Walmart quit watching their self checkout monitors

[linkbelt]

You just go ahead and try and "forget" to scan something. You will not make it to the front door before being accosted. [/quote]

Just one more good reason to make the "store assoc" check their own stuff out.
If I self- checkout and miss an item - I might be arrested as a shoplifter!

 

[PandaBear]

They can probably outsource the "watching" to Mexico or India, and push a button when they see something to notify the guy in the store.

 

[Mr Nice]

There is a motion sensor that locks the register and gives and error message if you do not stay standing in one place while scanning items. It thinks you are trying to bypass items from being scanned.

 

[Prune_Juice]

Originally Posted By: Tegger
Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
lately, nobody's been standing in front of the monitor screen.

Oh, they're watching. There are cameras all over the place near the ceiling.

Walmart operates on razor-thin margins. Theft (known as "shrinkage" in the retail industry) is very damaging to the bottom line, so they ARE watching.

You just go ahead and try and "forget" to scan something. You will not make it to the front door before being accosted.


^ This.

Usually, the way they do it is that.. Once the camera operator determines a theft has taken place, a plainclothes security is standing somewhere in the large exit doors, but not moving like the other shoppers, and just when you think you are home free and making a beeline to the parking lot, you are stopped, and escorted into an office nearby while they decide if they are letting you off with a warning, or fully prosecuting. And they have amazing hi-res HD video.

They will also reclaim their merchandize. It isn't worth it.

 

[ZeeOSix]

Now it will be even easier for the scumbags to put expensive oil filters in a cheap filter's box.

 

[cjcride]

Originally Posted By: ZeeOSix
Now it will be even easier for the scumbags to put expensive oil filters in a cheap filter's box.

I got scammed that way by a lowlife. Opened the box a couple months later in the middle of the oil change and it had the cheap orange filter not the better gray one.
Now I look in the box before buying.

 

[DBMaster]

The promise of bar codes was that you would have an electronic device on your cart to scan everything while you shop and then just pay at the end. The promise of RFID, aside from store inventory control, was that you could push your entire cart through a reader and just pay at the end.

Why are we still stuck having to scan every item individually? In this area, the HEB/Central Market stores have printer/scales in the produce areas and bulk foods areas so by the time you get to the checkout everything has a bar code label on it.

We're basically still waiting in checkout lines due to the lowest common denominator. I've watched people using the self checkouts. Some are on the phone with one hand and checking out with the other. Others can barely find the bar codes. Basically, it's like a stupid convention.

 

[Triton_330]

Originally Posted By: cjcride
Originally Posted By: ZeeOSix
Now it will be even easier for the scumbags to put expensive oil filters in a cheap filter's box.

I got scammed that way by a lowlife. Opened the box a couple months later in the middle of the oil change and it had the cheap orange filter not the better gray one.
Now I look in the box before buying.

All this talk about people getting caught stealing because of cameras, but yet the filter swappers never get caught? One would think Walmart would catch on to that.

I always open the box to check the filter first, anyway.

~ Triton

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted By: Triton_330
All this talk about people getting caught stealing because of cameras, but yet the filter swappers never get caught? One would think Walmart would catch on to that.

I always open the box to check the filter first, anyway.

~ Triton


I was in Walmart today and decided to checkout their filters. I was opening a few boxed to take a look at the filters and I heard the overhead intercom chime in with something like: "Security look in zone B". Don't know if it was just a coincidence or not, but heard about 4 or 5 other instances of similar announcements over the store intercom system over the next hour.

 

[Tegger]

Originally Posted By: JTK
Big theft issues with their employees as well.

And there's little that the chain can do about it without alienating their employees. All they really have control over is customer shrinkage.

Most large retail stores have problems with employee theft, some worse than others.

 

[Tegger]

Originally Posted By: Triton_330
All this talk about people getting caught stealing because of cameras, but yet the filter swappers never get caught?

Some theft is successful, which is why chains are so diligent about stopping as much as they can.

The problem is that they have to balance controlling theft against the PR and legal problems with mistaken accusations. If they're not 100% certain, they are likely to let you walk.

There was a case in Canada a few years ago where a lady was accused of the "swap" trick with a pair of children's shoes: She had placed a more-expensive pair into a less-expensive box, then attempted to check out. After being stopped, she claimed that she had got crossed-up during an involved session helping her small daughter pick out a pair of shoes, and accidentally put the wrong pair into the wrong box. Store security reviewed the videos several times and was not convinced. I think they had shoplifting charges laid against her anyway.

 

[dja4260]

I was at HD a few months ago picking up some misc 1/2 copper fittings. I put them in my jacket pockets as I didn't need a cart (and they would just slip out of cart due to size). As I was checking out a lady told me to not place merchandise in my jacket and a plain clothed security employee was following me around the store for the past 15 minutes. I think I spent $13 bucks.

 

[DoubleWasp]

Walmart inventory control is spotty.

I've gone to some, and literally had 3 plainclothes mysteriously surround me while vitamin shopping. Just alone in the vitamin aisle, and all of a sudden the aisle turned into Grand Central with people who clearly were not scrutinizing anything that they were looking at.

At the same WM, a friend of mine had been filling a trash can he was buying with car stuff. The cashier rang up the trash can, never looked inside and he walked out with all of the car stuff for free.

He did drive back to the WalMart and pay for the stuff once he realized what had happened, but that's a pretty big one for IC to miss.