Some Walmart employees say customers are getting hostile at self-checkout — and they blame anti-theft tech::When Walmart’s anti-theft self-checkout tech alerts an employee of a missed scan, it can cause some uncomfortable situations.
Remember everyone. If you see someone shoplifting from Walmart, no you didn’t.
Unless they’re stealing guns or ammo.
You know what, I’ll make that exception.
I feel like it depends. Stealing is morally wrong no matter what. But I’d probably act as if I saw nothing if someone just stole a sandwich or similar. I’m not sure I’ll act the same if I see a teenage girl of a family that is obviously very well off steal things like makeup (that one literally bragged about it in front of her parents during a dinner where I was invited).
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I wouldn’t say anything. Not because I care about “muh poor people” but because I actively mind my own business. I would behave the same way if I saw someone steal from a small business as well.
As long as it’s just “shoplifting”. Where I’m at, people will come in on a bike with a trash bag, load it up, roll out, and go to the next town over and sell the stuff on the street in the ghetto.
Since you kids are so sheltered you don’t believe anything like this happens, here it is on video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=f8JLIWxxya4
We call them “Entrepreneurs” lol
That’s quite a story.
Boosters are public servants doing God’s work and I won’t hear a word said against them
What would even be wrong with someone doing that? 🤔
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makes the shopping experience shittier for the rest of us (locked merchandise)
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the syndicates fencing these goods use the money to support actual harmful crimes
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the people doing the thieving often get violent themselves
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raises prices and causes store closures
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people don’t want to work in shitty stores, so the workers they have do the bare minimum (again, worse shopping experience for the rest of us)
The bazaars where people sell the stolen goods also cause lots of problems.
NGL I genuinely prefer the bazaars and street markets over the big box stores.
I take your point with the thieves getting violent. The others, ehh. The big box stores really ought not to be there in the first place and be replaced with little specialized mom and pop joints owned by locals the way life used to be.
Okay so then we have mom and pops, who can’t absorb the loss, getting their shit stolen. Don’t see how that helps.
Then we could have this talk. Then we could debate the morality of it.
Until that time, stealing from Walmart will always be the ethical thing to do.
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Just curious, do you get anything if you tell on them?
The employees can potentially get fired.
Hey remember when they gave you free bags, bagged it for you, and rang you up? That was kinda nice. Now the price is three times as high and all that service stuff is gone. The day before Thanksgiving is going to be hell this year at my supermarket
Those free plastic bags deteriorate into toxic materials that are presently all over the inside of your body. You had to wait in a slow line for people to bag the wrong things together and sometimes scan the same thing twice. Now I have my own canvas bags that last forever, I never scan my things twice, and my shit is bagged with the right things together based on where they go in my home.
Switching from single use plastic to multi-use plastic has greatly increased carbon emissions of production. You also have to reuse the new plastic bags over 100 times for them to break even, emissions wise. (https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2020/04/30/plastic-paper-cotton-bags/)
I agree with you that canvas bags are better overall, but IMO we should move back to paper. It’s WAY easier to reuse paper products, gardeners love the paper bags, and they break down quickly even if they are littered somewhere. There are some tradeoffs, such as transportation costs being higher because they are thicker than single use bags, but if you compare paper to multi-use bags, it’s a fairly moot point.
Also, I’d still rather someone bag my shit for me. I’ve had so many things broken or otherwise damaged by the cashier haphazardly tossing my stuff into the cart just so I can walk 5 foot and take 10 minutes to pack my own stuff. Personal preference, but it should be given as an option imo.
I don’t understand. You’ve had cashiers break your shit, and therefore you prefer they do the bagging?
Bring your own bags => cashiers toss stuff into cart and break things, because you have to bag your own stuff.
Cashiers bag stuff => less things break, because stuff is bagged then put in the cart.
Here, everything goes out on a belt where you have to bag it yourself. The cashier never touches your cart or items apart from scanning them.
Costco recently came to my country and it feels so incredibly weird to wait for someone to first unpack your stuff and for someone else to scan it, and then someone else packs it again.
I am not sure how to put it, but I almost feel humiliating in a way.
It’s also pretty common in grocery stores to walk around with a handheld scanner which you dock when done so you can pay. The great thing about this is that you bag your stuff while shopping and when you pay, it’s already bagged.
What country is this if you don’t mind me asking. If uncomfortable with answering , no pronlem. Also, they have hand scanners for everyone?
