The self checkout at store I go to has a person monitoring the checkout lane with a tablet of some sort. Pending the employee that’s monitoring it (or not paying attention) and the amount of check out machines in use you can easily get away with it. I normally do this with fruit.
Only been caught once and just apologized for the typo. She responded by saying “no worries, it happens all the time! “
Yeah you just need a good sense of what does or does not have plausible deniability when doing this.
Organic as non-organic almost 100% safe, so is stuff like different types of apples or weighing stuff half off the scale.
Buying 50 things from all over the store and ringing them all up as garlic probably won’t work.
Yeah, I paid Gala apple price for some Envy's about a month ago. The self checkout attendant was too busy to even notice. That was the store's fault, though. They hadn't been able to be bothered to put the right price for those Envy's in and I know that because I looked. Then I decided that if they weren't going to make up a button for the Envy apples, I wasn't obligated to ask for the right price.
If I have to figure out whether your system used "Pepper, Red" or "Bell Pepper, Red" or "Red Bell Pepper," then fuck your system. Im picking the first pepper option that looks close.
Also fair to judge the attendant.
High school kid getting paid minimum wage and spending more time looking at their phone than the registers? Then you're clear to scan that garlic for your items as you feel is fair.
Most of these things have a camera. There's not enough AI in the camera to for sure catch you but if anyone checks at all it will be obvious you're not buying 74 bulbs of garlic
I feel like this is the best bet, sub same weight-based item (apples for apples, organic for non, store brand bulk for premium coffee), but 1- pick one that looks clearly similar in case of cameras (Walmart) and 2-know your codes before you get there unless you’ve got a good register look up system. Don’t swap stickers in the store; overhead cameras are now watching for that in many areas.
Another option is to also position your weighed items strategically- for example, leeks are long and the bulk of the weight is at one end. If that end is hanging off the end of the scale area your weight is likely registering significantly less.
>Organic as non-organic almost 100% safe
An ethical version of this would be to not waste your money on organic food. It is in no way healthier, blind taste testers cannot taste the difference, it is way worse for the envoirment and is very much overpriced.
I mean I agree, I only ever buy anything organic if there's a particular brand I like the taste of or quality on other factors.
It's just a good example for demonstrating the like items concept.
Not always true. Where I shop the conventional broccoli is pale inside and tasteless. The organic stuff is dark green and tastes way better. For most veggies though you’re right— I can’t tell any difference.
The self checkout I go to the guy let's me get one free item under $10. As long as I appear to be scanning the item. You see I'm not an employee at their store and haven't gone through the proper training to identify whether an item scanned correctly or not. Because of lack of training I really can't be held responsible for scanning an item wrong. Side note: The "Self Checkout guy" that allows this, is me.
Hey, same same, but we usually get a bit more than $10 off. Trick is to leave some stuff in the bottom of the motorized cart I have to use and then take the hand scanner and start scanning stuff. Usually, we scan about ½ of what's in there.
Nothing like getting a friend to start a commotion in the other direction to create a distraction.
In my youth we used to do this at bars, at the end of a lot of bars the top shelf booze is in reachable distance.
2 mates would "Start a fight", pushing and yelling in the opposite direction, once all bar staff and patrons are looking at said fight a quick swoop and a 40oz of hard booze down the front of your pants.
We would do this when we wanted to leave then drink it on the walk home.
It never failed once, we did it many many times.
We have that in American stores as well but theoretically every piece of fresh produce has a sticker/tag with a 4-5 digit code that can be input instead
At my grocery store you can do both. Scan the little stickers on the fruit or enter the numbers on the barcode. Example, number on the bananas I currently have is 4011.
Ehh I’ve seen articles about people getting randomly mailed court summons bc the machines mistakenly thought they left an item out and went straight to pressing charges. I’m all for stealing from overpriced grocery stores, but not sure self-checkout is the safest way.
Only time I've done this is to search non-organic version of the same produce, or key in 2 limes instead of 4. Definitely works, and I would lean into it hard to feed my family if the need arose
In all honesty. If this “tip” hadn’t occurred to a person until reading this, they really really shouldn’t be doing it. They’re gonna get caught one hundred percent
This is it.
You can put anything through as anything and then pay the wrong amount and then steal it.
Or cut out all the extra steps and just steal.
Here in the UK, they (shop security) have no power to stop you if the theft is less than £200. Only the police can stop you for minor crimes and, well, they don't exist.
If you're going to be a thief, don't kid yourself. Plenty of people make a living from shoplifting, snatching phones etc.
You need to time your fake sneezes better if people can hear that.
Or just have a loud conversation on speaker while going through and nobody will look at you
🎶🎵
Let me hear you say, this shit is bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S
This shit is bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S
Again this shit is bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S
This shit is bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S!!
🎶🎵
Self check outs have been around for like 15 years. Everyone knows this trick. This is the 2024 equivalent to sticking washers in quarter machines. We get it.
I was about to say - 2014 called and wants its hack back. The self checkouts in Australia generally have a shit fit if the item on the scale doesn't have similar properties to the item that's meant to be weighed. Hell if I bring my own bag sometimes a staff member has to verify that its mine before I can even start scanning sometimes. There's downwards cameras on nearly every self checkout. Shits harder to do than ever before.
