Not really a surprise: self-checkout tills encourage shoplifting

Secretly slipping a chocolate bar into your coat pocket or pretending to forget a box of wine under your shopping trolley: that’s no longer necessary, because self-checkout tills have made shoplifting easier than ever. Supermarket owners are going crazy, but what can they do about it?

Supermarket chains would rather keep it quiet, because they don’t want to give anyone ideas, but research shows that self-checkout tills most likely lead to more shoplifting. ‘Every supermarket owner we have spoken to acknowledges that there are significant increases in the number of thefts when they introduce some form of self-scanning,’ says an expert in retail security. It has made the news before too: people who pay for a can of cola and walk through the gates with a bag full of groceries.

Cameras everywhere

What’s so annoying is that retailers can’t do all that much about it. Bag checks, those spot checks at the self-checkout, more monitoring in the store and cameras everywhere: customers find that irritating. But store revenues and inventory figures show that items are disappearing without going through the checkout, so they have to do something. Not all stores, by the way: a few Jumbo stores say that they actually noticed less shoplifting shortly after installing self-checkout tills. They say people are afraid of being checked.

Not random

What is already happening: certain groceries are checked more often; that random spot check isn’t always completely random. Certain products are often bought together, such as coffee filters and ground coffee. If someone scans the filters but not the packet of coffee, something may have simply disappeared into the bag. The system can scan for that.

Loitering

The system also takes into account how much time people spend in the store, which is visible when you do your shopping with one of those handheld scanners. Shoplifters generally spend longer in the store than people who quickly do their shopping. Taking a long time? That means you’ll be checked at the self-checkout.

Also read:

• 10 supermarket irritations: is yours on the list too?
• 10 things supermarket cashiers find truly irritating about customers
• Albert Heijn introduces a digital receipt

Source: RTL Nieuws