Shopper shares supermarket self-checkout hack

A man has gone viral after claiming to have found a “loophole” in Coles’ self-checkout system that lets shoppers save money – and he insists it’s not theft.

The clip, which was a recorded segment of The Kick It Forward podcast, was shared on TikTok and details how one of the hosts discovered a surprising quirk in the supermarket’s weighing scales.

According to him, the self-serve checkout scales aren’t sensitive enough to accurately measure light produce.

“I found a loophole using the Coles self-scanner fruit and veg scales, and you won’t believe this, but it’s not just theft,” he joked.

“I don’t think the scales are designed to weigh things that are really light. They aren’t sensitive enough to go down to exact grams. I discovered this by weighing a single chili.

“It charged me only three cents for one chili which was $30 a kilo. I did the math, and wondered, ‘This single chili can’t weigh one gram, can it?’”

So, he took the chili home and weighed it on some microscales he had and discovered that it actually weighed 10 grams, meaning he should have been charged 30 cents instead of the three cents he paid.

“Now, obviously, if you put 10 chilies on there, it will become heavy enough for the scales to be accurate since there’s enough weight,” he noted. “But if you’re willing to weigh just one chili at a time, you can save big bucks”.

His co-host then quipped, “What about if you cut up a banana into 20 pieces? What are you going to do? Weigh every spinach leaf by itself? Shopping for groceries would take four hours”.

But the savvy shopper insisted: “I’m allowed to do this!”

The controversial video quickly racked up thousands of views and comments, with viewers split between thinking it was genius to saying it was stupid.

“Shush, don’t tell them,” one commenter joked, while another warned, “Don’t let Woolies or Coles see this”.

“I do this with garlic,” one woman admitted. “A few cloves has come to $0.00 before for me”‍️.

But others weren’t as impressed by the so-called hack.

“Wow, you do all this just to save 20 cents,” one person pointed out.

“25 years ago I worked at Franklin’s. I literally had a customer do this – every carrot, every literal grape, every potato, one at a time and paid for individually,” someone else shared.

While the TikToker insists the trick isn’t theft, the law might see it differently.

According to lawyers Alison and Jillian Barrett, intentionally not paying the full price of items is against the law.

They previously told news.com.au that people who cheat the system by underpaying at self-checkouts are contributing to a significant theft problem in Australia, which costs retailers several billion dollars annually.

“This dishonest behavior unfortunately affects us all by pushing up grocery prices,” they said.