Supermarket workers have revealed the worst underhand tactics they've witnessed shoppers use in a bid to cheat the system and grab an unfair bargain.
It comes after one store noticed a growing trend in customers snapping the stalks off broccoli to decrease the weight - resulting in a sign being put up to warn they would charge double if shoppers were caught in the act.
But it turns out stalk snappers are just the tip of the iceberg, as workers shared their own similar experiences with crafty customers.
Mike, who was previously the manager of a supermarket in Australia, said the attempts are no different to stealing - so don't do it or you could find yourself in a lot of trouble.
He said one of the most common scams was customers pulling discount stickers off one item and placing it on another, as reported by News.com.au.
Policy meant the store had to honour the discounted rate so to combat it they started adding product codes to discount stickers to be able to track which item it was originally attached to.
But customers then started simply tearing those details off the sticker too and Mike said it was a 'constant game of cat and mouse'.
People would also bash holes in packaging, such as cereal boxes, before trying to claim a discount on the item.
The former manager said they would be able to identify serial offenders because they would see them hunched over a product on CCTV, which 'no one does normally'.
A manager of another store said - similar to the broccoli scam - shoppers often rip stalks from tomatoes to make them cheaper and the bottom of crates were always full of tomato trusses which 'hadn't just fallen off spontaneously'.
He also said his store used bags with a plastic insert at the bottom to maintain the structure, and it was the perfect size to hide a chocolate bar underneath. If customers were caught, they would simply say it slipped under of its own accord and it had been an innocent mistake.
One of Mike's pet peeves was customers who would eat fruit on the way round the shop, such as a banana, and then simply weigh the peel when it came time to pay.
He said they would often grab the largest apple or banana they could find, eat it, and then dig out the smallest piece of fruit as substitute for staff to weigh instead, claiming it was identical to the one they had already scoffed.
Although the cost of what the customers were getting away with each visit was insignificant, it all adds up.
Mike added: "Over a course of a year some of these people were getting away with hundreds of dollars through their cheap little tricks. It’s essentially stealing."
