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For example, here are some examples of situations where someone could be at risk of a charge, but isn’t guilty:Ī mother with two children uses the self-checkout lane. However there is a legal requirement that you must specifically intend on stealing. Under South Carolina law you can be charged with shoplifting for failing to ring-up all of your purchases.
#WALMART SELF CHECKOUT PLUS#
Even if you were only given a ticket you are still facing a possible jail sentence of up to 30 days when your case gets to court, plus having a potentially lifetime criminal conviction put on your record. It doesn’t matter if you were immediately taken to jail or not. At this point even if it was an honest mistake you can be charged with shoplifting.Ī shoplifting charge is always a criminal offense. They may point out that only some of the items were scanned. Typically what happens is someone is approached by store security shortly after completing their transaction. We’re seeing a regular stream of clients who have been charged with shoplifting after trying to use the self-checkout lanes at Walmart. Without a cashier or another employee to help it can be easy to overlook something, especially when you are busy with ringing, bagging, and trying to load everything. One problem with self-checkout though is the risk of being accused of theft if you fail to properly ring up all of your items. These are frequently the only lanes without huge lines, making them a tempting option. We especially see cases from the Walmart in Lexington, Redbank, West Columbia, Batesburg, and Harbison.Īll Lexington County and Columbia area Walmarts now have self-checkout lanes. Walmart is one of the pioneers of this trend. The stores have figured out that buying a self-checkout system can be less expensive than paying hourly wages for an employee. And for more great grocery shopping advice, make sure you're up to speed on The Single Worst Thing You Can Ask at the Grocery Store Right Now.Many retailers are phasing out human cashiers in favor of self-checkout systems. So don't be surprised if you're at the grocery store and your bill is $45.78, but your cashier asks for $45.75 to limit the coins that need to be exchanged. Others are simply rounding to the nearest quarter or total-dollar value. Walmart, Kroger, and Midwest-based grocery chain Meijer ha stopped taking cash altogether at its self-scan lanes due to the coin shortage, requiring all shoppers to use debit or credit cards instead. "Federal Reserve coin orders from depository institutions have begun to increase as regions reopen, resulting in the Federal Reserve's coin inventory being reduced to below-normal levels."Īs a result, grocery stores and supermarkets are having to come up with new solutions to unexpected problems. Mint's production of coin also decreased due to measures put in place to protect its employees," the government explained. "Coin deposits from depository institutions to the Federal Reserve have declined significantly, and the U.S.
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"The places where you'd go to give your coins and get credit… those have not been working." "What's happened is, with the partial closure of the economy, the flow of coins through the economy has… kind of stopped," said Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told CNBC last month.
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Banks that typically provide boxes of rolled coins for this very purpose are very low in supply. The supply chain and circulation patterns for coins have been "significantly disrupted" by the coronavirus pandemic, according to a statement from the Federal Reserve. Why is this happening? Well, it seems that the long arm of the coronavirus pandemic hasn't simply affected the supply of meat, produce, and seafood these days. The coin shortage is very real, and many grocers are limiting the total number of coins being exchanged by simply rounding up or down on amounts owed. That money is now added to customers' loyalty cards and automatically applied to their next purchase. Kroger recently announced they will no longer be giving out coin change to their customers. "We're asking customers to pay with card or use correct change when possible if they need to pay with cash." Walmart isn't the only national chain to launch a new payment policy due to the coin shortage. "Like most retailers, we're experiencing the effects of the nation-wide coin shortage," spokesperson Avani Dudhia said in a statement via KXTV.
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