KentDog

This is another ethics question.

I was in line today at Wal-Mart waiting to pay for my groceries, and the couple in front of me had put most of their groceries on the belt, but had left some things in their cart. It was obvious they did this intentionally. I wasn't sure if I should say anything , so I didn't. They had a 6 or 7 year old daughter running around which made it even more sad. The thing is, this isn't the first time I have seen this done; I don't know if it is pretty common for some folks.

What do you guys think about this?

Vieope

ReproMan

I've done it by accident a few times myself. Usually, when I put stuff on the bottom shelf of the cart.

mike456

they probably had a double of it on the belt, and the cashier just rings it twice, I have done that a lot

Journal

goob

At our local, there is self checkouts where you scan the barcodes yourself, with 4 terminals and 1 staff member watching. If something does'nt scan, I slap it into the bag for free. I do this infrequently, but 95% of the time i'm honest. Not good I know, but its a giant corporation who won't miss it and it's the only times I've ever stole.

ReproMan

The self chekouts we have here have scales in the bagging area. Each SKU is assigned the weight of the item, so if an item is placed in the bag that's not scanned, you can't finish the transaction.

zombul

On the same topic what if your at a Wal-Mart and the cashier owerpays you say $20.Would you go back in and tell her?

goob

Yeah, same here. You can't steal big or heavy items, just small, light ones. Vitamins are ideal.

goob

Hell no. There was a bar I sometimes went to, where i was twice given double as much change back on my round of drinks that i paid. Good nights.

ReproMan

Yeah, I was a cashier once. Although she would just get a warning, it's recorded, and if it happens again, she could lose her job.

zombul

I worked in concession stand when I was 16 and we would push a soda cart out for intermission of a show and sell soda.The transactions were fast and I must have not noticed though I was trying to be careful,but several times people have come up to me and said I overpaid them $20 or so.

ABCs

I see people stuffing shit in their jackets all the time in New York City corner shops and the like.... I am not a rat so I don't tell, but I will for sure give those bastards a nasty look. But I keep in mind, one thing... what goes around comes around, onwe way or another at some point in time.

After almost 2 weeks... I am back and better than ever.

KentDog

I don't believe it was an accident what I saw today. It looked as if the man intentionally left things in the cart because he looked at the items then put everything else on while the woman talked to the cashier and the man pushed the cart through quickly and put one of the newly filled bags around the items in what looked like an attempted to conceal the unpaid for items.
I know what you mean, but I don't think this was the case.

KentDog

Yes.

On a similiar note, when I was in high school buying beer with a fake ID, the woman who checked me out at the register robbed me $1 (I paid in cash and she gave me $1 less in change). I thought at the time that she must have known the ID was fake, so I didn't complain, but I still felt cheated.

KentDog

Now that I think of it, today was items (seemed like stationary and maybe a small electronic device), but I have seen it before where a woman was stealing groceries. Either way, I'm not sure I follow your logic... stealing is stealing, what difference should it make if it's food or stationary? We are not living in a third world country where they may be stealing to eat; these people more than likely have cars and live in houses (I am assuming because I didn't follow them out to their cars or houses). They stole to save money, not to eat. If there was a steak in their cart along with a shirt costing the same amount, would stealing the steak be less of a crime than stealing the shirt?

KentDog

I'm a little surprised by your responses, but I applaud you for being honest. Come to think of it, in the bar scenario, if I were drunk I may not have said anything either (since my drunk self is very different than my sober self, plus they are ripping you off 1,000% to begin with), but all the money definitely would have went back to the bar that night. Sadly, I usually don't count my change when I am drunk, so I probably would not have caught the mistake to begin with.

goob

Er.....thanks, I think. Just noticed, reading them back that it makes me look like a freeloading jerk. This is not the case, I only run by the adadge "...look a gift horse in the mouth". 99% of the time I'm honest as everyone else, but
if i'm handed somerhing on a plate........

And never against small shops etc...only greedy corp's.

Brachiisaurus

So about 50% of the time all in all?

ABCs

Stealing is still stealing no matter how infrequent it is. If everyone thought like you, then those "greedy" corps would be out of business.

After almost 2 weeks... I am back and better than ever.

goob

Indeed. And I know it's wrong, but i only ever do it infrequently, and only because their scanners don't pick up the barcode when i scan it. And i do try to scan it a number of times before chucking it in for free. I have no excuses, but to be honest, I don't particuarly care.