Sainsbury's shop theft

[dba7108]

This appeared at my local branch. Seems odd. Is this there way of saying please don't steal, please? I'm unsure how you can scan the wrong barcode. If you are stealing and using their scanning gizmo then you may as well just not scan the item and get it for free!

[rodericb]

Sometimes there's observation and both methods (physical and machine) have their limitations. Sometimes the scans are weighted (the bagging area) but the scales probably have their limits of accuracy and the infrastructure isn't checking what was scanned versus what has been bagged. People sometimes take labels off cheaper items and stick 'em onto costlier items. Or they print their own. the sign is a deterrent to people thinking of doing it. Yes, they could say "don't steal" but having a more pointed warning might show to people doing it that the supermarkets know their tricks.

[E-bmw]

rodericb said:

People sometimes take labels off cheaper items and stick 'em onto costlier items.

I suspect (by virtue of your bags could still be weighed at the end) they are more talking to those who scan 500g of mince & take 500g of fillet steak from the shelf.

[Jamescrs]

I remember seeing a news story some time ago now where someone was essentially stealing by using a self serve and putting an item on the scale say for argument sake a bottle of wine and then selecting Potatoes on the touch screen, the till thinks you have put in that weight in potatoes and charged much less.

Ok it wouldn't probably work with alcohol because of the age restriction but the theory is the same

[vladcjelli]

Jamescrs said:

I remember seeing a news story some time ago now where someone was essentially stealing by using a self serve and putting an item on the scale say for argument sake a bottle of wine and then selecting Potatoes on the touch screen, the till thinks you have put in that weight in potatoes and charged much less.

Ok it wouldn't probably work with alcohol because of the age restriction but the theory is the same

Potatoes don’t have an age restriction.

I jokingly suggested this scam some time ago for canned goods.

They all weigh (pretty much) 400g. But own brand beans vs Heinz soup for example, can be a massive difference.

Scan the cheaper item, weigh the expensive one in. Profit. Or theft depending on moral code and whether you get caught.

[CanAm]

Jamescrs said:

I remember seeing a news story some time ago now where someone was essentially stealing by using a self serve and putting an item on the scale say for argument sake a bottle of wine and then selecting Potatoes on the touch screen, the till thinks you have put in that weight in potatoes and charged much less.

Ok it wouldn't probably work with alcohol because of the age restriction but the theory is the same

Yes it was reported that one supermarket had far more carrots than they needed. Naughty customers had been buying say, avocados and using ‘find item’ on the checkout, entering ‘carrots, being the cheapest per kg. The store computer then ordered more carrots to replace the “sold” ones

[Glassman]

People will deliberately mis-scan to pay a lesser price. Simple.

It's like self checkout, slipping the lightweight items in with the scanned items is easy.

[vikingaero]

My view would be that they need to quit bhin' about it and either get more security staff or manned tills. If loss ratio is acceptable vs. staffing then that's your problem. It's well known in retail that putting in self scan/self checkout increases theft.

[dba7108]

I do remembrance a new article a while ago saying Sainsbury's sold 800k Bananas but didn't buy in 800k bananas!

[Roofless Toothless]

[Cotty]

CanAm said:

Yes it was reported that one supermarket had far more carrots than they needed. Naughty customers had been buying say, avocados and using find item on the checkout, entering carrots, being the cheapest per kg. The store computer then ordered more carrots to replace the sold ones

I heard a version of that. The store was selling more carrots than they had in stock. People were putting expensive electronics though the tills as carrots.

[Jamescrs]

vladcjelli said:

Potatoes don t have an age restriction.

.

Fair point but in my experience if the staff monitoring the self service tills see alcohol going through they will wait for the inevitable verification to flash up so they can authorise it, if that never happens it would raise suspicion, assuming of course there is a staff member there.

[ARH]

The self checkouts I use in Morrisons detect the fruit and veg you put on the scales automatically, it works 90% of the time, if you said it was potatoes it would know you put wine there.

[tangerine_sedge]

vikingaero said:

My view would be that they need to quit bhin' about it and either get more security staff or manned tills. If loss ratio is acceptable vs. staffing then that's your problem. It's well known in retail that putting in self scan/self checkout increases theft.

This. Don't make a business decision to deliberately under-staff your shops, then act all surprised when customers steal from you.

How clueless as a MD do you have to be, to complain about police reponses to shoplifting, when you've de-staffed your shops and forced people to self-scan :

M&S boss complains about shoplifting

I'm not supporting shoplifters here, but it's been a problem since forever with a simple solution.

[miniman]

Also plausible deniability if you get a random spot check - “oh I must have scanned the wrong barcode”

[InitialDave]

I have done it when I had a bonus voucher for a load of loyalty points that ran out that day, but there was zero stock of the thing I needed to buy, so I scanned the shelf barcode but actually took a different equivalent.

But only a sideways step. So if I had to buy a £1 croissant for the bonus points, I'd pick up a £1 Danish and scan it as the croissant.

Probably messes up their stock control a little, but I still paid them the correct amount for the item I took.

[Lotobear]

I have a novel idea-put some real people on doing the scanning for the customer and pay them a wage to do it

[Skyedriver]

Lotobear said:

I have a novel idea-put some real people on doing the scanning for the customer and pay them a wage to do it

^^this^^

I occasionally use the SS at M&S as usually just have a couple of items, but my local Tesco have converted some of their check outs to SS in addition to the actual SS area. Refuse to use them.
Ditto Aldi.
Let's keep people in employment.

[thetapeworm]

This almost looks like a way to put an idea onto the head of otherwise regular shoppers rather than a way to stop those already doing it.

The scales at my local were playing up yesterday, a bag of individually selected baking potatoes weighing about 2kg cost me 18p because the lady in charge of responding to the till alerts was so fed up of it.

[Sheets Tabuer]

If only there was a way to get employees to scan items for you.