Would you steal from a supermarket?

Great, now the Police have become "free security" for the mega retailers.... sigh.... WTF is this world coming to? No wonder the meth heads rule the streets. Police are too busy protecting profits....

A bit tongue in cheek but just think about where this is heading with diversion of strained policing effort away from hard criminal activity due to big business implementing cost reduction measures through automation & then using police to mop up the ensuing mess.

BTW, anyone concerned about automation taking jobs will be in for some real shock value in the next few years. Remember when someone was paid to pump "gas" a.k.a. petrol? This is really no different & for a developed nation, continued & rapid transition to automation has been the norm for quite come time..... manufacturing, security, retail, online professional services, tourist info etc. etc.

 

True, but humans seem to be very good at inventing new work to replace work that was automated. When I studied IT at uni years ago, computers, automation and paperless offices were going to mean we would have a lot of free time on our hands. This would lead to a "leisure crisis" where people would have to work hard to figure out how to spend their leisure time. I recall having to write an assignment on the impending leisure crisis. I recall not being impressed! :/

The general idea was that the general prosperity would in some way be rebated to the general population, and that there would be no great economic consequence to the unemployment once it arose in earnest. Thus the Automation Crisis morphed into the Leisure Crisis. Symposia were held, and academic essays written: How were we to deal with our lives now that even those of modest means would have ample free time, all the work being done by machines?
...
What was the outcome?

Well, in 1993, Juliet Schor wrote a book called The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure. From a blurb:

Contrary to all expectations, Americans are working harder than ever. Juliet Schor presents the astonishing news that over the past twenty years our working hours have increased by the equivalent of one month per year a dramatic spurt that has hit everybody: men and women, professionals as well as low-paid workers.​

The Leisure Crisis, Feminism, and Overwork

People have been writing about the automation crisis since at least 1949. But it seems that hours of work just seem to increase in conjunction with the increased automation.

Only In It For The Gold: The Missing Automation Crisis

 

Saw this young man walk up next to me at the meat section the other day..He lifts up a half rump steak has a quick look then it's straight down the front of his pant's..
So i'm thinking there is no way he's going to get away with this as it was sticking out like a VW bonnet ,he buys 2 apples straight out the door into the Woolworths bottle shop..
That's only one shop and one person..

 

I assume you dobbed him in?

 

i too put it down to modernisation and a fact of life,
sure there might be 1000 less jobs around the country for example, but these people will get jobs somewhere else or similar positions.
like the petrol station attendant becoming obsolete

eventually many of our jobs will get replaced by with robots, its up to the governement and us to sort it out

however since the supermarkets save zillions a year, I wont cry if they cry foul that theyve lost a bit of revenue

 

Hate to think where he put the apples lol

 

Why he would be on CCTV from the time he parked in the car park..

 

As if anybody is looking at the footage

 

They're the people who give supermarket shoppers a bad name. They blithely eat grapes in the produce section and dried apricots from the bulk food bins. Any unwrapped and mouth-sized morsels are fair game to these poachers. These are not people who look destitute or in need of a good feed either; rather they have a sense of entitlement and a canny eye for a freebie.

They'll use the excuse that they're innocently tasting the goods as a precursor to purchase but this is a feeble attempt at validation for often it's clear they have no intention of actually buying any of the purloined items. Someone who left a comment on Poll: Eating Grapes at the Market: Sampling or Stealing?

Supermarket snacking (stealing)

 

$1.1 billion? Really? I try to pay at cashier. Hate the self service.

 

1.1b seems high but there is shops everywhere and they have their fingers in every pie so could be accurate

 

Nah, I bet you'll find
A) No one ever watches the CCTV - its only used to record if theres a report
B) There are no cameras in the carpark (that could accurately follow the thief)

Thats why so many people get away with it.

 

I got pulled into the back in Westfields Bondi because I somehow forgot to pay for one of those reusable $1 green bags as I had 6 full of shopping.

The Store "Detective" was so proud of himself asking if I had seen him creeping on me for the whole time I was in there.

So started asking what he does to people who openly and brazenly stuff grapes etc in their mouths seeing as that's blatant stealing. Said he does nothing because there's no point, they'll just keep doing it

Couldn't answer the question when I asked what was different between what I accidentally did and what they purposefully do.

I've also questioned people who I see stealing as I know they're not likely to get caught otherwise. Follow them right upto the checkout and just when their stuff is about to be scanned, pipe up with "oh... don't forget about that chocolate bar that fell up your sleeve". Reaction is priceless

 

I scan things through as quickly as I can and get out of there. I am way to busy to try to save $2 on playing with the system to get things through cheaper.

By focusing on what I need to do, I make more money than I can possibly save by stealing petty things from a supermarket.

 

My mum often goes through my shopping bags and compares it with the receipt that is sometimes shoved in there.
Then she gets annoyed because these apples are on special and they scanned at a higher price....

I will never bother to go back because I paid $5 or $10 more on an entire grocery bill, but she would... Lol

 

I don't steal. Even though they are cool with you sampling like a grape or something I don't even do that, I feel bad if I do . I'm the annoying husband that if we decide we don't need something we put in our trolley, I will walk back to where we got it from and place it back on the shelf, I won't put it in a random place for someone else to clear up.

 

Ain't eating any grapes in the shops, which might have been touch by who knows what.... Buy and wash first.

 

It's unfortunately a cost of doing business. You can never prevent stuff like this unless you can find new technologies to combat theft.
Not that it's an excuse to steal - but the massive chains are progressively saving a heap on labour costs due to these machines.