
Stores Ask Shoppers to Use the Honor System - JumpCrisscross
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-12-04/stores-ask-shoppers-to-use-the-honor-system-when-it-s-time-to-pay
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jandrese
The honor system doesn't work at scale. A small percentage of the population
are kleptomaniacs or desperate for their next hit and there isn't an easy way
to filter them out. Even with small groups you are playing the odds.

The only thing keeping the stores in the article in business is that they
stock only a relatively small amount of cheap merchandise with no secondary
market. Their total liability is so low that it's cheaper than hiring staff.

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briefcomment
Also, (I can see it being possible that)* when it is communicated that the
only thing stopping you from stealing is your own conscience, a burden is
placed on your conscience every time you shop. I think people will be
surprised to see how worn down the conscience can get when you keep invoking
it for insignificant situations (in other words, when your conscience belies
rationality). People may find themselves stealing when they never would've
before.

*added as an edit

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vorpalhex
I hope the act of not murdering or not stealing isn't slowly wearing you down.

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milesvp
Murder takes physical effort. Stealing something you already have in your
posession does not take any extra physical effort. Don’t conflate the two. You
may also be completely ignoring some of the work people have done studying
self check outs. My understanding is that people who would never think to hide
items from an actual checker are much more likely to leave items unscanned.
And that many of them justify the behavior in various ways.

I think petty theft is far more instinctive than you may realize. I personally
have to fight the urge to steal my daughter’s holloween candy, even though I
can easily afford my own, and she would give me some if I just asked. I don’t
know where the urge comes from but I know it’s there, and I doubt it’s an
uncommon type of urge.

Social interactions can really help to bolster behaviors we prefer in
ourselves. I can see them being useful in keeping honest people honest. In the
same way a gym buddy makes it harder to skip a workout.

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axaxs
This only works with low cost items, and/or in nice areas. In low income
areas, even many fully manned stores bail due to shrinkage. I'd like to see a
middle ground, personally. I like the idea of grabbing and going, using some
combination of rf tags and my phone to just charge me automatically. This
sounds like the best of both worlds. In an honor system, I'd feel like I'm
paying more to cover those who are stealing - which is already a big problem
in some areas, like baby products.

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nxpnsv
In Sweden since at least ten years, and Austria in recent years, most big
markets support self checkout. Theft costs are apparently less than salaries
for manual checkouts...

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rootusrootus
Practically every decent size market in the US has had self-checkout for many
years. That's not a new phenomenon. There's still a staff member monitoring,
but they are overseeing a dozen terminals and their job is about helping
customers that run into some kind of snag, not catching shoplifters.

This newer idea seems to be small markets with no staff at all on site. Though
it's not _that_ new, we've had Avanti Markets at my workplace for a number of
years now, and it's an honor system.

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Sohcahtoa82
> Though it's not that new, we've had Avanti Markets at my workplace for a
> number of years now, and it's an honor system.

We got them at my workplace a couple years ago.

In the case of Avanti, I feel it's different. Getting caught stealing from
Avanti could cost you your job. I wouldn't risk my job for a ham sandwich.

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vorpalhex
I imagine this works well in semi-secured contexts - meaning within a gated
apartment complex or in a church. The items are low value (a nice box meal is
maybe $20?) and the value of stealing is minimal since you can't resell the
goods or hold onto them for any period of time.

The mirrors are an interesting idea. I was recently reading Schneier's book on
trust and he makes reference to an experiment where theft rates were reduced
when there were portraits of eyes facing shoppers.

I'm sure they still need some token security, and the article mentions some
kind of basic camera. I imagine scanning your credit card to enter would also
be highly effective (though possibly have other downsides).

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throwaway2048
Stores already ask shoppers to use the honour system, even without self
checkout, that's why we don't ask a clerk at a counter to fetch our goods
anymore.

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tantalor
> without the big expense of cameras, sensors and software

> People scan everything themselves

> Customers are trusted to use their phones

There certainly are cameras, sensors, and software expenses; it's just some of
that burden is paid by the customers.

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Sohcahtoa82
I'm not sure that's true. Traditionally, customers are paying for the wages of
the cashier.

Cameras, sensors, and software are likely 1-time purchases. There may be cloud
storage costs if your cameras are storing videos off-prem, and maybe the
software is a monthly license fee, but I'd wager those costs are cheaper than
a cashier.

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proc0
Is this a poorman's version of Amazon Go stores? lol

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rootusrootus
In a sense. But that's good, because do we really want Amazon to become as
ubiquitous in brick and mortar as they are online? Glad to see other retailers
trying to innovate to stay competitive.

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axaxs
I don't necessarily want that, but if every other company is sitting on their
hands, it's their loss. Walmart is the absolute worst. They have the size,
money, and a decent tech team, but the checkout experience still sucks. At
least the last time I visited, it was all self checkouts. Very small kiosks,
so you constantly had to stop and tie your bags and find somewhere to put them
while you scan more. All while trying to avoid the family next to you ramming
you with their cart or their kids running around you, since the kiosks are
less than a cart lengths apart. Assuming you are lucky enough to pay without
needing to wait on an assistant for the inevitable machine issues, you'll then
be stopped at the door and have your receipt checked if you have anything you
decided not to bag. It's literally the worst checkout experience I could dream
up.

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frosted-flakes
_All_ self-checkouts? At my neighbourhood Walmart, the checkout area is split
into three sections: regular checkout (cashiers behind long conveyor belts,
separate queues), express checkout (cashier with no conveyor belt, combined
queue), and self-checkout (no cashier, combined queue). In Ontario, Canada.

I was impressed with The Home Depot's new self-checkout "machine", which is
basically a touch-screen monitor sitting on a big table with a handheld
wireless barcode scanner and a regular old receipt printer sitting beside it.
Importantly, they ditched the weigh scales which are far too sensitive.

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axaxs
Yep, all checkouts. But I know what you're talking about, the Meijer in my old
town was setup that way.

And I agree about Home Depot, that system, while imperfect, is pretty great.
No more having to lift heavy awkward items over a small scanner!

