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'Who's gonna miss a donut?': Is it fair game to try to beat the (automated) system?
If, as one criminologist suspects, one-third of us are willing to fudge a little at the grocer's self-service checkout, maybe somebody needs to rethink a few of our processes.
November 2, 2016 by Richard Buckle — Founder and CEO, Pyalla Technologies, LLC
For quite some time I have been enjoying self-check-out service offered at my local supermarket. As the terminals included a cash back feature, they gradually became my go-to for small cash top-ups when I found myself running low. After all, I stop by the supermarket more often than my bank, so the convenience of a one-stop terminal seemed like a real advancement in meeting my needs.
However, this week, I noticed that the self-check-out lanes had been removed and a couple of regular lanes added.
"We upgraded to new computer systems and installed new terminals and the equipment in the self-checkout lanes was incompatible," I was told.
But when I quizzed a manager I have known for quite some time, his response was more telling. "[It's] nothing to do with technology, even though there would have been some challenges," he said. "It was all because we were losing money — people weren't being as honest as we expected them to be."
This was reinforced for me yesterday when I stopped by a local big-box retailer with self-checkout lanes. I noticed that there were several observers watching customers as they completed their purchases; probably more than there would have been cashiers had those been regular lanes. Ouch.
I have always been a fan of new technology, particularly when it clearly addresses a need. However, I hadn't thought of technology being an aid to the more unscrupulous members of society.
But surely, not everyone sneaks an extra donut or an apple or two through the lane? Stealing from the local supermarket didn't seem to be something I had witnessed first-hand, but evidently, self-checkout lanes were fostering an entirely new breed within our society: the casual pilferer.
It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that I am a big fan of automation, modernization, virtualization — pretty much everything that breaks through the barriers that hold us captive to routine and regimentation. There's nothing less stimulating than being forced into doing something by rote simply because that's how it's always been done.
On the other hand, I know I leave myself open to disappointments and setbacks — like the removal of self-check-out lanes. I had to remind myself that this wasn't so much setback as it was the recognition of a much darker human trait — technology will always be looked upon as an opportunity to "beat the system."
When I raised the recent development at my grocery store with a colleague in Australia, he directed me to an article in The Sydney Morning Herald that said retailers — including the big supermarket chains — were "sick of being targeted by opportunists who lie about what they're purchasing to get a discount or try to avoid paying at all."
Furthermore, the article said, "Police pledged … to charge shoplifters over thefts as small as $2 as part of the crackdown."
Police detective superintendent Murray Chapman told reporters, "No matter how small you think it is, even if it's the avocado and you're saving $2, it's still shoplifting."
And yet, when it comes to our behavior, and when we think no one is looking, do we truly misbehave? Do we think that supermarkets can afford the loss of an avocado or apple or even a donut, so it's OK?
On the other hand, walking away from a bank teller or scooping up notes dispensed from an ATM, do we quietly recount our money to make sure we haven't been shortchanged? It took a long time for me to become confident enough to not worry about the notes being dispensed from my bank's ATM.
At supermarkets, though, "There has been a normalization of theft at self-service checkouts," one supermarket spokesperson said. "There's also a feeling that 'I'm not being served by a traditional checkout person, perhaps I have an entitlement'."
The Australian market is quite small compared to America or even Europe. And yet, the Herald said, "Shoplifting costs the Australian retail industry $4.5 billion a year … Up to one-third of customers regularly steal when using a DIY checkout to pay for their groceries, according to a recent review of surveys around the world by Australian National University criminologist, Emmeline Taylor."
ATMs and POS devices are embedded today in all manner of structures. Transaction processing devoid of a financial electronic endpoint is becoming rare.
We might still be relying on cash, but for most of us, the cash comes directly from an ATM, or indirectly, as cash back at a POS.
However, if the future of automation is going to be in conflict with the behavior of one-third of our society, then perhaps we need to rethink some of our processes. Or perhaps, just possibly, the continuing use of checkout lanes — automated or staffed — is the wrong answer.
If they are too big a temptation to resist then they must be the wrong solution. Perhaps it's one more automation and technology challenge for mobile devices in which our presence with a shopping cart results in our plastic being debited. No lanes, no cheating, no entitlement!
I'll always remember Harrison Ford in an episode of Raiders of the Lost Ark throwing a bad guy from an airship, and then telling shocked onlookers, "He didn't have a ticket!"
In other words, the bad guy tried to beat the system. Immediately, the other passengers pulled the tickets from their wallets.
We might not have reached the point of such draconian enforcement, but if history teaches us anything, for one-third of us, when it comes to technology, it's still fair game to try and beat the system.
illustration istock
About Richard Buckle
Richard Buckle is the founder and CEO of Pyalla Technologies, LLC. He has enjoyed a long association with the Information Technology (IT) industry as a user, vendor, and more recently, as an industry commentator, thought leader, columnist and blogger. Richard participates in the HPE VIP Community where he is part of their influencer team.
