Shoppers cheat more at self-service checkouts

Shops using self-service checkouts can face substantially greater losses than those manned by staff, as customers increasingly try to cheat the system.

Researchers examined the difference in financial losses as a percentage of total sales between the different types of checkout at 13 major retailers in Europe and the US.

The shops with no built-in scales on the machines had 147 per cent greater losses than the ones with manned checkouts. Those with scales had 52 per cent greater losses.