Yes, anyone that is a (free) store Member can use the scanners.
Note that not every store has those, only bigger grocery stores do.
And cats! Cats love paper bags!
The irony is that the plastic bags became the norm over the paper bags because they were thought to be more environmentally friendly, over the infinitely recyclable paper that literally grows on trees.
Paper is not infinitely recyclable.
My body is fine but thank you for your “sincere” concern.
I went on the fast lines, maybe you need help with this. The trick is to look for lines that are shorter not longer. Easy mistake to make.
I never had an issue with the cashier making a mistake and I have never been so freaken insane that I need to have the items in my bag in the reverse order of removal. Maybe they made so many mistakes scanning you because they were distracted by your fugly bag and advice on what order to put things in. You don’t want to waste a single half second of your life putting groceries away. That could add up over an entire lifetime to a whole minute or so!
Like a lot of the crap in your body that is hurting you its not obvious until you get a health issue or cancer later and then noticeable statistically not individually EG you look at two populations and one had more folks with a much higher incidence of cancer or auto immune diseases or what have you. The fact that its not obvious doesn’t make it any less real. Those free bags were closer to free cigarettes.
I used to manage cashiers and handled 10 of thousands of transactions and observed more. Like any human beings they do occasionally make mistakes. If you haven’t noticed anyone EVER making a mistake ringing you up it means you don’t pay attention.
I don’t tell cashiers how they should bag things because that’s obnoxious but I do know that I do a better job of not putting fresh things with meat or things that are liable to be squished with canned food or all the non-food items together.
If you avoid 4 minutes waiting once per week and 2 minutes putting away things over your life you will save over 300 hours. You aren’t liable to be awake for much more than 100 hours a week so that is like 3 weeks of your life.
We are just lying now I see.
Could you just not follow the math. Do you not believe I was an illustrious supervisor of cashiers, or do you just not believe microplastics are bad for you?
I agree with the top level comment but this one reeks of toxicity, so unnecessary
If you are going to go on the day before, I’d recommend doing your shopping at 5:00am and be done by 06:00 am. That’s when the day shift comes in. I wouldn’t bring a cartful of groceries to the check stands before that time though, nite crew will be stressing out.
Notes and thanks
They even used to bring your groceries out to your car, put them in your trunk, and return the cart for you.
The last few times I’ve walked into a Walmart, the place has been a disaster.
Shelves empty and in disarray, no evidence that they ever did carry the product I was after, the building in an increasing state of disrepair.
I’m done with this company.
Have they choked out all other options in the vicinity?
Not really; we’re pretty flush for retail.
It’s not the system that bugs me. It’s the amount of time it takes for the employees to actually come and get the shit going smoothly again. Even when it’s pretty dead in the store, it can take an extraordinary long time before one of the employees watching the area actually comes over when the light is flashing red and I’m trying to get their attention.
I ran 8 of the damn things a decade or so ago and I was damn fast. I feel really let down every time I check out with one both with how none of the problems have been resolved and also with how the operators seem to be sleeping with their eyes open.
Yeah in most places I’ve shopped they don’t even have staff covering the self checkouts so they obviously don’t care that much.
I don’t know about you, but I get annoyed that I still can’t use NFC at checkout. It’s 2023, tap to pay has been around in the US since 2016 and much longer in Europe.
It really is stupid cause literally every business accepts NFC payments now. Even gas pumps. But not Walmart.
From an employee I talked to it’s because they have a specific contract with the payment processor and it requires using specific payment devices that are covered in the contract and they don’t want off it for as long as possible because it gives them preferential fees.
So until the cost of business lost is enough to cover increased payment processing fees, don’t expect to see tap to pay.It definitely cost them my business at least twice when I forgot my wallet and remembered they don’t take NFC so I went across the street to target.
Why don’t you just go to Target first? You can get all your crap ahead of time and just pickup the order. Their prices are super low to compete with Walmart and they price match. Right now it’s basically Walmart with better customers.
The man reason why people go to Target is because they’re willing to spend a bit more to not have to shop at Walmart. Not everyone can afford that luxury.
I left my cart in the checkout lane once because of this. I forgot my wallet, but had my phone with my wallet app. They are actively refusing to implement tap to pay in order to drive people to their app. Not happening.