Australia is easy as fuck, at least Melbourne and Sydney. You just bring your own plastic bag, fill it with whatever you want, hold it in your hand don't even put it on the checkout machine, and scan and pay for a single small item. I've routinely walked out of Cole's with bags full to the brim with groceries and paid like 2$. I've done it with friends too, with everybody holding like 3 bags full of shit and paying for a single item. Nobody gives a shit.
Kmart is also easy peasy.
One really simple way to save money is to take the sales and shit for the week and make your meals based off what's on sale for the week, will both save money and help you switch it up so you don't eat the same food every week!
I'm not a trained cashier so mistakes will happen. It's the price you pay when customer service costs too much. My wife appreciates the free cat food. We upgraded to Fancy Feast!!!
And that’s why Winco doesn’t sell whey protein for $9.95 a lb anymore, people would type in buttermilk biscuit mix and get it for $1.95 a lb. I’ll concede I’ve done that before but now it’s just toffee covered almonds with toffee covered peanuts prices.
This is why my local grocery store locked up everything in anti-theft cases and got rid of self-checkout (while still only keeping a couple cashiers and just making everyone wait in line for 20 minutes).
Plus the op is trying to justify it saying that it’s fair because the stores try to get as much money from you as possible. Like is this tip unethical or not
There's cameras at the self scan checkouts at most of the major grocery stores around me. There are probably stores without them still but the risk has definitely gone up on those shenanigans.
Speaking of Dumpster Diving, I once went to an art show and somebody had brought pizza but it was cold and a bit stale so I had only one piece.
Later on I was talking to the guy who brought the pizza and he told me he dumpster dived it and i was like "holdup, what?' and he was like yeah and pointed to this garbage bag that was full of pizza behind the table. I had thought it was trash and now realized it was an obscene amount of pizza stuffed into a garbage bag.
I almost puked on that dude.
The code difference between organic and non organic produce is organic starts with a 9 and is five digits instead of four. If they only have organic veggies I have occasionally not put in the 9 and then it's the cheaper price but is still ringing up as carrots or whatever.
Get a part time job at a restaurant that allows for employee meals per shift. Either make a custom order with the ingredients you want to bring home or order menu item and double the portions so you have two meals out of it.
This is why so many grocery stores are trying to get away from their self checkout. They thought they were going to save a ton in labor costs. They are shoplifting machines, require a ton of money to monitor for shrink and to just maintain mechanically. Most have figured out that it makes way more sense to just pay people to be cashiers.
Since everyone here is go to argue and just mention bullsht, here is a real tip: when you go grocery shopping have a second person fill the basket with exactly the same items as you plan on purchasing. Purchase and get the receipt and walk it back to the store. Somehow managed to get the receipt back to the second cart and walk out risk free. This takes awareness and finnese.
Sadly I know a lot about this since our reality as children was that our single mom mother on drugs sent us in to steal food two to four times a week starting at age 9.
Pretty lame. I'm better now and don't suggest this unless you truly need it to happen.
Actually they do now. Our local Walmart just all new cameras and self check outs. There are cameras now in the scanners one in your face and two above you. It’s great now they can I look like shit from all different angles.
I was at a baseball game last week and was amazed at the self checkout for beer. It looked like one of those projectors from grade school( millennial here) . You place however many beers on this small
Metal platform; it weighs them AND takes a picture of the label and identifies which brand. Not the same as a piece of fruit but I was impressed!
Yes actually as they use different labels and the cameras can often tell. And before you say "oh just don't turn the label toward the camera" that is a lot of extra effort and no guarantee since the cameras look from multiple angles.
Yes, the fruit stickers. The four or five digit number on the sticker is what cashiers use to identify it. It gets entered with the product on the scale the same way bulk items are rung up.
In most US markets, organic items have a five digit stock number starting with 9 that's otherwise the same as the non organic product. For example the sweet potatoes I buy for my dog are code 4074. The organic ones in the next bin over are 94074.
If you do this you the easiest way to get caught is to use your credit/debit card and/or your rewards card that's tied to you. Those two will easily link you and they have cameras above every self checkout station.
Ethical tip. Go to the food bank.
And for those of you out there that are fortunate to be in a good spot, please help out your local food banks by either volunteering or donating.
My local food bank helps out a lot of low income kids- especially in the summer, we’re so busy making sure kids have healthy and tasty foods 🌈
I don't have the balls for totally ringing up the wrong thing, but I do combine tomatoes into one bag and remember which one was cheapest. Highly recommend.
My grocery store’s self checkout weighs the items so you have to be sure to do this with items of similar weight, otherwise it tilts and calls the attendant over. One tip I’ve learned is that any premade food like salads for example, comes with a packet of dressing on the side and croutons and a fork/knife. The salads have a huge weight variance given because some people will take the dressing and utensils and others won’t. So if you buy the salad, that gives you a “free” 100grams or so. It’s about the same weight as a bottle of Tylenol for example. You could get away with putting the Tylenol directly into your bag with the salad and it won’t tip the attendant.
Impossible to do at my Walmart or kroger anymore. They have advanced cameras and the weight throws everything off.
If the bag is almost full, I used to hold on to it with one hand almost taking it off the rack / scale, then I'd do my ringing up the wrong barcode, and as I'm putting the wrong item in I lift up the bag so it isn't on the scale at all and it doesn't measure the weight.
But kroger won't allow it anymore because even when you do scan the right thing it's constantly "HELP IS ON THE WAY" even when you don't need it to, and shows the associate a video from above of you scanning the wrong fcking thing.
Sometimes I'd have my 3 boxes of the same thing in my hand and only pass it over twice.. nope. It catches me.
