Ease of walking off without paying by accident at self checkouts?

[styles]

The one time I did this, I had run out of basket space and I'd put a wedge of Stilton into the side pocket on my small rucksack. I left without paying for the Stilton. I realised when I got home, and I went back to Tesco first thing in the morning, with the Stilton and my receipt, to pay for it. The person at the customer services counter just laughed and told me it's gratis. Clearly the cost-benefit analysis at most supermarkets suggests it's not worthwhile even trying to fix these problems. I was a regular customer, before the days of every supermarket having a security guard, and it's clear I wasn't trying to nick hundreds of quids worth of stuff, so they just wrote it off.

I do choose not to use shops which have lots of cameras or require me to scan a receipt to exit, on principle, but yeah, free cheese is the best cheese!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 15 Sep 2026 ==

(I hate self checkouts not because I am against them in principle but because they are usually poorly implemented and it's quicker for a human to do it)

I think this is basically why they got ditched at Booths. They're slow and impersonal and the company just actually listened to their customers. I think they kept a handful in one or two of their stores but took the majority out.

Otherwise it's just:

• Unexpected item in bagging area. Please remove this item before continuing (because your tomatoes weighed 300g but the till expected 270g-290g)
• Approval needed when you pay. Please continue.
• Approval needed.
• This item can now be placed in your bag.
• Please select an item or finish and pay.
• Please select your payment method.
• Please take your receipt.
• Please take your items.
• Don't forget your National Lottery ticket.
• Please don't forget your change, especially notes.
• This item can now be placed in your bag.
• Notes are dispensed below the scanner.

I use self-service for very small shops, but otherwise I go to a staffed checkout. There's enough noise in life without being whinged at because a supermarket has incorrectly stated the weight range of your cucumber.

It's the same with trains - "Please take care at the station today as surfaces may be slippery." Well it's an uncovered station and it's raining so uh, yeah. "Please don't struggle with the stairs today as lifts are available at this station." Huh I'd never thought about using the lift before with my 32Kg hold luggage. "Please inform a member of staff about any allergies when ordering from the buffet car." Oh that's why I've been in hospital so often, I keep forgetting to mention my severe nut allergy when ordering the pecan tart.

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

(Booths for the uninitiated is a North West supermarket chain not entirely dissimilar to Waitrose).

Also known to some Yorkshire folk thanks to branches in Ilkley and Settle.

 

[najaB]

I think this is basically why they got ditched at Booths.

Both my closest Boots locations still have them. The main one on the High Street has five self-service and one manual till that they take customers over to if the self-service isn't working.

 

[Starmill]

Both my closest Boots locations still have them. The main one on the High Street has five self-service and one manual till that they take customers over to if the self-service isn't working.

There could be some confusion here between Boots and Booths, as both have been discussed above. It's an easy mistake to make! Even Google gets it wrong.

I also think it really ought to be Booth's, after Mr Edwin Henry, but we'll overlook that one!

 

[Bald Rick]

I hate self checkouts not because I am against them in principle but because they are usually poorly implemented and it's quicker for a human to do it)

Really? wow.

Perhaps its the London thing for me, or that I’m just speedy at these things, but self checkouts are so much quicker for me than going to a ‘manual’. Particularly in the queuing.

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

Really? wow.

Perhaps its the London thing for me, or that I’m just speedy at these things, but self checkouts are so much quicker for me than going to a ‘manual’. Particularly in the queuing.

I would suggest your scanning speed is the key here. Many customers struggle to locate the barcodes on products and also don't realise there is a scanning "sweetspot" on the till. And of course each item has to be verified on the security scale before the next item can be scanned. As such it can certainly be true that for many customers it can be quicker for them to use a staffed till. The question of course is how concerned retailers are with minimising queues and also whether customers have realistic expectations about how long a shopping trip should actually take. No simple answers!

 

[Bletchleyite]

I think this is basically why they got ditched at Booths. They're slow and impersonal and the company just actually listened to their customers. I think they kept a handful in one or two of their stores but took the majority out.

They were also the absolute worst implementation of them I had ever seen. The bagging area was set back so there was a lot of awkward leaning to do and the software was beyond clunky.

Given that it's a family business, I could see it having been a bit of a falling out - "no, we don't want those, they're rubbish" - "yes we do, they'll save a fortune" - "OK, well, I'll get some installed and we will see!"

 

[Bald Rick]

And of course each item has to be verified on the security scale before the next item can be scanned.

