this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2024
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technology

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[–] [email protected] 120 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Compensating yourself for your labor as a cashier is not theft

[–] [email protected] 42 points 7 months ago

I like this take

[–] [email protected] 89 points 7 months ago (1 children)

If you see someone shoplift, no you didn't.

[–] [email protected] 81 points 7 months ago

I've never seen a shoplifter in my entire life.

I have, however, seen entrepreneurial individuals dedicated to mitigating the wealth-disparity of multi-location retailers via reallocating in-store inventory directly to end users.

[–] [email protected] 68 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Once again not getting credit for how much stealing I do as a millennial

[–] [email protected] 31 points 7 months ago

You are too good at it and don’t get caught. The best thief receives no accolades.

[–] [email protected] 49 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Boomers go to the checkout person so they can have someone to get pissed off at when the item doesn't ring up right and they go "heh, guess it's free then!" smuglord grillman libs-owned lib-status

[–] [email protected] 30 points 7 months ago

Okay that’s a dumb boomer joke that drives me crazy but also I do ultimately believe that’s exactly how it should work

Any problems processing payment means it’s free. I believe this on a fundamental “we live in a society” level. As a business, the social contract you fulfill is to 1. provide goods and services, and 2. in exchange for doing so we allow you to collect money. Whether you are able to do part 2 is really not our problem, and you have to do part 1 regardless.

If a Walmart has its credit card readers go down you should be allowed to take anything you’d like

[–] [email protected] 19 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Ugh. God damn, that is so fucking true. Every single accusation is a confession.

I'd welcome them taking self-checkouts away and paying more a decent wage.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

It's also less obnoxious when a cashier rings up something and goes "oh I love these, they're so tasty" as a product endorsement instead of a fucking advertisement.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 7 months ago (4 children)

first they replaced workers with automated checkouts depriving themselves of the other 20 jobs a "mere" checkout operator had to do; what'll happen next is now they'll pair every self-checkout with a checkout operator anyway so you'll just have someone who's job is to breathe down your neck to make sure you're not walking out with one of those 5 in 1, 1 gallon shampoo bottles

[–] [email protected] 35 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Don't forget tho, you pay that second worker less because there's no skill left in the labor.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago

naturally, otherwise we'll replace their job with more automation, again!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago

That's always the argument, but there is no such thing as unskilled labor. I've seen the variety of weird shit those machines do, and the people.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 7 months ago (1 children)

"Hi, I'll be your self-checkout specialist today. Can I interest you in a premium reusable tote? It's only $0.75 more and hides 30% more items from the Loss Prevention Officer."

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago

working a shift helping people steal shit and then walking out the back with a cartload of "returns"

[–] [email protected] 19 points 7 months ago

Hi, I'll be your checkout overseer today

[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago (1 children)

They are literally already doing this. A couple weeks back at Costco, the self checkout lanes had an employee at every one of them checking your ID against your member card. They then would scan your stuff. They still had someone at the exit checking your receipt.

The labor spend on preventing you from sharing your member card and then STILL verifying your receipt against their own employees seems like a massive waste.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago

Not to mention the untold amount of money wasted on extra camera surveillance and all kinds of algorithmic gait analysis and tracking shit.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 7 months ago

as a geriatric millenial, self-checkout and self-serve kiosks are hilarious. the first ones i remember seeing were at the movie theater like 20 damn years ago. took less than a day for word to spread that "the move" was to buy a senior, child, or student ticket and use that. as someone who used to have the "tear your ticket" job, i never gave a fuck. i just looked at the number of the theater and pointed toward it. if they went somewhere else, i also didn't give a fuck. i also never policed outside food. i would usually smile and nod at people willing to bring in crazy shit without hiding it. like a full blown boston market rotisserie chicken or a big ass fast food bag with a giant drink. fuckin' kings.

my employer uses self-checkout shit at this giant cafeteria. the cafeteria workers routinely give us barcode stickers for the wrong item at super cheap (like a $1.50 side instead of an $8 entree) and load up the portions/extras. and when a barcode reads as invalid? that means it's free! nobody gives a shit so long as you don't draw attention to yourself and pantomime like you're ringing it all up normally and paying.

all it really takes to get free shit in this world sometimes is being friendly to the workers, not stacking up on someone when they are busy with others, and being easy with a laugh, smile and a knowing glance. and not trying to press your luck when some overseer is making their rounds. always make everybody look like they are crushing it at their job while delivering outstanding customer service and, together, we can rob the motherfuckers blind.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Watch: This is the same bullshit as the "retail shoplifting scare" that turned out completely fabricated.

