Jessica Leo-Kelton: Supermarket self-service check-outs could be releasing our inner crim
DO you use the self-service checkout at the supermarket? There are two reasons you shouldn’t — and only one is about thieving shoppers.
I HAVE a confession to make. I may have accidentally scanned my truss tomatoes as vine-ripened. Or vice-versa. I can’t be sure.
But I’m not alone. Last week British criminology professor Adrian Beck pointed the finger at a fair few of us when he warned supermarket self-service check-outs could be “normalising” theft.
He ventured that this new technology shifted perceptions to the point some people would be willing to steal items they’d never dream of swiping from a shop floor. He also, to be fair, said some of us are too busy, flustered or food identifyingly-inept to correctly use said check-outs.
This, Professor Beck surmised from one million audits of self-service baskets in British retailers, equated to a 3.97 per cent stock loss compared against 1.47 per cent from the shop floor.
In Australia this “payment fraud” cost retailers more than $380 million in 2015, a figure this year the industry may already be close to eclipsing if Professor Beck’s view of human behaviour is correct.
He reckons many people can rationalise slipping a few bananas too fast past the scanner or knocking a pack of batteries into the shopping bag because of a poor view of corporate retailers. From tensions with fresh food suppliers to low-balling staff wages, some big supermarket chains could do with a little better press which, going along with the good professor’s thinking, could then result in a few fewer slips of the hand at the old self-serve checkout.
Suddenly I feel a lot better about making an innocent gaffe over the persuasion of my tomatoes.
But what I don’t feel good about is that, until very recently, I would make an absolute beeline for the self-serve check-outs.
Not because I wanted to put a dent in the supermarket chain’s bottom line or save a few dollars on my grocery bill (things I hand on heart have never sought to do) but because I actually thought it was a better way to shop.
I was wrong — it’s not.
Even putting to one side the beyond infuriating weighted bag repositories which are impossible to go through without having to call for assistance, self-serve check-outs are, put simply, a blight on the supermarket industry.
And it’s not because they encourage people to steal and chip away at profit margins. It’s because they eat up jobs that could be going to young Australians.
Here I was heading through the self-serve aisle because I thought it would be quicker or I couldn’t be bothered making small talk with the checkout operator or I thought it would be a good teamwork and bonding exercise for my husband and me (he scans I pack).
It invariably wasn’t quicker, I’d usually have to wave over an in-demand employee for help and my husband and I would usually end up bickering about our varying pace (he scans quickly, I pack meticulously).
When I made the leap to a different supermarket chain I was finally forced to alter my thinking. There they don’t do self-service, they do service with a smile. A row of human-operated check-outs awaited me and my heaving trolley.
I got chatting with the lovely lass manning the checkout, learnt how she was awaiting some exam results which she hoped would land her dream study course. She efficiently scanned through my groceries, expertly packed the loot and was warm, friendly and engaging.
As I headed off with my trolley full and stress levels a lot lower thanks to not having to do the job myself, I wished her best of luck on the results.
It’s been a similar story with every visit to said store. It’s not my closest supermarket but it’s the best. Not just because it’s got a good range and never-full carpark but because it’s championing jobs over so-called cost-cutting technology.
Yes tech advancements can be used to drive efficiencies and deliver a great many cost-cutting measures across a diverse range of businesses but good old-fashioned service with a smile can never be replaced with an “unexpected item in bag” — whether it’s stolen or just an honest mistake.
JESSICA LEO-KELTON IS MESSENGER COMMUNITY NEWS’ EDITOR-IN-CHIEF