Walmart & Kroger fall foul of ‘the pass around’ self-checkout trick - it already forced Wegmans to make a drastic move | The US Sun

2022-10-09 03:57:24 By : Ms. Phoebe Pang

A NEW self-checkout trick has forced some retailers, including Walmart and Kroger, to make drastic moves.

Known as the "pass around," the dishonest maneuver has resulted in Wegmans halting its self-scanning app.

The pass-around trick is when customers intentionally decide not to scan an item before leaving a store.

It's one of a handful of common tricks that customers are using at the self-checkout line.

The rise in these tricks has resulted in Wegmans discontinuing its SCAN app.

The app allowed customers to scan and bag purchases throughout Wegmans, but it will no longer be available after incidents of people stealing or not scanning correctly, according to WYRK.

Wegmans sent an email to customers, saying: "Hello there, as a valued customer and user of our SCAN App, we're writing to let you know as of Sunday, September 18, the SCAN App will no longer be available at Wegmans.

"Early in the pandemic, we quickly rolled out our SCAN App to provide a contactless in-store shopping option.

"SCAN users have told us they love the app and the convenience it offers. We love it too and have tried many adjustments to keep it."

Most recently, stores like Walmart and Kroger are cracking down on the "banana trick" trend spreading rapidly on social media.

The "trick" involves a patron swapping the bar code of an expensive product with that of a cheaper one.

For example, a shopper might ring up an item, such as a T-bone steak, that costs $13.99 a pound but will instead use a code for a cheaper item - like a banana for $0.49 a pound.

Customers have resorted to the strategy in a desperate bid to save money on their groceries, but shoppers caught risk a jail sentence.

Chasity Shirley, 34, faced up to 10 years behind bars after she swapped the barcodes of a toothbrush holder and a child’s rug and slipover at a store in Kentucky, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.

She was convicted of “unlawful access to a computer”.

Criminologists at the University of Leicester said that people who wouldn't typically steal would do so at self-checkout simply because it's "easy."

It's not that these shoppers have a plan to steal, more so that they decide to take something at the end of their shopping trip.

“People who traditionally don’t intend to steal [might realize that] when I buy 20, I can get five for free," one retail employee told researchers.

Barbara Staib, director of communications for the National Association for Shoplifting Prevention, previously told CBC Canada that lifeless self-checkout machines “empower people to shoplift”.

In a survey by When Voucher Codes Pro, nearly 20 percent of the 2,634 surveyed admitted to stealing at self-checkout and more than half of those people said that they did it because detection by store security was unlikely.

Adrian Beck, a criminology professor at the University of Leicester, told the outlet that shoppers may turn into “part-time thieves” when they use the self-checkout at stores.

“Normal shoppers can become very emboldened by the cloak of excuse-making that surrounds self-checkout," Beck said.

However, occasionally shoppers genuinely don't mean to steal when using the self-checkout scanner.

Matt Redwood, director of advanced self-service solutions at Diebold Nixdorf, whose self-checkout machines are used by retailers like Ikea and Lidl, stressed the importance of recognizing an accidental steal.

“Making sure you don’t alienate that customer is really important because they might have just made a mistake," Redwood told Forbes.

"What we don’t want to do is treat them like a thief and ultimately give them a bad experience so that they don’t come back to that store."

Accidentally stealing from self-checkout is more common than you think.

In an exclusive interview with The U.S. Sun, a counselor from Arizona said that she saw many of her clients get charged for shoplifting after missing an item when checking out.

"There was one particular Walmart here in Tucson that I was getting a lot of clients [from] ... it's averaging two to three a week," Sandra Barger said.

These shoppers come from all walks of life. They are doctors, teachers, and business owners. Barger hears the same story.

"They forgot to scan something very small," she said.

Walmart previously told The U.S. Sun that addressing store theft is a "challenge for every retailer".

"Addressing store theft is a challenge for every retailer, including Walmart. To help, we’re continually investing in people, programs and technology for stores combating this problem," the superstore said.

"Should customers have questions or difficulty using our self-checkout registers, we encourage them to ask for assistance from our associates managing that area."

Read similar stories in The U.S. Sun, including how shoppers can avoid being wrongly accused of stealing at self-checkout scanners.

Also, read how an innocent Walmart patron was charged with shoplifting and banned from the store for life after forgetting to scan a $1.98 item while using a self-checkout machine.

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