Posted on 12/09/2023 11:48:52 PM PST by thecodont
San Francisco stores have quietly disabled self-checkout recently, indicating a trend in “defensive retailing” that may soon spread across the city. While innovative measures to prevent theft at Bay Area retailers have been well documented this year, the changes to self-checkout are a more recent development.
The Safeway at 1335 Webster St. in the Fillmore District closed down its self-checkout area a few months ago, an employee confirmed to SFGATE. Target on San Francisco’s Mission Street also has closed its self-checkout kiosks, rotating the screens backward to make them unusable to customers, SFGATE confirmed.
While Safeway and Target did not respond to SFGATE’s requests for comment on why these self-checkout stations are no longer available to customers, self-checkout stations have been linked to increased shoplifting at other retailers. Retail crime has become an outsize concern locally over the past few years. In September, Target blamed the closure of three Bay Area stores on theft and organized retail crime. In 2021, Safeway cut hours at its store in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood due to increasing theft.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Previous article referenced in body of the article:
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/safeway-oakland-hostile-anti-theft-measures-17920035.php
Ping to the earlier article and your previous thread.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4148793/posts
“The Safeway at 1335 Webster St.”
I’ve shopped that store. It’s the most ghetto Safeway in the Bay Area.
Shoplifters should sue Target and Safeway -
Why Shoplifting Is Now De Facto Legal In California
Why is shoplifting so rampant? Because state law holds that stealing merchandise worth $950 or less is just a misdemeanor, which means that law enforcement probably won’t bother to investigate, and if they do, prosecutors will let it go.
https://www.hoover.org/research/why-shoplifting-now-de-facto-legal-california
I don’t steal, not sure I’m smart enough to do it....my impression is that people around me don’t steal either....then again we live in a pretty good area.....
Fast-forward to about a year ago, and it is rare that a customer is allowed to self-checkout. Initially, they claimed to have wanted to see the photo on the Costco card to confirm it was you.
Not long after that, they started manning the self-checkout lanes with anywhere from 4-8 employees. They almost always grab the hand scanner before a customer can. I'm thinking "why bother with self-checkout lanes?". Might as well rename them "express lanes".
This is in Central Texas, well away from Austin city limits.
I don’t steal because God would see me steal
Close all stores to the public.
Make it where you have to present a photo ID and credit card, both of which get run to “join”. Any criminal or person without funds on credit card may not join the club.
Self Check outs are designed for people with honesty, integrity. Just like our country was designed for. It’s crazy in some
Stores they have the self check out monitor or two in the check out area to help those that need help, then 10-15 ft from self Check area another employee recheck your receipt and glance at your cart of items before you leave.
May as well hire one more person and just have those 4 run registers again.
Before the Plandemic, there was a Super Walmart in West Sacramento that had 6 self checkout stands, and 18 checkout stands with cashiers. Two years later the entire front end was self checkout, with 3 cashiers.
The Fillmore VFW: Very Few Whites
They have to crash to retail market so they can nationalize it.
I watched a couple in front of me at a self checkout at a Walmart. It appeared that they pushed more than one item at a time past the screen, as it registered only one.
Made me wonder how many people are doing this. Of course, the price of merchandise and food will increase as the stores endure these losses.
This is the world we live in now. So I am not surprised that the self checkout lines are being removed in some stores. Unless they come up with a more secure system, my guess is we’ll see more of them shutting the self checkout down.
self checkout is BEGGING idiots to steal!
A few weeks ago I bought a bunch of stuff at Home Depot and used the self checkout. When I got to the car I realized that I’d forgotten to pay for one small cheap item.
So I tossed it in the car and went home. Nope, God would see that. I went back into the store and made a separate transaction.
I’ve done the same, and I’m an agnostic.
“defensive retiling”?
Criminals still roam free. Now they’ll follow customers and rob them after they’ve purchased the items they were about to steal.
Defensive customer ALERT!
In metro Seattle, union cashiers at Safeway and QFC (Kroger) start at close $20 per hour, plus benefits.
Very hard to believe that will be less expensive than the weekly shoplifting bill.
BUMP!
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