This was supposed to be a rant. Me going to the mattresses against the awful service of my supermarket ever since it was rebuilt and placed self-checkout machines.

I was going to complain about the fact that I have been checked three times this week and every time I got checked I felt like a thief. Or rather I felt that they thought I was a thief.

The girl, she couldn’t have been a day older than 18, even asked me to give her my date of birth, because I had bought 2 units of wine.  That amounts to one glass for those who don’t know. “You can see I’m over 18 right?” I said. She gave no reply, just that cold ‘I-know-you’re-a-thief’ look – I’m sure she’s going to be a politician one day.

When I finally finished scanning every item, I paid for my groceries and went to the car. I felt violated. I would show them. Safely at home I started researching the self-checkout phenomenon to write a fact-based blogpost where I would complain about this violation to my rights.
As I started absorbing more and more information I started to understand that these self-checkout machines are a haven for shoplifters.

Up to 20.000 euros per week was stolen from the store. Golly

One supermarket even went so far as to place a cardboard police officer between the machines to deter potential wrongdoers.

I feel bad now for grunting at the girl who checked my bags. Because now I understand where it came from.

I guess that’s it right? If you understand why, then it is easier to deal with.

Edit: Since I wrote this post. the supermarket placed a security guard at the self-checkout machines and no more bags are being checked.