
Why tech makes us dishonest – ways to reduce cheating at self-service checkouts - sjreese
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2016/08/07/comment-why-technology-makes-us-dishonest-ways-reduce-cheating-self-service
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emp_zealoth
Breaking news! Customers finally realised the long-promised gains of
automation /s Is anyone surprised though? You get less and less of service
(having to fish shit out of massive pallets, self-weighting produce, fighting
with the retarded auto-checkout) just to pay more and more. Great deal! Yes,
you pay more (or the same for less - it is riddiculous how much cheap filler
is now in every single thing that can be cut with it)

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angry_octet
I find the cardboard boxes that are massively larger than required for the
contents to be very annoying, like I've been bait-and-switched.

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castratikron
If the rate of theft is so high, I wonder if switching from barcodes to the
more expensive RFID tags would actually end up saving them money.

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angry_octet
In Australia the high value cuts of meat recently started to have RFID tags
embedded in the packaging, so the checkout scanners do have RFID readers in
them already. So maybe people have been putting sausage barcodes on the beef
fillet.

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pasbesoin
A major supermarket chain in my area is in the process of phasing out their
self-checkout lanes.

A family member is friends with many of the staff at their store. The inside
word, not promoted publicly, is "shrinkage".

They are losing enough that the cost of remodeling out the self-checkout
lanes, and the cost of additional staff, is still seen as a net savings.

For my part, I'm glad for the change. Their staff are competent and helpful,
and it's a union shop: Wages at least for long-term employees seem to be
living wages, people actually get vacations, etc.

They still employ young adults, providing initial jobs and e.g. jobs for
people in the local community college.

And staff, while hardly idle, have enough time and the freedom to e.g. provide
enough boxes for my friend's recent move. (Already collected in a shopping
cart as they had worked, so it really didn't cost them much if any
productivity to do so.)

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Fej
May I ask what chain?

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pasbesoin
I keep my presence at least somewhat vague and anonymous. Major metropolitan
area chain. Big, but not "regional" or national -- although now owned by one
or another of the nationals; it's changed hands a few times in the last some
years.

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BigDaddyD
The tech didn't make us dishonest. It only made it easier.

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limeyx
Honestly if I'm going to risk going to prison/getting prosecuted it's going to
be for much more than claiming a $5 lemon wasn't organic and switching the
barcode over ...

