Is Kleptomania a UK problem?
Dec 9, 2017, 2:01 pm
#16
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Yep you can fill your tank and then go in and pay for it. It's not unheard of for people to drive off and not pay which is why most places have cameras everywhere looking at faces and number plates. I was in a BP/Marks And Spencer petrol station a while back buying dinner for myself and someone else. I remember thinking this wouldn't have been possible until recently. Of course you could normally have bought something to eat but it wouldn't have been the same. I doubt many petrol stations sold a Beetroot and Lemon Ravioli followed by a Skinny Chocolate Frappe desert. .
I don't think we had pumps like that in the US since the 1970's.Last edited by Jimmie76; Dec 9, 2017 at 2:11 pm
Dec 9, 2017, 2:03 pm
#17
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I don't think it's the delivery that's difficult (give enough of an incentive and people will queue round the block to use it - witness my local Asda and its cheap fuel) but rather the lure of the perennially eclectic stock of the petrol station shop. Why simply fill up with your card, when you can pick up a pint of milk, a bottle of fizzy water, an e-cigarette refill, a Ginsters pasty*, some screen wash, a bag of charcoal briquettes, a can of deicing fluid and, on special offer this week, a 12V hand warmer? Oh, and a tin of those boiled sweets dusted in icing sugar.
* Been spending most our lives living in a Ginsters paradise...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glB6ZJfrEzs
* Been spending most our lives living in a Ginsters paradise...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glB6ZJfrEzs
Dec 9, 2017, 6:03 pm
#18
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I don't think it's the delivery that's difficult (give enough of an incentive and people will queue round the block to use it - witness my local Asda and its cheap fuel) but rather the lure of the perennially eclectic stock of the petrol station shop. Why simply fill up with your card, when you can pick up a pint of milk, a bottle of fizzy water, an e-cigarette refill, a Ginsters pasty*, some screen wash, a bag of charcoal briquettes, a can of deicing fluid and, on special offer this week, a 12V hand warmer? Oh, and a tin of those boiled sweets dusted in icing sugar.
Dec 10, 2017, 12:25 am
#19
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While automated, bank card-using pumps are great in their own ways, in some places outside of the US they may be a pain when the traveler’s bank cards don’t get accepted and the station has ditched staffed/cash payment options.
Dec 10, 2017, 1:32 am
#20
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Our petrol stations have squeegees...and paper towels...and often a choice between pay at the pump or pay inside...but you certainly can pump-then-pay...except for the middle of the night IME... They do of course have excellent surveillance cameras. I received a call years ago asking for my housemate....it was the police. They were investigating a petrol theft from a local outlet. I was flabbergasted and said so...given he was a fairly senior Air Force officer...and a totally honest guy.. I asked them if they were SURE it was him. Turns out someone got confused looking at the camera footage... lol What impressed me was just how quickly that all happened. It seems our local police take the offence quite seriously.
Dec 10, 2017, 10:13 am
#22
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Undocumented sales involve an exchange of a good or service for money/valuables of a sort that the seller considers acceptable value for the goods/services wanted by the recipient/beneficiary of the goods/services sold. Sellers don’t consider their undocumented sales to be theft, but the government may consider such actions by sellers to be fraud (and or theft) by sellers of goods/services.
Until something is sold, there is neither a documented sale nor an undocumented sale. In other words, undocumented sales aren’t theft from the retailer/seller unless and until it involves embezzlement or fraud of sorts.
Until something is sold, there is neither a documented sale nor an undocumented sale. In other words, undocumented sales aren’t theft from the retailer/seller unless and until it involves embezzlement or fraud of sorts.
Last edited by GUWonder; Dec 11, 2017 at 12:16 am
Dec 10, 2017, 3:27 pm
#23
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Our petrol stations have squeegees...and paper towels...and often a choice between pay at the pump or pay inside...but you certainly can pump-then-pay...except for the middle of the night IME... They do of course have excellent surveillance cameras. I received a call years ago asking for my housemate....it was the police. They were investigating a petrol theft from a local outlet. I was flabbergasted and said so...given he was a fairly senior Air Force officer...and a totally honest guy.. I asked them if they were SURE it was him. Turns out someone got confused looking at the camera footage... lol What impressed me was just how quickly that all happened. It seems our local police take the offence quite seriously.
Dec 11, 2017, 3:42 am
#24
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Many petrol stations have a car wash attached, so there is a financial incentive to have offer items to clean your car for free.
With large regional variations, I don't believe the actual crime figures bare out that the UK is a kleptomania, certainly 5x less likely to be murdered here.
With large regional variations, I don't believe the actual crime figures bare out that the UK is a kleptomania, certainly 5x less likely to be murdered here.
Dec 22, 2017, 9:41 am
#25
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Well my question still nags as today I went to Sainsbury's in Canterbury and one must deposit a pound coin to get your cart and refund it when it's returned. Is shopping cart theft a big problem in England? I can understand southside of Detroit, but Canterbury? To make matters worse they were all stuck together and could not be lodged apart. I tried to find someone to help but my efforts were futile. I waited among a group of others to get it sorted out. You think on England's biggest food shopping day they would take preventative measures to make sure their carts were all functional and not stuck together.
Half ...!
Half ...!
Dec 22, 2017, 10:25 am
#26
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Well my question still nags as today I went to Sainsbury's in Canterbury and one must deposit a pound coin to get your cart and refund it when it's returned. Is shopping cart theft a big problem in England? I can understand southside of Detroit, but Canterbury? To make matters worse they were all stuck together and could not be lodged apart. I tried to find someone to help but my efforts were futile. I waited among a group of others to get it sorted out. You think on England's biggest food shopping day they would take preventative measures to make sure their carts were all functional and not stuck together.
Half ...!
Half ...!
This doesn't happen at Waitrose.
Dec 22, 2017, 3:37 pm
#28
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Well my question still nags as today I went to Sainsbury's in Canterbury and one must deposit a pound coin to get your cart and refund it when it's returned. Is shopping cart theft a big problem in England? I can understand southside of Detroit, but Canterbury? To make matters worse they were all stuck together and could not be lodged apart. I tried to find someone to help but my efforts were futile. I waited among a group of others to get it sorted out. You think on England's biggest food shopping day they would take preventative measures to make sure their carts were all functional and not stuck together.
Half ...!
Half ...!
Dec 22, 2017, 3:38 pm
#29
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It's not really theft that's the problem where you see the pound coin slots - a trolley is worth a good deal more than a pound - but more that it's a good way to keep staffing costs down in a location where they can have few trolley parks.
Where theft is a problem, you will see magnetically triggered brakes on the wheels. Locations for this may surprise you, but the proximity of university students (like in Canterbury) is often a factor...
Where theft is a problem, you will see magnetically triggered brakes on the wheels. Locations for this may surprise you, but the proximity of university students (like in Canterbury) is often a factor...