Self-checkout. That mysterious invention that has seen consumption of brown onions skyrocket and that of avocado plummet. The worst nightmare of the shopper that has filled their trolley with a big shop, only to see no staff on the main checkouts. This article from Business Insider suggests that many of the biggest retailers in the United States – Walmart, Kroger and Costco amongst them – are struggling with self-checkouts and are not seeing the cost savings that they hoped.
The reason of this reckoning with self-checkout is simple, theft. Estimates in this article suggest that inventory losses can rise between 31% to 60% depending on the number of self-checkouts used in store. Any cost savings start to be eroded by increased theft.
The experience has been similar in Australia, where the major supermarkets have recently reported a rise in shoplifting.
Retailers are trying all kinds of things to reduce this theft: from smart cameras to assisted scan technology and even redesigning entries and exits to stores. Walmart have also been experimenting with new ‘hybrid’ designs for self-checkouts, where shoppers can opt to scan and pay on their own or have the Walmart staff do it for them.
Walmart announced earlier this month that it would be pulling self-checkout from at least three stores in Albuquerque, New Mexico and replacing the lanes with traditional staffed registers. Similarly Costco has recently announced it will be putting more staff on self-checkouts to assist with scanning and to check Costco membership cards.
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