Self checkouts-honest mistakes?!

[Jimmy_Russells]

Thats what happens when wages go up and up.....the stores figure a way to save..so now you see self checkouts increasing with more and more of them in stores...Seeing them also at a lot of fast food places now...

On what planet have wages gone up and up?

 

[hrv]

On what planet have wages gone up and up?

well around here they are making 15 to 18 bucks an hour to start at a lot of fast food places...

 

[PimTac]

One inventive and sly employee assisted retail store crime I have seen a report on is the WalMart "cash back" scheme. I am sure it likely has caught on at many other stores by a host of teen age n younger adult employees who can not help themselves. They can not help it but must constantly brag to everyone via the latest curse of humanity, known simply as (social media) in this day and age.
So the "cash back" scheme is about as simple as they come.
Employee at register flags one of her accomplices who are always close and on standby to jump into the check out line behind this person with huge order , plenty unruly kids she is watching or who looks like they have lots of money. Checker instantly goes from angry , dont want to be here employee face/attitude to the "hi and welcome to our store , isnt it a wonderful day? Did you find all the products you needed?"..... employee who is trying to now confuse or catch off guard the customer as she is checking out her purchases in hopes this customer is going to be too distracted to look too close at her store reciept. Why? Because the store checker has typed in the "cash back" option to the tune of anywhere from $20 to $100. This way when customer leaves , accomplice simply moves up next to check out a news paper, a bag of M&Ms, soda or bubble gum etc.... and to recieve her reciept with the cash concealed, under handed (attempts to hide from camera) the "cash back" charged to previous customer's credit or debit card.

That would only work once as they are caught on camera at the checkout.

 

[John105]

On what planet have wages gone up and up?

I think I saw that in a movie once. Ordinary people who worked hard all their lives, were well off by the time they retired. Won Best Drama with a far fetched plot

 

[mk378]

One inventive and sly employee assisted retail store crime I have seen a report on is the WalMart "cash back" scheme.

This would only work with debit cards used in debit mode, which is a small proportion of purchases (unless the customer wants cash back).

Several things happen that would alert the customer-- the pedestal display says "cash back", the cash register drawer opens, and the receipt says cash back. If you use a debit card and the register drawer opens, something is wrong.

The rest of the elaborate story about having a friend next in line is not necessary at all, since after the scheme has been perpetrated, the cash drawer now contains more money than the computer says it should, and the cashier can claim it any time before the drawer is counted at the end of the shift.

By far the most common scheme involving a shopper in cohorts with a crooked cashier is that they will let their friend have items without ringing them up. This was the original reason for receipt checking, to keep the cashiers honest.

 

[SammyChevelleTypeS3]

That would only work once as they are caught on camera at the checkout.

Of course criminals, they just always seem to get caught, No matter how inventive or even far fetched the crimes are. Its just a shame some of those innovative (even smart) younger people were never taught by someone who cared enough about them to use their skills to go out into the world and do some good for humanity.

 

[John105]

How about when the merchant does it in reverse? Routinely Shop R***, when you buy the $1.99/lb spare ribs on sale, there's extra cartilage included under the rack. Another store near us, H M*** always did that, they'd throw extra fat into the package. At what point does dishonestly get dealt with....

 

[Pew]

How about when the merchant does it in reverse? Routinely Shop R***, when you buy the $1.99/lb spare ribs on sale, there's extra cartilage included under the rack. Another store near us, H M*** always did that, they'd throw extra fat into the package. At what point does dishonestly get dealt with....

H Mart?

 

[Fla]

How about when the merchant does it in reverse? Routinely Shop R***, when you buy the $1.99/lb spare ribs on sale, there's extra cartilage included under the rack. Another store near us, H M*** always did that, they'd throw extra fat into the package. At what point does dishonestly get dealt with....

FWIW I worked in a meat market for a while when I was in high school and we cut up all of the meat there and packaged it ourselves instead of selling the factory packaged stuff. People where always asking us for the extra fat so that they could use it in their bird feeders or some such. We just got the point that we'd throw the excess fat into some of the packages but we never charged for it. The charge was based on the weight of the meat only. The fat that we added was added after the meat was placed in the package and the package was weighed, and before we wrapped it. It was plainly visible and people could buy packages with or without the extra fat.

That was one of the many jobs that I had as a teenager and that I'd largely forgotten about until you mentioned this. That meat market paid for my first motorcycle,, at $1.00 per hour!

 

[vavavroom]

Thats what happens when wages go up and up.....the stores figure a way to save..so now you see self checkouts increasing with more and more of them in stores...Seeing them also at a lot of fast food places now...

