Supermarket question

[Hex]

Hello everyone,

Not handwavium this time (at least I don't think so) but:

How much could go missing from a supermarket before they followed it up? So, if someone was doing weekly 'shops' and leaving without paying for them would that be noticed quite quickly by central office (or whoever) or is there a level of loss that's just considered 'normal wastage' and ignored?

 

[Mouse]

I'm asking my mum as she works in Tesco - she's saying that they banned a guy from the store today as he ate a pasty in store, didn't pay for it, then left. So, by the sounds of it, it doesn't take much!

 

[Hex]

eeep!

The stuff would be going without them noticing (they'd think it had been paid for) so they wouldn't know at local level, necessarily, until things got added up at the end of the day/ week. Would that make a difference?

(thank you very much to your mother!)

 

[AnyaKimlin]

There was a thing on Jeremy Vine here and there seems to be a large trade in meat stolen from supermarkets. One guy said they did it by going to the butcher's counter and walking out with it. It seems to be basically if you get caught. They do let a certain amount go as till error. I have no idea what the amount is, but apparently not everything scans correctly etc

 

[HareBrain]

You mean how quickly they would notice a difference between stock on their system and in store? I doubt a store would do a proper stock-take more than a couple of times a year. (None of the clients I used to audit did.)

 

[hopewrites]

Its called shrinkage, and shops allow for a 'small' bit daily but try and track down where its at aweful quick. The market I worked for had about 15-20 tills and had a $100 day allowance for shrinkage. That encluded shoplifting, samples, spoilage, and breakage. So when you think about it not a lot.

I would say it would get picked up right a way but take maybe a week (without camera security ) to pinpoint who.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

There is a level that is called normal wastage, so if it was low level shops it may not be picked up for a period of time. Even if it was, and it's quite small, detecting the person takes some time, especially if they're very able. Basically to arrest someone for shop lifting, you must see them take the goods, not let them have the opportunity to put the items back and wait until they have left the shop, otherwise if you're wrong it's an absolute mess.

Most big stores stocktake at least 6 monthly for the whole shop (they have a statutory duty to do so) but within departments there are more regular stock checks. If it's high level I would expect a variance to show on the 6 monthly check at least, if its' focused on one department eg. clothes, it may show earlier.

But most long-term shoplifters are discovered by staff/store detectives seeing something suss and clocking them on a long term basis.

On another note, things like cigarettes/cash; if it's internal theft, these get picked up very quickly, at least weekly, if not daily. Might take a while to prove, but it'll be known, and till operator patterns are easy to track; keep rotaed staff to a minimum on each till, rotate them, track them, hourly checks and bingo you'll at least have a good idea who's doing it.

Oh, and probably noticed locally first, or the shop manager will have a bit of explaining to do about his stock control...

Edit; sorry everyone got there first. Shrinkage varies from dept to dept btw. Cosmetics, whoosh, so easy to nick, incredible....

 

[Warren_Paul]

That's a really it depends question. I'd say on average, it would be overlooked for some time, especially if it is only one item here and there. Usually there is a bit of leeway in the stock control.

A place I worked at, product went missing here and there, yet nobody did anything about it. Probably if the person taking it was caught red-handed, they would have, but otherwise just let it go, because it was only the occasional item.

Another experience, it went on for a few months before the boss got sick of it and hired a private investigator to catch the person stealing the products. And that was cigarettes/cash, btw.

A third experience, the boss knew who was taking the product, had evidence of it, yet still didn't do anything because it wasn't worth the effort apparently. The loss was that negligible that it didn't concern the employer.


Now if it was a customer, and they were caught red-handed, the boss would call the police immediately, even if it was only one single item. If the thief was not caught, likely nothing would come of it. A shrug of shoulders and move on, even if it happened again. Although eventually after a few months of repeated cases they might install security cameras to catch the thief, but only if it started to become a major issue.

 

[Mouse]

eeep!

The stuff would be going without them noticing (they'd think it had been paid for) so they wouldn't know at local level, necessarily, until things got added up at the end of the day/ week. Would that make a difference?

(thank you very much to your mother!)

Mum says yes:

Every morning they read out the day before's figures - sales/waste/shrink - shrink figures are figures they can't account for, so it's either not come into the store as in, it was expected but didn't arrive, or it's been stolen.

Does that make sense? I was typing as she was speaking.

 

[Hex]

OK -- to tweak my question a little -- would you regard it as utterly implausible that a branch of Tesco's could be losing sixty odd pounds worth of groceries a week and that no one had noticed -- or that there hadn't been a massive fuss that was obvious to the customers, anyway?

