Fines, store bans or a criminal record
Stealing from self-checkout will cost you
Door Tim van de Vendel
By Tim van de Vendel
Tim van de Vendel
‘Are you going to pay for that bag?’ an Albert Heijn employee asks two guys who are busy packing their groceries. ‘Oh yes, of course. We just forgot’, they reply, as they quickly scan the plastic bag and pay for it separately.
This incident may well have been a genuine mistake, of course, but it’s an everyday occurrence these days for supermarkets in Groningen. A growing number of students are deliberately not paying for items at the self-checkout. If they are caught, they pretend to have simply forgotten to scan them.
Shops have their hands full. ‘Because we are catching more and more students, the target group we are keeping a close eye on is getting ever bigger’, says Mick Veldscholte, team leader at the Albert Heijn in the Brugstraat and himself a master student in accountancy at the UG. ‘Most of our customers are students.’
‘Every day, we usually catch about ten of them’, he says. ‘And those are just the ones we actually spot, that’s the tip of the iceberg.’ Charges are filed against two out of ten shoplifters, on average.
Small products
Anna is one of those thieving students. At the bottom of her bag, she invariably puts products she does not pay for. ‘They’re usually small items, so I can put heavier stuff on top of them.’ Cheese, tins and jars, for example. ‘It’s pointless to steal things that only cost one euro. Expensive things are really worth it.’
We usually catch ten of them a day
She would never buy those pricey groceries otherwise. ‘Once in a while, you want to eat something other than bread and potatoes’, she says. ‘But that’s difficult to afford on top of my studies, rent and other errands.’
Many of her friends have the same problem, Anna says. ‘More people around me have also started stealing. Inflation has just made everything unaffordable.’
Police report
But according to Mick, that’s not the only reason students shoplift. ‘There seems to have been some kind of race at several societies and year clubs to see who could check out the least items’, he says.
It’s pretty dumb, he explains, because stealing is no joke. If a shop discovers that you are stealing regularly, or if large sums are involved, you’ll be reported to the police. ‘We eventually catch on to people who repeatedly don’t pay for things’, says Mick. ‘The next time we catch them, there will be no mercy.’
Of course it doesn’t feel right to steal, but it’s a necessity
Being reported can have far-reaching consequences: fines, store bans, and sometimes even a criminal record. ‘For students who see this more or less as a joke, it can suddenly have very serious consequences if the police get involved.’
To give an example: for certain jobs in the Netherlands you need a certificate of good conduct (Verklaring Omtrent het Gedrag or VOG) from the government. But if it comes to a criminal case and you are found guilty, you may not get one, for instance when your past behaviour is determined to pose a risk to the work you will be doing. You can’t be a lawyer if you’ve been caught shoplifting.
Paying separately
That hasn’t dissuaded media student Evie from shoplifting, though. She, too, regularly swipes groceries. She puts a number of items aside and pays for the rest. ‘If I get checked, I just say I have to pay for those other times separately, because I’m buying them for a friend or something.’ If she doesn’t get checked, she sticks them in her bag without paying.
‘Of course it doesn’t feel right to steal’, she says. ‘But it’s a necessity.’ The international student doesn’t get an allowance from her parents and an application for a loan from DUO hasn’t panned out so far. ‘I know it’s not the supermarket’s fault, but everything is so very expensive.’
Some of her friends disapprove of her stealing, but certainly not all. ‘They know my situation, so they understand’, Evie says. ‘And a few occasionally ask if I can shoplift something for them.’
Only human
But since most of the supermarket staff are students themselves, they know just how to spot theft, warns Mick. ‘Customers put groceries aside, they quickly put items in their bags or they divide them between two checkouts. We hear a lot through the grapevine and we find out about all the tricks eventually.’
There are much stricter checks on a suspicious man in a tracksuit
What if you have genuinely forgotten to scan an item, though? ‘We do make a distinction, of course’, he says. ‘We’re all only human, so you have to be allowed to make mistakes.’ Staff will look at what you forgot to scan, how it relates to the rest of your shopping and whether it has happened before. ‘If someone has scanned all the cheap groceries but not the 10 euro pack of meat, I wonder if they really forgot.’
Behaviour is another key indicator. As well as carrying out spot checks, supermarket staff pay close attention to what people put in their bags. ‘If someone looks around nervously and quickly puts something in their bag, is that a coincidence or were they looking to see if my colleagues were paying attention?’
Honest customers need not worry, according to Mick. ‘If someone paid for thirty products and forgot to scan a sandwich, of course we won’t report you’, he says. But when in doubt, they will give you a warning. ‘In the end, you are responsible for scanning everything.’
Looks
So far, Anna has been lucky during checks: she has never been caught. ‘Usually it’s girls my age who do the checks, they rarely look beyond the top products.’
Her looks also play a part in this, she thinks. ‘There are much stricter checks on a suspicious man in a tracksuit than when I check out my vegan products and a bunch of flowers.’
In a perfect world, Mick says, no one would steal anything, but he also knows this is unrealistic. ‘There will always be people who swipe things’, he says. ‘It’s kind of a cat-and-mouse game.’ Above all, he hopes students realise that theft can have serious repercussions. ‘I’d rather not play that game with students anymore. Especially not if they actually think it’s just a game.’
The names of the shoplifting students are pseudonyms.