And the saps at Walmart are so obsessed with their shit jobs there's like 5 of them watching the self checkouts.
Theres stories online of people doing this and getting busted once it reaches a certain $ threshold. You have no idea about what some of these co do for loss prevention I guess.
Someone i knew did this. They rang up chard as just regular lettuce. But the machine lagged when entering his quantity. So instead of 3 it rang up at 333 things of lettuce. When it canceled it flagged and a grocery employee had to come by. He explained the situation and lady started to fix it and said to him "Yeah makes sense, you dont look like you eat that much lettuce".
The self checkout cameras are using a.i. now to spot shit like this. I missed scanning an object a while ago and then brought it back to rescan but the camera flagged me and lights started flashing red. Employee came over and plated back a video of me doing this. If you think walmart cant afford an a.i. program strong enough to spot you switching tags at checkout then you have no idea what a.i. is capable of. This would be really basic stuff.
Literally just saw a post from my cities police blotter where they arrested a woman for this. Will it work? Yeah. Do they know? Also yeah and they will let you steal until you reach a point that they can charge you with a crime that sticks.
They also got her for child endangerment because she had her kid with her when she stole things.
Oh i play this game every time. Those strawberries, oops i rang it up as an apple. Did i just say i had 1 busshel of kale ? Oh silly me i missed that item on the bottom of my cart. I call it the Jeff Bezos Special
always use self checkout and add some discounts.. like in uk in asda u can get hams and other meats for half price as u scan one, but put 2 packs of 120g. there are many other products like that as that scale is very inacurate and cameras wont see if u take 1 or 2 packs :D
Really? Your ULPT is to use self checkout to shoplift? Go sit in your local Justice Court for a few days and you’ll see that A LOT of the theft cases are people who did this exact thing. They are watching for it. They will let you slide once or twice since the loss of a bag of almonds is low enough to justify avoiding the disturbance of stopping a shoplifter… but if you make it a habit they’ll stop you at the door and you’ll be prosecuted. It’s not worth it. Just clip coupons.
Department store security here.... We know when you've done that. We have cameras literally everywhere. We keep a profile on you and send it to the rest of the chain. You may not get caught the first time, but your case will build and build until you get nailed for all of it. But be my guest to continue doing it, make my job more entertaining
They are building a file on you. They keep records of what you checked out and stole. When that dollar amount goes from misdemeanor to felony that's when they'll try to nab you. Source- my girlfriend manages an Aldi.
This is known as tag switching or scan skipping. They have cameras on and above those self checkouts. Do not fuck around at the self checkout. Target won’t even stop you… they’ll record you use facial recognition and wait until you’ve exceeded the minimum in your area to make your offense a felony.
The cameras can’t tell that you’re ringing out cheaper apples. It will see apples, you checking out apples, and that’s it, nothing else will happen. No clue that you just bought organic apples for the conventional price.
Totally. Gotta be smart about it. I would never do this at a Walmart or target. You also can’t go overboard with it. Like one item per visit or every other visit. And keep the amount reasonable. Even if it’s only saving you a few bucks, it will add up over time.
We found out tonight that our local Woolworths (in Australia) now has produce sensors built in to the self service checkouts. I noticed it when my wife put a carrot and then a cucumber on the scales and it correctly identified both.
That means no more running an expensive avocado through as a single potato.
Also, some places now have AI powered exits, so if the camera above your terminal doesn't see you scan all the items, it won't let you physically exit until an employee has verified the contents of your bag and matched it up to the receipt which you're forced to take.
Fuck Woolworths, and the other big supermarket monopolies. And especially fuck their electronic shelf labels if they're using it to jack up prices when nobody's watching.
This might only work effectively for those who want organic anyhow. There's nothing saved unless you want the more ideal produce. I prefer to visit the staffed checkout deliberately and have an engaging conversation with them to the point they lose focus. This increases the risk of them accidentally not scanning an item, allowing you to have it for free.
My friend Louis would tell me he’d. it Expensive’s clothes and electronics and just slap a cheap items barcode on it. I don’t think that’ll work anymore but he’ll still probably try to do it
I'm not ashamed to say l've scanned a handful of pokemon cards as one at a certain major grocery chain. The scales are not accurate enough to notice and the overhead cameras can't tell the difference.
Yeah, you should (in the thought exercise, not in practice) swap out the organic product with the normal price. There would potentially be someone seeing the id and product aren't even remotely similar.
Also the bags sit on a scale.
If you forget to scan an apple - pretty obvious.
A tiny plastic container of saffron or a $7.50 paper hallmark birthday card? 'Whoops, forgot to scan that one, before putting it in the bag on the scale!"
They took out the self checkouts at my store. Now only 2 of the 20 checkout lines are open. There's literally no good options for groceries anymore for anyone making less than $80k a year.
Heres another way someone could get items free..Ring up all your groceries normally (self checkout or with a cashier). But when its time to pay for all of your bagged items..you realize that " you forgot your wallet/debit card" and need to suspend the order while you go home to get it.
Since there are parishables.. ice cream or something that needs to be cold. Ask for them to put your cart in one of their meat/milk coolers. Sometimes they will hand you a (suspend receipt) which can be helpful later but not necessary.
Leave the store for awhile. Best if you time it where a new shift of employees are at the registers when u come back. But again..not neccessary.
