Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Home Depot...

Check you out, being so honest. I'd do the same thing, but yeah, that would make me think the system was stupid.

The system is stupid. It has absolutely no ability to think. For items where a code has to be keyed in, there is nothing to stop you from keying in the code for a cheaper item, as long as the unit of measure is weight. The system has no idea whether or not you are weighing Shitake musrooms or 'taters.

I use to be a retail security manager and I don’t see any problem with self checkout from a shrinkage standpoint when balanced against added convenience for honest customers.

Many years ago the FBI did a study and determined that for general retail stores in the U.S. a national average of 10% of the customers walking in your door did so with the intent of stealing something. 10% of them wouldn’t steal from you even by accident and the other 80% could go either way depending on circumstances.

For the professional thief self checkout is a non-starter. It’s more closely monitored than the easiest way which is just to walk in pick up what you want and walk out with it. They know that what gets you caught is looking suspicious so if you just act like you own the place no one pays attention to you, unless you’ve given them other visual queues. Also you just can’t get enough value or volume through a self checkout at one time to make it worthwhile.

For the casual thief there are enough deterrents in place to prevent most of them from trying to steal. Most of those deterrents aren’t real as sonicfox’s stories illustrate rather they are primarily psychological and designed to increase the level of apprehension thus deterring the armature.

Even when the honest mistakes and theft via self-checkout are combined they will not be significant compared the other much more prevalent forms of shrinkage when compared to added convenience to customers and lower labour cost.

I’m not sure about anyone else but for me self-checkout lets me shop like I’m at a convenience store, only with a much better selection.

A universal truism

Will they invent a "self return/refund" machine next?

You know, one that argues with you, that says you used the screwdriver as a prybar, so the warranty is void...uhh, not that that's ever happened to me....

I always get snagged for using the pry bar as a screwdriver....

She called my screwdriver a pry bar, too.

You must not be using enough lubricant.

Hmmm... If I stamp my self return to sender for full refund and check myself in, I wonder where I'll end up.