Comments on: Friday’s Rant from the Soap Box in My Living Room – restricted hot chocolate?? https://catskidschaos.com/2015/02/06/fridays-rant-from-the-soap-box-in-my-living-room-hot-chocolate/ Cats, kids, coffee and chaos Fri, 06 Feb 2015 23:35:44 +0000 hourly 1 By: Nina https://catskidschaos.com/2015/02/06/fridays-rant-from-the-soap-box-in-my-living-room-hot-chocolate/#comment-20348 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 23:35:44 +0000 https://madhouse.chocolateboxstudios.co.uk/?p=7643#comment-20348 A major issue for supermarkets with self-serve scanners is that shoplifters put items through the scanners as normal, bag it all up and then just walk out casually, without paying. It takes a while for the machine to realise activity has stopped, at which point all it does is start asking over & over again if you’d like to continue, by which time another shopper may be trying to use it (causing confusion) and/or there may be yet further delay until a staff member comes over to take a look. By this time the shoplifter has long gone. They lose a LOT of money to this technique & it is down to each individual store manager’s discretion to select which items are security tagged for authorisation. They collate data to make those decisions on from the machines lists of unresolved transactions… so in this store’s case, they have very likely had (a) shoplifter/s regularly scanning & walking out without paying and the pattern to this person’s shopping includes their penchant for hot chocolate (their regular milk thievery would obviously not be a practical thing to try and track). So, although the hot chocolate itself is not particularly valuable or actually a restricted item like alcohol, it is tagged to catch a regular shoplifter. When anyone scans it, staff are called over which deters a shoplifter from not paying & also, the more senior staff will be aware of the reason the item is tagged & keep an eye out. PS: I’m not a shop-lifter! (part of my previous career involved consumer data interpretation).

]]> By: motherofmadcatsandbabies https://catskidschaos.com/2015/02/06/fridays-rant-from-the-soap-box-in-my-living-room-hot-chocolate/#comment-20338 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 21:41:06 +0000 https://madhouse.chocolateboxstudios.co.uk/?p=7643#comment-20338 In reply to we3threeblog.

I am assuming so too, but it puzzles me, because why steal hot chocolate?? There surely are more valuable things in the shop? 🙂

]]> By: we3threeblog https://catskidschaos.com/2015/02/06/fridays-rant-from-the-soap-box-in-my-living-room-hot-chocolate/#comment-20336 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 21:32:48 +0000 https://madhouse.chocolateboxstudios.co.uk/?p=7643#comment-20336 i presume it might be the most stolen item in that particular store? that’s the only thing i can think of to explain it. how odd!

]]> By: Emma https://catskidschaos.com/2015/02/06/fridays-rant-from-the-soap-box-in-my-living-room-hot-chocolate/#comment-20333 Fri, 06 Feb 2015 20:53:40 +0000 https://madhouse.chocolateboxstudios.co.uk/?p=7643#comment-20333 Hey lovely!

This is really funny – I’ve never noticed hot choc in our local store being security protected but now I’m going to have to double check!

I think it’s either some weird glitch that no-one has checked – maybe the notice belonged to an item that used to occupy that spot?

Or the store manager is addicted to hot choc and needs to carefully monitor the stock so the last one is never sold?!

Can’t wait to see the answer!

Emma x

]]>