I went into Target today to pick up a few things, and when I went past the aisle I remembered that I was all out of label maker tape. It's almost silly to waste money on, but I find it handy.
The refills are surprisingly expensive, kind of a "razor blade" deal, where the refills are a surprisingly high fraction of just buying a new label maker that COMES with a roll.
I calculated that a certain two-pack was the best value so I threw it in my cart.
I went on to gather other things and along the way noticed that the label refills fell off the "seat/shelf" of the cart, and wedged in along the side. It occurred to me that it wasn't very noticeable, that it was very possible that one could sneak out by buying a bunch of other stuff, and "overlooking" the refills, thus saving almost $8.
As I shopped I thought about it. I'm the kind of guy that has gone back into stores to pay for stuff that accidentally escaped accounting. However if this had happened without me noticing, I'm not sure if I would have gone to the trouble to make sure this enormous corporation wasn't deprived of $8. And in my meager cash flow, $8 actually matters.
But I DID notice. That didn't mean that I still couldn't have gotten away with it though.
A month or so back I was using the self-checkout scanner at my local supermarket. The thing got confused, and I thought that I had gotten something through to the bagging shelf without scanning it. I picked it up to scan it and it instantly sounded an ominous tone. "Please put item BACK in the bagging area!" I thought, am I sure I didn't scan it? Then I thought that it was such an insignificant item (a couple bucks) that it wasn't worth finding the attendant, having him come over, check the transaction, type in special codes, etc. if the system was going to almost FORCE me to take it, it's not up to me to make more than a modest effort to make it right. And the accounting screens are so full of "You saved 18 cents!" In between everything you can't easily figure it out.
At home I looked and I did indeed get a cheap item free. I thought, "Man, these things are surprisingly easy to spoof! If I were really into it I could get away with a bunch of stuff!"
I have actually gone back to a store and offered to pay for something they didn't charge me for. But this was like $2, not even really worth the checker's time let alone mine, so I let it slide.
At Target checking out I carefully put everything on the belt--EXCEPT the "hidden" refills. They guy checked everything out and bagged it, and I asked, "Should I load those into my cart?" Some stores work that way.
He said, "No, that's OK, I'll do it." I thought about the secret item and wondered if he would see it while loading my cart...if he found it could I make it look like an oversight, or would everybody just have smirked at me like, "Nice try, shoplifter!"
But he DIDN'T. He checked me all out and was handing me a receipt when I reached in as if just noticing it, grabbed the item and threw it on the counter.
"Almost forgot this! And it was one of the main things I came here to get!" I said cheerily. I had decided before getting in line that I really don't picture myself being a petty shoplifter, and don't want to go home thinking that I was the kind of weasel that would try to sneak away $8 ahead. Sure, they're a giant corporation and they are making plenty of money either way, but I just don't think it's worth $8 to have to think about myself as a thief.
But it was strangely exciting to have seemingly gotten away with it.
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