Wednesday 6 June 2018

Crimewave!


Is it me, or does that sentence make little sense?
Carrots are one of the cheapest vegetables by weight, which has led to suspicions that supermarket customers are abusing electronic checkouts in a shoplifting scam.
Emmeline Taylor, a senior lecturer in criminology at City, University of London, said people switch labels or deliberately input the wrong item to pay less for produce.
Heh! Well, serves the supermarkets right. They put these things in to save money.
"This behaviour is perceived as cheating the system or a way of 'gamifying' an otherwise mundane routine," she added.
It's just shoplifting, aided by technology.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I must admit, I've never even thought to do this.

Then again, I've never thought to buy avocados in the first place: I have no need for them.

English Pensioner said...

Which is presumably why more and more fruit and vegetables is being sold, ready-packed, in plastic bags.

Anonymous said...

Self service tills are an abomination for which no punishment is too severe. Serve(?) them right!

Anonymous said...

This is the big tamale and there will be no holding back the Essex gumshoe, WC Jaded. She has been waiting to get her dentures into an eminent stakeout for that dream job in CID.

"Unless you feel lucky, drop the asparagus and kiss the dirt, punk!"

Anonymous said...

MTG do you honestly think you are funny? I'm embarrassed on your behalf. Please post a hilarious reply in Latin.
Jaded.

Anonymous said...

Two shoppers were discovered in our local supermarket changing labels on their self scan shopping. They were both advised that they could choose to be prosecuted for theft or agree to be banned from that, and other branches, of that supermarket. They chose the latter and were then advised that if they entered one of their stores, it would be as a trespassers and so a similar offence would be treated as burglary. I would imagine they had embarrassing conversations with their families why they weren't shopping there anymore. Serves the thieving sh*ts right.
Penseivat

Oi you said...

Well, who'd have thought that people would do such a thing?! People's ingenuity never ceases to amaze me. I used to work in a charity shop and we had several shoplifters, their favourite MO was something similar. They'd swop price tickets so they could pay less, especially for items they considered overly priced. We even had one who admitted to it, and it was our fault, of course, for pricing them too high! My favourite was an elderly lady who would come in wearing a pair of shoes she was sick of, for whatever reason and she'd swap them for another from the shoe shelf, leaving her old pair behind. Never found out who she was. But she'd do it at least twice a year. I kid you not...

:O)

Lord T said...

This isn't new and has been around for some time. It is one of the risks the shops take to save money. Increased fraud. It is why they have cameras so they can watch what is going on.

It isn't just veg. Take a latest Blueray DVD and then a cheap DVD. Scan the cheap one put the Blu ray on the scales and then process the cheap DVD normally. Two DVDs for twice the price of the cheapest. Although unlike the avocado scam this can be spotted by an observant security man. Although I doubt there are many of them. :)

Anonymous said...

Plautus, Jaded? Reality is what you see every morning in the mirror as your dreams of a posh school evaporate.

JuliaM said...

"Then again, I've never thought to buy avocados in the first place: I have no need for them."

I only buy them to make guacamole. Cannot understand the absurd passion for them, suddenly.

"Which is presumably why more and more fruit and vegetables is being sold, ready-packed, in plastic bags."

A trend I hate, I much prefer pick your own.

JuliaM said...

"I would imagine they had embarrassing conversations with their families why they weren't shopping there anymore."

Or sent their families out to do it instead!

"People's ingenuity never ceases to amaze me. "

If only there was some sort of paid work they could turn it to...?

"It isn't just veg. Take a latest Blueray DVD and then a cheap DVD. Scan the cheap one put the Blu ray on the scales and then process the cheap DVD normally. Two DVDs for twice the price of the cheapest. "

Aren't most Blurays just empty boxes? And you have to exchange them at the till?