After years of investing in self-checkout machines, some major retailers are starting to reverse course.<\/p>\n
Dollar General said it has eliminated self-checkout options at about 12,000 locations, a majority of its stores, after it began the process in the first quarter this year. Five Below is working to remove self-checkout entirely in some of its \u201chighest-risk\u201d locations. Target also announced steps to limit or eliminate self-checkout options at some stores this year, and Amazon is pulling its \u201cJust Walk Out\u201d cashierless checkout system from its grocery stores.<\/p>\n
The U-turns are occurring at retailers that once touted the upsides of fully self-service stores. As recently as 2022, Dollar General described self-checkout technology\u2019s potential to \u201cenhance the convenience proposition, while enabling our associates to dedicate even more time to serving customers.\u201d The company had tried to test stores with 100% self-checkout kiosks in hundreds of its retail locations.<\/p>\n
Five Below said it\u2019s removing self-checkout options in locations it considers at high risk for thefts.<\/span>Angus Mordant \/ Bloomberg via Getty Images file <\/span><\/p>\n The decisions come amid retailers\u2019 ongoing efforts to tamp down on \u201cshrink,\u201d an industry term for all the ways inventory can get lost, including through error or theft by shoppers or employees.<\/p>\n Some of the companies shifting gears on self-checkout have blamed theft for their moves. In March, Five Below CEO Joel Anderson said the most significant change the company made in testing theft mitigation efforts was to replace self-checkout options with employees. Dollar General CEO Todd Vasos said in May that the company\u2019s goal is to restrict self-checkout to high-traffic, low-theft locations.<\/p>\n Still, the industry\u2019s shoplifting complaints have occasionally raised eyebrows, and at least one retail executive admitted last year to overstating shrink concerns.<\/p>\n Shrink at self-checkouts \u201ccan be absolutely intentional from bad actors,\u201d said Claire Tassin, a retail and e-commerce analyst at Morning Consult, \u201cor it could be accidental.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI know I\u2019m not the only one who has struggled with a self-checkout machine,\u201d she said. In some cases, though, customers may be purposefully \u201cpretending to scan something and just bagging it anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n People are always complaining about the machines\u2019 being difficult to use, or loud, or just challenging in some way.<\/p>\n Morning Consult ANalyst Claire Tassin<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n According to a LendingTree survey last year, 15% of self-checkout users admitted to stealing while they were using the machines. About 41% of consumers said they almost always use self-checkout when it\u2019s available, but 21% said the option feels like they\u2019re performing \u201cfree labor,\u201d and 14% saw it as taking a job from a would-be cashier.<\/p>\n Representatives for Dollar General and Five Below didn\u2019t immediately comment.<\/p>\n Tassin said some retailers may also be looking to improve the customer experience. \u201cPeople are always complaining about the machines\u2019 being difficult to use or loud or just challenging in some way,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n That\u2019s how Jerome Osei described them recently at a Morton Williams supermarket in New York City. \u201cI have to wait for someone to come in and fix it, and it\u2019s just a waste of time,\u201d he said, opting for the cashier checkout, instead.<\/p>\n Other shoppers there had more favorable views. \u201cSuper fast, easy, convenient\u201d was fellow shopper Jessi Clayton\u2019s review. \u201cIt\u2019s a great option to have, especially when you\u2019re in a hurry.\u201d<\/p>\n Consumers who\u2019ve fretted about self-checkouts\u2019 impact on jobs might be cheered by the recent rollbacks. Five Below and Dollar General said they\u2019re reinvesting in workers as part of their changes.<\/p>\n \u201cIt tells us that it is more profitable for the retailer to pay employees to manage checkout,\u201d Tassin said. \u201cAnd they\u2019re of course going to be better at it than the average untrained consumer than it is to support the machines, where they\u2019re probably getting less-than-accurate checkouts from consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n But despite the shift back toward human cashiers, she doesn\u2019t expect shoppers to have to pay more. \u201cRetailers know consumers are pretty pressed for prices. So I don\u2019t think this will make a massive, meaningful difference in consumer prices\u201d at the moment, she said.<\/p>\n While some stores are moving away from self-checkout, the option doesn\u2019t look like it\u2019s going away any time soon. An estimated 44% of transactions at grocery stores took place in self-checkout lanes last year, according to the Food Industry Association, up from 29% in 2022.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n After years of investing in self-checkout machines, some major retailers are starting to reverse course. Dollar General said it has eliminated self-checkout options at about 12,000 locations, a majority of its stores, after it began the process in the first quarter this year. Five Below is working to remove self-checkout entirely in some of its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5814,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}