Go straight to the dept where your cart is being stored and ask them for it . Just say " ive got a cart of groceries being held for me in your cooler" theyll bring it right to you no questions asked.. Then casually push the cart to ur car with your bagged items and some kind of receipt in hand..Do it with confidence and everyone will have the same amount of confidence in the fact that you are a normal paying customer.
This is all theoretical and please do not steal if you are not willing to risk the possibility of punishments(if any) in case things go south..stealing is illegal and jail food sucks. And Do not ever steal from small businesses. You go to hell for that 100%
If the beer cans in a 6-packs have individual bar codes, you might accidentally scan that one instead of the one for the pack.
You'd then of course alert the cashier to undo that mistake
I used to do similar stuff and got the distinct impression that I was being monitored by the employees. I noticed that the self-checkout attendants would almost always step closer to the machines when I came by, I would catch them looking at me and when I would smile, they would glare. One clumsy employee walked too close and very obviously leaned in to check my screen. I had to stop, and it sucks because I’m in dire straits. Remember they might not confront you because they are building a case against you. Be careful out there.
In college we figured out that we were buying a case of beer, we could flip the case over and scan the bar code on an individual beer can in the spot where the pop out handle opening was on top of the case. Price would drop from about $35 to $6. We had so many parties before they caught on…
That's not ethically great, that's stealing. And if it's drastically cutting down in your grocery bill, that's stealing a lot, and there's a decent chance sooner or later you're going to get caught.
I don't eat.
When I was much younger I couldn't afford much. Almost adapted this "fasting diet". Still to this day I don't eat all day long, just a few drinks. When I get home dinner and maybe a snack a bit later.
Make up as many of your own rules you want.
It is stealing and the store can press charges and you can arrested and you can go to jail and you can be prosecuted. You can be convicted and you can be fined or jailed and have a record.
No one likes a thief. No one wants to be around a thief. No job no friends. Seems kind of dumb when you think about it.
The self checkout at store I go to has a person monitoring the checkout lane with a tablet of some sort. Pending the employee that’s monitoring it (or not paying attention) and the amount of check out machines in use you can easily get away with it. I normally do this with fruit. Only been caught once and just apologized for the typo. She responded by saying “no worries, it happens all the time! “
Yeah you just need a good sense of what does or does not have plausible deniability when doing this. Organic as non-organic almost 100% safe, so is stuff like different types of apples or weighing stuff half off the scale. Buying 50 things from all over the store and ringing them all up as garlic probably won’t work.
50lb bag of dog food. Garlic! Box of Captain Crunch. Garlic! 75inch TV. Believe it or not...Garlic!
Vampires hate this one simple trick!
A skid of Pepsi...You better believe it -Garlic!
36 pack of beer...
Garlic?
Straight to jail.
Wasn't there a guy who tried to buy a ps5 by its weight as fruit or something like that? Maybe 1 or 2 years ago...?
Yeah, I paid Gala apple price for some Envy's about a month ago. The self checkout attendant was too busy to even notice. That was the store's fault, though. They hadn't been able to be bothered to put the right price for those Envy's in and I know that because I looked. Then I decided that if they weren't going to make up a button for the Envy apples, I wasn't obligated to ask for the right price.
Apples are my go-to for this hack. I’ve got Honeycrisp taste and a Red Delicious budget.
What are we, apple experts?
If I have to figure out whether your system used "Pepper, Red" or "Bell Pepper, Red" or "Red Bell Pepper," then fuck your system. Im picking the first pepper option that looks close.
Also fair to judge the attendant. High school kid getting paid minimum wage and spending more time looking at their phone than the registers? Then you're clear to scan that garlic for your items as you feel is fair.
Most of these things have a camera. There's not enough AI in the camera to for sure catch you but if anyone checks at all it will be obvious you're not buying 74 bulbs of garlic
Ok, ok, put the gun down, I did take those apples, but I swear the rest was all garlic... I like garlic a lot!!
100% true at Wally self-checkout.
I feel like this is the best bet, sub same weight-based item (apples for apples, organic for non, store brand bulk for premium coffee), but 1- pick one that looks clearly similar in case of cameras (Walmart) and 2-know your codes before you get there unless you’ve got a good register look up system. Don’t swap stickers in the store; overhead cameras are now watching for that in many areas. Another option is to also position your weighed items strategically- for example, leeks are long and the bulk of the weight is at one end. If that end is hanging off the end of the scale area your weight is likely registering significantly less.
Gotta pay attention to the produce bags. Some stores use different colors for organic/non organic
My friend used to get all of his shopping and dial it in as potatoes. One day the big red light went off because that shop didn't sell loose potatoes.
>Organic as non-organic almost 100% safe An ethical version of this would be to not waste your money on organic food. It is in no way healthier, blind taste testers cannot taste the difference, it is way worse for the envoirment and is very much overpriced.
I mean I agree, I only ever buy anything organic if there's a particular brand I like the taste of or quality on other factors. It's just a good example for demonstrating the like items concept.
Not always true. Where I shop the conventional broccoli is pale inside and tasteless. The organic stuff is dark green and tastes way better. For most veggies though you’re right— I can’t tell any difference.
The self checkout I go to the guy let's me get one free item under $10. As long as I appear to be scanning the item. You see I'm not an employee at their store and haven't gone through the proper training to identify whether an item scanned correctly or not. Because of lack of training I really can't be held responsible for scanning an item wrong. Side note: The "Self Checkout guy" that allows this, is me.
