The fight for self-service checkouts. In America they are restricted because of theft and better shopping

Pstore operators in the United States are changing the way they use self-service checkouts. Some companies are eliminating them entirely, while others, such as Target, Dollar General and regional chain Schnucks, are limiting the number of items customers can bring to self-checkout. They want to reduce losses from theft, improve customer experience and relieve staff, writes The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

A Walmart spokesperson said that in recent months, the company has pulled self-checkout from several stores based on feedback from employees and customers. This is also a topic in the Czech Republic, for example the head of the Albert chain stated that self-service checkouts are more expensive than a person.

“When self-checkouts were first introduced, they were designed for smaller orders,” said Schnuck spokesman Paul Simon. When their use has expanded to a larger number of items, everything needs to be reassessed, he added. Schnuck is now limiting the use of self-service checkouts to a maximum of ten items. While the main goal is to improve customer service and checkout efficiency, the company also expects some reduction in theft, Simon said.

Customers want shopping to be completed quickly, but labor is often the store’s biggest cost. Self-service checkouts were introduced to reduce the cost of operating checkouts. Thanks to self-service checkouts, one worker can monitor several shoppers at the same time and help them if necessary.

Companies like CVS Health introduced self-checkout systems 20 years ago. Their use was accelerated by the covid-19 pandemic, when contact between people decreased. However, self-service checkouts have also contributed to the rise of shrink, a term used in the retail industry to describe losses caused by theft, loss of inventory or damage to merchandise. This is because shoppers make mistakes or steal. Traders who are hesitating to spend more money on staff are deciding whether to cut labor costs or fight theft losses.

In a LendingTree survey of 2,000 shoppers last year, about a fifth of people said they had mistakenly taken an item without paying for it when using a self-checkout. About 15 percent of self-checkout users admitted to stealing an item on purpose. Some people are posting videos on social media of shoppers scanning a lower priced item instead of the more expensive item that should have been scanned.

“In the past, shoplifting was mostly invisible,” said David Johnston, vice president of asset protection and retail operations for the National Retail Federation (NRF). “Today we are witnessing practices that are quite blatant and shameless.”

Most Target stores have limited the number of items for purchase at self-checkout to ten. During testing in some stores, the company found that this cut customer check-in time in half compared to places where this restriction was not introduced. After the rollout in all stores, employees also saw a reduction in lost merchandise, a company representative said.

The largest American retail chain, Walmart, has completely abolished self-service checkouts in some locations and replaced them with manned checkouts. In some places, self-service checkouts can be used by customers with a preferential membership, for which they pay an annual fee.

Walmart has added more self-service checkouts from stores in the past. But he quickly discovered that this brought problems, such as higher theft rates and customer mistreatment of the technology. In response, he quietly turned off weight sensors at self-checkout counters because they too often triggered “wait for assistance” messages, which annoyed shoppers and staff alike.

In 2022, Dollar General stated that self-checkouts are so successful and popular that they will attempt to equip some stores exclusively with self-checkouts. But a year later, CEO Todd Vasos backed away from those plans. In March, the company said it would eliminate self-service checkouts in stores with the highest product losses. At the remaining stores, customers will be able to use self-service cash registers when purchasing a maximum of five items.