More than £1.6 billion worth of groceries and other goods are being stolen every year by UK supermarket customers using self-service tills, a new survey claims.
Nearly one in five people in the UK admit to stealing from self-service checkouts, a survey undertaken by VoucherCodesPro.co.uk revealed.
The report claims the average UK shopper steals £15 worth of products per month from supermarkets.
And 57% of those who admitted stealing said they did so because they get fed up trying to scan items that won’t register.
The survey, reported by The Daily Telegraph, interviewed more than 2,600 people about their shopping habits.
George Charles, a spokesman for VoucherCodesPro.co.uk, said he was “sure most of those who now admit to stealing via self-service checkouts didn't initially set out to do so”.
“They may have forgotten to scan something and quickly realised how easy it could be to take items without scanning them,” he said.
“Supermarkets need to increase the number of staff who monitor the self-scan checkouts, even though the point of these checkouts is to reduce the need for staff, as well as increase their security measures to ensure this comes to an end.”
© 2014 - European Supermarket Magazine by Enda Dowling