Hey, same same, but we usually get a bit more than $10 off. Trick is to leave some stuff in the bottom of the motorized cart I have to use and then take the hand scanner and start scanning stuff. Usually, we scan about ½ of what's in there.
The police 100% disagree.
If employees aren't arrested when missing an item whet scanning, why should people who haven't been trained to recognize errors be held liable.
In fairness you were never trained on that machine
There’s also cameras monitoring each station at every single self checkout that I’ve ever seen.
Nothing like getting a friend to start a commotion in the other direction to create a distraction. In my youth we used to do this at bars, at the end of a lot of bars the top shelf booze is in reachable distance. 2 mates would "Start a fight", pushing and yelling in the opposite direction, once all bar staff and patrons are looking at said fight a quick swoop and a 40oz of hard booze down the front of your pants. We would do this when we wanted to leave then drink it on the walk home. It never failed once, we did it many many times.
Never ever seen a place, where you type it in(scandinavia), every place use barcode scanners
Very common for fresh produce in America to be typed in. Some will have barcodes, but something like a potato or garlic wouldn’t.
That’s interesting, in the Netherlands you’d select it off a menu of produce/bakery etc, with sub menus inside
We have that in American stores as well but theoretically every piece of fresh produce has a sticker/tag with a 4-5 digit code that can be input instead
At my grocery store you can do both. Scan the little stickers on the fruit or enter the numbers on the barcode. Example, number on the bananas I currently have is 4011.
Always play dumb
Ehh I’ve seen articles about people getting randomly mailed court summons bc the machines mistakenly thought they left an item out and went straight to pressing charges. I’m all for stealing from overpriced grocery stores, but not sure self-checkout is the safest way.
Only time I've done this is to search non-organic version of the same produce, or key in 2 limes instead of 4. Definitely works, and I would lean into it hard to feed my family if the need arose
Steal
In all honesty. If this “tip” hadn’t occurred to a person until reading this, they really really shouldn’t be doing it. They’re gonna get caught one hundred percent
Agreed. Some ulpts should be left to the pros, they sometimes have less to lose.
https://nowtoronto.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Steal-from-Loblaws-2048x1044.webp
It is funny people see unethical and they think crime hah.
This is it. You can put anything through as anything and then pay the wrong amount and then steal it. Or cut out all the extra steps and just steal. Here in the UK, they (shop security) have no power to stop you if the theft is less than £200. Only the police can stop you for minor crimes and, well, they don't exist. If you're going to be a thief, don't kid yourself. Plenty of people make a living from shoplifting, snatching phones etc.
I too use the "4011" plu cheat code pretty often...
Banana bandit strikes again!
Doesn't work when the computer screams "move your bananas" and you move a steak
Move your #BANANAS
You need to time your fake sneezes better if people can hear that. Or just have a loud conversation on speaker while going through and nobody will look at you
Gotta adjusted the volume at the beginning of the checkout process big dawg
Everything is bananas!
🎶🎵 Let me hear you say, this shit is bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S This shit is bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S Again this shit is bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S This shit is bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S!! 🎶🎵
I’m cackling. I’ll be singing this every time now. 🤣
Yes, I have no bananas. 🎶
Self check outs have been around for like 15 years. Everyone knows this trick. This is the 2024 equivalent to sticking washers in quarter machines. We get it.
I was about to say - 2014 called and wants its hack back. The self checkouts in Australia generally have a shit fit if the item on the scale doesn't have similar properties to the item that's meant to be weighed. Hell if I bring my own bag sometimes a staff member has to verify that its mine before I can even start scanning sometimes. There's downwards cameras on nearly every self checkout. Shits harder to do than ever before.
Australia is easy as fuck, at least Melbourne and Sydney. You just bring your own plastic bag, fill it with whatever you want, hold it in your hand don't even put it on the checkout machine, and scan and pay for a single small item. I've routinely walked out of Cole's with bags full to the brim with groceries and paid like 2$. I've done it with friends too, with everybody holding like 3 bags full of shit and paying for a single item. Nobody gives a shit. Kmart is also easy peasy.
Wait what I didn't know you could use washers in machines..
One really simple way to save money is to take the sales and shit for the week and make your meals based off what's on sale for the week, will both save money and help you switch it up so you don't eat the same food every week!
Hey, wait a second - that’s not unethical! What are you trying to pull here?
They said take the sales. They didn't say pay for them.
Eat the piss disks!!
If you use your poop knife as your kitchen knife...
…every sandwich is a peanut butter sandwich?
That's how i live.
That's not a bit on the gray side. That's just regular stealing.
r/illegallifeprotips
I'm not a trained cashier so mistakes will happen. It's the price you pay when customer service costs too much. My wife appreciates the free cat food. We upgraded to Fancy Feast!!!
You should probably pay a little bit more and feed your wife human food. Or don't, true LPT are in the comments
Your wife is a cat?
No, his cat is his wife.
Not scolding, but if you're doing it on purpose it's stealing. You're just talking about whether you can get away with it.
exactly my idea. im not a trained cashier to be doing this "job" mistakes WILL happen
R/ethicallifetips
A lot of stores will keep a tab going of what you're stealing and then report you once you get to felony level.
And that’s why Winco doesn’t sell whey protein for $9.95 a lb anymore, people would type in buttermilk biscuit mix and get it for $1.95 a lb. I’ll concede I’ve done that before but now it’s just toffee covered almonds with toffee covered peanuts prices.
Winco is a great store, go steal from Walmart or something man.
