And scared of getting caught!
Self-service checkouts normalise, excuse supermarket stealing, research shows
By Emma Wynne
The rise of self-service checkouts is prompting more people to steal, research shows, with many using the impersonal nature of the experience to justify their theft.
Research from the United Kingdom found self-service checkouts allowed people to normalise and excuse stealing, even among those who would never consider theft in any other setting.
Professor Larry Neil from Queensland University of Technology's business school told 720 ABC Perth that psychologically self-service checkouts made stealing easier because they distanced customers from the business.
"Self-serve checkouts provide that distance between you and the organisation or an identifiable victim," Professor Neil said.
"The customer can't point to someone and say, 'that person is going to lose money if I steal from this store'."
Resentment of the major supermarket chains was also used as an excuse by shoppers to wrongly enter information or drop items into their bags without scanning them, Professor Neil said.
"Some of their reputation in the community as being against farmers gives reasons for shoppers to do the wrong thing," he said.
Scanning everything as carrots
Talkback callers to 720 ABC Perth revealed the practice of not paying full price for every item or outright stealing when doing their own checkout was widespread.
"I was in a large hardware store the other day," Sebastian said via SMS.
"There was one person on a checkout with a huge line and someone else directing everyone to the self-service.
"Out of anger I justified to myself not scanning a quite expensive item."
A female cashier works in a Supermarket.
Photo: Some talkback listeners are upset that machines are replacing humans at the registers. (Getty Images: Andreas Rentz, file photo)
Another listener Mike wrote:
"Take what you can get I reckon — if they aren't going pay for customer service then customers will serve themselves."
"My putting through cherries as carrots is justified by the big guns' treatment of farmers," Marion said.
"My wife started swiping items at the self-service about two years ago," another caller said.
"I think she feels a thrill for getting a bargain.
"I refuse to go shopping with her now but don't mind if she brings me home some cheap salmon."
Protest theft
Caller Larry said he regularly entered items falsely as a protest against self-service checkouts.
"If they are going to make me self-serve and reduce the employment for our youth, I will help myself to almonds and mushrooms at potato prices and make sure I hit their bottom line," Frank said.
"The guilt doesn't seem to come up, I feel like I'm getting a bargain."
Frank said he was also a shareholder in both Coles and Woolworths but was undeterred by the costs of theft on the businesses.
"They are just putting so many people on the unemployment line and it disgusts me," he said.
Theft costing billions
Professor Neil said he estimated the overall cost of theft from supermarkets in Australia would be billions of dollars each year.
"They do absorb more of that risk because they are saving so much on labour costs," he said.
He suggested that rather than employing more staff, retailers might move to smarter technology that is harder to fool in the future.
"When it comes to the point where you just scan the basket without taking the items out individually, then this kind of behaviour might stop, or at least be curbed; or move to a different part of the store."
And not all listeners agreed with gaming self-serve checkouts to steal.
"Who raised these listeners?" Julie said via SMS.
"It's stealing, people. Not a bargain. I always do the right thing on self-serve.
"I could not sleep at night if I didn't."
Meanwhile, Michael asked: "Theft from supermarkets will be made up by them paying their suppliers less — how does that help farmers?"
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-21/s ... ch/7648910
Self Service should give you a 20% discount or something. 
