Ok Fess Up.. Who Has Stolen Something Through a Self Serve Checkout?

So I was shopping at Woolies the other day.

I saw this chick weighing a leg of lamb on the self serve scales and pressed onions.

The self serve attendant was about 16 and completely oblivious.

I told him as she walked out and he wasn't really too fussed and he casually walked off to tell someone else.

Got me wondering..

How does Woolies and Coles even make a profit with these things??

Have any of you guys ever accidentally or intentionally forgotten to pay for something? (weighing something as onions is stealing)

What are your thoughts on self serve?

Poll Options

  • 75
    Yes I have forgotten to pay for something
  • 78
    Yes I have intentionally stolen something
  • 631
    No I am absolutely honest

Comments

        • @jkcat:
          That's the thing, if the label isn't scanned, the program expects the correct weight to be put on the "bought" side, and the routine completes when that happens.

        • @swiggity swag: climbs down..

      • Yes, if you scan the barcode. The scale that weighs the items you put into the bags won't see anything amiss if you scan the lamb and put it in the bag, or if you put the onionlamb on the scale and select brown onions.

        I've been told about this before, but never done it personally. It would make washing machine powder pretty cheap too. I always keep an eye on the veggies too, to see if anything is on sale cheaper than brown onions :)

    • +15

      Thats an interesting ethic of stealing. More or less: "its okay if I steal a little bit. But I would definitely call her out for stealing too much".

      • -4

        Good point, however I think I have shown I have no qualms against stealing from Coles, as long as I can get away with it.

        I personally would be too embarrassed to put a leg of lamb on the weigher. Imagine if you got caught?

  • +1

    Always honest but once the machine made an error in my favour. It weighed 1.5kg of fruit as about 0.1kg. Obviously an error but was I dishonest to not report it?

    • +3

      of course you were dishonest. Computer fault is not a valid excuse, because you can still be prosecuted.

      • +1

        Actually they can't prosecute you or even accuse you of stealing. If you are using the self serve you have not been trained to use it so they cannot do anything. If they do accuse you then you can actually sue them for defamation. My neighbour works for woollies at the service desk and this is what management have told them.

        • yikes…..
          Surely the rules need to be changed, but then again I don't care about big supermarkets losing a bit of revenue.

        • @cDNA:

          So you should have a degree in IT and double check the maths of the machine as well as the weighing equipment? I don't think so. They have every opportunity to ensure those are working correctly. If you intentionally try to steal that's one thing. Not picking up a computer error is another, unless you can fully prove that the person doing the scanning noticed - good luck with that.

        • @cDNA:

          Probably but the big supermarkets might want to get their own house in order first. Both Woolies and Coles have (very recently) been fined for selling products with incorrect weights, including expensive cuts of meat like lamb being sold at up to almost 10% over their actual weight…

        • Isn't this almost the same as automated bank tellers?
          Pretty sure if the ATM made a mistake and dispensed Five 50's instead of Five 20's, the police would chase you down for it.

        • It's the same as spending counterfeit money. If you do it without noticing it isn't wrong. If you do notice but do it anyway because you know they can't prove it then it's wrong. Knowing you'll get away with it doesn't make it okay even a little bit. I wouldn't go to great lengths to make sure I didn't underpay Woolies a dollar or two though.

        • @Blitzfx:
          Yes, but in this case, it's more like you asked a machine to count your change, then accepted its result issued in notes. The shopper trusted the businesses machine to check the weight, and accepted was what assessed.

      • +7

        I doubt anyone is going to get prosecuted by this, at most it would be a warning. Besides OzB tries to take advantage of pricing errors all the time, and all you will see in the comments are people hoping that the error is honored.

    • I've had the machine do that to me many times at woolworths. I'm not sure what triggers it. Strange thing is that it weighs the goods twice, once when you weigh it and once when you place it in the bag. If they are different it should call an attendant.

    • It's funny the machine did that through for me the other day.

      The scales weighed the fruit .01kg and it would have actually been 1kg.

      Then the next fruit i put through didn't work properly. I called for attendant I said it was having issues, you could clearly see that she saw the wrong scale of the previous item and she couldn't care less.

    • Yep.

