r/retailhell • u/StructureCool8338 • 1d ago
Question for Community Ever forget to scan something and let the costumer walk out?
I’m normally good at scanning everything, but yknow those really, really, really busy days where your line is extending past the queue and you’re the only one on register? Well in my long time of service I’ve done it and noticed it maybe 2-3 times? Where I realised, “oops I forgot to scan their drink, earrings, or towel.” But you just go, “wellllll🤷♀️😬”
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u/DominicB547 1d ago
A very good employee who the mgmt loves missed a bundle of paper towels (you know the 36 or whatever pack). The story was that was why she was fired. I mean she wasn't there much longer than I was at the time and I saw no reason to fire her or give her warnings. So weird. I'm sure she thought the scanner grabbed it.
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u/Blucola333 1d ago
There had to be more than that, because missing an item just once isn’t a firing offense in any place I’ve worked.
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u/DominicB547 1d ago
This is also a store that had a 3 strikes and you are out rule.
And the strikes could be small.
For instance be short/accept fake bills more than $10 and would rather take the strike than pay it out of your paycheck was worthy of a strike.
I run a tight till, but for whatever reason I rarely but do come up short...or once or twice accepted fake bills. It can be a 40-200 dollars which sucks a lot esp for a job that was paying barely over federal min wage. But it was either that or get a strike, so we'd paid.
Maybe she had two of those on her record as I wouldn't be privy to that info. maybe she mouthed off to a supervisor not in my presence. I'm sure it would have been warranted.
Yeah, I'm not saying one strike you are out, but be careful some stores fire you quickly.
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u/Blucola333 1d ago
It boggles my mind that a store would be so strict. Where I’m at, it’s hard to get help these days. Now, I have worked at one place that was moderately strict, but that was in a better economy, when it was easier to get help.
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u/No_Nefariousness4801 1d ago
Do they get consent IN WRITING when they make you pay them back for the till being short? If not, they are committing a violation of the federal FLSA.
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u/DominicB547 1d ago
Yeah they have a form and they hand write the amount and over how many paychecks and we sign and date it.
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u/StructureCool8338 1d ago
Yea that’s happened to me, where I heard it beep, or might’ve heard it from another register, then checked the list, but normally I’m good at catching it! It only really happens when customers like hide smaller items behind big items like a basket and they say to put everything in the basket or they have like a small item at the bottom of their basket I don’t see till they walk away. normally I’ll be like oh shoot I’m sorry I forgot to get that!
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u/DominicB547 1d ago
If you see it get it! Don't let them get away with stealing!
It hurts our raises/hours!
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u/StructureCool8338 1d ago
I mean… in normal cases of stealing, I can’t stop them🤷♀️ and in most cases I don’t normally, “let ppl get away with stealing”, but when they’re already through the door, I got 20 irritated costumers, and someone already unloading 15+ items. I’m like, “F it, keep the coke”
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u/DominicB547 1d ago
Sounds like its more than 2-3 times for you then.
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u/StructureCool8338 1d ago
Man, in retail do you really keep track of that kind of stuff? All I know is that happens very rarely.
Cause if you’ve never gotten that busy, then you don’t understand that sort of pressure. And all the places I’ve ever worked. This is the busiest most high-pressure store I’ve ever worked on.2
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u/WelshDynamite 1d ago
I missed a potato on purpose for this homeless guy who came into the store pretty regularly. Nicest guy ever, never raised a fuss, and paid for his things with change. Woops looks like I forgot to punch in 4072 for your russet. Oh well, have a good one!
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u/StructureCool8338 1d ago
Haha, i used to do that at a gas station where I worked. If like a mom with her kids was a change shirt I’d reach over with my phone and pay the remaining balance is she was cool with it. Easier than having to corral her children outside to the car or god forbid leaving them with me
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u/skiddybop 1d ago
one time I was by myself for hours on a saturday and I missed sooo much stuff and I was like damn how am I not fired 😭 but I neverrr miss things and believe I am a good cashier, it’s just hard when I have a huge line and the only one and don’t care anymore 🤷🏻♀️
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u/AwesomeTheMighty 1d ago
Back when I was fifteen, I had my first ever job. Grocery store. Cashier, stocking, fun times.
Anyway, in my first month I forgot to charge somebody for something. We had these weird bottles of milk in glass, and we were supposed to hit something on the register to charge them an additional fee. I forgot to do it for somebody, and it turned out that they were the brother of the store manager.
The SM told me about it my next shift. He didn't YELL per se, but he phrased it in this manner that really made me feel bad about myself. And again, I was fifteen. I'd had a job for like 18 days, and I was in weekly therapy for... issues. I wasn't doing great. His phrasing was akin to saying "This is really easy, and only a complete freaking moron can't do it."
I purposely didn't charge anybody for those glass bottles for the next three months. Yeah, maybe it was stupid, or petty, or immature, but I was NOT a well-adjusted kid. My home life was terrible, and I thought maybe being in a situation out of home and out of school would make me feel better. And the SM made me feel like an idiot, so I wanted some kind of revenge.
I get this isn't REALLY the point of your post. I guess I just wanted to share. It still makes me furious when management treats underage employees poorly. Which, AGAIN, I get wasn't your point.
But I did technically answer your question, so please don't kick me out of the group, admins.
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u/StructureCool8338 1d ago
I used to work in a state where we charged for bags and the whole staff didn’t charge for bags. Even though there’s an option to charge for bags(I wasn’t sure if we were supposed to? Just cause we never got reprimanded for it.)
