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So then why begrudge them an extra bag of potato chips?
Mainly because the thief is ripping off YOU because you have paid for his ebt card and now you are paying again in higher prices for the loss as a customer. Only people that have owned and operated their businesses know "the whole circumstances".
Mainly because the thief is ripping off YOU because you have paid for his ebt card and now you are paying again in higher prices for the loss as a customer. Only people that have owned and operated their businesses know "the whole circumstances".
I personally wouldn't consider it any different from if the person had walked into the store, grabbed the items, and walked out without paying for them. Stealing is stealing, regardless of the circumstances.
How about this, maybe the guy really needed the $5-$7 help to meet his grocery needs for his family?
Stop being so nosey.
Seriously? He NEEDED chips to support his family? Theft causes higher prices on everything, and we all end up paying for it. The cashier should have made him put ALL items on the conveyor belt.
I was in line at the grocery store and the man in front of me had about 5 different types of items in his basket. He took one of each and put it on the conveyor belt, and then left the rest in the cart. So for example, he had one bag of chips on the belt, and then several more of the exact same type in the cart.
When he got to the cashier, he told her that there was X number in the cart for each item. So she would take each item and scan it X times. As he said this, I looked down into his cart, and I noticed that he gave her a lower number than was actually in the cart. It was just one lower than the actual amount. So he ended up getting about 5 items for free.
I also happened to glance over as he scanned his card and saw that it was an EBT card (food stamps). (Just an observation, not a judgment).
He only ended up getting maybe $5-$7 dollars worth of free merchandise.
I felt somewhat awkward as I had just witnessed someone shoplift.
Have you ever seen something like this? What did you do?
Most stores I have been in (all across the country) do not allow the checker to enter x number of items - or to scan the same item over and over. They must scan one item at a time.
Most stores I have been in (all across the country) do not allow the checker to enter x number of items - or to scan the same item over and over. They must scan one item at a time.
Last week, I bought eight apples for 33c each,and I put them in a plastic bag and tied the top shut. I told the cashier I had eight, and she punched in 33 eight times.
If you want the store to do extra work, then the cost of THAT comes out of your pocket, too. This is nickel and dime stuff. If the store is getting ripped off enough that it is reflected on your prices, the store will police it themselves without your help.
There's a Law of Diminishing Returns. The store loses money (and charges you more) if they spend a thousand dollars in security costs to prevent $500 in theft. It's cheaper to let it go. There is no way to reduce shrinkage to zero, something will always fall through the cracks, no matter how much you spend trying to seal them. When the cost exceeds the benefit, you shrug and accept it as a cost of doing business..
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It is the cashier's job to guard against this sort of thing. If she was not, then perhaps they were in cahoots. I worked for Home Depot briefly, and I counted everything on the carts because at least once a day, some dishonest customer was trying to steal.
I was in line at the grocery store and the man in front of me had about 5 different types of items in his basket. He took one of each and put it on the conveyor belt, and then left the rest in the cart. So for example, he had one bag of chips on the belt, and then several more of the exact same type in the cart.
When he got to the cashier, he told her that there was X number in the cart for each item. So she would take each item and scan it X times. As he said this, I looked down into his cart, and I noticed that he gave her a lower number than was actually in the cart. It was just one lower than the actual amount. So he ended up getting about 5 items for free.
I also happened to glance over as he scanned his card and saw that it was an EBT card (food stamps). (Just an observation, not a judgment).
He only ended up getting maybe $5-$7 dollars worth of free merchandise.
I felt somewhat awkward as I had just witnessed someone shoplift.
Have you ever seen something like this? What did you do?
And what did YOU do? Nothing? Basically, you are accomplice. Like it or not. You saw a "crime" even let it be a small one - and did nothing. As the result, thief will only grow in persuasion that it is OK to do. And appetites will grow bigger.
And all you had to do was to approach a manager or cashier, after he moved away, and let them know.
So what did YOU do?
The recent comments on here are perfect examples of some observations that Ive been noting lately on forums. There is some kind of subset of people who, when presented with a topic, will take a stance against the author of said topic regardless of said topic's credibility. In other words no matter what you say, x percentage of the population will disagree with you. For instance the author of this post points out that they witnessed shoplifting, and in response 3 people insinuated that something was wrong with the observer rather than the shoplifting in question. Its truly fascinating.
Well, IMO they have valid points. While it may be that the shopper had more items in his cart than he told the cashier he had, unless you were a champion rubbernecker with your undistracted attention on what that shopper was doing ( and seems to me that kind of attention to someone else's business would make you inattentive to your own), it'd be very hard to tell exactly how many of each item that shopper had in his cart. And seems to me its even harder to tell that someone is using an EBT card, because (at least in the stores where I have shopped), all cards are scanned on the same scanner, and the customer pushes a button to identify his card as a credit, debit, or EBT card. And unless someone is looking directly over the shoulder at close range of a customer as they push that button, they can't tell which one he pushed.
So then why begrudge them an extra bag of potato chips?
its never just "one bag"
stealing is stealing..
what if a thousand, a million people stole "just one bag"
I was on the theft prevention team ...working for a supermarket chain,,,,you would not believe what people try to steal every day
one lady pushed over an end display of canned groceries,and as everyone came running to see the commotion..... her 15 yr old son with a back pack was packing up steaks in his backpack
one guy got caught on camera loadng up his toddler stroller with groceries,,,then covered everything up, including the kid with a blanket
he should have quit when he was ahead ...but he came in twice..
Wow OP, you're incredibly observant to be counting every single thing the customer in front of you had, noting how many items of each product he told the cashier he had, noting a discrepancy of one of each type of item among all the items the customer really had in the cart and how many items he told the cashier he had, observing how he paid for his groceries, then adding up how many $$$ in groceries this customer supposedly shoplifted. I'm smelling something fishy, and it's not just the groceries in the shopping carts
Yeah you'd REALLY need to be particularly observant in a grocery line, to notice what's in the shopping cart in the guy ahead of you - since the shopping cart is typically in front of the guy, and you're behind him. How else would the bagger be able to put the bags in the cart? The cart has to be at the end of the belt. With the guy next, and you after that.
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