The self checkouts will have to be replaced with employees running the check stands. My question is, is the loss from self checkout theft greater than the pay for check stand operators?
“My question is, is the loss from self checkout theft greater than the pay for check stand operators?”
Per hour yes. In their greed to cut labor costs they stepped on their own feet.
Some base math to help bring it into perspective. If you have a product that costs you a dollar and your sell price is $1.50 and someone steals just one you have to give away three for free to break even on cost and profit for that one item.
So you are not just out the profit you would have made, you are also out the cost to replace that item. This adds up three times faster as the true loss. If one in every four of these items are stolen you never do catch up and make a dime.