On 25 Mar, 19:27, Cynic wrote:
> On Tue, 25 Mar 2008 15:21:52 GMT, "zaax"
> wrote:
>
> >Safeways (and morrisons still might) used to have a scanner you picked
> >up on the way in, and scanned as you shopped and paid on the way out -
> >no check out :)
>
> IIUC they are beginning to lose favour with the supermarkets, and the
> "self scan" checkout used instead, where the activities of several
> customers are overseen by a staff member as they scan their items, and
> checking is also done by having the till ensure that the weight of the
> bagged items equals the weight of the scanned items..
>
> The problem has been that customers tend to start off scanning their
> items as they shop with complete honesty, but after a while quite a
> high percentage of customers decide to skip scanning the odd item,
> thinking that if they are chosen for a random check, they can get away
> with claiming it was a mistake. Then if not challenged, the number of
> "oversights" becomes greater, until the supermarket is losing quite a
> bit to the "soft" shoplifting activities.
>
> So whilst initially heralded as a success, supermarkets have since
> discovered that customers have been getting progressively more and
> more dishonest.
Which, you would think, would have been pretty obvious from the
start.
Even the self scan ones are far from perfect. A kilo of oranges weighs
exactly the same as a kilo of potatoes, but the potatoes are
considerably cheaper. They also seem to be used exclusively by people
who have no clue how they work, and as a result take around 8 years to
scan a loaf of bread.
I hate supermarkets. |