Shoppers slam Tesco for treating them like ‘thieves’ as store trials giant trolley scales in Gateshead

8 March 2025, 15:01

Shoppers claim Tesco is treating them like ‘thieves’ as the retailer tests giant trolley scales in a Gateshead store.

Tesco is trialling the checkout scales at the Gateshead Trinity Square Extra store to identify items that customers may have missed or duplicated while using the supermarket’s Scan as You Shop service.

There have been mixed reactions about the huge trolley scales, with one user on Reddit likening the experience to “border control”.

Another user quipped: “No clubcard? Deported!”

There were some positive responses, with one Reddit user describing the scales as “convenient” and “faster”.

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Speaking to the BBC, business retail consultant Ged Futter said the move is designed to prevent loss and support staffing costs.

"There is no way this is about making it quicker for the shopper. It's supposed to be scan and go - this is scan and stop while your trolley is weighed."

He added that supermarkets are deploying technology to clamp down on thefts since self-scan systems have been linked to an ‘increased’ rate of shoplifting.

"This is supermarkets saying, 'we know there are thefts so what we are going to do is treat every customer in exactly the same way to reduce theft'.

"They're forgetting that trust is the most important thing for all of the retailers and it works both ways. If customers don't feel trusted or think they're being treated like thieves they will go somewhere else."

In an annual crime survey by the British Retail Consortium, it was found that customer thefts reported by retailers across the UK increased by 3.7 million to 20.4 million.

This costs retailers an estimated £2 billion, according to the report.

Meanwhile, the Office for National Statistics reported that shoplifting incidents recorded by police in England and Wales rose by 23%, surpassing 492,000 during the same period.

One social media user on X said: "You thought the self-scan was bad enough?

"Check out these 'giant trolley scales' being trialled at Tesco Gateshead."

Speaking about the use of similar scales in Europe, Professor Emmeline Taylor – a retail criminologist – told the BBC that there was “definitely an element of trying to control loss” but that a lot of scan and go loss can be “accidental”.

Ms Taylor called the scales at Tesco “foreboding” and akin to “security scanners”.

She said: "They don't want to give the impression that they are pointing the finger at their honest customer.

"They will need to balance how they respond when there is a weight discrepancy because you can lose a customer for life if they feel they've been wrongly accused of something."

"You've left your handbag in the trolley, you've got to take your child out of the seat, you might be queueing behind someone who has been stopped and you can't get through so the trial needs to focus on minimising friction points in the customer experience".