University of Manchester criminology professor Shadd Maruna explained:
“Individuals can neutralize guilt they might otherwise feel when stealing by telling themselves that there are no victims of the crime, no human being is actually being hurt by this, only some mega-corporation that can surely afford the loss of a few quid. In fact, the corporation has saved so much money by laying off all its cashiers that it is almost morally necessary to steal from them.” [3] Frank Farley, a psychologist at Temple University, says that personality also comes into play. He describes many supermarket thieves as having “type-T” (aka “thrill”) personalities. He says that for these people, stealing can make shopping a more interesting activity.
“These can be risk-taking, stimulation-seeking people,” he explains [2].
Why Are Retailers Still Using Self-Checkout?
Stores introduced self-checkouts about ten years ago. After a significant amount of backlash from customers, however, many stores removed them. Retailers are now embracing self-checkouts again for a number of reasons. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the employment rate was high. For retailers, this meant that finding people to fill available job openings was becoming difficult. At the same time, they were losing revenue from shoppers moving online. Shoppers themselves were becoming more accustomed to dealing with machines instead of people.
The truth is, despite some of the issues with them, retailers are seeing some savings.
That doesn’t mean they’re not attempting to curb theft. Many stores disabled the weight-based theft-detection system on their machines because they trigger too many messages that annoy shoppers. This, of course, has made it easier for people to steal. There is a new technology that is emerging, however, to replace this method. NCR Corp, which makes the self-checkout devices in Walmart stores has begun introducing a type of video technology. To help reduce false positives, humans off-site will watch five to ten-second clips of possible mis-scans.
Since backing away from its weight-based theft detection system, Walmart has been using a camera system made by Everseen Ltd. In this system, cameras track product and shopper movements and correlate that information with what’s being scanned. If the system suspects a mis-scan, it pauses the transaction in real-time and alerts a store worker [4].
Embracing Technology
Although self-checkouts were initially met with opposition, as the technology improves more and more shoppers are embracing them. Target, for example, has self-checkout machines in all but two hundred of its 1900 stores. A spokesperson for the company said that about one-third of shoppers prefer the machines [4]. As the technology improves, however, so is the security. So if you have been using the banana trick at the self-checkout, your days of small-time grocery theft may be coming to an end.
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