The Incidence of Scanner Fraud At the Grocery Checkout: Does Anyone Care?

Scanner technology in the grocery sector has not totally eliminated error at the checkout, resulting in consumers sometimes being charged more than the shelf price of the item. Largely considered a ‘dead’ or marginal issue, overcharging continues to occur and raise the ire of shoppers. Initial findings from this exploratory stage of a two stage study indicate a level of scanner error inconsistent with the technology employed, the existence of three consumer complaint behaviour groups, and potential loyalty impacts which should be of great concern to managers. Whilst at present formative, the consistency of the response, “at times” and strongly emotive shopper narratives would indicate that a dedicated research agenda is justified.

Citation:

Paul Pickering and Sanjaya S. Gaur (2009) ,"The Incidence of Scanner Fraud At the Grocery Checkout: Does Anyone Care?", in AP - Asia-Pacific Advances in Consumer Research Volume 8, eds. Sridhar Samu, Rajiv Vaidyanathan, and Dipankar Chakravarti, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 357-358.