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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.
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?
This was the point of the thread all along. You should have saved your keystrokes, OP, because most of the posters took the bait.
ive seen teenagers take shopping carts and start rolling them..... see if they run into peoples cars....
so no one should say a word?? its the stores problem???
I screamed at these little juveniles to knock it off....and leave
ive seen kids poke their fingers in all the burger packages,,,,, and have spoken to the kids and parents to stop it
ive seen kids ,,,with one arm out,,,start knocking cereal boxes off the shelves thinking its funny....yes I have spoken up..... told the kid to knock it off
maybe im just a prick,,,but I believe we should all feel its ok to speak up
in Walmart , ive spoken up a few times ... one kid was opening and dumping shampoo on the floor...mother in same aisle not saying a word...
We need more people like you and less idiots that feel it isn't your business. It takes a community to raise kids and you did your part. Most people are too lazy as you can see from the responses.
If the hyperbole is strong in me then the butthurt is strong in you. You confirmed exactly what I said, that the only people who defend the right to buy junk food with EBT cards are those who use them. You are the model welfare recipient that drives people insane. You say that you have the right to determine what to put in your body using OTHER peoples money. It used to be that people in need were humble and would take what they could get from others' charity. Now people like you DEMAND assistance and not only that, demand to buy whatever you want with that assistance, even if it is detrimental to your health. Then after decades of eating junk food you will demand that society pay for your triple bipass and diabetes. Amazing.
WOAH! Are you this prejudiced in REAL life? I'm a MODEL WELFARE RECIPIENT? Really? I'm 50 years old, and the entirety of the welfare I've EVER received is six months of food stamps. In my ENTIRE LIFE. The rest of the time I've been working, as has my husband! PAYING INTO THAT SYSTEM THAT YOU SEEM TO THINK IS YOURS by virtue of the fact that you paid into it too. I'm not using OTHER people's money, I'm using MY OWN MONEY - money I put into the system for 31 1/2 years - what part of that don't you understand?
I don't DEMAND assistance, I asked for it when I desperately needed it - it's there for just that reason. You seem to think "demanding" this assistance means that someone bends over backwards to hand me money for no reason other than I must be lazy and tells me "go pig out - it's on us!" I was humiliated to have to ask - but I did - and I had to prove the need for every dime. You want a humbling experience? Why don't you talk about what you know - you know NOTHING about humble. And we weren't eating like kings, either - you try to feed a family of four with a child with medical issues on the benefits we received for the entire SIX freaking months over all those years - it's EXTREMELY hard to do - so don't make some half-baked assumption that all we're buying is junk food.
Finally, people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones - how in the heck is society not paying for YOUR health issues, through rising medical costs, rising prescription drug costs, etc.? The fact that there's a problem in this country OVERALL health wise is not the fault of food stamp recipients. Next time you open a bag of Lay's, maybe you should rethink it - I certainly don't want to have to help YOU out to the detriment of my own family by watching MY taxes go up.
I also don't donate to food pantries when I'm able so I can take some moral high ground and look down on the people who may need to go there - I do it because there, but for the grace of God, go I - so it's morally the right thing to do to help those I can. Not so I can lord it over them and look down on them - it's because I may need it too someday. It's called paying it forward. For you, it sounds more like an opportunity to feel superior to those less fortunate - because it could NEVER ever happen to you, could it? And I certainly hope that you will never ever need any type of societal benefit program - because you're obviously so much better than those who do. Just be sure you will never have to, hmmmm? You are going to find yourself having a real rude awakening.
I think perhaps you should read what jtur88 had to say - I think it sums up things quite nicely:
Quote:
Originally Posted by jtru88
It doesn't make me angry to see people making bad food choices with food stamps, it makes me sad. What makes me even sadder is seeing someone forced to work crap hours at a crap job for crap wages for a crap boss 40 hours a week plus another ten commuting, and then squandering their own wages on chips and soda, and then buying it at a convenience store for $1.50 an ounce for chips and 1.50 for a can of soda. I would much rather subsidize nutrition for everyone, than sit and watch this economic indenture play itself out.
EBT is not people eating on my money, it is people eating on a meager share of the cumulative national wealth, which everyone is entitled to a minimal share of as a birthright. Just like all the other birthrights that I enjoy as an American instead of a Somali or a Bangladeshi. Which may not be fair in the big picture, but in the supermarket line, it is fairer than turning certain Americans into Somalis and enforcing their poverty just because you are superior to them using some self-serving metric of your own choosing (like "work").
I was born with a lot of advantages, just by place of birth, I've never had to feel hunger or endure hardship or beg or do grinding physical labor for a scrap of bread. Who am I to stand in a supermarket line and make judgments about who gets to share that gift with me?
Now, as for the OP. Have you ever discovered that you were undercharged for something by the cashier? What did you do to correct it? Did you look at your ticket and say "I bought four of these and you only charged me for three"? Did you say "No, those are the 89-cent organic bananas, not the 39-cent regular ones"? Or do you just go home and giggle about how you slipped on by them, or just assume that they probably overscanned something in the past, and this makes up for it.
it's very common for a cashier to have friends come in and they dont charge them for items and let them take stuff without paying, they usually pay for small items and dont scan other items or scan a lower priced item instead of the more expensive item just to look like the customer is paying.
I've heard of numerous cashiers getting fired and arrested for doing this
Where I work we are not allowed to take friends or family at our registers. Not that anyone would know a lot of the time but I make sure my family and friends know of this rule. It HAS happened, of course, and people are fired if found out, especially if they undercharge.
I wouldn't say this is universally true. I think it depends on the type of person working.
