Before I write the rest of this post I should just mention I am going to change some of the details to protect identities but the events are as they happened.
I was out the other day with my family and part of the day out was a visit
to a fast food chain, it was pretty busy and someone came up behind me and asked for sauce, the guy behind the counter said there are no sachets left and we only have these pots which are 10p each, the customer said ‘well it’s hardly my fault there are no sachets left, the operative said ‘yeah ok’ and handed the pots over. I’d ordered something that was taking a while to come and figured I needed some sauce too but took 50p out of my purse to pay for it as I didn’t want to create any sort of scene for the sake of 50p. The young man took the 50p, bent down to get some sauce and promptly put the coin in his pocket, handed me the sauce and went onto the next customer.
I stood for a little while still waiting for my order when someone else came to the counter and asked for sauce, they asked for 4 pots and handed 40p over and he did the same thing. I really couldn’t quite believe what I’d just seen, noted the time for the audit roll and resolved to speak to the duty manager who I asked for once we’d finished our meal, who dealt with what had happened.
Test purchasing is something I have undertaken on several occasions for retailers in particular but also in other environments where there are cash purchases made such as restaurants and bars, one client who had a newsagent had a particular member of staff who was very good at mental arithmetic. The staff member would add up the items only ringing in the amounts after the decimal point so £0.60 instead of £2.60, of course the drawer opens and the customer doesn’t think any more of it. The member of staff had a small pot by the till which she explained on interview would apparently accidentally fall into her apron pocket .
A favourite pastime of mine is going through audit rolls to look for patterns, it’s often a useful tool when employers have suspicions of a problem, so just be aware that the person you’re serving might not have to think twice about reporting the theft of 50p.
Great article. I worked in a supermarket chain before coming to University and the test purchaseers were almost every week. It made you keep your wits about you – and the two CCTV cameras covering the tills moreso than the customers was a little worrying!
Fabulous! We witnessed a very similar thing in a major car parts / accessories retailer (the place boy racers go for neon lights and racing stripes!) which was the precursor to a three week internal theft sting.