Tesco shoppers have compared its trial of self-checkouts that instantly play back footage of mis-scanned items to football’s video assistant referees.
“VAR decision – tuna disallowed,” one user commented on an Instagram post demonstrating the tech. Another suggested after mis-scanning two yellow labels “you’re off”.
The tech uses cameras focused on the shopper and the self-checkout from above, video from which is played to shoppers failing to scan items with the message: “The last item wasn’t scanned properly, please remove from the bagging area and try again.”
Tesco said the system made the checkout process “quicker and easier” but did not say how many stores it had been rolled out to.
While much of the social media response has been light-hearted and mocking, some were more damning.
“Can’t believe customer service is now so in the bin you’re constantly treated like a thief,” said one shopper on Reddit.
“I hate these things, can’t go anywhere without a camera in your face these days,” posted another. “It’s even worse if they’re hooked up to facial recognition, which could be a real possibility in the future.”
Tesco’s anti-theft tech
Earlier this year, Tesco was similarly accused of treating customers like criminals after it installed trolley scales to detect stolen self-scan items. The supermarket said it had installed the new technology in selected stores across the UK, including at three checkouts at its store in Gateshead.
In the trial, trolleys are weighed before checkout for those using scan as you shop, to ensure the weight matches the items scanned. The aim is to identify unscanned and overscanned items. Tesco said the measure would help alert customers to any items they had “missed or scanned incorrectly” and help reduce the number of manual service checks done by store colleagues.
Tesco’s tech trials come at a time of rising theft from supermarkets, with self-checkouts a key source of the shrinkage. According to the BRC’s 2024 Crime Survey, losses from customer theft now cost retailers £1.8bn per year.
ECR Retail research from 2018 found a store with half of transactions going through fixed SCOs can expect shrinkage losses to be 77% higher than the average rate.
Some 37% of UK shoppers have failed to scan at least one item when using self-checkouts, according to exclusive research for The Grocer by Toluna Harris Interactive.
Other supermarkets have been trialling similar technology to counter the losses. Since April, variety discounter Home Bargains has been working with UK loss-prevention tech firm SAI in the deployment of AI-enabled cameras that can detect items that have passed a checkout without being scanned. The system analyses hand movements in real time, detecting whether an item is correctly scanned or deliberately bypassed. The technique can also spot if a barcode has been obscured or a fraudulent barcode used.
Tesco’s Just Walk Out checkout-free store tech partner Trigo – in which Tesco announced an equity investment in 2019 – is adapting its technology to track what items a shopper picks from shelves to compare against what they scan at a self-checkout.
“If an item is taken but not scanned, an alert is triggered across all checkout methods,” said Daniel Gabay, co-founder and CEO of Trigo. “This catches both accidental and deliberate theft – all while maintaining customer privacy and a frictionless shopping experience.”
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