Many people love self-checkout.

That group includes people who are in a rush, people who don’t like making small talk, and customers who don’t like the idea of someone else touching their items.

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Self-checkout also appeals to people who like to steal. They may not consider themselves thieves, but they forget to scan an item or don’t try as hard as they could to make sure items scan.

Retailers face a major challenge in that some people are stealing, and others are honestly victim to something not scanning right. It’s very difficult to tell, and most retailers are not going out of their way to call their customers thieves.

Store personnel, even those in security positions, are not paid enough to accuse people unless they are very sure. 

That makes self-checkout an attractive proposition for retailers looking to save money on labor, but a dangerous one for theft and customer relations.

In theory, retail chains would offer the proper mix of traditional checkouts and self-checkout. 

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That’s generally not what happens. Many retailers, in recent years, have skimped on traditional checkouts and pushed people to use self-checkout.

Some customers resent that, and others see it as an invitation to steal. 

Self-checkout does save money on labor, but at what cost?

Image source: Getty Images

Walmart makes self-checkout changes

Walmart has a number of ways to combat theft in its self-checkout aisles. The company does not comment on its safety measures, but former employees have shared some details.

The chain, it is believed, has the ability to shut off self-checkout. It can then dispatch the proper personnel to make sure items have been scanned correctly. 

In theory, customers will see this as being a glitch and not Walmart  (WMT)  questioning their integrity. And since there’s so much gray area around whether an item was missed by the scanner or not scanned intentionally, the store likely will just correct any mistakes.

Walmart, like Target, has also limited self-checkout item numbers in some stores. That may also come with closer employee supervision.

“Self-checkout at my store is 15 items or less now, and employees are only allowed to watch one self-checkout machine,” ActiveInfinite8610 posted on Reddit about a year ago.

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Many questioned how that saved Walmart money over traditional checkouts.

“Wait, what’s the point of self-checkout if you need one employee per a self-checkout machine. At that point, are we just allowing our associates to be lazy or saying that customers can check themselves out faster than employees,” added Nedrith.

Walmart uses the nuclear option

Walmart has been selectively removing self-checkout at some stores. That includes a Supercenter in Shrewsbury, Missouri, following a significant increase in police calls related to theft.

“The decision comes after local law enforcement data revealed a dramatic decrease in incidents once the self-checkout kiosks were removed,” Retail Customer Experience reported.

The local police department shared that calls related to theft at Walmart dropped dramatically once the self-checkout machines were removed.

This is not the first time Walmart has taken self-checkout out of a store. The chain has not denied the removals, but has generally not commented on them.

Rival Dollar General, however, has been vocal about its decision to pull self-checkout from all of its locations.

“As we discussed on last quarter’s call, we converted approximately 9,000 stores away from self-checkout during the quarter, following the quick and successful conversion of these stores in Q1, and given the ongoing challenge from shrink, we converted approximately 3,000 additional stores away from self-checkout in May, bringing us to approximately 12,000 conversions completed in total,” Dollar General CEO Todd Vasos said during the chain’s first-quarter 2024 earnings call.

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Vasos made it clear why the change was being made, beyond promoting more customer interaction.

“Shrink continues to be the most significant headwind in our business,” he added.

Target has limited many of its self-checkout lanes to 10 items or less and has cut self-checkout hours in some stores.