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The Banana Trick and Other Acts of Self-Checkout Thievery (2018)

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Re: The Banana Trick and Other Acts of Self-Checkout Thievery (2018)

#51

Post by matz1 »

YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #26

>> “There is NO MORAL ISSUE with stealing from a store that forces you to use self checkout, period. THEY ARE CHARGING YOU TO WORK AT THEIR STORE.” I find the twisted reasoning in this comment shocking and I don't really know what to say. It is a kind of twisted reasoning that I've only seen in people who were high on strong narcotics and were carried away by waves of wishful thinking and delusions, or, again, extrem…

I'm more supportive if they say no moral issue because they deemed stealing is morally right.

Moral is subjective so if they said that then to me there is no issue with the reasoning.

Re: The Banana Trick and Other Acts of Self-Checkout Thievery (2018)

#52

Post by randrews »

koala_man wrote: post #21
jedberg wrote: post #17

I must be a rube, because I've never stolen from one of those things. When it makes a mistake I call the attendant to correct it. Mainly because I support the idea of automation and want it to work well. Maybe it's just the reliability engineer in me that wants to call out the bugs and have them fixed. Or maybe it's the former security engineer in me who got paid to find the flaws in these systems and my ethics deman…

I hope society will one day reach a level of honesty and trust where we can just leave stores unlocked and unattended at night.

I think that may have happened to me accidentally once: a couple years ago I was sick and unable to sleep, so I went to a grocery store at about 1 AM to buy decongestants so I could maybe get some sleep. Most of the lights were off inside and I didn't see another person there, it was sort of creepy actually, but I figured, meh, 1 AM. I bought my pills with the self checkout and left.

About a week later I was at the same store and saw a sign on the door that said they close at 11...

Re: The Banana Trick and Other Acts of Self-Checkout Thievery (2018)

#53

Post by leetcrew »

LocalH wrote: post #22
amayne wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe it's called lower prices – at least in theory. (My apologies for coming across as pedantic.) Physical stores use them to remain competitive in pricing. The lower price is your incentive for doing it yourself (again in theory.)

I'm not aware of any major stores that provide a self-checkout discount.

I've never been to a store that gives a discount for self-checkout, but it probably does lower the overall cost of shopping there. there's very little that Walmart can do to differentiate itself from Target, so I would at least expect these kinds of businesses to be forced to pass a lot of the labor savings on to their customers.

if you really hate ringing up your own groceries, there are plenty of higher end grocery stores that have more cashiers (at least in my area). if you want better service, you might need to open up your wallet.

Re: The Banana Trick and Other Acts of Self-Checkout Thievery (2018)

#54

Post by dgzl »

coldtea wrote: post #16
MisterTea wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people will likely rally around the poor shopper being oppressed by the soulless corporate entity.

And they would be right...

In the store's perspective, the case was theft. They couldn't tell the machine wasn't taking the proper discount, and they likely wouldn't do the research to uncover the truth.

Re: The Banana Trick and Other Acts of Self-Checkout Thievery (2018)

#55

Post by amaccuish »

jhbadger wrote: post #34
amaccuish wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, what does "rang them up" mean here? :)

It's an expression in English to refer to an item being charged to a customer. It is referring to old-fashioned cash registers that used to ring a bell after the cashier entered the price.

Ahh right. I'm actually British but never heard that before, thought it was refering to making a phone call. Those cash registers are before my time :)

Re: The Banana Trick and Other Acts of Self-Checkout Thievery (2018)

#56

Post by jeroen »

jedberg wrote: post #17

I must be a rube, because I've never stolen from one of those things. When it makes a mistake I call the attendant to correct it. Mainly because I support the idea of automation and want it to work well. Maybe it's just the reliability engineer in me that wants to call out the bugs and have them fixed. Or maybe it's the former security engineer in me who got paid to find the flaws in these systems and my ethics deman…

> make us all like up in one single line for the human cashiers

I have encountered these at Decathlon and Carrefour (in Europe). It feels fairer, but standing in longer line feels worse, even when that doesn’t make any sense.

Re: The Banana Trick and Other Acts of Self-Checkout Thievery (2018)

#57

Post by alkonaut »

kaybe wrote: post #47
alkonaut wrote: post #23

In all stores I know, there are randomized inspection of say every 30 customers. Missed something tiny and you might be reprimanded and you’ll get tighter inspections for many months to come (until you had several inspections without issue). If you are found to have made some kind of fraud that is obviously a mistake then you’ll be stripped of the “privilege” of self-checkout as well as probably reported to police an…

How do they keep track of people?

You register with your store bonus card to get access to self checkout, then use the same card each time. Getting the card required ID so it’s effectively an ID by proxy.

Re: The Banana Trick and Other Acts of Self-Checkout Thievery (2018)

#58

Post by koala_man »

jzwinck wrote: post #27
koala_man wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope society will one day reach a level of honesty and trust where we can just leave stores unlocked and unattended at night.

It already has, in Singapore. There are Starbucks which close at night simply by drawing a plastic chain across the storefront and emptying the cash registers. I think they still lock the Frappuccino fridge, but no one knows for sure because we don't go test it.

The point would be that people could still come in and buy stuff with self checkout. It doesn't sound like this is what that Starbucks intends you to do.

Re: The Banana Trick and Other Acts of Self-Checkout Thievery (2018)

#59

Post by nathanaldensr »

What really irritates me about shoplifting is that the honest among us subsidize the criminals. Inevitably, retailers and grocers raise prices due to increased theft, encouraging more theft, in a vicious spiral (I don't have proof of this; rather, it's an intuition). Also reminds me of drug use in sports.

Re: The Banana Trick and Other Acts of Self-Checkout Thievery (2018)

#60

Post by nkozyra »

namibj wrote: post #49
nkozyra wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is by design. Target often runs large metro stores with TWO cashiers. I once went into the Target on 14th St in Manhattan and saw just a single human. Most customers are already conditioned to go through the self checkout.

How are 20+ min waiting to do it yourself desirable for the store? Especially if done on a routine?

If people still buy the goods then you're willing to absorb the inconvenience.
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