by JeffBet | Date of Publishing: 3 March 2025
Visits to the grocery store are a part of most Americans’ lives, with some shopping more frequently than others. When picking up their grocery items, however, some shoppers are not always honest. From consuming a product while shopping and not paying for it to purposely skipping an item when scanning at self-checkout, Americans admitted to many dishonest habits in 2025.
In a new study, we set out to learn where these habits occur most often. To do this, we surveyed Americans in every state and asked about their level of honesty when shopping, the stores they most commonly cheat in and more. Read on to learn more about our findings.
To determine where Americans are the most dishonest while shopping, we asked about a variety of known tactics people use to get out of paying full price for items. This included purposely not scanning items at self-checkout, swapping price stickers and more. We then calculated the percentage of residents in each state who admitted to doing at least one of these things. States were then ranked from the highest to lowest percentages.
Leading the way with 55% of residents admitting to dishonest shopping behaviors is Nebraska. Of all the habits asked about, residents of the state are most guilty of entering produce codes for cheaper items. So rather than paying for the pricier, organic apples, they pay for the cheaper apples sold in the store.
Up next is Illinois, where 53% of the residents admit to dishonest shopping. Nearly 1 in 5 residents of the state say they have purposely not scanned an item at checkout. In third place is Oregon (52%), where residents are the most likely in the U.S. to have entered incorrect produce codes to pay a cheaper price.
On the other end of the spectrum, we discovered Montana residents are the most honest when shopping with only 20% of residents admitting to dishonest shopping habits. North Dakota is up next with 22% of residents reporting dishonest behavior. Finally, New Jersey ranks third for the most honest.
Sometimes mistakes happen, like a small item falling behind another in your shopping cart causing you to miss it while scanning at self-checkout. In that case, we found Wyoming and Idaho residents are the most likely to go back into the store to pay for the item. We also discovered that dishonesty can bring out honesty in others as South Dakota and California residents are the most likely to see someone doing something and report it or address the person directly.
Overall, 89% of Americans think inflation or “greedflation” has caused shoppers to be more dishonest. Some even blame the newer technology with 81% believing the presence of self-checkout has increased theft. This worries some people though, as 67% of Americans think theft will cause self-checkout to go away.
After uncovering where Americans are most and least honest while shopping, we wanted to learn more about the dishonest habits people are most guilty of. Up first, with nearly 1 in 5 people admitting to it, is entering produce codes incorrectly for a cheaper price. The second most common habit is purposely not scanning an item at self-checkout, which 1 in 6 Americans say they’ve done.
In third place is purposely using expired, incorrect or fake coupons to get a discount while shopping. Following closely behind in fourth place is consuming an item while shopping. Whether you are snacking on a bag of chips or sipping on a cold beverage, it doesn’t matter if you’ve finished it by the time you checkout, you still need to pay for it.
Although people provide many reasons for these dishonest habits, we found that 1 in 5 say they do it because of a store’s size and ability to absorb their cheat. Similarly, 1 in 6 people say the store’s greedy prices are their justification.
When it comes to the specific stores in which Americans practice dishonest habits, we discovered Walmart and Target are the most common. Overall, however, 69% of Americans think people steal more from stores now than they did in the past.
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In this study, we set out to determine where Americans are the most and least honest while shopping. To do this, we surveyed residents in every state and asked about their shopping habits. Dishonest habits we asked about included not scanning items at self-checkout, swapping price stickers, purposely using expired, incorrect or fake coupons for a discount and more. Using those responses, we calculated the percentage of people who said they have done one or multiple dishonest things while shopping and then ranked states from the highest to lowest percentage, with the highest representing the most dishonest shoppers.
Author: JeffBet
JeffBet is an online gambling company founded in 2022. Its product offerings are online casino, online slots, live dealer games, table games and sports betting. The organisation holds regulatory gambling licenses in the UK and Malta.
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