I just calmly and smoothly switch to shop lifting at large chain stores (not local businesses) if selfcheckout starts wasting my time shrugs
I make it a point to steal a little something every time I’m forced to use these.
Big box hardware stores appear to have zero people to check you out anymore, so they all give me something every time I shop.
Pro tip: they won’t bother if you dont steal anything expensive. Additionally, there are cameras in the ceiling that are working with the register to see what is in the cart and determine if you have scanned everything. Buy a cardboard box (cheapest thing that works). Lay it over your cart. Put stuff under it and now the system cant see your cart to determine if you stole something. A GFCI outlet or two never seem to go noticed.
Just a warning - they might actually notice you doing it, and are waiting on you to steal a certain dollar amount (link shows thresholds for different US states) before they come after you so they can charge you with a felony.
So don’t go over $500 in any state but New Jersey. Cool!
Steal
$799 (in CA, as far as I know)[Edit: its actually $949, $950 is felony] then wait out the statute of limitations, and repeat 😎A 1970’s law saying it’s a felony if people steal more than $199 (cumulatively) is insane. How many for-profit prisons are in New Jersey again…?
I usually bring a festive sombrero to block the cameras.
If the self checkout spazzes put and needs me to get an assistant, that’s the last thing I scan at the checkout. Lady comes over, overrides the fail, I say thank you, pay for the stuff while she’s standing there, and put it back in the trolley with the stuff I didn’t scan yet. You see, I was so frazzled and confused by the disruption that I forgot I still had things to scan. Plausible deniability, I never hid anything, it was all out in the open, and the lady was just standing there. If she mentions it, then I can just resume scanning those items and pay for them too. This has not happened in several dozen grocery trips.
I just get so anxious and confused so easily!
This is me. As a clerk. Fucking up shit constantly. And saying. One minute. I need an override.
Don’t be embarrassed, you’re keeping her in a job.
Good point. Great name I looooveee father ted!
Just happened to me today. I paid for everything but accidentally scanned the item again while packing. I think the cashier knows me by now
Oops, accidentally forgot to scan an item 😏
Why not just start a new transaction?
The oligarchs pretend to pay me a fair wage so I pretend to pay for my stuff. Seems fair to me. 🤷♂️
Self checkout screws itself especially if I do everythi g to perfection
I love using the phone based scan as you go systems these days. Sainsburys, asda and waitrose all have them, so much faster and easier.
I love not having all my purchasing and phone data tracked
You better not be using card payment then
There is a difference between a bank or your supermarket tracking you.
The supermarket can just as well track your card number across your purchases.
Umm… ok? That was always allowed…
There was a problem every single time I’ve tried to do a self-checkout so I just do a normal checkout because it’s not worth it.
I just move on to the next machine, let them deal with clearing out your order with the machine.
It’s like having lives in a video game.
All of the self checkouts I’ve seen clear the transaction automatically if you don’t touch them for a couple of minutes. There’s a prompt asking if you want to continue, and if that times out it just resets
I actually haven’t seen one that does that yet. Although most of the stores they have near me put them in a while ago though. They typically want to retain the info for loss prevention purposes. I know the store closest to me would have to audit all of the non sale transactions at the end of the day or next morning.
Oddly enough I’ve worked as both a cashier sometimes watching over self-checkouts and also as an engineer in a company that manufactures self-checkouts (although I worked in a different department and only occasionally helped out with the checkouts). They can log that stuff no trouble. They cancel it as far as the customer sees, but that doesn’t mean anything for what it keeps behind the scenes. At least on the ones I worked with, there was the option for cashiers to retrieve the most recent state and print it out as a receipt either for the customer or to scan it to transfer to another checkout
Well they apparently have a time from inactivity to human resolution time tracker. If things look sketchy, especially multiple times they start investigating the self service employee.
But again, these machines are relatively old. I am not even sure if they have an auto reset or void feature. I have had to ask a clerk to clear out a prior order because of said system failure.
That’s fair enough. While I’ve seen a lot more of the insides of self checkouts than the average person, I definitely don’t know the ins and outs of every model out there, not even close
Yup, that’s what I do.