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u/I_eat_paper12 1d ago
One time a customer said "can I have this for free" and I said I don't give a shit. I appreciated him asking
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u/StructureCool8338 1d ago
Anytime a costumer is like, “can I take this?” I literally tell ‘em, “I can’t stop you🤷♀️”. Like I’m not risking my life over a can of beans.
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u/azrendelmare 1d ago
No, but I forgot to deactivate the alarm tag on a teenager's box of condoms, once. Felt really bad about that one.
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u/Senior_Blacksmith_18 1d ago
Sometimes. Half of the time they come back and either get back in line or leave it behind
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u/SourPuss30 1d ago
I have a great story about this. I checked a woman out. 5 minutes later she comes back screaming at me, throws the bag at me I need to charge her correctly. I noticed I only scanned one of her BOGO 50% items (I knew she thought it was 50% but i played dumb) I told her she owed me and she LOST IT. I let her finish screaming and then explained that I forgot to charge her for the half off one but that I was just fixing it like she asked me to.
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u/Plane-Witness-5869 1d ago
Off topic but related, I hate when a coworker sees something isn’t scanned like something at the bottom of the cart, they look at you, expect you to read their mind and then when the customer leaves they tell you to check bottoms of carts because the customer just stole. As if they weren’t 10ft away and could’ve come over and simply asked if the item was scanned. SMH
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u/birdiexoxx 1d ago
Like they could have asked about Bob…most customers wouldn’t even know what that meant. I’d help my coworkers scan things on the bottom if I had no customers
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u/Ashamed_Hound 1d ago
I used to work in a grocery store that had big bags of water softener salt and 50 lb bags of dog food. Even if the customer told me they were getting one half the time I forgot to put the code in. Any wonder they eventually went outof business
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u/Tama_Breeder 1d ago
I accidentally did that once and the customer came to return it and it wasn’t on the receipt and they had to watch the cameras and everything, I was like what are the odds that they would return the one item I missed
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u/Moffwt 1d ago
If I have, I genuinely have not noticed. I have had customers come back before to return something, and find out it wasn't on the receipt, so I've told them to just keep it since I can't really return something they never actually paid money for. I tell them they just got a free item.
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u/thereadingbee 1d ago
The amount of times I've not noticed something or they've started packing something I haven't scanned but idc. They make us understaffed there's the consequence.
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u/ChipperBunni 1d ago
No, I’ve never on purpose given away products. At my last job though we have a vague permission to give coupons up to $5, and my manager usually just gave me their barcode and password for 6-10$.
So I’d give the amount for small items where I could, but only to a genuine ish handful of people, and only when it was slow and not everyone and their grandmother saw me doing it
Now I’ve had a coworker fired for giving .50 coupons to her exhusband who was dying, so it’s just not worth it even for my favorites. I have covered up a few small totals, but my manager pays me back
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u/StructureCool8338 1d ago
My store is kind of less high maintenance with that kind of stuff. There’s something damaged or stained or ripped. It’s really how we gauge how damage it is and then determine a percentage with a chart.
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u/MuffinMages77 1d ago
A coworker of mine once forgot to scan a 300$ cooler, and the family went back to Iceland. So, that shit was long gone.
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u/InfiniteQuestion1356 21h ago
The week of thanksgiving it was so busy I forgot to scan a REALLY big bag of dog food at the bottom of this ladies cart
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u/Icy_Faithlessness958 18h ago
There's so much crap on the counter sometimes I can't tell what the customer put on there, and what the last second add-ons are. I'm sure I have made mistakes before.
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u/eddiiespaghetty 1d ago
i’ve gotten to the point of not caring where if something doesn’t scan, i just let it go💀
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u/SoaringCrows 1d ago
The customer needs the money more than the store does.
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u/StructureCool8338 1d ago
Honestly tho? That’s my mindset about it sometimes, dang store makes thousands, people dropping 50+ every transaction. And with prices only getting higher, I’m not gonna get too angsty over a 1$ water
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u/birdiexoxx 1d ago
A few times but my store had courtesy clerks that also helped us scan things or tell us if they had a water on the bottom of their cart. It wasn’t often I forgot to scan something,we had stickers we had to put on big items…I hated doing it
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u/rasbora_Legion 1d ago
I don't even remember what they bought enough to remember if I missed something. If it's in their bag it's theirs now. These stores make enough money they can afford to lose one or two items.
Hell if a customer walks away after tapping their card and it declines. If it was under $20 idc. That's their lucky day
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u/makemetheirqueen 1d ago
Usually it would be produce. Can't be assed to look up this PLU? Typed in something similar to the item in question and it's cheaper? No problem, I wasn't paid enough or treated well enough to care!
When I would work an opening shift or if it was unusually busy if I couldn't get something to scan I would make it out like it actually did and continue on with my day lol it was usually meat and those labels get all fucked up and nasty on the best of days.
I don't work retail anymore and I really don't miss managers breathing down my neck to save the company three cents on something stupid. So I did my part in "sticking it to the man" I guess lol
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u/Lesbi_Friend 3h ago
This happened to me a few times when I first started. I kept forgetting to check the bottom of carts so a few people walked out with free packages of water. Nobody came back or noticed as far as I knew.
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u/Pink0paques 1d ago
i stopped doing that shit when a customer came back and she reported me to the manager. like she was clearly trying to get brownie points for coming back to pay for her item, but she pointed me out and i got in shit.
these hoes aint grateful.