Supermarkets are set to introduce advanced self-service technology that will cut down the £500 million a year loss due to ‘swipers’, who con the current technology.
A third of shoppers are estimated to fail to pay for all their items when using the unmanned tills – though not always intentionally – with thieves specifically using them to steal more expensive items,
Israeli tech firm SuperSmart has, meanwhile, developed a system that can weigh an entire trolley, which can detect when an item in the bagging area is different to the one scanned, as well as spot other suspicious patterns.
READ MORE: Asda becomes first UK grocer to trial digital ID at self-checkouts
Professor Adrian Beck, of the University of Leicester, liaises with stores to help them spot the tricks that some shoppers pull and has surveyed three thousand people on the changes.
He said the current tech works largely around weight and the scanners “can’t recognise” what each items looks like.
This means people select cheap but heavy items like onions while buying more expensive foods like bananas or avocados, or pay for a bag of potatoes but take a bottle of champagne.
He told the Daily Mail: “People make excuses for why they haven’t followed the rules such as ‘there were problems with a barcode’, or ‘they made me use this machine and I tried my best, but it didn’t work’.”
The new system, already in use in some supermarkets, can even recognise the colour of an item.
Prof Beck added: “Other supermarkets have installed gates as you leave the checkout. If you scan the items but do not pay, then the machine knows and will not let you through. A number of companies are trialling this.”
Professor Emmeline Taylor, who specialises in retail crime at City, University of London, coined the ‘swipers’ acronym, which stands for ‘seemingly well-intentioned patrons engaging in routine shoplifting.’
Speaking to the Sunday Times she said: “Self-service has created a new breed of shoplifter. Rather than seeing it as problematic, they get a buzz from it or see it as funny or socially acceptable in a way that you wouldn’t if you stole a piece of cheese from Tesco.”
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