Some Walmart employees say customers are getting hostile at self-checkout — and they blame anti-theft tech::When Walmart’s anti-theft self-checkout tech alerts an employee of a missed scan, it can cause some uncomfortable situations.

  • TheRealKuni@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’m sorry but I don’t think that makes very much sense.

    Retail theft is a real problem for a company’s bottom line. Enough so that Target is pulling out of San Francisco, IIRC. And self-checkout is one of the easiest ways to pull it off.

    Why would a corporation frantically seeking quarter over quarter growth spend money to “prove a point” about control?

    • GrayBackgroundMusic@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Enough so that Target is pulling out of San Francisco, IIRC

      https://www.businessinsider.com/target-closing-stores-due-to-crime-stats-tell-another-story-2023-10?op=1

      ehhhhhhhhhhhhh. They’re blaming theft, but that’s not it. Theft might be a part of it, but the stats nearby contradict that. We don’t have access to their internal theft metrics, but the city data doesn’t pan out. When there are stores (mission district) that have higher theft and are staying open, then is it really theft?

      Or is it poor retail performance since WFH is the new king and people live in the suburbs more than in the city. When continue to order online more and more instead of shop at a physical store.

      Theft is an easy way to blame other people without providing evidence. It’s not the CEO’s failure to adapt to changing market conditions, it’s the poors! It’s their fault! /s

    • floppade [he/him]@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      So is CEO greed though. And they could choose to use that money to balance their budget, not ruin my experience of being out and about.

      • TheRealKuni@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yes, they absolutely could and should. That wasn’t my point. I just don’t think it makes any sense to say that they made the change to their self checkout to “prove a point” about controlling people.

    • Omega_Haxors
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      1 year ago

      Zero class consciousness. They don’t lose any money from theft, but rather use it as an excuse to extract more money out of the local area. You’re completely out of touch if you don’t think that companies flat out lie about their theft problem, if they were genuinely having stuff being stolen from them they would employ like 10x the value of what was stolen to ensure it doesn’t happen again. We know this because that’s literally what happens whenever they suffer a monetary loss from unionization they spend like 1000x the loss on illegal union busting.