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They want you to use Walmart Pay in the Walmart app. That’s the only contactless way you can pay there. It’s not horrible but you need have an Internet connection to use it.
Do the stores not have free WiFi? I’ve never been in a Walmart, but all bigger stores here in Europe have WiFi.
They do have WiFi.
One time I went to wal-mart and at self-checkout there was a security guy (with a bulletproof vest…) with the employee. I don’t know if he was there to look intimidating to potential thieves or to protect the employee from violent customers, but I did not like the feeling of him watching me scanning my items. Am I a customer or a potential profit-loss theft for wal-mart? I fucking hate that company…
If you hate it so much, show it with your wallet. Shop elsewhere.
That’s pretty hard to do if you live in an area that only has the one store near, and even then; would the multi-billion dollar company really care if it gets like $1200 less per year from a single customer?
As for your first point, you’re right. If the local business scene is non-existent, then there’s little one can do.
As for your second point, well, that’s not the point. If OP says he hates Walmart so much, and he has a choice, then shopping elsewhere would be good for him.
All the retail shops that were built 20+ years ago have a ton of un-peopled check-out stands. My local grocery store. My bank branches. The hardware store.
Companies have reduced their staffing to two or three checkers and a self-checkout line.
We’re doing the work for them. They’re hoarding the profits. It’s a mess.
My local BofA branch has twelve or thirteen checker stations and I’ve never seen more than two people at the counter. I don’t know when the branch was built, but it was clearly at a time when the semblance of customer service existed. Now, long lines and poor service are normalized and the idea that you’d shop around for a better experience is non-existent.
Of course. Sometimes it doesn’t work. Often times it’s an honest mistake that a cashier themselves may have made. And now WalMart is treating you, a paying customer like a criminal.
Based on nothing but the people I have seen at Walmart, I would assume there are more people with a convicted criminal history shopping at Walmart than Target.
A key to success in business is knowing your customer base.
They do sell crowbars no?
It’s gone further here… we have shops with scanners so you scan the goods as you go around… in theory speeding up checkout but…
- 25% of the time you end up selected for ‘random check’ so an employee has to come and rescan everything anyway
- If there are any ‘restricted’ items a like painkillers, a different employee has to come over and allow them.
Given the chronic understaffing meaning you’re basically in a queue for attention, it frequently takes longer to get through the ‘rapid’ checkouts than it would if I simply queued up and got someone else to do it. But as far as the supermarket thinks they’re winning as they pay fewer people.
Companies only want to shift to self checkout because they think they’ll make more money.
It’s all about profit.
I was fooled, I thought it was going to be better for me. And it was for awhile, because I can check myself out faster than the average employee.
However, the average customer sucks at checking themselves out. So the line for self checkout sucks. Stores use scales to make sure you’re scanning the right number of things, but that means that I have to put everything down on a tray, and then put it back in my cart after.
Worst of all, I check out so fast that I regularly get stopped because I guess I look like a thief. No, I didn’t steal anything, I just don’t want to waste any more of my precious time in this depressing fluorescent establishment.
My local grocery market solved the problem of customers sucking by just adding more self checkout and it worked I think. I don’t know I go even when it’s super busy and never have to wait and if I do it’s for like 20 seconds. Wegmans for what it’s worth . Overall the quality of Wegmans has gone down though the past few years.
You can tell who’s never worked as a cashier because they take fucking forever to check out
This is the store policy making the experience suck.
Random checks at Kaufland (European supermarket chain) only require the employee to visually inspect your cart to see if you scanned everything and they only need to rescan like four items, to verify the employee actually took the time to check instead of just waving you through, so it’s all very fast.
Also, all employees can clear restricted items, so that’s fast too. My only gripe is that alcohol-free beer also triggers the age verification, but that’s a minor issue.
I love the hand scanners since thanks to them wonky scales and weight limits are a thing of the past. They really make checkout faster, as long as the store isn’t using them in a boneheaded way.
Non-alcoholic beer still has a little alcohol in it
If we shop at chain grocery stores we’re self-checking (and destroying local businesses). If we buy from Amazon we’re supporting billionaires and destroying local businesses. If we shop at mom&pop stores we’re paying too much for less in an age of inflation. Good luck getting everything you need from side-of-the-road vegetable stands (who skirt tax and have no liability). We can’t win.
customers should get a discount for using an SCO.