I always have varying experiences when I go to Walmart. Some checkers are nice, some rude, some attentive and some couldn't care less.
Just today I went to Walmart and had a lot of price matches for them, like I usually do. The check-out lady wasn't so attentive as to ask to see the ad to confirm the prices. But when it came to the milk she insisted it was $2.00 for the milk on sale elsewhere and not the $1.99 price that I told her it was. I had to pull out the ad to show her that it was indeed on sale at Albertsons for $1.99 as opposed to the $2.00 sale price at Smith's that she had in her head. (Many of the cashiers will memorize sale prices for popular items such as milk because so many people do price matches for those in a day).
Many other times I get a cashier who is so attentive they ask to see the ad and for me to point out the price for every item that I ask to do a price match. I usually will comply, but sometimes it gets so time-consuming and burdensome that I have to gently remind the cashier that Walmart does not require you to have the ad or show it to receive a price-match. Their policy states that the only times that they may require verification is when you give a price which is so much below their regular price or when the item is unusual or quite expensive itself. The register will automatically prompt for a manager's approval in those cases. So it's not the cashier's/checker's call or job to weed those things out.
And that brings me to another point. I find that there is often a great range in how knowledgeable the checkers (and even managers) are about their own store policies. Some will know the policies well, others I sometimes have to show them on my phone their policies from the Walmart website to get them to stop insisting upon whatever they claim as true. That happens a lot, too. I've had cashiers who seemingly pull made-up policies out of their butts. A few times I've had cashiers claim that you can't use a coupon for an item you've had price-matched, which is absolutely untrue as that is nowhere to be found in Walmart's Ad Match or Coupons policy guidelines found online.
This variation in how interested, knowledgeable and attentive the employees at Walmart are is what necessitates the overall non-stringent policies they have in place, to try to keep the line moving. Some may take advantage of that and make up sale prices or do what is described in the OP, but I don't think it's a huge number of people who do this. Certainly there are many thieves, especially at a store like Walmart, but I wouldn't say it's large percentage-wise to the overall huge volume of customers at Walmart on a given day.
As to the OP, I've never witnessed anything like that myself. But I have seen (and had) some cashiers request all items be placed on the belt or who will come to the other side of the checkout counter to verify and scan each item that was left in the cart. Of course, many times, cashiers/checkers will just take the customer's word.
But the fact that some will do the verification is proof that under-reporting of items and quantities is a known theft tactic to stores. Just plain leaving stuff in the cart is a known tactic as well. I know for a while it seemed every Walmart checker would ask if there was anything in the bottom level of the cart. Apparently, people were leaving things under there in order to not pay for them. The people at the door also would check the receipts of anyone who had stuff in that bottom level of the cart or that wasn't bagged in the basket of the cart itself. All of that has waned in the last few years, though.
Overall, though, store policies are like the IRS, they mainly operate on an honor system and also on the fact that most people don't want to gamble or risk the fact that sometimes verification will occur (an audit or a checker asking to confirm the number of items or a sale price). As I said, this is done mainly for efficiency.
At my store each register will have copies of this week's ads. Most of my customers are really good about either bringing in their own ads or having a list written with the price and store. Recently our registers started showing a 'prompt' that says we HAVE to check the sale price on most items. That is a PITA, takes up a lot of time and slows everything down. After a few days though we are pretty much aware of a lot of the prices...like milk and some produce...so we don't bother checking. I understand WHY we are getting those prompts because there are people out there who try to scam you OR they make an honest mistake by quoting last week's ads. It happens so we have to be aware.
Our store greeters still check receipts for large/not bagged items. It's mostly to keep check on the cashiers and make sure they are scanning everything.
Yes, this is something which I think needs to be done and which annoys me when it isn't.
There've been times where I bought the same item, but in different flavors/colors/varieties in quantity and I would ask the cashier specifically to make sure to scan each item individually or to make sure to separate and count each flavor/color/variety when doing multiples (eg 10 at 5 for $1.00). I once had a door person at Walmart check my receipt and they couldn't find an item in my cart on the receipt because the cashier didn't scan it as the variation it was but instead scanned for two of the other variation. It was easy enough to point out and explain, but it was sort of embarrassing standing there for the time it took to clear up the issue, looking like I was taking something without paying for it. I've also had this issue come up when trying to return an item. The uncomfortable feeling in that situation was a thousand times worse than the door situation. So was the amount of trying to explain and also convince the customer service person of what happened.
The inventory issue is also key. I wonder how much suspected theft or loss of items is actually attributable to uncareful scanning of items by checkers.
I've had to explain this to customers numerous times. They'll have, say, 24 cans of cat food and just because it's all the same price they think I can do a quantity scan for all. I can't. They are inventoried at 'different flavors'. Or yellow and green squash at the same price. They'll put both in the same bag but I have to scan them separately. They'll say "But they are both 98 cents a pound", and yes, they are but they are different items and inventoried separately.
ive seen teenagers take shopping carts and start rolling them..... see if they run into peoples cars....
so no one should say a word?? its the stores problem???
I screamed at these little juveniles to knock it off....and leave
ive seen kids poke their fingers in all the burger packages,,,,, and have spoken to the kids and parents to stop it
ive seen kids ,,,with one arm out,,,start knocking cereal boxes off the shelves thinking its funny....yes I have spoken up..... told the kid to knock it off
maybe im just a prick,,,but I believe we should all feel its ok to speak up
in Walmart , ive spoken up a few times ... one kid was opening and dumping shampoo on the floor...mother in same aisle not saying a word...
This happened at my store last week and one of the guys in the meat dept. saw it. A little kid poking his fingers through all the hamburger packages and Mom not saying anything. I thought she should have been made to buy them. lol
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