  • +11

    I've also noticed some attendants don't even give a hoot - I'd call them over to tell them the problem but they would wave me off and simply swipe their card to 'manually override all errors' and turn the barcode light green again

    • +2

      Many large retail stores have policies to make sure staff don't confront or accuse someone of stealing (even if they clearly are).

  • I was buying a whole lot of canned food and I couldn't get the bags to open, ended up rushing because I was taking so long and missed like two or three cans (realized I paid and still had some cans in my basket). More or less balanced out though because Coles was running a promotion for them at 80c or so and they scanned in at $1.10, couldn't be bothered trying to sort it out.

  • +62

    to reverse the situation, when i was 16 (a long time ago) and worked at a supermarket, i had closed my register to go home, and a bloke lined up with his wife and 3 trolleys. I told them i was closed, he didn't budge, so ended up serving them. This took 10 - 20 minutes I guess, their order was $500. I was pretty angry, so when i weighed their sun dried tomatoes, I accidently had a big can of pineapple juice on the scales. These tomatoes came to about $50, and because order was so big it was not obvious.

    I got a roasting the next day, I will cop backlash for this, but thought id share.

    • +9

      It's okay. I used to work in retail, so I don't blame you.

    • +1

      Mmmmmm roasted tomatoes…

    • +1

      Wait so you charged them extra for sundried tomatoes and you got a roasting? From who, your employer or the customer?

      • +2

        both when they came in the next day

    • +14

      I unintentionally did this to myself, set my wallet on the self checkout, and weighed it along with some grapes, got home and realised I paid for the weight of my wallet.

      Couldn't bring myself to tell the stupid story the next time I went in, so they've made extra money off me.

      • +17

        At least the cost of that mistake is a little smaller each time you make it.

        • Yeah I've done the same. But there would be times where you may not drop your bag of fruit on the scales completely so it would even out.

    • +9

      Some guy went off his rocker at me before I'd even made his food about how "we" always put too much mayo on his burger. Needless to say I drowned that burger in mayo, I'm suprised it wasn't leaking out of the wrapper. When he drove back 10mins later, I knew he'd be pissed and he had words with my manager. Seriously though, not one regret. I only regret that I no longer work for a company where I can give it back to the customers.

      • +4

        that reminds me, the same day i forgot my name badge, so wore a spare one which was my store managers (and he has a distinct name). they actually rang up complained stating his name, it made the whole thing better…

        mayo story is gold

      • +1

        You took his money and streaky deliberately gave him more of what he wanted to avoid. Do you feel good?

        • +2

          I've done similar yeeears ago in retail. I laugh to this day.

          Golden rule. Don't treat the people who handle your food like crap.

        • +3

          Treat people the way you want to be treated. That doesn't mean treat everyone well. For example, I as a person treat people nicely when they treat me nicely. When people act rudely, I do not feel any need to reward their negative behaviour towards me and wouldn't be suprised if they acted negatively towards me if I acted that way towards them. I wouldn't feel unjustly mistreated. That's my view and I think that's fair. No one gets paid to take shit from others.

          On the other hand I completely understand when it's a necessary part of a job to keep a smile on your face even when work is hard or stressful, to continue to provide a good service to customers.

          There were definitely more mature ways to handle that situation, I was ~17 at the time and I wasn't mature. I don't know if you've ever been in a customer service position that is looked down on by the public in general. I have to tell you some people feel as if they are more human and you are less of a human and it can be difficult not to build an animosity towards those people as a kind of "emotional brick wall" because it does hurt to be treated that way.

          This is why most people I know in Food customer service are against customer tipping like in America. Australians are generally very proud of our egalitarianism or our classless society.

      • You should've done the opposite, just leave out all sauces on his burger… then you can play dumb and say "I though he meant his burger was to soggy, so I did as he said and reduced the amount of sauce." Then sit back with a satisfied grin as his face turns red with a 'FFUUUUUU' rageface.

      • exra mayo 4 life :D

    • By law, I know I should arrest you and put you in a cell, but you paid the price, so I will only give you a warning this time. I'm warning you. Carry on.

      • You have no grounds to detain him, let alone give a warning. I accuse you of blatant abuse of police powers, demand that you retract the warning and expect a formal written apology from the commissioner of the force in my mail by COB Friday.