The only issue I keep running into is that the sale price doesn’t match the scanned price. At this point they no longer verify me because I’m so on point with pricing. If it was a different price I wouldn’t have gotten it. It’s a game to me. Love seeing how low I can get my bill to get.
I shop just like you, and I’ve also got the attendants trained just to fix what I tell them is wrong. I love when the actual money spent is less than 50% of the total before discounts/coupons are applied.
I feel called out, you even got an image of me.
My grocery store has closed all lanes and replaced them with self checkout. The only one left is the express/lottery ticket counter. I always go to that lane and plop down my week’s worth of groceries and ignore the limit. I’ve already told them I won’t use the machines, not only are they frustrating and I have to call the employee over half a dozen times while checking out, but I’m a union worker and I refuse to use those damn machines.
What a shitty store. I use self-checkout 99% of the time, but you should have a choice and the store should always accommodate at least one of each. Scanning an entire cart full of groceries is painful for you, the employee correcting the machine, and the people behind you.
I don’t use those self checkout machines because they’re a serious liability to me. If I fuck up and miss scanning something, then I get a shoplifting charge. Best case, they realize it was a simple mistake a trespass me indefinitely for it.
Fuck you. Ring up the items for me.
I also now have a new policy. If they have more self checkout open than regular checkout, I leave my cart in the parking lot NOT in the buggy corral.
There used to be sort of an unspoken honour system that if they didn’t have to pay a kid to collect carts, prices would stay down. Now they’re reducing their labour AND bumping prices to increase profits.
Fuck you. Collect your own cart.
Obviously it’s different with every store management/owner, but any decent store would never ban you or try to press charges for missing one item, especially if it’s obviously a mistake.
Also, leaving a cart in the parking lot does not impact the store at all, you’re simply punishing that kid for no reason. A simple call, email, review, or social media comment is much more impactful because it actually reaches the decision-makers…
you’re simply punishing that kid for no reason.
IT’S HIS JOB!
Since when is doing the job you were hired for considered punishment? I’ve worked in a retail environment when I was younger. I always enjoyed being tagged to collect carts. I got to go outside and shuffle around the lot.
And of course it hurts the bottom line. If people start leaving their carts around more, they have to pay someone to collect them. If everyone puts carts in the cart return, they collect from there. If carts are all over the lot, it will take 2 or 3 times longer.
shoplifting charge
If you have jury trials in your jurisdiction, you might as well just “forget” to scan an item every so often.
Even if they catch you, no jury is gonna convict on what appears to be a simple mistake.
I don’t have time in my life to have to deal with legal bullshit that isn’t my fault. I’ll just avoid the situation entirely.
Self checkout is a liability.
Weird that this isn’t even the worst thing to come out of Florida.
Hit on them! You never know <3
I’m never the one that fucks up. It’s always the machine that is the problem.
Scan item, set in bag. Machine says “hey, you didn’t scan that!” the fuck I didn’t! You beeped! I see the fucking item in the list on your screen! 😬
My favorite was having multiples of an item, getting prompted to enter the quantity, and then having the machine yell at me for just placing them in the bagging area.
The fuck is the point then?
The best is when you buy fruit all vegetables and it decides that the Apple that you are buying doesn’t weigh the right amount.
One time I bought the largest potato you’ve ever seen in your life and it decided that it was too big and therefore could not possibly be a potato and must instead be some high value item I was stealing, although nonetheless scanning. But the problem is the alternative is to talk to people.
scans one potato
Weighs as much as an entire bag of potatoes
“Thief! This guy’s over here tryna steal potatoes!”
You pay by weight, so I don’t really understand what its problem was.
Potatoes are cheap by weight. Machine saw a single item and didn’t believe it was a potato. Not that anything looks similar; it just flags it for staff to check.
-dictated on an iPhone/iPad/Mac?
:)
Also
alternative is to
Be in the top 5% of customers the cashier had that day! (A little reframing for the next time self checkout is down, understand still not ideal)
I accidentally managed to rack up 36 large bottles of water. That amount wouldn’t even fit in my car.
