I went to Sainsburys today. As I got to the self-checkouts, I could see there was a much bigger queue than usual. I soon found out why: they have just updated all of the self-checkouts, and the new software is glitchy. About half the people there checking out were requiring assistance from the staff, and the three staff members could barely keep up.

For a while now all of the self checkouts have had screens above them that record, or at least watch you while you scan. You can see yourself in the screen, I assume it’s to deter theft. I started scanning my items, and immediately I found out what the new software is. On the first item, the screen snapped an image of my face, and kept the image on screen above me, while the screen in front of me that shows the scanned items got a big warning flashing up on it, declaring that I had bagged an item that I hadn’t scanned.

Both screens froze like this, my face on the screen above with a message in huge letters on the screen below declaring to the entire shop I had bagged something without scanning. Declaring me a thief to the entire shop, even though I hadn’t done anything. Because the staff were so busy with all the glitches I had to wait there like this for about 10 minutes until someone would deal with it.

As I waited I watched the other checkouts and saw that this glitchy new tech was doing the same thing to other people. It seems ridiculous, it’s made the process longer, caused a bigger queue, and is wrongly accusing everyone of stealing. It seems counter-intuitive, they want more people to use self checkouts but this is going to put me off using them in future.

I dread to think what they’ll come up with next. Maybe they’ll eventually get rid of all cashiers and when the machine accuses you of stealing there will be no one to check your items and see that you haven’t. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have robot police waiting to arrest you for supposedly unscanned items soon.

And let’s not forget this is to stop starving, poverty-stricken people from accessing food in the only way some people have.

  • PKMKII [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
    49·
    6 days ago

    Yeah these loss-prevention programs are getting so intrusive and inconvenient, they’re killing more business by turning people off from shopping there than they’re saving in shoplifting prevented.

      • Acute_Engles [he/him, any]@hexbear.netEnglish
        16·
        6 days ago

        Best part about the cage is that half the time when you do get an employee to help they just hand you the item and go back to what they were doing rather than walk it to the front with you. I’m stealing it on principles now

    • IHave69XiBucks@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
      26·
      6 days ago

      Its on purpose. They do not want people to shop in the store. They want people to order online. So theyll keep making shopping in person worse and worse and make people do online instead. Then they’ll turn the huge box stores into glorified warehouses to support online ordering.

      • DisabledAceSocialist [comrade/them]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
        12·
        6 days ago

        Why?

        I was using sainsburys online ordering recently when I was unable to walk for a while, and I prefer to shop in store. With the online ordering they were sending me items that had reached their use-by date already, vegetables that were rotten, mushrooms that were slimy and black and some items were out of stock and they sent me substitutes I didn’t want. So I would much rather go and choose my own items.

        • IHave69XiBucks@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
          3·
          6 days ago

          Also because its easier to price gouge you. They do this thing sometimes where they actively change prices based on who is shopping and what time it is and shit.

            • IHave69XiBucks@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
              1·
              6 days ago

              Plus once the in store option is gone they can be a lot less generous with refunds. Its like how doordash and stuff used to basically operate on a trust system but they started to be more strict over time once the market was established. They’ll make it tedious like take a photo with a piece of paper with the days date and the item that wasnt good, scan the barcode, stuff like that. And people wont bother.

      • PKMKII [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
        1·
        6 days ago

        There’s no guarantee that the people turned off from retail shopping by overreaching loss prevention will go to the retailer’s online store. It’s more likely that if someone finds Target annoying because everything is locked up, they’ll go to Amazon instead than Target’s website.

        I think it’s a convenient cover for shoddy management. Bad bookkeeping? Supply chain is a mess? Cheap shipping means goods are damaged in transit? Just blame it all on shoplifters and then you’re off the hook.

        • IHave69XiBucks@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
          1·
          6 days ago

          They don’t really care which store you go to. Keep in mind all these big retailers at the end of the day are owned by the same half dozen people. The CEO of a specific company might care, but they answer to the board which is chaired by people that also own stock in all the other retailers. So they push for the online stuff knowing that profit margins are better with online, and even if you do go to some other stores online shop they’ll still make money.