Pages


Friday, May 10, 2024

Offsetting inflation

An Illinois woman is facing theft charges after reportedly stealing from grocery stores over the last several months. 

Linaya Bennett is accused of stealing from Hy-Vee supermarkets in Iowa and Illinois.

*****

Every time I'm scanning my own groceries at a self checkout, I wonder how much of a loss stores take with people purposely skipping an item here and there. It's not like there's somebody standing over my shoulder making sure I scan each and every item.

23 comments:

  1. > It's not like there's somebody standing over my shoulder...

    Walmart self-checks have as many cameras as a Vegas blackjack table.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The loss is apparently enough in some areas that stores are beginning to remove, or severely reduce, their self checkouts.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You'd be surprised at the amount of video surveillance at self check out (minimum of 3 directions). That said, Walmart is rethinking self checkout due to theft.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Walmart is preparing to close the self checks in "certain" stores.

      Delete
    2. Ozgrumpy
      When they were introduced here in Oz, the 2 major supermarkets (over 80% of the market} lost approx $5 billion (yes, with a B) in the first year. Now they have cameras and a walk through scanner at the exit.
      I will go to a manned checkout whenever I am able to, even if I have to wait.

      Delete
  4. the camera never sleeps

    ReplyDelete
  5. The Walmart here closes the self checkouts, but they still have only one cashier to do checkout, and that one is retarded.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I spoke with a senior loss prevention guy who works for WalMart. He told me that employees are still the largest cause of shrinkage.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The self check registers are shrink machines. The losses outweigh the labor saving by factors. But the Einstein's that run corporations accept the losses because labor is reduced.
      75% of retail shrink is at the front end and the industry standard is about over 50% of that is employees.
      I could do a dissertation....................

      Delete
    2. I have a similar reaction to Walmart employees. One look and, WHAM!, major shrinkage...

      Delete
  7. The woman's crime is stealing approximately $241 per week in groceries.

    We can deduce she's not probably not a very frugal shopper. Of course, the entire grocery industry is based on the waste of money by people who either don't have basic math skills, or don't know how to cook (or both). And by these amounts, I might also wonder if someone in her household, if not herself, is battling alcoholism, or at the least, an addiction to sugar.

    For example: At a glance, 2lbs of fresh carrots in a bag cost $2, and a namebrand 14.5oz can of carrots cost $2.50. Roughly then, this is 2.5 times the amount in canned vs fresh carrots, or discarding 60% of a grocery budget.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I was at the self-checkout….
    Noticed a very shapely lady with “tights”….
    that emphasized her shapely ass by color/pattern….
    as I was noticing and talking to a friend….
    I didn’t notice I failed to scan two (2) cans….
    until I got to the car….felt bad….
    but wasn’t going back into store….
    Next trip paid for the non-scanned cans….
    Man….she had a nice body.
    Ed357

    ReplyDelete
  9. You're gonna make me do the store's job. (i.e. chcker) well I gotta get paid for that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ^^^THIS^^^

      I generally don't use self checkout. Have to some places, but would rather help someone keep their job. It's not like the stores are passing their significant savings on employee expenditures to the consumer. They're using them to pad their bottom line and I won't play that game.

      Delete
  10. Sometimes staff will give smaller family members a hard time if I'm not with them, even though they pay for everything. Being big and looking rough around the edges has its benefits, no one wants to initiate contact unless they absolutely have to.

    -arc

    ReplyDelete
  11. If I'm the cashier at self-checkout do I get to go to the company Christmas party?

    ReplyDelete
  12. People steal it is a fact of life, I went through a rough stage many mains ago when I did a bit of shoplifting, not anymore and wasn't a good time in my life

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I get it. For instance, stealing food when you're trying to feed kids is forgivable. Hell. I'd do a lot worse than shoplifting if it came right down to it.

      Delete
  13. One of the national grocery chains tried a system where you checked out a scanner, scanned your items as you put them in the cart, and were charged when you returned the scanner. An article written as the system was being rolled out asked one of the chain's executives about theft (simply not scanning a few items), and the executive's answer was that their research showed that the level of theft was below the cost of cashiers. In other words, steal but don't steal too much. The system was an abysmal failure.

    ReplyDelete
  14. its covered with overhead cameras and a.i. ...walmart has had fairly good results catching thieves...

    ReplyDelete
  15. Why would I work for the grocers for free by scanning my own stuff? They owe me for being the checker and they make what? 16$ or more an hour.

    ReplyDelete
  16. The inventory RFID chips WalMart uses could stop this cold, but would remind too many people of the omnipresence of surveillance. Just push the cart through the scanner, and it scans every item in your cart, as well as it's individual "serial number", without you removing a single thing from the cart. Everything not in a Faraday container, anyway.

    Then once the Feds nationalize the data, their sidewalk scanners would know that a given set of sneakers was purchased by whom, at what location, using what credit card, etc...

    ReplyDelete

All comments are moderated due to spam, drunks and trolls.
Keep 'em civil, coherent, short, and on topic.