It will be drummed up for the public while they enact harsher penalties for stealing food

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

Meanwhile, they will end up dumping 20% of all their food in stock in the dumpster.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 7 months ago

I picked up some yoghurt pouches from the supermarket for my kids because they were discounted to $1.20. Then I went to the fruit and vegetable store and saw THE SAME pouches for 49c.

I was going to get angry but then I remembered I didn't pay for them.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 7 months ago (4 children)

My grocery store has added an automated narc cam that plays back a video of you putting the item into the bag when it thinks you didn't scan it.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago (1 children)

haven't seen that, can you hide items behind bigger items tho ?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago

From what I can tell it seems pretty hit or miss and it doesn't actually do anything with the information - no one tried to check my receipt when I triggered it.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago

Wal Mart near me has this

But they have a scan gun I just use on 'everything', then bag up after

Seems a bit self defeating lmao

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

When do they play this video? While you are in the middle of scanning items through the self-checkout or when you complete it? Is it accompanied by a frowny face or some other sign of disapproval to shame you?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

After you bag the offending item. The video plays and a loud voice passive-aggressively reminds you to make sure you've scanned everything before bagging.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago

It does this if you go too fast too. Even if you're not stealing.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

I'm pretty sure I forgot to scan something but the person just waved me through on a similar system here

[–] [email protected] 25 points 7 months ago

If you arbitrarily raise prices without there being any scarcity, you don't get to complain about stealing. If they must be charged, it should be for vigilante justice, not theft.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 7 months ago

I’m stealing more in solidarity with gen z. This is the kind of generational politics we need.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 7 months ago

I'm old and tired enough to absolutely hate self checkout. I mean it's good for a few items and stealing, but when I'm coming home from a long day at work and have a full cart of groceries and they close all the human-run checkout ailes to force everyone through self checkout, I'll just abandon the cart and leave. I assume then someone has to go around the store and restock all the products I was about to buy... or it just sits there for too long and they have to loss out all the cold items. Very efficient, capitalism. Well done.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

capitalists never fail to market-optimize themselves into stepping on the rake that crushes their nose

[–] [email protected] 21 points 7 months ago

Shit, they caught on to me putting every item in a brown paper bag that I key in as "lentils" and weigh on the scale.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I accidently shoplifted a portable SSD from Costco some time back. It was wedged between the cart and some paper towels or something. They just never saw it, i checked the recipt sad it wasn't there. I still feel pretty cool 😎.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago

1tb, it's one of the tiny NVME drives though.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago
[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago

They have been writing these articles since the self-checkouts came out. The only thing new here is the commentariat has finally realized millennials are old now and started writing Gen Z.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Hey we also like it because we're introverted and scared of other humans

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago

Self checkout means I can keep my headphones in

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago

Shoplifting is cool and good and everyone should do it

But also even ignoring shoplifting I love self checkout because I don’t want to have to take my headphones out

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago (1 children)

They fire the workers, the customers have to do the work and they keep the money.......

I don't see my advantage in this.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

The injustice of it all: that's why we shoplift.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

found out while i was buying christmas presents that a big box of bougie ass chocolates just so happens to weigh the exact same as store brand toilet paper cool-dad hiding shit behind the dodgy weighting mechanics of these machines is great

hell, the other day i got a free lunch by literally just holding my bag of snacks in my mouth like i didn't have enough hands and then walking out with them with a shop assistent like 10 paces away. i didn't even realise i was "stealing" until i was paying for the other shit lol. i wish i were braver about it though, every time i feel like i'm missing Value™ by not pushing my luck. at least the scandalised look on my middleclass roommates' faces when i mention this shit is fun.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I'd wager most of it isn't shoplifting anyway. It's items not scanning, being put in the bag, and either the scales don't pick it up, or a staff member comes along and just swipes their little pass because they're really not paid enough to give a fuck.

M&S doesn't even have scales in the self checkout. They just rely on the customers being middle class enough to not steal anything.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I almost walked out of a Sam's club with a smallish item hidden away but the door lady spotted it. It was a complete accident on my part. I always felt my routine of counting items in basket vs the receipt was fulIproof but it's not.

Media needs to stop this framing when customers don't even realize they are missing scans. Have stores thought about hiring more employees?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago

That's not an avocado its a really ugly lime, and if you saw someone permanently borrowing food, no you didn't.