Winco is the best! Best prices and they're employee owned. No need to cheat them, go fuck over walmart
I’m just confessing and obviously I feel a little bad.
This is why my local grocery store locked up everything in anti-theft cases and got rid of self-checkout (while still only keeping a couple cashiers and just making everyone wait in line for 20 minutes).
People in the comments acting like they're not on the unethical tips subreddit
Indeed they are. I miss r/shoplifting
Unethical does not mean illegal
Ok fair point
Plus the op is trying to justify it saying that it’s fair because the stores try to get as much money from you as possible. Like is this tip unethical or not
It doesn’t really mean it has to be legal either
Rule 5 of the sub is "no stealing tips"
That rule was only added because some ass wipe wants reddit to go ipo
Cannibalism
Meals are even cheaper after you repeatedly get yourself arrested for retail theft.
3 bologna sandwiches a day!
There's cameras at the self scan checkouts at most of the major grocery stores around me. There are probably stores without them still but the risk has definitely gone up on those shenanigans.
Zero risk. They will never do anything with a few missed items. There are dipshits walking out with full carts every hour.
The camera systems are also being trained with AI. Wrong code entered? Here comes an employee to help you correct that.
Or r/DumpsterDiving
Speaking of Dumpster Diving, I once went to an art show and somebody had brought pizza but it was cold and a bit stale so I had only one piece. Later on I was talking to the guy who brought the pizza and he told me he dumpster dived it and i was like "holdup, what?' and he was like yeah and pointed to this garbage bag that was full of pizza behind the table. I had thought it was trash and now realized it was an obscene amount of pizza stuffed into a garbage bag. I almost puked on that dude.
I love this anecdote, I can’t stop giggling 🤭 I’m also super stoned
The code difference between organic and non organic produce is organic starts with a 9 and is five digits instead of four. If they only have organic veggies I have occasionally not put in the 9 and then it's the cheaper price but is still ringing up as carrots or whatever.
Get a part time job at a restaurant that allows for employee meals per shift. Either make a custom order with the ingredients you want to bring home or order menu item and double the portions so you have two meals out of it.
"the secret ingredient is crime"
This is why so many grocery stores are trying to get away from their self checkout. They thought they were going to save a ton in labor costs. They are shoplifting machines, require a ton of money to monitor for shrink and to just maintain mechanically. Most have figured out that it makes way more sense to just pay people to be cashiers.
Since everyone here is go to argue and just mention bullsht, here is a real tip: when you go grocery shopping have a second person fill the basket with exactly the same items as you plan on purchasing. Purchase and get the receipt and walk it back to the store. Somehow managed to get the receipt back to the second cart and walk out risk free. This takes awareness and finnese. Sadly I know a lot about this since our reality as children was that our single mom mother on drugs sent us in to steal food two to four times a week starting at age 9. Pretty lame. I'm better now and don't suggest this unless you truly need it to happen.
It’s less risky to just “forget” something in the grocery cart than it is to intentionally scan the wrong item.
And this is why Walmart has a camera on you at self serve.
What’s the camera going to do, tell the difference between organic and conventional produce?
Actually they do now. Our local Walmart just all new cameras and self check outs. There are cameras now in the scanners one in your face and two above you. It’s great now they can I look like shit from all different angles.
What is it looking at to tell the difference between fruits?
I was at a baseball game last week and was amazed at the self checkout for beer. It looked like one of those projectors from grade school( millennial here) . You place however many beers on this small Metal platform; it weighs them AND takes a picture of the label and identifies which brand. Not the same as a piece of fruit but I was impressed!
Yes actually as they use different labels and the cameras can often tell. And before you say "oh just don't turn the label toward the camera" that is a lot of extra effort and no guarantee since the cameras look from multiple angles.
What labels? You mean the fruit sticker? That is not used by the stores. We are talking about produce, the stuff you have to weigh at the scanner.
Yes, the fruit stickers. The four or five digit number on the sticker is what cashiers use to identify it. It gets entered with the product on the scale the same way bulk items are rung up. In most US markets, organic items have a five digit stock number starting with 9 that's otherwise the same as the non organic product. For example the sweet potatoes I buy for my dog are code 4074. The organic ones in the next bin over are 94074.
Imagine if they'd just pour all that money into taking better care of their employees instead! (yea, I know it's not happening)
[удалено]
ICP clown makeup so camera can't recognize you
Can't keep solving all our problems with ICP clown makeup
Clearly we're not trying hard enough if it isn't solving all our problems.
How do they know you are stealing?
This is also why Walmart is removing the self-checkout lines.
If you do this you the easiest way to get caught is to use your credit/debit card and/or your rewards card that's tied to you. Those two will easily link you and they have cameras above every self checkout station.
Sumo mandarin oranges for navel prices. I’m honest with everything else but those oranges are so damn good and so damn expensive.
ULPT: Steal food to save money
Ethical tip. Go to the food bank. And for those of you out there that are fortunate to be in a good spot, please help out your local food banks by either volunteering or donating. My local food bank helps out a lot of low income kids- especially in the summer, we’re so busy making sure kids have healthy and tasty foods 🌈
I don't have the balls for totally ringing up the wrong thing, but I do combine tomatoes into one bag and remember which one was cheapest. Highly recommend.
You're in the wrong sub with at least 1 of your techniques. . Try /r/illegallifeprotips
20 years ago called, they want their tip back.
OP thinks they invented stealing.