Not for most of the self scan options I use! (No scales required, sometimes none provided)

 

[saismee]

Really? wow.

Perhaps its the London thing for me, or that I’m just speedy at these things, but self checkouts are so much quicker for me than going to a ‘manual’. Particularly in the queuing.

Self checkouts are very quick for me too. I know where the buttons will appear at my local Co-op so I can tap through from the scanning screen to the payment screen as fast as it will physically let me.

To be fair, my job does involve using a touchscreen with menus that always appear in the same layouts, so I am well-experienced with patterns like this.

Painful at the Ipswich Station Co-op when purchasing energy drinks or alcohol, as you can see the whole store from the checkouts and there won't be a member of staff in sight. I definitely prefer the Norwich Station Co-op for this, but it's very cramped.

Back to barriers, people walk out of the Co-ops all the time without paying because their payment was unsuccessful, they're rushing for their train, and they just didn't notice. Neither of the shops have barriers with receipt scanners, but I am certain they'd be good at reducing the accidental shoplifters. Would be painful for me though as I often wander through to look for a specific flavour of drink (unsuccessfully).

 

[JamesT]

Not for most of the self scan options I use! (No scales required, sometimes none provided)

Not sure if we’re talking about different things, but in my experience the place you put your items after scanning is effectively a scale. Hence it picks up when the item doesn’t match the weight listed.

 

[Bald Rick]

I would suggest your scanning speed is the key here.

Part of it is scanning speed, which itself is mostly that I have more than 6-8 items when using the scan facility on the till; for bigger shops I scan on my phone.

But part of it is now that the staffed tills at the ‘metro’ sized stores I use seem to be the preserve of ‘awkward squad’ customers, eg people wanting vapes (usually a slightly different shade of mauve to the one they have), or paying cash, or their purse is at the bottom of their bag (or maybe the other bag…no the first bag), or just wanting a chat, or wanting a bottle of something but can’t decide, or arguing about a price sticker, or realising they fogot the thing they came for that is at the back of the store so please hold on, etc etc.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 15 Sep 2026 ==

Not sure if we’re talking about different things, but in my experience the place you put your items after scanning is effectively a scale. Hence it picks up when the item doesn’t match the weight listed.

In some stores, there’s no scales, it’s just a shelf.

 

[Egg Centric]

Really? wow.

Perhaps its the London thing for me, or that I’m just speedy at these things, but self checkouts are so much quicker for me than going to a ‘manual’. Particularly in the queuing.

It may well be a "correlated with London" thing yes.

Let's be honest - the South East supermarket population is different to the North East. There was a thread on Mumsnet (don't judge me) today where people were astonished that MPs were on 98k a year or whatever it is. In the South East they were astonished it was so low. Up here otoh they were astonished it was so much and were suggesting that 60k or something better. While "rich" is untenable, you can certainly have an extremely comfortable life on 98k in County Durham, they haven't the slightest clue what it'd be like to have a family income of that in say St Albans. And that makes a difference as to supermarkets and how they behave. While absolutely it depends on where you are the better supermarkets like M&S and Waitrose tend to have self checkouts where you just scan the thing and add it to your bag (although I think that this is also a thing with Lidl/Aldi). The Tesco etc things us scumbag Northerners have to use are INCREDIBLY frustrating becasue we have to weigh every single thing before it's added to the bag (the major problem) but there are also other things we need to conform to (the minor problems) which from my experience darn sarf generally isn't so much of a thing

a) the bag itself may need weighing and while that's fine at almost every supermarket Morrisons which is the only place I'm getting my Chicken + Ham pie from locally seems to need them all weighing at the start which means an approval most likely due to the number of bags
b) there isn't the tolerance for variable weight stuff that there really ought to be
c) you buy something like ibuprofen it weighs nothing and it may not even be picked up
d) booze is its own special category of hell
e) booze tags are annoying but it's possible that meat and other innocuous things can have tags
f) the only way to do multiple items is scan them all one after the other and if the weight thing is involved ditch the outer packaging

Aside from booze verification, a great deal of this is very much avoidable in a lot of the South East largely due to different machines being used. Most of the misery comes from the weight stuff, not scanning. Again I'm not against self service in principle it's just the implementation.

 

[Hadders]

I've not used a staffed checkout in a supermarket for at least 15 years. It is so much faster to use self checkout (for a small number of purchases) or smart shop for larger purchases.

I have some sympathy over jobs however you cannot stop progress. For example:

- Who gets the operator to connect telephone calls?
- Do you withdraw cash over the counter at the bank or from an ATM?
- Do you pay bills in person over the bank counter or by direct debit?
- Do you send physical post or use email?

