Crackdown of self serve checkouts by Coles and police to reduce shoplifting over summer

COLES has announced a crackdown of self-service checkout theft to reduce its $1.1 billion annual shoplifting debt.

COLES supermarkets has called on police to help them crack down on theft at self-serve checkouts through NSW.

A week after news.com.au revealed that the supermarket giant was considering measures to reduce its $1.1 billion annual theft debt, Coles has called on police and the public to reduce shoplifting via self-service checkouts.

Coles says it is tired of shoppers who either don’t scan products to avoid paying or scan cheaper items to get a discount on more expensive products.

“We have had a lot of interest in self-serve checkouts and what is being done to reduce theft,” Coles spokeswoman Martine Alpins said.

She admitted there had been “a normalisation of theft at self-service checkouts”.

Standing outside Coles in Zetland, in inner city Sydney, Superintendent Murray Chapman said police would be getting serious over summer in arresting thieves.

Coles is cracking down on thieves at its self-service check-outs.

He said officers would be targeting pilfering by shoppers of items as cheap as a $2 avocado.

“No matter how small you think it is, even if it’s the avocado and you’re saving $2, it’s still shoplifting,” detective superintendent Murray Chapman said on Thursday.

“It’s still stealing, it’s still a crime and if we catch you or you get caught, you will be charged.”

Supt Chapman said police had prosecuted more than half the 22,000 reports they had received of shoplifting in the last financial year, and would be working with retailers over summer to stop more theft.

Last week, retail sources revealed exclusively to news.com.au that Coles was looking to reduce self-service checkout theft.

Research reveals that shoppers are more likely to steal at a self-serve machine, partly because customers are distanced from the human face of the business.

Supermarket theft is compounded by the ease at which self-serve machines allowed shoppers to pass off more expensive fruit, vegetables and bakery products as cheaper products.

The “swipe everything as carrots” mentality was prevalent among young customers, who confessed to supermarket research body Canstar Blue that they had ripped off supermarkets at the self-serve.

Canstar Blue told news.com.au that while younger customers had embraced self-serve because they actively tried to avoid interaction with others while shopping, they also practised the “five-finger discount”.

Australian Retailers Association executive director Russell Zimmerman told news.com.au that theft in supermarkets was costing chains up to three per cent of their revenue of tens of billions of dollars.

Mr Zimmerman said in-store stealing was a serious concern to the supermarket conglomerates, and that companies were looking at other new technology such as creating barcode tags for loose fresh produce like capsicums.

Canstar Blue found that one in six customers aged in their 30s said they had deliberately not paid for an item at a self-service checkout.

Almost one in 10 shoppers of all ages admitted they had cheated supermarkets in the self-serve section, Canstar Blue found in its survey. Men were more likely to steal than women.

Coles has already used technology to recalibrate machines in its Victorian stores to speed up self-service shopping.

Originally published as Crackdown of self serve checkouts by Coles and police to reduce shoplifting over summer