Tesco shoppers mock ‘VAR’-style cameras at self-checkout
Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that shoplifting offences recorded by police in England and Wales rose 20% last year to 516,971.
But the number of thefts recorded by retailers themselves is even higher. Figures from the British Retail Consortium suggest there were 20.4 million thefts in the year to last September, up 3.7 million on the year before, costing retailers £2bn.
‘The last item wasn’t scanned properly’
Tesco said it had rolled out the technology across some of its stores in a bid to help customers using self-service checkouts to identify if an item hasn’t scanned properly.
The supermarket said it would make the checkout process “quicker and easier”.
If an item fails to scan, customers are shown a video on the self-service screen of their attempt, accompanied by a message saying “The last item wasn’t scanned properly. Remove from bagging area and try again.”
It follows a similar move by Sainsbury’s, which has rolled out AI recognition technology at self-service checkouts at some of its stores.
“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,” said a Sainsbury’s spokesperson.
