'What are you, my mum?': Shopper outraged by new self-checkout crackdown

"Don't you just love being made out to be a thief?" someone wrote after hearing about the 'infuriating' move. 

It seems Woolworths has turned into a fungi detective and will start peering into your mushroom bags to make sure you're not smuggling anything else in there. 

Whether it be a fancier mushroom variety or a completely different item altogether - Woolies will be cracking down on what you're scanning in those opaque bags at self-checkout. 

So, for those of you who have been playing a little 'mushroom roulette', trying to disguise your Portobellos as Swiss Browns... the "dream is over," as one disappointed Aussie put it. 

Taking to Reddit, the Melbourne shopper shared how they were recently targeted by the new security measure. 

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Image: Supplied / Laura Koefoed

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"In case you were in the habit of slipping more expensive items in the bag"

Taking to the r/australia subreddit, they wrote, "Woolworths is looking inside the mushroom bags at the self-checkout."

"Not sure if it's random or if it's triggered by a certain weight. However, if you purchase loose mushrooms, the self-checkout will pause and prompt the attendant to come over and look inside the mushroom bag," they explained, adding that they bought about 650g of mushrooms. 

The mushroom bags differ from the usual transparent produce bags as they're brown and opaque, meaning the contents can only be seen when looking in the top. 

The poster continued, "Just letting people know, in case any of you were in the habit of slipping more expensive items in the bag, or even just processing more expensive mushroom variants as cheaper ones."

"The dream is over, guys," they concluded. 

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"Made to feel like a thief"

Hundreds of Aussies took to the comments to give their thoughts on the new security measure and share the similar scenarios they've faced. 

"I got told off for putting Brussels sprouts in the mushroom bag once. Seriously? Who do you think you are, my mum? I just don’t want to use a plastic bag. The thing that irks me is that the attendant was much younger than me and felt like I was being sus, so decided to confront me," one commenter said. "As if you really care that much about a bag of vegetables. I put it through as Brussels sprouts.  What does it matter?"

Another sarcastically pointed out, "It’s so people don’t try and put through the fancy mushrooms at the plain old white mushroom price. Because that extra $2/kg is going to send them bankrupt..."

"Don't you just love being made to feel like a thief??" a different forum member rhetorically asked.

Then someone else admitted, "With the amount of times the attendant gets called over these days there's no time benefit of self-checkout. I'm seriously thinking about just using regular checkouts cos they seem faster."

And a different user said this issue could be avoided by having different mushroom bags for different varieties of mushrooms. "Problem solved," they said. 

Kidspot has reached out to Woolworths for comment.

Originally published as 'What are you, my mum?': Shopper outraged by new self-checkout crackdown