Young Americans prefer self-checkout in stores: they can steal better

According to new data from Avery Dennison, more than half of Gen Z shoppers prefer self-checkout lines — and would change their local store for the ease of using self-service kiosks — but it's not about personality or practicality.

In fact, A A third of buyers are young Admit theft while paying at self-service checkout.

According to a recent poll of 2,000 Americans conducted by LendingTree and published by the New York Post, nearly half of Gen Z respondents said they steal the most expensive item in their shopping cart, while only 37% said they only steal to gather basic necessities.

Some have argued that this criminal behavior is a means of political revenge. The convenient, low-risk version of proletariat expropriation.

“There are a lot of companies that don't care about their customers, they just care about making money,” one sticky-fingered teenager told Vice in 2020. At that time, there was a wave of shoplifting tips and tricks that went viral.

He added: “If we can punish the company, we believe we have done our best.” Their sentiments point to a larger trend: According to a 2021 survey, in fact, just over half of Generation Z have a negative attitude. Towards capitalism.

“I don't think stealing from big companies is unethical, because it undermines systems that exploit workers and resources for financial gain,” a 19-year-old told Dazed last year.

What constitutes a political statement to one party constitutes an economic risk to another, and this may lead to a slowdown in the delivery of innovation in large-scale retail that many consumers value.

“While self-checkouts are convenient, they certainly pose a risk of shoplifting,” said Matt Schulz, senior analyst at LendingTree. “Ultimately, retailers must decide whether self-checkout stations are worth the risk.”

Popular chains like Costco and Wegmans began rethinking self-service machines late last year; Walmart even pulled the kiosks from three of its New Mexico locations.

According to CNN, retailers face the problem of “shrinkage,” or the loss of goods due to trivial thefts or errors on the part of customers, such as registering the wrong type of apple or tomato, as an international study showed, which proved a rate of 4%. The loss rate for businesses that use self-checkout is nearly double the average.

Amazon implements a different technology in its brick-and-mortar stores, which only exists in the USA, which charges people's accounts with products that are registered as being taken from shelves. So, in this case, speed and security are combined, and so far, according to company officials, there have been no errors.

But something is clearly not working in a generation that fears they can steal with impunity. It seems clear that something in the education system is not working. What do you think?