The Banana Trick and Other Acts of Self-Checkout Thievery (2018)
&gt;&gt; “There is NO MORAL ISSUE with stealing from a store that forces you to use self checkout, period. THEY ARE CHARGING YOU TO WORK AT THEIR STORE.”<p>I find the twisted reasoning in this comment shocking and I don&#x27;t really know what to say. It is a kind of twisted reasoning that I&#x27;ve only seen in people who were high on strong narcotics and were carried away by waves of wishful thinking and delusions, or, again, extreme persecution complex.<p>Yes- it is possible to make this connection: that because you are scanning your own shopping you are being charged to work at the store. However, you are not being charged to scan your items. You are charged to buy the items you scan. There is no extra charge for using the self-checkout (not anywhere I know of anyway). Indeed, the store may be making an extra profit by not having to pay as many cashiers. But, stores are always finding ways to make extra profit, for example by offering you a discount on certain items, on certain days, etc. Are you more morally justified than usual to shoplift because a store has a discount on Swiss cheese this week? They <i>are</i> making you pick up the swiss cheese and take it to the till (automated or not). Are they charging you to move items around the store?<p>Like I say- this makes no sense. It is quintessential procrustean logic: stretching and reducing the meaning of words until they fit your preconceived reasoning.<p>P.S. I spent so much time on this crap instead of dismissing it shallowly because dang gets sad when people don&#x27;t show intellectual cuiriosity.