Comment on Unexpected item in the bagging area!
codexarcanum@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 hours agoI have, in the US, never seen a person “randomly selected” for a grocery rescan. I imagine the first store to try it would get sued for discrimination within short order. I have seen many kinds of shoplifting done multiple times though:
- scan a different UPC
- lie about which kind of fruit it is
- scan one, bag 2 (for light items)
- scan one cheap thing multiple times while bagging other stuff
- just straight up “forget” to scan a big item and walk out with it
- walk in with old receipt, skip checkout entirely
Some stores do a receipt check but they almost always just do a count and don’t have time for detailed looks. Supposedly several US stores (Amazon-owned Whole Foods is notorious for it) will save up security footage of chronic shoplifters to wait until they’ve stolen enough to bring federal charges.
There are cameras all over self-checkout but it’s easy enough to palm things or slip expensive items into your bags without it being obvious. Maybe with AI they can start scanning every video for signals but it seems to me that only the really bold and overt thieves get caught.
blackbeans@lemmy.zip 3 hours ago
Ah ok, so that’s likely the difference then. Here the display at the self scan machine randomly decides to halt and wait for an employee at the moment you want to pay. And the employee has to rescan everything in that case. If you clearly shoplift you are reported to the police and you will receive a fine of several hundred euros. I don’t see how this can be seen as discrimination though, the machine doesn’t have eyes or ears, it only knows the products you have scanned.