Cider Scam.
About a year or so ago, I discovered the delights of Koppaberg Pear Cider but it was quite hard to get hold of back then. However, it turned out that my local supermarket (which may or may not be advertised by a fat-tongued chef, and for the purposes of this answer, qualifies as "The Man") had a supply. The first time I bought some, I grabbed two boxes of four cans each, among some other shopping. When I got home I looked at the receipt and found that I had been charged £5.49 for one of the boxes and £1.45 for the other box. I thought about this for a while and realised that somehow the barcode reader must have read the barcode on one of the cans, rather than the one on the box, and that the till operator hadn't noticed. I idly wondered if maybe there was a way to influence the processing of the shopping through the till, so that this could happen more often. I came to the conclusion that maybe if I placed the box on the conveyor belt in such a way that the scanner would be more likely to read the barcode on one of the cans, I might be able to save a few quid on the price of the delicious fruit based brew.

On my next trip I tried it out. I did a normal-ish shop and grabbed 3 boxes of Koppaberg. When I was putting the shopping on the conveyor belt, I made sure that the barcode on the box was furthest away from the scanner, and that the barcodes on the scanner were facing the side that the scanner would read. To my surprise it worked almost perfectly, and two of the three boxes were priced up at £1.45. Result. Next time, I tried it again. Unfortunately, on this trip, the cider was all that I was buying, and the till operator was on the case and noticed that £4.35 was a little on the low side for twelve cans of premium brand cider. She fiddled about with the boxes and the scanner until the right prices came up. This meant that I had to rethink my strategy somewhat. After some further experimentation, it dawned on me that the supermarket had two broad categories of till operators - middle-aged women, who had been doing it for years and didn't miss a trick, and young men who had been promoted from pushing trolleys around the carpark, who did miss tricks. Therefore, it became a simple matter of picking the right till operator, and arranging the shopping in a certain way, and, bingo, cheap, cheap Kopparberg. I also decided to always pay cash, and not use my loyalty card, so they wouldn't be able to trace me. I must have got away with this for about three months before they worked it out and changed their pricing so that the tills would only charge for sets of 4 cans.

I did wonder about the morality of this but figured that they probably lose more in kids eating the pick n mix than they did to me, so screw them if they couldn't get their operating processes right. Apologies for length, but it's such a lovely drink that I would have been more than happy to pay full price for it
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( Ping_Pang_Piddley_Dee couldn't give a big shiny fuck., Fri 18 Jun 2010, 10:21, 9 replies)

Nice story
that stuff is too sickeningly sweet for me though.. Beer or Lager all the way.
( whenanimalsattackhumans clad in global hypercolour, Fri 18 Jun 2010, 10:28, closed)

Haha
I agree with your nomenclature: lager isn't proper beer.
( .Yeti. El amor en los tiempos del cólera, Fri 18 Jun 2010, 10:35, closed)

Natch or Thatchers Gold all the way!

( JeffTheDogFucker Can you dig it?, Fri 18 Jun 2010, 10:41, closed)

Thatchers Gold
is the bollox
(Hernandez Fiendish probably won't be here until at least, say, Fri 18 Jun 2010, 10:42, closed)

Ahhh proper westcountry cider
also Chedder Vally
(sittingduck Attention seeking, bullshitting fuck-knuckle, Fri 18 Jun 2010, 12:52, closed)

A click for Kopparberg
*raises glass*
(Reverend Fister "a disciplined fuckwit", Fri 18 Jun 2010, 11:43, closed)

Good on you.
I say this as a (fairly alert) checkout monkey myself - it's hard to get past a) scanners and b) anyone paying attention on a till. These companies make millions upon millions. If you find a reliable, sly way to get one over on them do it. Do also remember that you can get caught.

As a representative of the supermarket "Man" my tip is this: reduced barcodes are on the products they refer to. Scan a barcode from a box of fruit, it will register as fruit - not as the bottle of champagne you've stuck it on. It is also unwise to tear packaging and demand a reduced price as it is usually obvious and someone else will buy it at full price, damaged or not. If you're that desperate for a bargain, ask when the last reductions are and come back then.
( Bats, Fri 18 Jun 2010, 16:59, closed)

Koppaberg,
is revolting piss made by sugar goblins. Jack Rats FTW.
( The Awful Puppy Bakery is still bored, Sun 20 Jun 2010, 17:17, closed)

Kopparberg
is lovely, however the mixed berries is the nicest, followed by the elderflower and lime.
(epinephrine, Mon 21 Jun 2010, 15:39, closed)