4 ms·

My mother-in-law operates the self-checkout lanes at a Kroger brand store in the midwest. The honor system definitely does not work there. Shoplifting is throug

My mother-in-law operates the self-checkout lanes at a Kroger brand store in the midwest. The honor system definitely does not work there. Shoplifting is through the roof over the past couple years. It's gotten so bad that management is debating shutting off the self-checkout lanes. A few months ago she was pepper sprayed after confronting a shoplifter who had an entire cart of things, but only scanned and paid for 3. Then last month, someone came in and just wheeled out the entire tobacco shelving unit with a dolly. These are just a couple egregious examples. We hear other shoplifting stories from her every week. The police don't respond to shoplifting calls anymore, and the thieves know it. Employees are now instructed to not confront shoplifters in any way after she got pepper sprayed. It's a total free for all. My mother-in-law estimates the theft to be $10,000 per day at her store.

thakoppno 4y ago
> $10,000 per day at her store. That seems intolerably high but I’ve never worked a day in a grocery store. Do grocery stores generate enough revenue to sustain? Fifty two-hundred dollar carts of cash is a lot to let go.
- devmor 4y ago
  The anecdote is almost certainly made up nonsense. Grocery stores are incredibly low-margin businesses.
  - flangola7 4y ago
    A lot of people seem to have been raised with this attitude that pretty theft from a ruthless retail corporation is some kind of unthinkable sin. My mom and dad regularly lifted from wally world to make sure our family had enough. Always taught my siblings and I that stealing from regular people or small local/ethical businesses is wrong, but against enormous manifestations of brazen greed it was was open season. As I grow older and more crotchety old person assertive I realize it's more true than ever, and much more even than when I was in need of baby food 40 years ago. I miss you dad.
    - davidgay 4y ago
      > A lot of people seem to have been raised with this attitude that pretty theft from a ruthless retail corporation is some kind of unthinkable sin. You're not actually stealing from the "ruthless retail corporation". You are stealing from the customers who don't steal.
      - flangola7 4y ago
        Incorrect, it is stealing from the retail corporation.
- jcranmer 4y ago
  Looking up statistics, shrinkage rates at a grocery store are typically 2-3%. Theft appears to be about ⅓ of shrinkage (food spoilage is a bigger cause than shoplifting), so about 1% of revenue amounts to theft on average. The larger supermarkets seem to pull in on the order $100-150k/day in revenues, with the median half of that. So... yeah, the numbers don't add up. If it's $10k/day, even at an extremely large store, that's 6-7% theft rate. Given that grocers aren't high-margin, that's stark enough to wipe out any revenue. $1k/day theft rate is a more reasonable estimation.
chrischen 4y ago
That's not really a self-checkout problem though is it. I mean, SF has stores that don't have self-checkout but the thieves that come in and wheel out a tobacco shelving unit are not taking advantage of "self-checkout"... they are taking advantage of the fact that 1) there is no proper security and 2) the police don't respond. My point is that anywhere that unmanned stores with cameras can work, so would self-checkout.
- harvey9 4y ago
  I think there's an important difference between unmanned and self checkout which you missed from the post you replied to: the person who scans a few items but steals others at a self checkout. In a no checkout store you already identified yourself in order to get inside and the store knows what you picked up and took out.
  - chrischen 4y ago
    Their high precision scale works remarkably well for this though. It forces you to put all your stuff on the scale and so it becomes obvious to the one store clerk if you leave stuff in your cart that means you haven't scanned/paid for them.
    - harvey9 4y ago
      Still one person trying to watch over about 10 customers. No match for a tireless machine watching the whole store through dozens of cameras.
deleted 4y ago
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wildrhythms 4y ago
>Then last month, someone came in and just wheeled out the entire tobacco shelving unit with a dolly. And how would 'shutting off the self-checkout lanes' solve that?

thakoppno 4y ago

> $10,000 per day at her store. That seems intolerably high but I’ve never worked a day in a grocery store. Do grocery stores generate enough revenue to sustain? Fifty two-hundred dollar carts of cash is a lot to let go.

devmor 4y ago
The anecdote is almost certainly made up nonsense. Grocery stores are incredibly low-margin businesses.
- flangola7 4y ago
  A lot of people seem to have been raised with this attitude that pretty theft from a ruthless retail corporation is some kind of unthinkable sin. My mom and dad regularly lifted from wally world to make sure our family had enough. Always taught my siblings and I that stealing from regular people or small local/ethical businesses is wrong, but against enormous manifestations of brazen greed it was was open season. As I grow older and more crotchety old person assertive I realize it's more true than ever, and much more even than when I was in need of baby food 40 years ago. I miss you dad.
  - davidgay 4y ago
    > A lot of people seem to have been raised with this attitude that pretty theft from a ruthless retail corporation is some kind of unthinkable sin. You're not actually stealing from the "ruthless retail corporation". You are stealing from the customers who don't steal.
    - flangola7 4y ago
      Incorrect, it is stealing from the retail corporation.
jcranmer 4y ago
Looking up statistics, shrinkage rates at a grocery store are typically 2-3%. Theft appears to be about ⅓ of shrinkage (food spoilage is a bigger cause than shoplifting), so about 1% of revenue amounts to theft on average. The larger supermarkets seem to pull in on the order $100-150k/day in revenues, with the median half of that. So... yeah, the numbers don't add up. If it's $10k/day, even at an extremely large store, that's 6-7% theft rate. Given that grocers aren't high-margin, that's stark enough to wipe out any revenue. $1k/day theft rate is a more reasonable estimation.

chrischen 4y ago

That's not really a self-checkout problem though is it. I mean, SF has stores that don't have self-checkout but the thieves that come in and wheel out a tobacco shelving unit are not taking advantage of "self-checkout"... they are taking advantage of the fact that 1) there is no proper security and 2) the police don't respond. My point is that anywhere that unmanned stores with cameras can work, so would self-checkout.

harvey9 4y ago
I think there's an important difference between unmanned and self checkout which you missed from the post you replied to: the person who scans a few items but steals others at a self checkout. In a no checkout store you already identified yourself in order to get inside and the store knows what you picked up and took out.
- chrischen 4y ago
  Their high precision scale works remarkably well for this though. It forces you to put all your stuff on the scale and so it becomes obvious to the one store clerk if you leave stuff in your cart that means you haven't scanned/paid for them.
  - harvey9 4y ago
    Still one person trying to watch over about 10 customers. No match for a tireless machine watching the whole store through dozens of cameras.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

wildrhythms 4y ago

>Then last month, someone came in and just wheeled out the entire tobacco shelving unit with a dolly. And how would 'shutting off the self-checkout lanes' solve that?