        If not, will push for unclesnake sue for the undue mental distress this has caused him and will seek compensation.

        • Hmm… How's Cheryl doing? Or how's your little girl doing, I've heard she's just started school. Mary?

          I wouldn't want anything to happen to them now would we. lol

        • @OZBargain Police: No officer! Please, anything but Cheryl and little Mary! Please don't run them over when they Cheryl goes to pick up the kids and crosses the road at exactly 3:15pm each weekday! I'll even send you the map with the coordinates if you want so that you can avoid the area =/

  • +14

    It took a while for a friend of mine to realise he was scanning the barcode on the can instead of the packaging of the 4 pack. He enjoyed what he thought was a never ending sale for a few months before he realised.

    • That's funny, can't believe it took him so long to realise

    • +1

      Doubt this is a true story unless the 4 pack weighs the exactly same as one can.

      • +3

        Don't know why you are getting negs, because you are spot on.

        All assisted checkouts have weighted scales in the bagging area

        • Because not all do. My local woolies does but the bigW in the same centre doesn't.

        • The scales are disabled at my local Woolies store. Must be a trustworthy area :)

    • I found myself putting packaged vegetables on the scales, instead of just scanning the barcode.
      The loose veggies price being more expensive.

      • +1

        I've done this once or twice. It can be a little tricky to do though as sometimes they can accidentally scan in so you shoot yourself in the foot.

  • +3

    How does Woolies and Coles even make a profit with these things??

    I think honest customers pay for it, by increased prices.

    • +1

      The amount of theft that occurs hasn't really changed since the advent of self serve; people just steal in a different way. Regardless, most shrinkage is operational (not theft) and the cost of this hasn't really changed significantly.

      In most retail stores, self serve can account for between 35-50% of volume. You're kidding yourself if you think the consumer is paying higher prices because of self serve.

      • -4

        Self serve makes it easier to steal (or put something expensive for something cheap). Supermarket want their profits, you'd be kidding yourself to think they don't somehow recoup the losses. If not from subtly raising prices, then maybe offering less discounts, or soon replacing everything with their home brand.

        • +11

          … think they don't somehow recoup the losses

          … Through labour costs, as I've already stated (35-50% of transaction volume). If self serve didn't actually save money, they just wouldn't implement them. Shouldn't that be almost painfully obvious to everyone in attendance?

        • -1

          @pais:

          Well if you think that is their sole strategy to recoup losses from theft and wouldn't consider other paths/method to increase sales and profits. I assume you work in that industry?

    • +2

      But at least honest OzBargainers know how to pay less for things and not get price gouged, so we don't really contribute much to their margins.

      • Well, yes you do. You think it is a bargain and (a) buy more than you usually would and (b) might buy things that you would not otherwise.
        Either way, they will get you and profit from you. Being an Ozbargainer (whatever that is and means) does not help you a bit. In fact, the hunger for bargains might be counterproductive for that unless you exercise very strict self-discipline (and from various threads here we know most people do not have such self-restraint but have rooms full of stuff they do not need due to the bargain posts on here.)

    • +3

      They make money by cutting costs on paying employees. They need one person to man 6 checkouts vs 6 people at the traditional one. Times that over a period of a year and they make huge money as the machines pay for themselves pretty quickly. Same thing is happening at Maccas

    • +1

      No they haven't been introduced to cut costs. It's been to increase the sales volume over peak times. It is very clear that as a society we are moving away from the transactional aspect of customer service. Have you ever used a self service because you thought it was going to be quicker?

      • +1

        I assume you clicked on the wrong 'reply' button.

        I use self serve so I don't have to chat with anyone. I have seen people take their time with the self serves though, taking 30secs to find the barcode etc. but since there's like 6+ machines for that 1 line, you get to machine/register quicker.

  • +8

    They make money off these things as they don't have the staffing costs. They have one person looking over 6+ checkouts. Calculate the savings of 3 or more less staff and they are still making massive savings.

    They factor in theft to the cost analysis and still come out miles ahead.

    • +1
      And also accurate till readings at the end of the day. Unfortunately human error occurs with staff at checkouts.

