Mrs Entity inspired me
I have never used the self service till and weighed almost everything I've bought as onions and carrots. Neither have I scanned bottles of value water then bagged bottles of coke.
These tactics never resulted in me having a fillet steak dinner for pennies.

Edit: Feck me! Didn't think I'd get any response with such an unfunny effort. Seems like stealing (for that is basically what it is) from Tesco is a bit of a marmite moment. Yes it is wrong, but does the fact that it's from a company as big and "greedy" as Tesco mean you can condone it? Answers on a postcard, B3tans.
( monkeyboyalpha jumping on the bandwagon since, Sun 18 Sep 2011, 11:08, 5 replies)

So self service tills make stealing ok then?
(anonymousreality tickled your fancy on, Sun 18 Sep 2011, 12:25, closed)

I'd say it's not stealing.
Someone obviously wants you to do it or they'd not allow it to happen. They obviously think that depriving someone of a job and making their customers do the work of a checkout assistant without any benefit to them is a good way to operate a business -- let them answer to the shareholders when the "shrinkage" goes up.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Sun 18 Sep 2011, 13:25, closed)

Of course it's stealing.
Whether you think it is a morally acceptable form of stealing is a different matter, but it's definitely stealing.
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Sun 18 Sep 2011, 13:36, closed)

I'd say not stealing, rather obtaining goods through deception.
The fact they build the system to allow it to be done so easily suggests they build the shrinkage into the figures when deciding to implement it.
FWIW, Personally I just don't use the automated checkouts but I can't condemn someone for doing something they're expected to by a bunch of amoral pricks.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Sun 18 Sep 2011, 15:38, closed)

It's not designed to be done so easily.
Why on earth would they want you to steal stuff from them??

Just because it's almost impossible to tell a bottle of water from a bottle of coke by weight doesn't mean they designed it so people can commit fraud/steal stuff!
(anonymousreality tickled your fancy on, Sun 18 Sep 2011, 16:38, closed)

Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should
You raise a good point about Tesco being full of amoral pricks though. Every time I go through the checkout I'm full of disgust and loathing for the capitalist millionaire who's scanning my items through the checkout.
( AWPS, Sun 18 Sep 2011, 17:08, closed)

And all those arselickers who get money by working.

( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Sun 18 Sep 2011, 18:46, closed)

Not sure I understand you.
Why would the person behind the checkout give a fuck whether you deceived the automated checkout or not?
I'm talking about the amoral pricks in management who decided that customers are worthless scum who don't deserve a person serving them, and that employees are a pointless drain of shareholder money.
The only people who benefit from automated checkouts are shareholders, and they probably don't get as much as they should once they've payed bonuses to the people whose idea automated checkouts was.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Sun 18 Sep 2011, 18:58, closed)

I agree
...but I just shop elsewhere
(IHateSprouts is baking a huge pie shaped like an enormous pie, Sun 18 Sep 2011, 19:19, closed)

I care
because I was brought up to believe stealing is wrong. I am a checkout person.

I also work on self-scan, and would stop someone putting through a bottle of Coke as cheapy water because, well, see above. I believe stealing is wrong, and (on a related note), if I was caught letting people steal through self scan, I would get it in the neck.
( Bats, Sun 18 Sep 2011, 20:28, closed)

Well, I'm sure the shareholders will give you a medal.
After all, it's not like they're trying to replace you with machines or anything...
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Sun 18 Sep 2011, 20:56, closed)

I'm not saying I like self scan
but it's nice to be able to trust people so I don't have to watch them like a hawk in case they nick stuff.

Just makes my already mind-numbing shifts that bit easier, is all.
( Bats, Sun 18 Sep 2011, 20:57, closed)

I like self scan
because I don't like human interaction.
(Vigilante Man weeps because you're stupid., Sun 18 Sep 2011, 22:01, closed)

^ this
If people didn't want self-scan tills they wouldn't use them!

(I also don't like human interaction, to the point of crippling anxiety, sometimes).
(anonymousreality tickled your fancy on, Sun 18 Sep 2011, 23:43, closed)

I disagree
At the little tesco I sometimes use the staff are too busy chatting to serve
you so the only option is to use the self check out.
I don't steal 'owt tho.
(dyllon nice beaver., Mon 19 Sep 2011, 8:39, closed)

People use them because they put less staff on the tills.
So if you don't use self-scan it takes longer. In my (no ex-)local Tesco the staff were told to encourage the use of the self-scan also.
Which is my point -- they are replacing people with self-scan and trying to force customers to do the work of a checkout assistant. So they're both contributing to unemployment and having customers do unpaid work.
I'm not exactly Mr Sociable myself, but I'd much rather the men and women in the local Tesco store kept their jobs and be served by a person who can do things like serve alcohol and pick things up from behind the counter.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Mon 19 Sep 2011, 20:58, closed)

It might not be stealing
But it's still a crime. If you don't like the self service checkouts then either don't use them or shop somewhere else, that way their sales still go down and you're not doing anything wrong.
(anonymousreality tickled your fancy on, Sun 18 Sep 2011, 13:36, closed)

I kicked the shit out of some guy, so I could steal his iPhone.
He didn't put up much of a fight, so he must have wanted me to have it. No crime.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Sun 18 Sep 2011, 21:18, closed)

You could have waited
a few weeks to get a nice shiny iPhone 5 that he'd just got. I'm sure that would have hurt him more.
(Wagane, Mon 19 Sep 2011, 1:17, closed)

So you're admitting to a criminal offence on the internet then?

( Amorous Badger NAKED BEA ARTHUR PHOTOS 4U, Sun 18 Sep 2011, 16:22, closed)

If memory serves,
this is theft. I remember two cases, one where a guy put expensive shoes in a cheap shoebox in a shoe shop in order to have the cheaper barcode scanned, and the other where a guy put the price label from a cheap cut of meat onto an expensive cut in a supermarket, and they both got done for theft. Any resident jurists with a legal training more recent than 1997 care to confirm this?
( .Yeti., Sun 18 Sep 2011, 17:37, closed)

Taking something from a shop,
without paying for it?

If that's not theft, then the riots were nothing more than an ill-tempered shopping spree.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Sun 18 Sep 2011, 21:16, closed)

They did pay for it,
but their deception as to the true value of the goods vitiated their true and valuable consideration at the moment of payment. Much like you, really.
( .Yeti., Mon 19 Sep 2011, 8:45, closed)

Are you
propositioning me?
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Mon 19 Sep 2011, 19:38, closed)

I HOPE THEY RAPE YOU TO THE HILT IN PRISON, BITCH

(Quinton had to abandon other account as i broke it, Sun 18 Sep 2011, 18:34, closed)

Is that a food/tv pun?

(Set your faces to Stunned Bigly, Mon 19 Sep 2011, 0:19, closed)

It's stealing and I approve.
Rob on, my son.
(Set your faces to Stunned Bigly, Mon 19 Sep 2011, 0:15, closed)