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The move from Sainsbury’s comes in a bid to crackdown on shoplifting – with shoppers across the country warned.
Sainsbury’s has made a major change at self-service checkouts. The move from Sainsbury’s comes in a bid to crackdown on shoplifting – with shoppers across the country warned.
Customers who fail to scan items at self-checkouts will see VAR-style replays in cthe crackdown, with a camera above the shopper recording packing actions at the till, according to the Sun newspaper.
The tabloid has branded it a “fresh clampdown on thefts”. Customers at the supermarket giant, which has stores in Birmingham, are shown the video feed and told: “Looks like that last item didn’t scan. Please check you scanned it correctly before continuing.”
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One customer said they were sent the warning because the packet of basil they bought was “too light”. Another joked: “Thanks to Sainsbury’s, I can now re-live and learn from my packing mistakes.
“I can almost hear (Sky pundit) Jamie Carragher lamenting my positioning.” A retail source said: “It’s a deterrent to shoplifters. Most people have made a genuine mistake while scanning, which is detected by the scales.
“It’s a more gentle reminder than red flashing lights and a member of staff coming over.”
A Sainsbury’s spokeswoman said: “We regularly review the security measures in our stores and our decisions to implement them are based on a range of factors, including offering our customers a smooth checkout experience.”
It comes after it emerged the number of shoplifting offences recorded by police in England and Wales has risen to the highest level on record, according to official figures, surpassing half a million offences for the first time in 2024.
A total of 516,971 shoplifting offences were recorded last year, a 20% increase on the 429,873 in 2023, according to the Office for National Statistics.
“While the ONS statistics show that shoplifting is at record levels, their figures severely underestimate the problem,” said Tom Ironside, the director of business and regulation at the BRC.
“Their figures are equivalent to less than two incidents per shop per year; if you ask most shopkeepers they’ll tell you they’re lucky if a day goes by without a shoplifting incident.”
He added: “A survey of major retailers by the BRC showed there are over 20m incidents of shoplifting every year – unfortunately many of these go unreported as retailers simply don’t have faith that action will be taken by the police.”
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