Over the past year, online discussions about self-checkouts and locked-up items have grown in popularity. Many of these conversations focus on the problems, including making the shopping experience more cumbersome and the issues with self-checkout machines. However, some counter that stores enact these policies to prevent shoplifting.
In a video with over 161,000 views as of Friday, TikTok user Sara Grace Young (@sara.grace.young) explains what she believes to be the absurdity of this problem.
“For years, grocery stores always had to employ cashiers to scan things and to make sure all the items were scanned,” she starts. These retailers, she says, then switched to having a “vast majority self-checkout” as a cost-saving measure.
“Then, they’re all like, ‘Everyone’s stealing stuff!’” she continues. “Like, yeah! Yeah! That’s why we have cashiers! That’s why you have to pay a human to do it, because your machines aren’t as smart as people, sorry…It’s right there!”
@sara.grace.young that and none of us can afford anything anymore
♬ original sound – Sara Grace Young
In the caption, she adds, “That and none of us can afford anything anymore.”
While many chains have complained about organized shoplifting groups in recent years, there is little concrete data to back up these claims that do not come from the retailers themselves. Additionally, according to The Marshall Project, “External theft only represented a portion of overall losses…The largest share, roughly two-thirds of missing merchandise, is a result of employee theft, process failures and unknown sources.”
On TikTok, users shared their thoughts on the points Young made in her video.
“With the money they’re saving on cashiers they’re not making the groceries any cheaper, or paying other staff any better, a user noted.
“But now their solution is just to lock everything behind glass cabinets & still not have any employees lol,” stated another.
“Yeah and then the machines constantly mess up so they have attendants..? Like babe just give me a cashier,” added a third.
Some offered their own experiences using self-checkout machines, ranging from stories of general unpleasantness to admittances of retail theft.
“The way I’ve accidentally taken stuff without paying simply because I didn’t realize the barcode didn’t scan/I accidentally bagged two things at once and nothing alerted me,” detailed a commenter.
“The guy babysitting the self checkouts yelled at me for messing something up. I said, ‘Sorry, boss, I wasn’t trained in this machine,’” said a second.
“Every organic $2.99/lb. tomato is a 99¢/lb Roma tomato,” wrote a further TikToker. “Most people don’t know their tomatoes.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Young via email.