My website is having some issues with uploading photos. It’s been very frustrating. I wanted to have a complete album from our trip up by now but after far too many attempts only 3 photos have uploaded. My web master is working on it. So for now, a break in the telling of tales from the road to share one from the grocery store.
Our good friend Dan Brown wrote a piece in the London Free Press about the end of self-checkout lanes at the Hyde Park Walmart. Self-checkout lanes have been experimental in many retail stores for the last few years and at this particular location they haven’t been a success. Oh they’ve been busy alright. They’ve also been a big help to shoplifters.
I have personal experience with this. I tend to gravitate to the self-checkout rather than line up behind a bunch of people. A couple of days before we left on our trip I picked up a few groceries and some bottled water. You may recall that London was under a water restriction. But I digress. So I did the do-it-yourself thing and there was a problem with the debit machines so everyone was a little squirmy and either digging for a credit card or cash and keeping the checkout maven busier than usual. I had just enough cash for my purchases so I fed the machine, picked up my bags and off I went.
As I approached the doors something caught my eye in my buggy: a pair of sunglasses I hadn’t paid for. I immediately pulled over and took the glasses back to the woman who I don’t think even heard what I said but took them when I handed them to her. But it was pretty clear that I probably could have gotten away with taking them if I had been that kind of person.
And I guess that’s what’s happening. The scales under the bags are quite sensitive and they know if you put something in them that hasn’t been scanned. But never underestimate a person’s power to run a scam. Perhaps things are going into pockets or purses. Or maybe they’re being tucked into the buggy on purpose. And the checkout maven can only keep her eye on so many things at once.
Brown’s article says that Target is also reducing or eliminating the self checkout option at its stores. Target is due to open here next year and the line-ups will be huge! But less shoplifting is better for everybody and a live person at every cash will make people like Derek happy. He loathes the auto checkout. The way things are going, he may not have to concern himself with it much longer.
Lisa
I refuse to use self-checkouts because that eliminates a job for a real person & seems only to be useful to the store’s bottom line. It doesn’t make prices any lower.