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Appreciation post: My chat with a cashier about price scanners
I was at a grocery store in Des Moines last Tuesday buying $47 in stuff. The cashier told me about customers who switch the barcode on cheap tomatoes to get a lower price. She said it happens maybe 10 times a week and it made me realize how much small dishonesty adds up. Has anyone else had a random conversation like that that made you question your own habits?
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bennett.evan1mo ago
Held a pad of sticky notes up to the scanner once and got really confused for a second.
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the_thea1mo ago
A friend of mine grabbed her whole pack of gum to scan it at the self checkout, just held it up to the laser and stared. Took her a good five seconds before she realized it was a square foil pack and not a barcode, like your sticky note moment, @bennett.evan. She even tilted it a few different ways, totally convinced the scanner was broken.
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avery2191mo ago
The gum thing is real though. I watched my dad try to scan a bag of frozen peas like six times before he noticed the barcode was on the other side of the bag. He just kept flipping it over and holding the same blank side up to the laser. The worst was when I tried to scan a coupon at CVS and it was just a shiny receipt that had the same shape and size as the coupon I needed. Stood there for a solid minute pressing the button harder like that would somehow make it work.
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