several stores where the self check registers have been removed.
@Steve-Miller said in Theft at the Self-Checkout Lines:
I’ve seen several stores where the self check registers have been removed.
I would be happy to have more check out lanes with clerks to go through. It's always faster to do it that way.
When Mr. SK and I shop together and go through the self-check out, usually I scan and hand the item to him, and he bags it while I pick up the next item. If the machine didn't seize up, we could be quite fast that way, but it can't handle it (like if there's a nanosecond where I'm scanning the next item before the first item's weight registers in the bagging area). So we end up having to slow down. It's a pain in the rear.
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I love self-checkout; I'm faster than most cashiers. Costco implemented it several years ago, took it out, and have now re-installed self-checkout registers. They must have figured it was cheaper to write off the losses for self-checkout scofflaws than to employ five additional cashiers.
I couldn't knowingly skip scanning items; that's theft. If I'm the unintended beneficiary of an error that gives me a free item, I do what @shirokuro did, namely get a store employee to help me straighten it out. In the days of cash, if the cashier gave me more change that I was supposed to get I always gave back the extra. I figure I would grouse if they shorted me so it's only fair to return a "bonus". I also figured they might be on the hook for the shortage when they counted their cash box when they came off the register.
At our Mariano's each self-checkout register has a camera. I've scanned something, put it in the bagging area, and had the display tell me to remove the item because it thinks it hasn't been scanned. I've called the employee over and they will look at the video footage to see what I did to be sure I'm not cheating them. In our case it 's always how we timed putting the item in the bag. I don't know how commonplace cameras are.
For the people who are doing the "scan the cheap thing and substitute a more expensive item of the same weight" trick, I can't imaging there are a ton of them. Seems like way too much work to plan and execute for the reward.
All of that said, it really boils down to a) peoples' fundamental honesty and b) their motivation. There are some people who steal just because they think the can get away with it and there are others whose sense of survival kicks in and they steal in order to survive. If you don't have enough money to feed your kids you may just take what you feel like you need. I could be wrong but I think there are way more losses due to the first group rather than the second.
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I have little (none, really) sympathy for national/international chains who move into neighborhoods and have very little stake in the community. Who cause the shuttering of mom and pop stores and run things homogeneously. Who pay so little that many who work at them need government assistance. Who care so little about people, that they'll only have a few cashiers (if any!) and expect everyone to become a de facto, unpaid employee to check out. I refuse. They don't train their employees well enough (most of those at the local Walmart don't know the first thing about the goods they sell in their department.), and to be honest, the employees are not being paid enough to learn. These stores are a blight on the land, and often sell inferior (grossly inferior) product.
I'm strongly against theft. But if people are so hard up that they need to resort to theft (unless they're kleptomaniacs, but the percentages indicate something more), there is a bigger problem at hand.
We should be talking about the theft of livelihoods and wages and services.
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I viscerally dislike the self checkouts. If I’m doing the cashier’s job, at least give me a discount.
The local CVS has 3 self checkouts. Whenever I’ve used them there’s always a glitch and a staffer has to come over and fix things. Not very efficient. Also there are discrepancies over what the shelf price is and what the scanner says it is.
