Fair enough, as far as that goes, but I have three objections to that lecture:
It’s a subreddit over at Reddit, where people write in to ask AITA in a situation they explain, and the readers respond with yes or no, commenting on why. It can be entertaining reading, sometimes morbidly fascinating.
At least in Stop & Shop, there are still paper bags (no more plastic allowed), and even if you tap the button for “use my own bag,” and put yours thereafter on the scale (having indicated one bag, or two, or three), when you’ve finished checking through your items and want to pay, you first get a screen asking you how many paper bags you used, and you’re supposed to tap on the correct number button, then hit enter, whereupon if you used one or more paper bags you get charged 5 cents per bag added to your total.
The answer to most of these sorts of “why” questions is “We have to program defensively for crooks.” e.g.
Q: Why does it ask about how many paper bags I used when I already chose ‘Own bag’?
A: Because otherwise people would just click [own bag] then take paper bags without paying for them.
Every obstacle we can come up with to make honesty the path of lesser resistance increases the number of honest people we we deal with.
Humans are entirely why we can’t have nice things.
There are no paper bags here, either. Unlike plastic, I don’t think they’re illegal, but just never caught on. Even the government liquor stores that switched from heavy plastic to paper many years ago have phased it out (or will shortly) to a new policy of “no bags”.
I think what you’re telling me is that maybe these particular self-checkout machines have generic programming designed for multiple markets. The store I was talking about is part of a relatively small family-owned chain and they might have had no option but to use the generic software. That’s their problem – it shouldn’t be mine. I’d still like to take a baseball bat to all self-checkout machines.
Could be the particular machines’ software. I do know that other local grocery chains have paper bags but as far as I know the rest don’t charge per bag.
In fairness I should point out that I also hate smartphones, new email security protocols, any software that needs more than 4K of memory, and kids on my lawn. 
If they ever alter the formula for Clamato or Vodka I assume your entire world will explode in a white hot fury of a thousand white dwarf stars.
Damn right! It’s the only thing that keeps me sane!
My daughter works at a large hardware chain, and shoplifting is a big problem there. The corporation has made a decision to not try to intercept shoplifters. She told us of the time a person had several things in his cart, headed toward the door, she asked him “Are you through shopping” and he said “Yep” as he headed out the door with the stolen merchandise.
I can sort of see them not wishing to risk employees’ lives, but no enforcement at all? We think that the word has gotten out that their place is easy pickings, from the amount of shrinkage she sees.
Do you actually want the average store clerk to risk injury or death to confront a shoplifter? I sure don’t.
Surely not. But as always, doing the smart thing in the specific case can lead to a dumb thing in the general case.
Here’s an analogy / semi-similar situation. I live in greater Miami. Starting maybe 20 years ago the police and highway patrol basically threw up their hands on speed enforcement on our freeways.
The normal speed of traffic on our freeways and toll roads is now 80 in the slow lane and 100 in the fast lane. I and countless others routinely cruise at 120 mph in the express lanes. The posted limit is 65 mph in the most congested areas and 75 elsewhere. So across the whole metro area, maybe 40% 65mph, 60% 75mph. I’ve now lived here right at 10 years and the speeds are up 20 mph from when I first got here. And the rate of increase shows little sign of slowing.
The cops utterly lack the resources to begin to slow the general public’s driving once the general public has decided that The Law Does Not Matter. At All.
Returning to retail shoplifting …
If the general public gets the idea that paying for merchandise at retail stores is more like dropping a buck in the busker’s hat than it is tipping the barrista, much less paying the tab at a restaurant, IOW, paying is wholly optional, then pretty quickly the entire world of bricks and mortar retailing will come crashing down.
Amazon will be the only game in town or retailing will have to return to its roots when 100% of merchandise was behind the counter and clerks won’t surrender any goods to customers until after the money has been paid. If Corporate doesn’t like their labor costs now, they really won’t like them after the public decides unlimited speeding shoplifting is normal unsanctionable behavior.
For sure it is not the individual clerks’ responsibility to stand in harm’s way trying to stem this rising tide. But a solution, perhaps involving real LEOs, does need to be put in place on a widespread basis within a couple years or this may, just may, snowball beyond control. Just like the speed of traffic in Miami.
Just as a side note – and certainly not a judgmental one – but if you did that here you would (a) have your car impounded, (b) have your driver’s license suspended on the spot, and (c) face a fine of up to $10,000.
ETA: And (d) probably be unable to get insurance again, except through “facilities”, a special pool for high-risk drivers where the insurance costs more than the car.
Thanks Niner. I didn’t even notice the AITA but I wouldn’t have known what that meant either. So a twofer thanks!
Curious - where is here?
I know the answer to this one! A very wise poster told us that the trick is to scan the first item, place it in your bag, and then set the bag with the item in it on the bagging area. The scale won’t notice the slight weight of the bag.
In theory, similar punshments apply here in socal. Traffic speeds here aren’t quite up to Miami standards, as congestion puts a lid on the upper end, but I’ve become accustomed to whistling by CHP speed traps a good 20 over on the regular. I don’t know what makes those guys pay attention but it sure isn’t 85.
Canada.
Ontario, Canada. Southern Ontario, specifically. There are harsh penalties under “stunt driving” laws that kick in for doing more than 50 km/h over the limit, street racing, and other stunts.
I’ve driven past speed traps well over the speed limit – I don’t know about 20 mph over, but certainly 20 km/h over. They’re mostly waiting for the real extreme offenders.
any thoughts on why there are no more speed-traps in Miami (et al.)?
legally not allowed?
I mean given what you say, a speedtrap should easily make $10k per day (100 tickets x $100) … so $300k per month
that is crazy good business, and I assume with the new digital cameras you don’t run out of film as the old one’s were …
I mean that is a win-win for all involved (well, minus the one who pays) … AND you show that you care about the children in our community… (cue in violin-music)
Sam Walton is turning in his grave.