All of the above have resulted in job losses over the years but the economy evolves and jobs get created in other areas.

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

Part of it is scanning speed, which itself is mostly that I have more than 6-8 items when using the scan facility on the till; for bigger shops I scan on my phone.

But part of it is now that the staffed tills at the ‘metro’ sized stores I use seem to be the preserve of ‘awkward squad’ customers, eg people wanting vapes (usually a slightly different shade of mauve to the one they have), or paying cash, or their purse is at the bottom of their bag (or maybe the other bag…no the first bag), or just wanting a chat, or wanting a bottle of something but can’t decide, or arguing about a price sticker, or realising they fogot the thing they came for that is at the back of the store so please hold on, etc etc.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 15 Sep 2026 ==



In some stores, there’s no scales, it’s just a shelf.

You do realise that nearly all the issues you raise can happen in the self-scanniung area? As I said, no simple answers.

 

[Bald Rick]

Aside from booze verification, a great deal of this is very much avoidable in a lot of the South East largely due to different machines being used. Most of the misery comes from the weight stuff, not scanning. Again I'm not against self service in principle it's just the implementation.

To be fair both the Tescos I use have weighing scales in the tills. Rarely have a problem with them, even with things like Lettuces which can vary quite widely in weight. Booze is the only catch for me, and I grab the assistant (if they are free, they usually are) as soon as I get there.

The M&S branches I use all have no-scales tills. Five of the branches I use regularly have no staffed checkouts at all (these are all at or near stations). Sainsburys I always self scan even for full trolley shops; if I have no booze my time from walking into the checkout area to walking out (having shown receipt to the gate-o-bot) is rarely more than 20 seconds.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 15 Sep 2026 ==

I've not used a staffed checkout in a supermarket for at least 15 years. It is so much faster to use self checkout (for a small number of purchases) or smart shop for larger purchases.

I have some sympathy over jobs however you cannot stop progress. For example:

- Who gets the operator to connect telephone calls?
- Do you withdraw cash over the counter at the bank or from an ATM?
- Do you pay bills in person over the bank counter or by direct debit?
- Do you send physical post or use email?

All of the above have resulted in job losses over the years but the economy evolves and jobs get created in other areas.

Personally, I still get my horse reshoed, paying the Blacksmith in cash that I wrote a cheque to cash for at the bank counter, having made the appointment through an exchange of letters.

(Some of this may not be true)

You do realise that nearly all the issues you raise can happen in the self-scanniung area? As I said, no simple answers.

Yes, of course. But usually in my experience, they appear to be happening much more regularly at the staffed tills. Certainly I’ve never seen anyone try to have a conversation with a self service till. (Although I wouldn‘t put it past my dear old father).

 

[Hadders]

Weighing scales are an important part of loss control at self checkouts but what is key is making sure that the buying teams correctly update the expected weight of each item in the range, and a suitable tolerance is added where appropriate wher ethe weight can vary (eg fresh lettuce as these are sold by item). Where you get 'unexpected item in the bagging area' a phrase I've not actually heard in a supermarket for years, it's often because the item weights haven't been updated correctly.

I popped into my local Sainsbury's on my way home tonight and bought around 10 items. Grabbed a handset on the way in, scanned the items as I picked them off the shelf and put them in my carrier bag, went to the checkout, scanned the QR code with the handset, paid and left. I was at the checkout for less than 20 seconds.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 15 Sep 2026 ==

a) the bag itself may need weighing and while that's fine at almost every supermarket Morrisons which is the only place I'm getting my Chicken + Ham pie from locally seems to need them all weighing at the start which means an approval most likely due to the number of bags

In many supermarkets you can reset the scale after placing your bag on the weigh scale. I don't know if that's the case at Morrisons.

b) there isn't the tolerance for variable weight stuff that there really ought to be

That sounds like an issue with the way Morrisons have set up their self checkouts. Oddly, in my opinion, Morrisons have never introduced handsets despite Safeway (who Morrisons acquired in 2004) pioneering the technology in the late 1990s.

c) you buy something like ibuprofen it weighs nothing and it may not even be picked up
d) booze is its own special category of hell

Ibuprofen and beers, wines and spirits are age restricted products so will require authorisation at self checkouts. A well designed self checkout system will allow you to carry on scanning the rest of your shopping while you wait for the member of staff to attend. Some systems now allow remote authorisation from a member of staff via a tablet.