  • +3

    I'm not inclined and don't see the financial risk-versus-reward. There are store camera's. They can identify a thief's transaction details via credit card/EFTPOS as well as Flybuys/Reward card. If you get taken to court you lose a day of wages. Once you have a criminal record its going to turn away future higher paying employers. That's a lot of leg hams, onions + trips to the store!

    I prefer to think that not everybody thinks like me or is as lucky. I'll consider each case on an individual basis. They may be stealing due to psychological or mental illness. There have been countless Hollywood stars caught shoplifting. Plus many people with mental illness in the Australian community. Its conflicting for me but I am sympathetic if the offender looks like a crazy street person or a frail pensioner. I do get angry if I see an iPhone carrying parent who's laughing away with the kids while teaching them to steal.

    For myself, I get 100% discount when I find a pricing error on an item. Both Woolworths and Coles will you give you the first item for free if you were overcharged on an item. This doesn't work for Aldi but they don't have self-checkouts.

    • +3

      This doesn't work for Aldi but they don't have self-checkouts.

      It feels like they barely have checkouts at all! My god, at my local, you'd be lucky if there was more than 1 checkout operator serving the hordes….all I want is my coffee pods :(

      • +2

        Even when they are working I hate the Aldi checkout system! You have 5 meters of space to unpack and 30cm of space to pack.

        • It is based on speed and efficiency. In the old days (10 to 15 years ago) the Aldi checkout staff was famous for being the fastest in the industry when it come to the checkouts. There were no scanners and the staff had all item numbers memorised and typed them in lightning fast.
          I guess the short packing area is still based on the assumption that customers do not want to linger around and pack their stuff up quickly.
          Also, the area is not there to pack items into bags but to merely put it into your trolley. The long workbench behind is where you are supposed to pack things from your trolley into your bags.

        • @Lysander: So I`ve been told - Still thinks it sucks. I only ever buy a few items from Aldi mostly because of the checkout pain.

      • +1

        This is exactly why i avoid Aldi, doesn't matter if your stock is cheap, I'm not waiting 30 mins in line for $30 of groceries.

    • I got overcharged at coles twice and only given back the difference, so maybe different store different policy? Both purchase was shown as sale, but scanned as full price.

    • Aldi haven't signed the code of practice agreement that the other big two have signed. A couple of years ago I disputed the refund amount on a scan error at Aldi and managed to get the full refund. We were right next to a Coles and I argued they shoudl follow their competitors rules.

  • +66

    I was at Bunnings looking for anti theft tap knob which goes on the recycled water tap. So I picked it up and then realissed Masters has it cheap while checking price on their website. I hand it to my partner to put back, She thinks I said Hold onto it. So we bought other stuff and went out.

    As I was unloading things in the boot of my car my partners hands me the knob. I have this WTF look on my face, I tell her to go and return.

    So we both go to Counter and I explain myself to the service lady, She calls the manager, He comes and have a laugh about it and Hands it back to me NO CHARGE! for the honesty.

    I take $10 note and put in the charity box.

    Knob was $14.99, Still saved $4.99 ;) ozbargained

    • +14

      even better if you got receipt for the charity and then claimed on tax

      • Donations $10 or less do not require a receipt for claiming tax.

    • +7

      That's a cheap knob

    • +5

      Sounds like a decent fair dinkum manager.

      Last time at the check out counter the clerk forgot to scan something.

      I always check the receipt to see if everything went through correctly and when I told him something was forgotten and I would like to pay for it I only got an annoyed face in return.

      Thought I was doing the right thing

      • +1

        I messed up at the self-check somehow by missing scanning a couple of things only to realise as I checked my receipt as I walked away. I went back to pay at the counter. The girl on the counter seemed astounded that I wanted to pay. She thanked me but seemed very puzzled. I told her I didn't want to steal.

      • Come on, there's limits to these things right? Literally no one cares. The guy just thought you were a bit of a dick.

    • +1

      You got my vote for being honest :)

    • I dont think they care at Bunnings. Painting my house about 2 years ago and got alot of paint from Rockdale bunnings, including 2 x 10L tins of aquaenamel. I think it was meant to be $180-190 each. Scanned for $15.95 for some reason. I went back a week later and told the check out lady. She scanned the receipt and scanned the tin again and went its the correct price. er…some one in inventory Fd up

      https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/142593#comment-1984496

  • +1

    Several times I have come across self check outs at Woolies that showed items scanned but left unpaid. Those people must have just walked out after scanning the items. And yes, I did inform the attendants, they had no idea when it happened and who did it.