Aren't some fast food places doing away with cooks? They have at least one robo fast food vending machine at an outdoor food court in the city. A non-human worker prepares your meal and it comes out of a hatch.

 

[Vil_Riker]

You probably only need a human for the final assembly, but that can be automated as well. I'm sure the technology has been there for a long time but the customers probably wanted their food to have some form of human touch. After the lockdowns we don't really mind how the food is prepared so we might see a lot of changes in the junk food industry.

 

[SammyChevelleTypeS3]

This would only work with debit cards used in debit mode, which is a small proportion of purchases (unless the customer wants cash back).

Several things happen that would alert the customer-- the pedestal display says "cash back", the cash register drawer opens, and the receipt says cash back. If you use a debit card and the register drawer opens, something is wrong.

The rest of the elaborate story about having a friend next in line is not necessary at all, since after the scheme has been perpetrated, the cash drawer now contains more money than the computer says it should, and the cashier can claim it any time before the drawer is counted at the end of the shift.

By far the most common scheme involving a shopper in cohorts with a crooked cashier is that they will let their friend have items without ringing them up. This was the original reason for receipt checking, to keep the cashiers honest.

That shopper who I told about in #84 post had to be in cahoots with the reciept checker greeter and maybe even the security. I watched her "fake-scan" and then bag each item from her whole cart in front of me with the sign "out of Order!" on that register.
Of course no one paying attention but me it seemed. Then I watched as the reciept checker/greeter walked up and they fist bumped and talked like they knew each other without the shopper even trying to show any fake reciept. I guess if someone watches the films on a random schedule they would see that. It just amazed me how arrogant and sure of themselves they seemed to be.

 

[John105]

Came across a YouTube in Lake Co FL, where 3 women were in a Walmart security office. Busted for stealing $31 of goods. Imho rather petty on the part of Walmart, because they gave a huge cart of stuff they did pay for…

 

[PimTac]

Came across a YouTube in Lake Co FL, where 3 women were in a Walmart security office. Busted for stealing $31 of goods. Imho rather petty on the part of Walmart, because they gave a huge cart of stuff they did pay for…

So they didn’t scan certain products in their cart? It’s still theft. The cameras would show the intent to not scan.

 

[weaponoffreedom]

Apparently the losses don't exceed the cost of actually employing people to do the checkout.

simple math

 

[dlundblad]

The company could go back into the camera system and see everything. He could still get into trouble.

 

[k1xv]

I don't use self checkout ever. I suck at packing grocery bags. Among other reasons.

 

[John105]

I don't use self checkout ever. I suck at packing grocery bags. Among other reasons.

Actually our township and a couple others has banned plastic bags. So when I go to a particular town that has a Shop Rite, I on purpose double bag things. We use them for garbage etc. (small trash bins).

I can't imagine seriously having to buy bags to pick up after a dog either.

But to the reverse of the subject, we have forgotten items at self checkout, and have to have gone back. It has happened that the next person took our stuff. So I guess as a general rule, if not diligent, self checkout is opportunity for theft big time, and user error as well.

Anyone notice they are designed around the given space? Some have larger platforms, some have smaller ones so small, it's not even practical. So the "scale" is disabled where it matches weight to items scanned. This is imho where people steal.

 

[andrew_j]

Loss at self checkout is expected maliciously or error. Part of it all.

I specifically told a kid twice to he other day at normal checkout I had 7 bags of softener salt at $7.50/each. He scanned 1. He kept talking to friend bagging and I simply scanned my phone Apple Pay before finishing transaction and never looked at total when pilot approve. Got home charged for 1 bag aa overall total seemed off.

Makes up for all that rotten meat and veggies local grocery has sold me over years.

 

[John105]

Loss at self checkout is expected maliciously or error. Part of it all.

I specifically told a kid twice to he other day at normal checkout I had 7 bags of softener salt at $7.50/each. He scanned 1. He kept talking to friend bagging and I simply scanned my phone Apple Pay before finishing transaction and never looked at total when pilot approve. Got home charged for 1 bag aa overall total seemed off.

Makes up for all that rotten meat and veggies local grocery has sold me over years.

I don’t know what margins are at grocery retailers. My employer once had a 29% margin on a Trader Joe’s contract which implies they have good margins themselves.

I got some $6.99/lb NY strips before New Year’s. Get home and the register deducted $6/lb not $3 as it should have been (they were tagged $9.99/lb). Went back today, same thing. But I noticed they shrunk the family packs To about 1.8 lbs, not 3. This tells me they’re aware of the pricing issue and they simply put less product out. I still think under $4/lb is a long gone price. Imagine all week this has been the pricing. Anyone like me buying? Honest mistake.