PostedMay 14, 2022, 10:16 p.m.
The retailer has installed barriers where you have to present your ticket in 5% of the cooperative’s stores in Zurich. Too many thefts have indeed been committed at self-service checkouts.
Self-checkout terminals in a Migros.
Urs Jaudas/Daily Gazette
At the Migros points of sale in Zurich, customers who pay for their purchases at the self-checkout terminals are increasingly obliged to present their receipt to leave the store. They must indeed scan the QR code of the ticket to open a barrier door and leave the sign.
It must be said that 4 months ago, the cooperative had had enough. Enough of the shoplifting in the self checkout area. As a result, it has equipped 5% of its stores with these barriers in order to bring unscrupulous customers to heel, report the CH-Media newspapers. “The approach of Migros Zurich is remarkable insofar as Migros and Coop have so far relied on individual responsibility and random checks”, according to them.
When asked, the orange retailer explains that he only uses this system “occasionally, for the purpose of prevention and to clearly delimit the area of the checkouts”. The cooperative did not want to reveal the criteria according to which the points of sale were chosen, nor the extent of the thefts recorded so far. But according to her, the system would be well accepted by customers.
The practice, while relatively new in Switzerland (Lidl also uses such barriers in 90% of its subsidiaries), is common in the Netherlands. Barrier doors are also used in public transport and for access to stations.
But Migros says nothing about the effectiveness of the system in Switzerland. An effectiveness that can be doubted. Indeed, a series of scams recently took place at Migros, but in Aargau, the newspapers recall. The author scanned his purchases at the self-check-out, but before paying, he removed certain products and took them away without paying for them. In this kind of situation, the barrier is totally useless since the unscrupulous customer has a valid ticket to leave the store.
(cht)