In the grocery stores in my area they installed these self checkout counters. Now when they first installed these there was allways a bagger at the end of the checkout counter to bag and help if you had any problems with the machine and all was good. Slowly they began to cut costs and now there is only one person, on a good day, covering 10 lanes. Now tonight I was checking my self out and I came to my last item, a single grapefruit. I type in the code for the grapefruit and the machine says “place item on the belt.” I place the item on the belt and wait for my grape fruit to go down the belt. The machine goes in reverse and says “remove all items from the belt and try again.” I remove the grape fruit and try again FOUR MORE TIMES with the same results. So I try a different approach, instead of typing in the item code I try entering the item through a menu interface. The screen shows a grapefruit I push the button and I’m charged $32.00 for a case of dog food. I look around to find the mental giant tending the checkout. I run to the other end of the store to grab the checkout helper guy. He comes over and removes the case of dog food from the computer but leaves before helping me checkout my grapefruit so he can help some old lady figure out how to even use the machine. So one more time I try to pay for my grapefruit. It won’t take it this time. I say fuck it and roll the grapefruit down the belt. Pay for the rest of the $100+ bill and walk out the door. I get to my car and unload into the trunk. While doing this security and the manager come to my car and says I need to come inside for shoplifting. I go huh, and they say I didn’t pay for an item and they have it on tape. Now I am pissed. I went through all that trouble to pay for a damn grapefruit while the watch it from a camera and no one comes over to help and then they accuse me of shoplifting a $1.50 grapefruit. I count slowly and tell myself I will not kill these people. I start screaming at them telling them that they don’t have clue about running a store, get in my car and drive off. I’m sure they got my plate so here I sit waiting for the police to come and arrest me while I write this and eat a stollen grapefruit that I vallently tried to pay for. So what would you do?
I’d call my lawyer.
If it were earlier in the story, I’d forget the damn gapefruit.
I’d have left the grapefruit, too. A broken register doesn’t give you the right to steal. Your best course of action may be to immediately return to the store and pay for the item.
I’d have not-so-gently tossed the grapefruit at them while telling them that you tried to freakin pay for it but couldn’t etc etc… then driven off, if possible squealing your tires and turning a corner on two wheels.
…but i spose if you really wanted the grapefruit…
I’d have done just exactly what you did, with one small exception. You tried what, like a total of 8 or so times to pay for the damn thing. You absolutely had to have the grapefruit because your sick father won’t have anything else with his breakfast (why not?) and your options were: pay $32.00 or pay nothing. You had already notified the staff of your trouble with paying for the item, and the response of the employee you talked to was to delete the item from the register. Given that response, it had been your understanding that the matter was taken care of. In fact, as the employee you talked to mumbled something like “don’t worry about it” as he left you, you took that to mean the grapefruit had been acknowledged as yours. You had tried your best. You didn’t have all day. Your poor father was waiting at home. So you left.
Where I think you messed up was your abrupt departure. You should have taken the opportunity they presented you to explain yourself instead of just jetting off. Now you look suspicious. Had you calmly but scornfully explained the story before leaving the store, you could easily have shifted the blame for the incident onto the store management/security.
As it is I think you’re fine. Besides, it’s $1.50.
I made a guess as to what I was gonna say before I opened the thread, and it was this: “Eat the grape! Eat the grape!”
I would tell them to review the entire tape. If they’ve really got you on tape, then they also have on tape the fact that you attempted, repeatedly, to do the honest thing. Granted, you shoulda left the grapefruit there. But I think you could argue that your frustration level was pretty high and you weren’t at your best by the end of your visit. Tell them that if they can’t understand that, and take your actions in context, then they really truly do not understand the customers that they claim to serve.
Keep us posted.
Personally, when the clerk walked away after taking off the $32.00, I would have left my groceries there and walked out. There must be somewhere else to buy groceries.
As it is, if they come after you, I would go with the “I assumed it had been taken care of” line. Don’t even go into the mumbling clerk business. You tried to pay for the thing; a clerk helped you; you can’t be expected to be an expert on these machines.
What a stupid idea anyway, greedy idiots.
If it is a large chain then you should call their corporate office. Two of their employees were watching a customer in obvious need of help, and they did nothing. All they were interested in was whether you were trying to steal something.
I work in a grocery store, but we don’t have the self-checkout machines - probably because of the union - but they seem to be a lot more trouble than they are worth. The idea behind these machines is ultimatley to avoid paying a chasier to ring up the items for you. But it is pointless if there needs to be an employee around to help with the machine and two others to watch on the camera.
Also, the corporate security assholes in my store are the same way. They don’t follow the rules they are supposed to and do whatever they can to catch the person trying to leave the store. What they should do is approch the people and make it known that they will be caught; potential shoplifters nearly always display a certain body language.
And guess why they insist on having people arrested? In my store it is because they get bonuses for each person they catch.
Yeah. Exactamente.
Personally, I would have started typing furiously on my web phone. When they asked me what I was doing, I would have replied, “I just registered [insert name of grocery store]sucks.com. And now I’m calling my lawyer.”
A dollar fifty for a grapefruit?! Where do you live?! And who’s robbing whom?!
I’d wonder how bright they are if they push it. DO you think that any jurors who see this tape, prosecuting someone who tried several times to buy the grapefruit and spending $100 are ever going to shop at their store? Or will they tell everyone who asks how jury duty went the story?
Call your local newspaper and tell them what happened. When they publish the story, send a copy to the grocery store and to their headquarters. You’ll never have to pay for a grapefruit in you life again.