Some Walmart employees say customers are getting hostile at self-checkout — and they blame anti-theft tech

Comments

• magnus@lemmy.ahall.se ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  In Sweden we usually have a self-checkout alternative where you acquire a wireless scanner when walking in, scanning when picking from shelves and put it directly in shopping bags.

  At checkout, you just pay and walk out. There is random controls, where an employee will check like 5 randomly chosen things from the bags. This is seldom though, like once every three/four months or something.

  Makes for very quick checkout.

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  • d6GeZtyi@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I would guess this wouldn’t work in many countries with a more prevalent stealing culture (among which mine, France).

    I don’t say that out of nowhere, it shocked me when I went to Sweden and I saw people alone leaving their bags at their place while they go to the bathroom / getting their orders, or just leaving their bike unattached - even for five minutes.

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  • PeroBasta@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    We have it as well. I call it the anti-boomer queue (so no queue)

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    • atyaz@reddthat.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      So basically the boomer queue ensures that cashiers have a job, and it ensures that I don’t have to be treated like a criminal because the cashiers are bagging the groceries and I won’t be subjected to “random controls”. I’m not seeing the negative.

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• LifeOfChance@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I’m cool with checking myself out I actually prefer to but the anti theft nonsense is to much. Nearly everyone triggers it and last time I had to wait an extra five minutes for an employee to clear it and then they had to count 20+ small items all because I waved my arms over the machine fixing the cuff of my shirt… I don’t blame the employees that’s their job

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• RedditWanderer@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  LET ME AT LEAST MUTE IT

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• Reddit_Is_Trash@reddthat.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I’ve had a problem at self check out recently when I was buying a birthday card. I scanned the card, and placed the card and envelope it comes with in the area where scanned items go.

  The kiosk, correctly, thought I put an unscanned item in the area. It was just the envelope the card comes in, so no need to scan it. But an employee had to come over and verify themselves before I could continue.

  I don’t see the anti theft measures as being an issue, you need to protect your merchandise from theft to run a successful business. But, it should be made a little smarter, to know that if you scan a card, there is very likely an envelope that comes with it.

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• nucleative@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Why do people get hostile when they are showed a video of themselves moving items to the bag without scanning the item? Why not just accept your fate at this point and pay or give the goods back?

  This leads me to think about how Walmart’s focus on cheap low quality goods with stores placed in areas where finances are often tight has created this “I want it but can’t afford it” despair.

  You walk into this soul-less, hyper efficient box store and it’s easy to notice they have a lot of stuff but not a lot of staff. And the staff are not exactly motivated to care about theft.

  It’s not a long shot to start to think it would be easy to get away with grabbing something, because perhaps Walmart is an easy target. But the efficiency of the place is where that mistake falls short.

  The truth is, there are very few businesses with as sophisticated an anti-theft system. Walmart is dealing with petty theft on a global scale and understands exactly how much it costs them, especially if they are perceived as an easy target.

  Walmart has the technology to wait until the number of thefts from a single person exceeds the local felony levels and only then press charges. It’s a trap, and ripping off Walmart is a lot less profitable than it might seem.

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  • Death_Equity@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I caught someone stealing a felony amount of alcohol by using their young children(<5) and they acted like I was the wrong one in the situation.

    You got caught, accept the consequences of your actions. Nope, I am the bad guy because I recognozed someone who stole a felony amount of an unnecessary product the other week, watched them on the cameras, and called the police station next door to wait in the lot for them.

    They also didn’t show in court and got a warrant for it.

    I don’t understand that level of incredulous lack of accountability for your own actions.

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  • ilinamorato@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I don’t shoplift because I’m fairly fortunate to be able to work a job that pays a living wage. Yet every single time I use a self-checkout (not just at Walmart), it flags an employee for something; maybe I left a prescription in the cart (you have to pay for those in the pharmacy). Maybe I’m shopping with my wife and her purse is in the cart. Once it thought I was stealing my own kid.

    If you don’t trust me to do a thing, don’t let me do a thing. It feels like harassment.

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• Duamerthrax@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Walmart and their customers deserve each other.

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• autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  This is the best summary I could come up with:

  ---

  Retailers broadly are facing increasing theft and have responded by locking up merchandise, warning investors of major losses, and implementing new technology to help combat the issue.

  In 2019, Walmart introduced computer-vision technology at its registers to reduce inventory shrink, a term retailers use to describe merchandise losses from theft, fraud, error, and other causes.

  Employees overseeing the self-checkout stations can monitor the registers from mobile phones and, in the case of issues, pause the machines to prevent customers from checking out.

  The employee, who has worked at Walmart locations for over two years, said the self-checkout technology caught many customers off guard — particularly when they saw that the registers flagged them and then played back a video on the machine’s screen showing them scanning items.

  “It was personally uncomfortable for me to notice somebody purposefully not scanning an item,” said Dominick Haar, 20, a recent newly former Walmart employee who worked self-checkout in a store in Southern Illinois.

  “I think it created a lot more stress for the employees, not to mention customers that just want one-on-one personal conversation when they go to the store,” Leroy told Insider, referring to the self-checkout machines.

  ---

  The original article contains 923 words, the summary contains 195 words. Saved 79%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

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• possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I don’t blame them

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• CriticalMiss@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  The definition is wrong. There’s nothing “self” about them if an employee has to hold your hand throughout the entire process.

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  • OrderedChaos@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Perhaps they should be paying the customer with savings since they’re saving so much money not paying a full-time checkout attendant per register. The customer is now the employee.

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    • CriticalMiss@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Meh, I don’t mind using self-checkout when it’s actually self-checkout. I hate standing in lines and my anxiety doesn’t do me any favors so I’m all in favor if the system actually works.

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• BrownianMotion@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  It’s not “anti-theft”.

  It’s just dumb **** criminals who can’t handle being herded and being RIGHTLY LABLED as useless C***S

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  • rurutheguru@lemmings.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Until you get caught in a similar predicament without having stolen anything. Then you’ll waste 10 minutes being humiliated by having your entire cart rechecked, all the while catching looks from everyone else checking out. Then you will be frustrated and might say something about it. But yes, they are all dumb criminals. You’ll be the only innocent one who was ever humiliated in this way…

    Grow up

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• m3t00@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  target reversible retina scanners Image

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