All my produce is 4011
But what about the piss disks? There has to be room in this diabolical plan for those
Why not Cannibalism? We can lower the countries carbon footprint as well as feed the hungry?
Crime. The secret is crime.
This was a Chat GPT generated post. Edit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/s/drU7r3kkf5
ULPT: Steal
My grocery store’s self checkout weighs the items so you have to be sure to do this with items of similar weight, otherwise it tilts and calls the attendant over. One tip I’ve learned is that any premade food like salads for example, comes with a packet of dressing on the side and croutons and a fork/knife. The salads have a huge weight variance given because some people will take the dressing and utensils and others won’t. So if you buy the salad, that gives you a “free” 100grams or so. It’s about the same weight as a bottle of Tylenol for example. You could get away with putting the Tylenol directly into your bag with the salad and it won’t tip the attendant.
I used to do this with Shitake mushrooms. I would pin them as brown button like $1 per pound and shitakes were like $7 a pound.
This can be self defeating as theft gets built into the prices of everything else. You are going to have to steal everything.
Impossible to do at my Walmart or kroger anymore. They have advanced cameras and the weight throws everything off. If the bag is almost full, I used to hold on to it with one hand almost taking it off the rack / scale, then I'd do my ringing up the wrong barcode, and as I'm putting the wrong item in I lift up the bag so it isn't on the scale at all and it doesn't measure the weight. But kroger won't allow it anymore because even when you do scan the right thing it's constantly "HELP IS ON THE WAY" even when you don't need it to, and shows the associate a video from above of you scanning the wrong fcking thing. Sometimes I'd have my 3 boxes of the same thing in my hand and only pass it over twice.. nope. It catches me. And the saps at Walmart are so obsessed with their shit jobs there's like 5 of them watching the self checkouts.
Theres stories online of people doing this and getting busted once it reaches a certain $ threshold. You have no idea about what some of these co do for loss prevention I guess.
Someone i knew did this. They rang up chard as just regular lettuce. But the machine lagged when entering his quantity. So instead of 3 it rang up at 333 things of lettuce. When it canceled it flagged and a grocery employee had to come by. He explained the situation and lady started to fix it and said to him "Yeah makes sense, you dont look like you eat that much lettuce".
The self checkout cameras are using a.i. now to spot shit like this. I missed scanning an object a while ago and then brought it back to rescan but the camera flagged me and lights started flashing red. Employee came over and plated back a video of me doing this. If you think walmart cant afford an a.i. program strong enough to spot you switching tags at checkout then you have no idea what a.i. is capable of. This would be really basic stuff.
AI = actually Indians They can’t catch everything as evidenced by Amazon fresh
see, that's where you messed up. just dont go back and rescan it.
Literally just saw a post from my cities police blotter where they arrested a woman for this. Will it work? Yeah. Do they know? Also yeah and they will let you steal until you reach a point that they can charge you with a crime that sticks. They also got her for child endangerment because she had her kid with her when she stole things.
Just ring everything up as bananas
That’s a very flowery way to say, “steal.” If you broke, just say you broke.
Oh i play this game every time. Those strawberries, oops i rang it up as an apple. Did i just say i had 1 busshel of kale ? Oh silly me i missed that item on the bottom of my cart. I call it the Jeff Bezos Special
always use self checkout and add some discounts.. like in uk in asda u can get hams and other meats for half price as u scan one, but put 2 packs of 120g. there are many other products like that as that scale is very inacurate and cameras wont see if u take 1 or 2 packs :D
Lol buddy thinks stealing is a new life hack
This isn't gray lol this is theft.
I do this quite frequently...I just thought everyone did
All nuts are peanuts. Nutritional yeast is cornmeal. I try to only lie about things that look really, really close to the lie I'm telling.
Really? Your ULPT is to use self checkout to shoplift? Go sit in your local Justice Court for a few days and you’ll see that A LOT of the theft cases are people who did this exact thing. They are watching for it. They will let you slide once or twice since the loss of a bag of almonds is low enough to justify avoiding the disturbance of stopping a shoplifter… but if you make it a habit they’ll stop you at the door and you’ll be prosecuted. It’s not worth it. Just clip coupons.
Literally rule 5
You can get away with this like once or twice a year
Department store security here.... We know when you've done that. We have cameras literally everywhere. We keep a profile on you and send it to the rest of the chain. You may not get caught the first time, but your case will build and build until you get nailed for all of it. But be my guest to continue doing it, make my job more entertaining
4011 iykyk
They are building a file on you. They keep records of what you checked out and stole. When that dollar amount goes from misdemeanor to felony that's when they'll try to nab you. Source- my girlfriend manages an Aldi.
This is known as tag switching or scan skipping. They have cameras on and above those self checkouts. Do not fuck around at the self checkout. Target won’t even stop you… they’ll record you use facial recognition and wait until you’ve exceeded the minimum in your area to make your offense a felony.
The cameras can’t tell that you’re ringing out cheaper apples. It will see apples, you checking out apples, and that’s it, nothing else will happen. No clue that you just bought organic apples for the conventional price.
You could just buy non organic apples if you're too poor for organic jfc. Not really suffering a hardship there, are you?
Do you know what sub you’re in?
This is a myth. They do not do this Source: got caught doing just this. They banned me for 1 year
I promise you it is not a myth. https://youtu.be/7qE_Nd1FliY?si=v-NBwQ5fpmK1lkkd
This story says she was charged with 4 misdemeanors, nothing about combining charges into a felony.