e) booze tags are annoying but it's possible that meat and other innocuous things can have tags

If it's a physical tag that needs removing then it needs removing by a member fo staff whatever type of checkout is used. A 'soft tag' should get de-activated as it is scanned at a self checkout.

f) the only way to do multiple items is scan them all one after the other and if the weight thing is involved ditch the outer packaging

That is often the case at sataffed as well as self checkouts which is to make sure the store inventory is kept straight. Unfortunately use of the 'quantity repeat' key on both staffed checkouts and self checkouts is often misused resulting in inventory corruption which leads to poor on shelf availability. Many supermarkets have removed that function from all types of checkout.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Weighing scales are an important part of loss control at self checkouts but what is key is making sure that the buying teams correctly update the expected weight of each item in the range, and a suitable tolerance is added where appropriate wher ethe weight can vary (eg fresh lettuce as these are sold by item). Where you get 'unexpected item in the bagging area' a phrase I've not actually heard in a supermarket for years, it's often because the item weights haven't been updated correctly.

Do people actually do that manually? I thought the scales would collect the data as people purchased the item and calculate the mean and deviation from the huge amount of data when people buy each item rather than wasting money paying people to do it.

 

[Hadders]

Do people actually do that manually? I thought the scales would collect the data as people purchased the item and calculate the mean and deviation from the huge amount of data when people buy each item rather than wasting money paying people to do it.

It's not my area of expertise but I believe it's done manually. When I say manually, it's probably updated automatically via a data feed by the supplier so if a can of baked beans weighs 420g the self scan is looking for an increase in weight of between 410 and 430g when it is scanned. I don't knwo the exact values involved but it'll be someting like that.

 

[gingerheid]

I have never seen a situation where these gates were in place where the machine was not set to issue a receipt without asking. Other than Morrisons, which have gates but you don't scan your receipt, it looks like either facial recognition is used for these or the staff are opening them with a remote control.

Tesco asked me for a receipt as a relatively low value item had a hidden security tag inside it. It was easier to let them work out which self checkout I'd used my card at and reprint the receipt than force the issue, but I wonder what would have happened if I had.

If you use a Tesco clubcard credit card the beep might also mean that it's accepted your clubcard, not your payment. I've had occassions where it's kept taking the card as a club card rather than taking the payment, but always at manned checkouts.

 

[Egg Centric]

stuff

While illuminating this is a lovely example (if I may make assumptions about you ) of someone who's been involved with the technology in some sense making assumptions about how it feels for some users. I assure you I have no ideological or whatever issue with them nor am I technologically incompetent. I'm probably more likely to be buying age restricted items and buying things in bulk than the average shopper but other than that (oh also I'm probably more likely to be buying a voucher at the end of checkout to pay for the thing with the attendant risks of timeouts but I'm less irritated by this one) I'm not doing anything exciting, I just feel hate hate hate towards the damn things.

While tolerance on weight seems to be a general supermarket thing, there very much is a specific issue with how Morrisons alone have set up these machines which all appear to be from the same vendor though in that you have to put all the "I brought my own bags" in at the beginning which is moronic for obvious reasons when you also have a bag weight limit!

Genuinely happy to demo a typical and/or contrived-to-be-annoying shop if you like in return for supermarket vouchers...

 

[Cdd89]

Where you get 'unexpected item in the bagging area' a phrase I've not actually heard in a supermarket for years, it's often because the item weights haven't been updated correctly.

I always assumed that, when an alert like that was cleared, it would (knowing the last item scanned) feed back into the system to update the weight tolerances.

Am I correct?

 

[Egg Centric]

I always assumed that, when an alert like that was cleared, it would (knowing the last item scanned) feed back into the system to update the weight tolerances.

Am I correct?

Given how easily hackable some of the supermakret barcodes are (e.g. some of them you have the weigh followed by price as last digits before the checksum and this is just stuff I can see with my naked eye) and thus the invitation to faff around with things as well as the continually aggravating nature of the checkouts it seems unlikely

 

[styles]

They were also the absolute worst implementation of them I had ever seen. The bagging area was set back so there was a lot of awkward leaning to do and the software was beyond clunky.

Given that it's a family business, I could see it having been a bit of a falling out - "no, we don't want those, they're rubbish" - "yes we do, they'll save a fortune" - "OK, well, I'll get some installed and we will see!"

I'm not often up NW England way these days but I remember them being about the same level of annoyance as other implementations to be honest. The last time I think I opted for Co-op instead and had to deal with my student card not being recognised for a discount, so actually that time the human option wasn't much better!

