Self checkout machines in Supermarkets.

juliettet

I used one this morning and forgot to lift the receipt. Annoying as I need to claim this back from work. The receipt slot is underneath.

PenguinOfDeath

iammumtoone wrote: »

I get that theft goes on in shops, it has done for years. What I don't understand from this thread is why people don't seem to be prosecuted for it? Why when someone is caught 'forgetting to pay for something' why are they not reported? I always thought that 'forgetting' wasn't a defense? If people are not reported and prosecuted then of course its going to go on and and the shops are not helping themselves by appearing to let people get away with it!

AFAIK it's only seen as theft when the goods actually leave the premises, if they're still 'on site' then nothing has been stolen so no offence has been committed

System

alanq wrote: »

I was also surprised to read over the weekend that age checks apply to the sale of "non-alcoholic" wines and beers that are sold from the alcoholic drinks department and contain traces of alcohol. An assistant (rightly?) refused to sell such a drink to a 21-year old because he was accompanied by a teenager. The law is stupid. (The MSE Forum nannybot won't allow me to use the customary expression comparing it to an equine beast!) Misuse of the paracetamol would cause far more damage than a beverage containing traces of alcohol.

The same applies to U, PG and E rated DVDs. For those that don't know what E stands for it's exempt from classification. Take DVDs about nature documentaries for example. I have seen shop assistants asking for ID for these and those that had no ID, refuse them! My friend works for a supermarket and she overrides it if a child buys a DVD with their pocket/Birthday/Christmas money with these certs.

System

Last week, I picked up a few items in the reduced section in Sainsburys and went to a self scan. Because the reduced barcode sticker to two items had droped off, the attendant at the self scan could not do it. She then said on the manned tills, she can press reduced price, enter the barcode number and punch in the reduced price. There is no feature on the self scans. I then had to queue at the kiosk!

The bakery staff at the store have no idea that they need to put the reduced barcode sticker on top of the original number - they stick it above. You scan it and it picks up the original barcode!

NBLondon

lovingtescoforever wrote: »

Also I don't know why people in pairs feel the need to scan, pack and then while one scans the next item the other takes the item out and repacks it... :mad: causing me to explain that their method is the reason. Scan, pack and pay.

The ones that niggle me (as the next customer in the queue) are those who scan and stack the goods on the far side; then pay; then take another 5 minutes to pack. Now I realise that some people might do this because putting a (loaded and therefore heavy) rucksack or cycle pannier on the scale would probably confuse the till. But if you are using the carrier bags, that's why they are on a little rack for you to pack as you go. Better still, get your kids to stop scooting about and do some packing for you.

As for the tills - I wish the sensor on the coupon slot was more reliable. Scan the coupon, drop coupon in slot, get someone else's discarded tillspit and push it through, get another one and waggle it until it registers:mad: Mind you, I sometimes do find a useful tillspit or cash match voucher along the way:T

iammumtoone

dlusman wrote: »

Large scale shopliflifting they will prosecute , but probably isnt worth their time it would take to process the shoplifting of a few tins of beans.

But with the amount of people stealing a few can of beans over time it might amount to the same value as one person stealing something of higher value. I understand they can't prosecute them all but if they did it randomly then surely word would soon get around and for every person prosecuted it might also stop 2 or 3 more.

iammumtoone

PenguinOfDeath wrote: »

AFAIK it's only seen as theft when the goods actually leave the premises, if they're still 'on site' then nothing has been stolen so no offence has been committed

That is a valid point and I did wonder that myself. If it is the case then they should let these people leave the store and 'catch' them outside so they can have them charged.

dlusman

iammumtoone wrote: »

But with the amount of people stealing a few can of beans over time it might amount to the same value as one person stealing something of higher value. I understand they can't prosecute them all but if they did it randomly then surely word would soon get around and for every person prosecuted it might also stop 2 or 3 more.

The amount of processing time and effort is the same as if you steal £1 or £100 , so prosecuting 100 people each for the theft of £1 just isnt worth the shops while. And I dont believe that the ocassional prosecution is going to put anyone off ( though I would love to be proved wrong ! )

lovingtescoforever

ScarletMarble wrote: »

Last week, I picked up a few items in the reduced section in Sainsburys and went to a self scan. Because the reduced barcode sticker to two items had droped off, the attendant at the self scan could not do it. She then said on the manned tills, she can press reduced price, enter the barcode number and punch in the reduced price. There is no feature on the self scans. I then had to queue at the kiosk!

The bakery staff at the store have no idea that they need to put the reduced barcode sticker on top of the original number - they stick it above. You scan it and it picks up the original barcode!

That is indeed true you can't manually reduce the item. In most cases I manually reduce the product on a manned till whilst also monitoring self checkouts (it's not hard, just got to multi-task. You shouldn't have expected to queue again in my opinion).

Cycrow

Actually you can manually reduce stuff on self service (i mean staff can, not customers)

its just that alot of assistants dont know how to do it, and they are not trained to know it either.

when i worked at tescos, very few people had any idea how to actually do it.
to be fair, the option is buried deep in a non-obvious place.
But then, most assistants cant do it on the manned tills either, because it required supervisor access on them