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Some Walmart employees say customers are getting hostile at self-checkout — and they blame anti-theft tech
(www.businessinsider.com)
this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2023
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In Sweden we usually have a self-checkout alternative where you acquire a wireless scanner when walking in, scanning when picking from shelves and put it directly in shopping bags.
At checkout, you just pay and walk out. There is random controls, where an employee will check like 5 randomly chosen things from the bags. This is seldom though, like once every three/four months or something.
Makes for very quick checkout.
I would guess this wouldn't work in many countries with a more prevalent stealing culture (among which mine, France).
I don't say that out of nowhere, it shocked me when I went to Sweden and I saw people alone leaving their bags at their place while they go to the bathroom / getting their orders, or just leaving their bike unattached - even for five minutes I would guess it would be quickly stolen in France.
We have it as well. I call it the anti-boomer queue (so no queue)
So basically the boomer queue ensures that cashiers have a job, and it ensures that I don't have to be treated like a criminal because the cashiers are bagging the groceries and I won't be subjected to "random controls". I'm not seeing the negative.
Meh. I can literally leave my house and be back in 10 minutes counted if I miss a couple of ingredients. I got randomly checked like 15 times and they found one time that I beeped two times the same packet of soap instead of beeping one and one (different aroma, same price) and one time they found I was stealing like a 1€ packet of chips that I forgot to scan. They said no problem and didn't complain at all and made me pay for the chips. For me it's totally worth it and I don't see many issues. I agree that the prices are higher and they have less fix costs which make me angry as well but yeah...