Popular supermarket self-service checkout ‘hack’ that ‘everyone does’ is actually breaking the law

A shopper who admitted to using a common self-service checkout trick when paying for vegetables has been warned by two lawyers that she could potentially be breaking the law.

Now, self-service checkouts have been common place in supermarkets for the last decade and the idea is they create a quicker and stress-free shopping experience – although there’s usually quite a bit of stress involved when an ‘unexpected item’ lands in the bagging area.

But let’s be truthful here; we’ve all played the system somewhat. When weighing one of the more unreasonably priced items like an avocado, we’ve all been at least tempted to trick the machine into thinking it’s something considerably cheaper like a bulb of garlic instead.

If you have always scanned vegetables through under their real price, however, I applaud you.

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Well, one woman recently wrote into News.com.au to seek advice for her ‘friend’ (nice try) who had admitted to adopting a cheeky trick when paying for weighed items like fruit and vegetables.

She said that when her friend uses the self-service checkouts, she regularly puts more expensive fruit and veg – such as an avocado – through the system as a brown onion instead.

The friend believes that it isn’t stealing as she’s still paying something for it, and claimed the supermarkets work the cost of self-checkout fraud into its prices because ‘everyone does it.’

Well, two lawyers responded to the woman’s query and pointed out that despite ‘everyone doing it’, her friend is actually breaking the law and could land herself in a lot of trouble.

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The lawyers explained: “It doesn’t matter how your friend tries to justify her behaviour, her deceitful conduct in intentionally not paying full price is against the law.

“Your friend’s technique of using the self-service checkout to pass off more expensive items as cheaper ones cheats the system by underpaying. Her fraudulent behaviour is just one of many tricks employed by self-service thieves to avoid payment.”

They added that these little ‘tricks’ cost supermarkets a fortune every year, and are actually counterproductive because they push up the prices of groceries as a result.

They concluded: “You have to ask, is saving a few dollars on avocados worth the risk?”