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Self-Checkouts have been really problematic in Germany with stores rushing to put them to use and namely: 1) they have very bad interfaces 2) they don’t trust c

Self-Checkouts have been really problematic in Germany with stores rushing to put them to use and namely: 1) they have very bad interfaces 2) they don’t trust customers at all 3) it’s easy to report cases to the police and 4) stores have people hired to catch thieves and their incentive is that they are paid 50 to 100 euros per report (paid by the person caught) Now a combination of all of the above leads to a not insignificant number of people having police files for missing an item while scanning. I read about cases about once a week on Reddit. Aaand I am one of them, luckily without the police report because they saw that it was an error, but with a permanent ban from the store. My mistake? Went to pay, scanned my customer code in the store’s app so I get the e-receipt and the payment failed without me seeing that it failed and I went out the door. Their reasoning for banning me? Should have asked for the physical receipt. I say me having to operate two devices that I’ve never seen in my life and some really bad UI/UX were at fault but at least I’m glad they didn’t call the police. I don’t use self-checkouts anymore.

wojciii 3y ago
I don't think that the store here (neighbouring DK) will report you to the police if you forget something nor can you get outside of the self checkout area without a written receipt or showing a code to a scanner. I use an app to buy groceries and I assume that any mistakes that I make will be corrected if checked like a human would do.
- kioleanu 3y ago
  That won’t happen here because of point #4. Police usually drop the charges because it’s impossible to prove intent but you still pay them a few hundred euros for the bother.
  - wojciii 3y ago
    Why would you pay something if the case against you was dropped? I'm pretty sure that I would not have to pay anything if I was targeted by the police but the case was dropped for whatever reason. I would probably just get a letter saying that the case was dropped.
kevincox 3y ago
2 is really the killer for me. I don't mind self-checkout when I have a few items but the annoying security measures just make it too slow for many items. I also doubt they actually prevent much theft. Are most people sneaking non-scanned items onto the "purchased" scale? Surely they could just leave it in their reusable bag and bypass the whole system. It feels like they could never say no to any security feature, no matter how inconvenient and ineffective it is. On top of that they have tons of prompts for donations and other spam that slows it down further. There are a few stores near my that I actually avoid no because their self-checkouts are so customer hostile (and they have no or very little regular checkouts). I won't shop at a store that treats me poorly.

wojciii 3y ago

I don't think that the store here (neighbouring DK) will report you to the police if you forget something nor can you get outside of the self checkout area without a written receipt or showing a code to a scanner. I use an app to buy groceries and I assume that any mistakes that I make will be corrected if checked like a human would do.

kioleanu 3y ago
That won’t happen here because of point #4. Police usually drop the charges because it’s impossible to prove intent but you still pay them a few hundred euros for the bother.
- wojciii 3y ago
  Why would you pay something if the case against you was dropped? I'm pretty sure that I would not have to pay anything if I was targeted by the police but the case was dropped for whatever reason. I would probably just get a letter saying that the case was dropped.

kevincox 3y ago

2 is really the killer for me. I don't mind self-checkout when I have a few items but the annoying security measures just make it too slow for many items. I also doubt they actually prevent much theft. Are most people sneaking non-scanned items onto the "purchased" scale? Surely they could just leave it in their reusable bag and bypass the whole system. It feels like they could never say no to any security feature, no matter how inconvenient and ineffective it is. On top of that they have tons of prompts for donations and other spam that slows it down further. There are a few stores near my that I actually avoid no because their self-checkouts are so customer hostile (and they have no or very little regular checkouts). I won't shop at a store that treats me poorly.