Have You Ever Stolen Something at the Self-Checkout?

Photo by Brittani Burns on Unsplash

Food News!

Have you ever intentionally LIED about the number of limes in your bag at self-checkout? Well, some people DO try to cheat the system to save 40 cents… RICH people.

A new report looked into stealing at self-checkout machines, and 27% of people admit to taking an item without scanning it… on purpose. And surprisingly, the ones most likely to do it are NOT poor.

40% of people with a household income of $100,000 or more admit that they’ve stolen something at least one.  That drops to 27% for households making $50K to $99K.  And just 17% of people making less than $50,000 say they have.

This was self-reported… so maybe rich people are just more honest about their dishonesty.  And they didn’t distinguish between people who admit to having done it once or twice, and people who do it HABITUALLY.

Also:  Men (38%) are more likely to cheat self-checkout than women (16%) … Millennials (41%) and Gen Z’ers (37%) are more likely to admit to it than Gen X’ers (24%) and Boomers (just 2%).

And parents with children in the home (44%) were far more likely to do it than adults with adult children (7%) or adults without children (19%).

So WHY are people risking a shoplifting rap over a few bucks?

The THIEVES were given 10 options, and the most common “rationale” was they’re having trouble affording things they need these days, due to the “current financial climate.”

“Price increases due to tariffs” was the next-most common answer, followed by “prices feel unfair” … “I view self-checkout as unpaid work, so taking small items feels like compensation” … “stores are large and profitable, the harm feels minimal” … and there’s a “low-chance of being caught.”

Other excuses down the list:  17% of people say they feel stealing is justified because there are “long lines.”  And 14% say they’re justified because they have been falsely accused of stealing in the past.

SOURCE: Lending Tree