Millions of pounds left behind at supermarket self service machines

Over the last ten years, self-service tills have become a common fixture in supermarkets across the country. They have caused a big backlash and a lot of controversy, replacing staff members. However, the new (and often awkward to use) self-service scanners have reportedly caused millions of pounds of cash to be forgotten by customers and left in-store.
At the end of a transaction, the screens of the tills pop up a message with a reminder to customers to take their change. However, this friendly advice isn’t always followed or taken heed of, and distracted shoppers have been leaving their change behind.
The sheer amount of people doing this has led to Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsburys Asda, and Waitrose all implementing policies on what to do with the left-behind cash.
An analyst from Kantar World Panel has been reported to make a “conservative estimate” of £500 per store, per year, which, with 5,000 stores with self-service checkouts, would add up to £2.5 million every year.
Tesco and Sainsbury’s both hold on to the cash that is found at these tills for a certain amount of time, before donating it to charity.
Asda hold onto the cash for a week, before turning it over to the police.
Morrisons, however, have referred to the law on stolen property, and so hold onto the cash for a lengthy number of weeks before letting the person who originally found it and handed it in to claim the cash.
So next time you are using the self-service machines, take an extra moment to check you have all of your cash with you, so that you aren’t contributing to the millions of pounds being lost.