The COVID-19 pandemic has affected some supermarket employees. A family member may have lost a job.  It seems the situation has become so desperate that a few cashiers & baggers have started filching our stuff at the checkout.  For me, it began two weeks ago.  Among other things, I bought a bag of noodles for $4.95, with a plan to make chicken and noodles.     But when I arrived home, I didn’t have the noodles.  I chalked it up to a mistake.  They were on my store receipt, so I must have dropped them in the parking lot.     Today, I came home from another supermarket,  lacking a bottle of white wine that was on my  receipt.  What happened to it?  Warning! Theft at the checkout. 

It wasn’t the money that bothered me.  Yes, I had the chicken, but I didn’t have the noodles.  The bottle of cheap white wine was  for a recipe I’d clipped from the newspaper.   No one wants to go to the store more often than usual during this pandemic. But these missing items meant I had to go back outside.

After researching it, this is what I’ve learned.  Your back is turned while you’re checking the computer about your purchases, or watching the bagger.   This is when he/she takes something from your jumbled up purchases, and stashes them in a bag or place  underneath the counter.   Theft  is more apt to occur when the checkout  involves two people.  In places like Aldi’s or Walmart, it’s less likely because the cashier does the bagging while you watch the entire operation.

When you get home, you might attribute the missing item to senior confusion.. But you’re still functioning well.  Paying bills. Driving. Shopping. Cooking.   They think you’re senile,  don’t know what you’re doing.  But they know what they’re doing.  They stole your merchandise, thinking you will never know the difference.  But you do. Just another example of senior abuse.   Warning! Theft at the checkout could happen to you.