Posted on 03/18/2024 8:17:28 PM PDT by Morgana
They were introduced as a way to cut lines, boost efficiency in store and reduce staffing numbers - and boomed in popularity during the Covid-19 pandemic.
But is the self checkout falling out of favor with big-name retailers?
In recent weeks, Dollar General, Target and Walmart have all announced sweeping changes to automated registers in stores across the US.
Experts say the rollback is linked, mostly, to fears around theft - as it is much easier for customers to shoplift items at the self checkout rather than a checkout with a cashier.
But retailers say they are also trying to provide a better shopping experience for customers by imposing limits on self checkout, making the process quicker and easier.
ast week, Dollar General announced it was pulling self checkout stands entirely from 300 of its stores with the highest level of shoplifting and mis-scanned items.
In 9,000 other locations it said it is converting some of its self checkout registers to regular cashier checkouts, and limiting self checkout purchases to five items or less in a further 4,500 stores.
The company said the changes would help reduce 'shrink'. This is the retail industry jargon for merchandise losses due to theft, damaged items and administrative errors.
'We believe these actions have the potential to have a material and positive impact on shrink,' Dollar General CEO Todd Vasos said on a call with analysts Thursday.
According to a study of retailers in the US, UK and other European countries, stores that had self checkouts had a loss rate of about 4 percent more than the industry average.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
It must have started with the WalMart slogan on the checkout lanes (SCAN AND GO). The order to the printshop was supposed to be “Scan, PAY and Go”
Fake news. Our local Walmart neighborhood store just added at least six additional self serv checkouts. It’s reduced waiting times.
I've gotten so used to setting up my items in the cart to be quickly scanned at Costco that I now just head to the regular checkout lines where very few are using. The checkout workers are pleased to see nearly everything lined up, and I get a more pleasant checkout experience.
They thought that folks wouldn’t mind working for free. Looks like “shrinkage” caused them to rethink the whole “unpaid cashier” idea.
My local WallyWorld is currently undergoing a renovation.....and returning to the layout the store had 15 years ago.....the one exception is that they’re doubling self-checkout while halving the cashier checkouts. The newest MBA in the corporate office must have missed the message.....
Self-checkout is fine in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Where I live in Texas theft is still illegal, so the DEIs know to head over to ‘the city’.
(as it is much easier for customers to shoplift items at the self checkout rather than a checkout with a cashier.)
DUH!!!!!
I prefer self-checkout. I get it right. The cashiers around here, not so much.
“But some locations may choose to temporarily limit the automated registers based on customer flow, meaning there are times the only self checkout lines open are those reserved for Walmart+ members.”
should the day arrive that that ever happens at my local walmart is the day i park my shopping cart and walk out ...
it’s getting bad enough trying to shop at walmart anyway: half the cans are dented, over half of the egg cartons have broken eggs, and they’re always out of gallons of 2% organic milk ... and a couple of weeks ago, only one out of five items on my list was in stock ... there’s only a couple of things now that i even try to buy from walmart ...
Lizard Cheney does her own checkout?
In this day and age the technology should be there to push your cart or bag thru a conveyor scanner andit tallies everything instantaneously without having to take anything out. Just ring everything up, insert card, and go.
The design of self-checkout is pathetic. It needs to be re-thought and re-engineered, then built from scratch. No reasonable manager would expect efficiency from employees if they had to deal with the crap layout of self checkout.
I like self check out if I have just a few items. If I have a basket full I hate self check out as a checker can do it must faster than I can. I no longer shop at Walmart due to this. I shop at HEB here in Texas. In the past I shopped at both. Oddly I did shop at Walmart today as I needed some automotive purchases. The only time I go to Walmart is for something HEB does not have.
Agree. It’s demographics.
I don’t go to Dollar General or Target, but Walmart better hire some cashiers at my store if they plan on getting rid of their self-checkouts. They have hardly any people working the cash registers at my store, and at 76, I’m not going to stand in line to get checked out. I’ll just go to another store, because I usually have to shop between 3 stores here anyway, just to be able to find what I need.
Ha! Mine went through a renovation last fall and had a Grand Reopening in November. I asked one of the store clerks, how can you have a Grand Reopening when you don't have anything on your shelves for people to buy?
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