All the stories in this thread are ridiculous, not untrue, but very weird.
Product loss is a problem, and can threaten a store’s ability to operate, especially in disadvantaged communities where there aren’t many options for shopping. That said, what the fuck is everyone thinking? Why do people care about like one guy not scanning or accidentally taking one item, you’re wasting more resources dealing with it then if you just ignored it.
The actual solution? Exit gates that open when you scan your receipt, maybe combined with some system that weighs the whole order to make sure it makes sense. Completely automated, no shouting, easy to implement because the technology already exists on transit systems and many other things.
I don’t get why this is a problem, though I’ve never seen anything like this at any nearby grocery store.
What you’re talking about would likely cost around 100K per location. Multiplied by 5000 locations, that’ll run them a cool half a billion dollars. Minimum.
The real issue is Walmart (and others like them) eliminated local businesses, which replaced decent paying jobs with minimum wage jobs. Then lobbied the government to keep minimum wages down. This had the effect of depressing local economies, creating scenarios where people have to shoplift basic necessities.
So instead of having massive corporations spending insane amounts of money (or calling the police) which serves to make grocery shopping a dystopian nightmare for everyone, maybe we should consider the root cause of the problem? It seems insane the amount of resources being devoted towards maintaining economic problems.