 

[Falcon1200]

And of course each item has to be verified on the security scale before the next item can be scanned.

Weighing scales are an important part of loss control at self checkouts but what is key is making sure that the buying teams correctly update the expected weight of each item in the range

In one of the examples I described above the scales did not register that I had placed the scanned item on them, even though I had, and nothing I did made any difference! Which would not have been an issue if there had been staff nearby to assist, but there were not, and IIRC the staffed checkouts were not staffed either. So the shop lost my business and had the hassle of placing the items I had intended to buy back on the shelves.

 

[styles]

In one of the examples I described above the scales did not register that I had placed the scanned item on them, even though I had, and nothing I did made any difference! Which would not have been an issue if there had been staff nearby to assist, but there were not, and IIRC the staffed checkouts were not staffed either. So the shop lost my business and had the hassle of placing the items I had intended to buy back on the shelves.

On most (all?) of the software I've seen, at the bottom of the screen it will show something like, "E: 100.0, A: 70.0", or some sort of range of numbers. These are the weight differences and I basically sort it myself. If the scales are expecting something heavier I chuck my keys or wallet on; if they are expecting something lighter I just take something off the scales and put it back in my basket/trolley. I'm sure one day a staff member will pull me up on it but it'll be fairly quick to prove that I scanned and paid for everything. In the meantime it's saved a fair amount of staff (and my own) time!

 

[Mcr Warrior]

...you buy something like ibuprofen it weighs nothing and it may not even be picked up

Really? A packet of this particular item weighs maybe 19g - 20g. Suggests that the scales in the loading area aren't that sensitive.

 

[najaB]

There could be some confusion here between Boots and Booths, as both have been discussed above. It's an easy mistake to make! Even Google gets it wrong.

There was, indeed. FWIW, there aren't any Booths around here.

 

[Tetchytyke]

The speed of checking out is a brilliant example of en****tification.

Nothing- and I mean nothing- was as fast as the checkout women (and they were all women) at Asda in Shipley in the days before barcode scanning. Every price keyed into the till by hand and fast. It was the same at Aldi in the early days.

Queuing too. I almost respect the brass neck supermarkets who cut the number of staffed tills increasing queue times before then arguing that self-service is better for the consumer because queues are shorter. No, the queue is the same as it always was, there are the same number of people going through the checkouts, it's just that they now only have two harried staff members looking after 25 tills. You can be waiting five minutes for the staff to get round to your till to approve restricted items, longer if it's in a security case.

Weird how prices didn't go down when self-service tills were introduced. Going from 25 staff for 25 tills to 2 staff for 25 tills but nothing. But apparently we're now expected to believe that prices are going up because people using self-service tills can't be trusted to use them properly, and that prices would come down if only shoplifting could be prevented. Aye, right.

 

[Bletchleyite]

The speed of checking out is a brilliant example of en****tification.

Nothing- and I mean nothing- was as fast as the checkout women (and they were all women) at Asda in Shipley in the days before barcode scanning. Every price keyed into the till by hand and fast. It was the same at Aldi in the early days.

Aldi still is fast. They even design the barcode into the label graphics so it's all the way round so it scans on the first pass every time.

What changed there was a move from doing it as quickly as possible and getting people to pack away from the till, because giving people time was seen as better service. But you needed more tills for that and the queues would move more slowly.

Aldi stuck with it and so as long as people play along it's still quick.

 

[BuhSnarf]

Do people actually do that manually? I thought the scales would collect the data as people purchased the item and calculate the mean and deviation from the huge amount of data when people buy each item rather than wasting money paying people to do it.

It's part of the item information that is stored on the system, they have to know the weight/dimensions of the product for everything anyway from how to calculate cost of transport etc to providing the price per x kg on the SELs.

I always assumed that, when an alert like that was cleared, it would (knowing the last item scanned) feed back into the system to update the weight tolerances.

Am I correct?

No, it doesn't. Or at least not in any of the systems I've used.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 16 Sep 2026 ==

Aldi still is fast. They even design the barcode into the label graphics so it's all the way round so it scans on the first pass every time.

I agree, I will always use a manned till in Aldi and play shopping Tetris as this (and Lidl) are the one place where it's quicker than self scan. And I always love the fact that they can recognise after a couple of items that I can pack quickly and I get the knowing look and they start speeding up the scan.

Back in the olden days you were disciplined in Aldi for not hitting a certain scanning speed and scanning accuracy.