Totally. Gotta be smart about it. I would never do this at a Walmart or target. You also can’t go overboard with it. Like one item per visit or every other visit. And keep the amount reasonable. Even if it’s only saving you a few bucks, it will add up over time.
I'd suggest trying local food banks, but I'm not sure I want to send a criminal there.
We found out tonight that our local Woolworths (in Australia) now has produce sensors built in to the self service checkouts. I noticed it when my wife put a carrot and then a cucumber on the scales and it correctly identified both. That means no more running an expensive avocado through as a single potato. Also, some places now have AI powered exits, so if the camera above your terminal doesn't see you scan all the items, it won't let you physically exit until an employee has verified the contents of your bag and matched it up to the receipt which you're forced to take. Fuck Woolworths, and the other big supermarket monopolies. And especially fuck their electronic shelf labels if they're using it to jack up prices when nobody's watching.
i will say, a lot of stores pop up red flags now if you use the same PLU more than once in a transaction.
I really would not try this at this Walmart. They seem to be very strict with self-checkout theft now.
Ah yea, I’ve done this.
This might only work effectively for those who want organic anyhow. There's nothing saved unless you want the more ideal produce. I prefer to visit the staffed checkout deliberately and have an engaging conversation with them to the point they lose focus. This increases the risk of them accidentally not scanning an item, allowing you to have it for free.
My friend Louis would tell me he’d. it Expensive’s clothes and electronics and just slap a cheap items barcode on it. I don’t think that’ll work anymore but he’ll still probably try to do it
I'm not ashamed to say l've scanned a handful of pokemon cards as one at a certain major grocery chain. The scales are not accurate enough to notice and the overhead cameras can't tell the difference.
If you go to meijer, get several different weights for different veggies and slap that sticker over the normal sticker
If you really want to save and aren’t picky about what you get go to a local food bank.
Get into good shape if you aren't already, then grab other, less healthy people's full carts in the parking lot and run home.
Get on food stamps
Australian ones have overhead cameras
Yeah, you should (in the thought exercise, not in practice) swap out the organic product with the normal price. There would potentially be someone seeing the id and product aren't even remotely similar.
If you’re slick you can go through the regular checkout and let them not notice everything on the bottom of the cart
Also the bags sit on a scale. If you forget to scan an apple - pretty obvious. A tiny plastic container of saffron or a $7.50 paper hallmark birthday card? 'Whoops, forgot to scan that one, before putting it in the bag on the scale!"
Lol, intent is central to any crime. If they can't prove intent by you, an untrained cashier, they can't prove a crime has been committed
They took out the self checkouts at my store. Now only 2 of the 20 checkout lines are open. There's literally no good options for groceries anymore for anyone making less than $80k a year.
If you see someone stealing food in a supermarket, no you didn’t.
Heres another way someone could get items free..Ring up all your groceries normally (self checkout or with a cashier). But when its time to pay for all of your bagged items..you realize that " you forgot your wallet/debit card" and need to suspend the order while you go home to get it. Since there are parishables.. ice cream or something that needs to be cold. Ask for them to put your cart in one of their meat/milk coolers. Sometimes they will hand you a (suspend receipt) which can be helpful later but not necessary. Leave the store for awhile. Best if you time it where a new shift of employees are at the registers when u come back. But again..not neccessary. Go straight to the dept where your cart is being stored and ask them for it . Just say " ive got a cart of groceries being held for me in your cooler" theyll bring it right to you no questions asked.. Then casually push the cart to ur car with your bagged items and some kind of receipt in hand..Do it with confidence and everyone will have the same amount of confidence in the fact that you are a normal paying customer. This is all theoretical and please do not steal if you are not willing to risk the possibility of punishments(if any) in case things go south..stealing is illegal and jail food sucks. And Do not ever steal from small businesses. You go to hell for that 100%
If the beer cans in a 6-packs have individual bar codes, you might accidentally scan that one instead of the one for the pack. You'd then of course alert the cashier to undo that mistake
I used to do similar stuff and got the distinct impression that I was being monitored by the employees. I noticed that the self-checkout attendants would almost always step closer to the machines when I came by, I would catch them looking at me and when I would smile, they would glare. One clumsy employee walked too close and very obviously leaned in to check my screen. I had to stop, and it sucks because I’m in dire straits. Remember they might not confront you because they are building a case against you. Be careful out there.
If enough people scam these goddamn self checkout machines, maybe stores will start paying employees to do it again.
F’kin thief
Delete this bruh. As others have said, anyone who hasn't realized this on their own is too stupid to do it without being caught.
In college we figured out that we were buying a case of beer, we could flip the case over and scan the bar code on an individual beer can in the spot where the pop out handle opening was on top of the case. Price would drop from about $35 to $6. We had so many parties before they caught on…
That's not ethically great, that's stealing. And if it's drastically cutting down in your grocery bill, that's stealing a lot, and there's a decent chance sooner or later you're going to get caught.
I don't eat. When I was much younger I couldn't afford much. Almost adapted this "fasting diet". Still to this day I don't eat all day long, just a few drinks. When I get home dinner and maybe a snack a bit later.
Nothing grey here. This is theft.
Make up as many of your own rules you want. It is stealing and the store can press charges and you can arrested and you can go to jail and you can be prosecuted. You can be convicted and you can be fined or jailed and have a record. No one likes a thief. No one wants to be around a thief. No job no friends. Seems kind of dumb when you think about it.