Unexpected thefts in the bagging area
1 in 4 admit fiddling self-service tills ... and it costs shops £3.2bn a year
SELF-SERVICE tills have turned shoppers into thieves with one in four admitting they have failed to pay for an item.
Goods worth an estimated £3.2billion a year are being pilfered through the unmanned checkouts – double the 2014 figure of £1.6billion.
Supermarkets have installed 50,000 of the tills over the past 20 years with promises they would be easy to use, cut queues and help people pay and leave more quickly. But many people find them confusing, which can mean they do not pay for all their shopping.
Most of those taking items say they are reluctant thieves.
More than six in ten blame technical failures and scanners failing to recognise products, particularly fruit and vegetables. As a result, they find it easier just to put the item in their shopping bag rather than take an age trying to sort it out or call for help.
Some 40 per cent take items because they know they will get away with it. High on their target list are toiletries, razors and packs blades, which are small but high value. Thirty six per cent blame a memory lapse according to the research of more than 2,000 people by the website VoucherCodesPro. co.uk.
Just under one in five – 18 per cent – say they are stealing because they do not have the money to pay and 11 per cent say they did not realise an item had not been scanned until later.
The survey found 23 per cent have taken an item through these tills without paying at least once. And 46 per cent of this group admit taking items regularly. These regular till thieves say they are taking items worth £23 a month, up by £5 a month on 2014.
Those who have stolen from a self-service checkout in the past were asked to list which items they had taken.
Toiletries topped the list at 59 per cent, followed by fruit and veg at 48 per cent, dairy items at 43 per cent and confectionery at 37 per cent. George Charles, of VoucherCodesPro.co.uk, said: ‘Self-service checkouts are amazing. It’s great to see how far techof nology has come and, if you don’t want to have to deal with an overly cheerful sales assistant, they are a blessing. However, the issue is that without workers patrolling the area, it would seem people cannot be trusted to behave themselves.
‘The amount stolen annually has skyrocketed since 2014, from £1.6billion to over £3.2billion.
‘The economy may not be in top shape currently and money may be tight, but that is no excuse to start stealing your weekly shop instead of paying for it.
‘Stores may want to reconsider just how many store assistants they have manning their self-service stations.’
Two years ago Morrisons bucked the trend and brought back staff at 1,000 ‘express’ checkouts in response to shopper anxiety about using the self-scan tills. Its research found as many as 60 per cent of shoppers prefer to visit a checkout staffed by a real person.
Sixty seven per cent of shoppers said they were anxious about using self-scan tills and worry about holding people up.
‘Know they will get away with it’