I need to know the reasoning the person who downvoted you uses…
“Raise the price for everyone who doesn’t use self-checkout? Sure thing!”
They have to pay an employee to scan and bag your items. By using self checkout they are saving money. It makes sense to charge less for a service that costs them less.
This is essentially “trickle down theory” and also explains why businesses and rich fuckers don’t do it. You already used to paying the price, so what reason they’re in? Do they have to lower the price? None
When their AI is well trained on social behaviours, they’ll start sending Minority reports
This post has reminded me that I should go steal from Walmart soon.
I get this is was said playfully. However, you really should not. They always press charges and will advocate for jail time. In some states, that’s a month of jail over something as small as a candy bar.
Security is a cat and mouse game. There’s always a way to steal from anyone, especially a convenience-oriented business.
i’m not saying it’s impossible. Just saying that they make a big deal out of it even if the item is small, and it’s important to know your risk if you’re going to do something risky.
Lol nah, if you get caught you were making it look too obvious. There’s a fine and subtle art to stealing from Walmart.
Have fun getting arrested 3 years later with the facial recognition technology
Not if you keep it under the felony limit, or just have the common sense to not piss off the employees.
Not true. I have unfortunately met people who were arrested for candy bars, a snickers specifically. Now with AI, they will track your face, find your address, and issue a warrant automatically. It doesn’t take any effort, because once the software is written, it just runs. I’m not anti-shoplifting. I am pro being informed before doing things.
Yeah no, that’s not happening at any Walmart anywhere, your claim is entirely baseless and without evidence.
Your friend probably did something to piss off the workers and it wasn’t stealing. It possibly could have been racism. Maybe even bad luck. But it is an exception that proves the rule.
Walmart doesn’t have or use AI like that. No one has been arrested for stealing from Walmart on the order of an AI. Unless you have evidence, this claim is dismissed.
I’ve personally witnessed it but fuck me right
Seems like i have a complete different experience of self checkout here in Germany. But why? Are our devices newer?
No we just care less about theft. The German ones are build to maximace speed and therefore usability. This theoretically makes it rather easy to steal.
If this would become to much of a problem they would also reduce comfort to increase security
In Finland, we’ve been getting handheld scanners in a few shops where you scan and pack while you shop, and then pay everything at once. The “theft prevention” is very infrequent random checks where they ask to rescan three items to see if you paid for them.
It feels like stealing would become really common, but it’s been a few years and they are just installing more of em, so I guess not.We are talking about Earth, not about Finland. We are still lightyears apart.
The supermarket I use here in the UK has an app that uses my phone’s camera to scan the barcodes on items. Same as the handset, but I don’t have to pick up a handset that’s been handled by another disgusting human.
As a rule, it’ll only trigger a “Quality Check” if a couple of products don’t scan first time. Then it’ll trigger a check for the next couple of shopping trips. Assuming I didn’t miss anything, after that it’ll settle down and almost never require any verification unless I’ve bought age restricted items.
If I’m doing any weekly shopping, I will always use the app, because it’s SO MUCH QUICKER.
The U.S. has these as well.
The experience in the US sounds entirely different than even in Canada.
I think it’s an indication of the state of the US. People don’t steal for fun. Maybe some do, but not in quantities that put an armoured security guard at checkout.
Is it really? I imagine, paying a Person for every checkout must be way more expensive than some higher theft rate.
Same Czech Republic and Slovakia. All the stores have now majority of sell checkout registers. People prefer them. No issues with them.
There is usually one person assigned to 6-8 of these that is watching and making the corrections.
It cut the waiting time significantly.
No, in Germany sellers truly want SCOs, while Wal-mart just doesn’t want to pay employees.
Some machines use scales to measure the weight of items, scan one item, put it in the “bagging area” (scale), repeat. Many stores have disabled scales because they’re buggy and don’t catch thieves, who learn that to steal, don’t put items on the scale. Now, stores have employees watch and offer “technical support”. “Oh, ma’am, I think this item may have been missed. Let’s check. Do you need help with how to scan items?” I don’t try to steal, so don’t find the machines to be a problem.
Normalize leaving your groceries in the cart and leaving the store, and finding another store that doesnt make you bend over backwards to pay for your shit.
and finding another store that doesnt make you bend over backwards to pay for your shit.
Not so easy in a small town where the big box stores have killed local business.
The only real outcome from that is to make underpaid employees have to put all your shit back.