    • +3

      Sometimes i just go and scan an item in there to see what the price is (e.g. If i see it on Ozb and the shelf price doesnt match) and continue to shop afterwards

      • +9

        Have done that a few times myself too. Wonder why Coles and Woolies don't hav e price check machines in store.

    • I actual saw this happening when I was shopping at Coles a few months back. Was waiting in line for the self serve checkout and made my way to the next available one once the person before me finished up.

      Scanned my milk and then realised it was getting added to a cart with a total of $60 already on it. Had a look around but the guy had disappeared.

      Told the self service staff and although concerned there was nothing she could do except let the supervisor know.

      Kind of explains why there is a security guard patrolling the self serve exit for some of the stores I visit. Would be too hard for the staff member to keep a look out especially when their attention is diverted helping another shopper out.

  • +1

    Nope. Never. What for? I can reduce the amount that I pay for my groceries from both Coles and Woolies - Thanks to OZB.

  • +8

    I remember the first and last time I stole from the supermarket.
    I think I was 4, and my older sister told me to take the bubblegum.
    When we got home, mum found it and caned my fingers.

  • Does voucher stacking deals from ozb cross the moral line?

    • +1

      Do retailers refusing to honour pricing errors cross the moral line?

      • No, not refunding within a week does.

        • Correct me if I am wrong but I always thought there is no set time period for a product to be returned and it is quite arbitrary.

          From the ACCC:
          "Policies that set a time limit, such as ‘no refunds after 30 days’, can be misleading because statutory rights have no time limits, other than what is ‘reasonable’."

  • +9

    I'm a tightarse but never a thief. If I can't find what I'm looking for I'll let the staff know.

  • +3

    My Mate works at one of the busiest coles in Melbourne. He told me they have actually turned off the bag weighing system because it was slowing down the checkout process too much, so in his store you can actually just not scan items and bag them without setting of the weight alert. A few ppl have figured it out and abuse it all the time, but they never call anoyone out on it as the staff even abuse it haha.

    He also said if you input in cheap veggies 3 times (carrots, onions etc.) it sets off an alarm to catch ppl weighing in more expensive items.

  • +3

    Once I bought a cake from bakery department in Woolworths, while scanning it asked me to put the count and somehow I stuffed up, didn't realise the stuff up, and ended up paying double. This would have covered some of their losses.

    • +4

      Thank you

  • +1

    Happened to me - weighted shallots, pressed onions. Could not remember what was the name of product !

  • +3

    The stores would have done their cost analysis of "theft" vs "employing staff" and obviously with theft factored in the stores come out in front compared to paying 6-8 staff all day to man checkouts.

    I don't steal, but have seen people do it and seen the supervising person not give a crap.

    • +2

      If they lose less than ~$20/hour/checkout they should come out on top. And they'll benevolently pass the savings on to customers?

  • +7

    I knew a kid at uni who would run meat as vegetable via self check out.
    He said he got caught once, and the girl asked him if he knew what he was doing.
    He shrugged and played dumb. He was asian, so not sure if he pretended to not speak english.

  • +9

    Almost stole something by accident the other day. I was in woolies and wanted 2 packs of Mountain Bread, because they're so thin I accidentally grabbed 3 as 2 stuck together. Scanned 2 and walked out. About 5 seconds later I realised I had 3 and returned the 3rd one.

    I was also at coles once in the car with 3 friends and one of them forgot to scan something before we left. He realised when we were in the car. I was driving and turned around and made him return it haha. I was outvoted 3-1 in the car to return it but I was driving so it was my say haha.

  • +2

    Many, many free slabs of water, cartons of coke, pepsi etc. So many times we tell the cashier that we have a carton of cans or bottles of water in the trolley and they acknowledge you and then you check the receipt later and see they never charged you for it.

    We have also had a few experiences of checkout staff just giving up on trying to scan something, or workout what something is and just dropping it in the bag.

Login or Join to leave a comment