Edited to say: she's not going to be caught in any of the ways listed. So the groceries are just vanishing.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

To a store like tescos 60 would be pretty small beer and fall under normal shrinkage. i'd find it implausible that one person could do that in one store for a period of time without it being spotted. Especially if they were young and on their own - always watched very carefully. What about bin raiding... otherwise, across a variety of outlets.

 

[Abernovo]

The term used in stores, or at least was when I worked in one, is shrinkage - the difference between what is on the books and what is there in the stocktake. Some of it will be produce spoiling/getting damaged and being disposed of without proper recording. Other instances will be theft, either by staff, customers or non-customer shoplifters.

We had weekly stocktaking in each department, which went to the store manager and then to head office. We also had 3 big stocktaking audits per year by external auditors, which went direct to head office.

Basically, if shrinkage was over a certain amount we got hammered by head office and that passed on down to those of us who ran departments. One or two weeks of higher shrinkage (and/or lower profits) you would get 'this needs to be looked at'. Consistently high or growing shrinkage meant angry telephone calls.

It all depends upon what is being taken, its value and how often.

So glad to be out of that environment.


EDIT: just seen the revised question. £60 is nothing. We were looking at a few thousand pounds. By groceries, do you mean fresh produce? If so even more unlikely to notice, as a lot gets wasted and isn't properly recorded.

 

[HareBrain]

All the people talking about shrinkage etc, how do you know what's gone missing unless you do a full stock-take and compare what you do have to what you should have? You can't do it every day, surely?

(Genuine question, not trying to pick holes.)

Edit: just seen Abernovo's response. I was probably thinking only of the "big" stocktakes.

 

[Mouse]

OK -- to tweak my question a little -- would you regard it as utterly implausible that a branch of Tesco's could be losing sixty odd pounds worth of groceries a week and that no one had noticed -- or that there hadn't been a massive fuss that was obvious to the customers, anyway?

Edited to say: she's not going to be caught in any of the ways listed. So the groceries are just vanishing.

Mum said yeah, Tescos'd notice. Customers wouldn't.

HB: my mother says they don't have an exact figure, they just have a rough idea. Then she asked if I was asking 20 questions.

 

[Hex]

Hmm.

OK -- so if things were being scanned at the checkout and then the money wasn't actually going in to pay for them (though the checkout person thought it had) -- would that be more 'visible'?

ie: would my witchy thief be better to just make herself invisible and walk out with a trolley load of stuff rather than bewitch the checkout person?

Edit: (because I want to be like everyone else) -- woo hoo! So I can get away with what I like?!

 

[Abernovo]

If it was scanned but the money wasn't there, the checkout operator would get some pretty searching questions. I knew of a couple of instances of family members getting freebies from the tills, but they weren't scanned, obviously.

If she's going to make herself invisible, she'd better make the trolley invisible too.

As checkouts operate for a few hours at a time, they had to sign for what was in the till when they took over and when they left. Deposits were sent down a vacuum tube to the cash office, which worked throughout the day. So, that would be noticed within a few hours.

 

[HareBrain]

Hmm.

OK -- so if things were being scanned at the checkout and then the money wasn't actually going in to pay for them (though the checkout person thought it had) -- would that be more 'visible'?

Differences in cashing up would be visible more quickly, yes. By the end of the day at latest.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

All the people talking about shrinkage etc, how do you know what's gone missing unless you do a full stock-take and compare what you do have to what you should have? You can't do it every day, surely?

(Genuine question, not trying to pick holes.)

Edit: just seen Abernovo's response. I was probably thinking only of the "big" stocktakes.

Haha I knew one day I'd know somethign vaguely useful to someone. It's vague, but...

the high value depts will have a stock check done at least several times a week. the high theft depts; booze, alcohol, cosmetics, jewellery, underwear, anything in a box that can be slipped out and worn ditto. The lower level/value; much less often. The stock control is then matched against the takings for that department (epos can do it by item if you need it to), and any discrepancy noted. If the discrepancy isn't back the next day (anyone can count 2 cartons of somethign as one eg. ) then it will be investigated. If the first discrepancy is high, there'll be a second check and follow up if neccesary.

 

[Hex]

Ah. Then I may have to rethink some of the details.

This is brilliant. Thank you!

Um... anyone know the colour of shirt Tesco checkout people wear (blue or check blue/ white?)

Edit: structured what, Mouse?

 

[Mouse]

You lot have no idea how excited I was that somebody finally asked a question I could help answer. Why does nobody ever want to know about structured cabling, eh? Eh?

I'm not asking mum again, but I'd have thought it'd make no difference whether she made herself invisible or whether she'd bewitched the cashier. There's no cash either way.

Blue and white or red for checkouts! Yay!