Self Checkout at the Supermarket: What Do You Do?
I had a random conversation with a colleague today. The subject of self checkout machines at the supermarket came up. You know, the kind where you place your unbought items on one side of the machine, scan the barcodes on your items, weigh your fresh produce and place all of it on the other side in bags you've bought yourself or the BAD plastic bags we're all supposed to be avoiding.
But what happens when you have to look up a fresh item? Well, if its a 'Golden Delicious Apple', you find that item under 'Fruit', press the button and the weighing machine weighs it and charges you the 'Golden Delicious Apple' per kilo price, right?
I find that I am wrong.
Apparently, if you have a bag of 'Pine Nuts' from the fresh section (a relatively more expensive nut), you just look up 'Salted Peanuts', press the button and the weighing machine weighs it and charges you the 'Salted Peanuts' per kilo price and you walk away with super cheap pine nuts.
Is this what people do? Does everybody do this? I have to admit I was pretty surprised and I tried not to be judge, judge, judgey about it but...you guessed it, I felt a bit judgey. After all, the person who told me she did this at the self checkout doesn't earn a whole lot of money. I should be more considerate. And yes, I do understand that sometimes, a little treat makes one feel SO much better about life.
I wish I weren't so judgey so I tried to think about those poor convicts, shipped out from England for stealing a loaf of bread and how unfair it was to penalise someone for being poor.
But are pine nuts the same as bread? I think they actually are. I don't go with that whole 'people can only be forgiven for purloining survival items, not luxury items'. But, I still have a bit of judgement around the issue of basic honesty. When someone tells you they've done something like that, are you likely to trust them on other matters where you have to rely on them telling you the truth? When is a piece of dishonesty small enough to dismiss and can you rely on that as predictive of behaviour around bigger issues?
I don't know.
I'll be interested to hear your thoughts.
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My philosophy on this is....... Do the right thing at the right moment and not have Karma bite you.
Hi Seahawk - I agree with you. That's how I generally see it. Trying to open myself to other perspectives, though. Perhaps when we see things in another light, we start to recognise how privileged we are to not have had to make decisions about whether to do something right or take a 'shortcut'. Perhaps me adopting a different mindset about the effects of being poor allows me to appreciate the greater dimensions of how vulnerable people are. Hope it leads to solutions and understanding in some way. Sending you good vibrations!
TBH some people compartmentalise "stealing" from businesses is victim less crime and also rationalise it with their over priced anyway or something like that.
Lots of my friends look for little loopholes like that and not once to my knowledge have the ever deceived me and can solely rely on them whenever I need too.
Not saying it's right because it isn't but I guess myself and friends grew up in semi "poverty" and little things like that helped us survive and as we get older and no longer in poverty we still have that mentality i guess
Thats my take any hows
Hi - Thank you for your comment and your take on the issue. I'm really glad you shared it. Your perspective is great. And honest. Poverty is such a hard cycle to break out of - not just the lack of money but the mindsets that some develop. Thanks for helping me deepen my compassion. Lisa
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I suppose, with everything we do in life there are consequences! I think we do what we need to to survive and have some joy in life....and sometimes we want to live a little more dangerously. In the end it's our some total of 'good' or 'bad' deeds we do that can either enrich our lives or make our lives more miserable. In answer to this dilemma we only to have to make our own 'right' choices and not judge other people's 'right' choices....my proviso is as long as you are not physically hurting another person.....a few peanuts/pine nuts (price conversion) is not going to bring Coles or Woolworths down, they'll just charge us more to pay for their losses....so I support the poor person who cannot make ends meet!
Thanks Michael. That person tries to be a good person, I know. But I am prone to wonder about the cost of dishonesty in systemic terms - say of capitalism. For example, if people didn't steal food, then how much less would grocery prices rise? But then I think: NO! Food should be free and the capitalist model shouldn't even factor into this. All just grist for the mill!
It certainly is grist for the mill!