Retail giant Walmart is backing off its bet on self-checkouts. In several stores in the United States, the company has begun remove these machines and to reinstall employee-staffed checkouts, amid concerns about theft and customer experience.
Walmart eliminated self-checkout checkouts at its South Philadelphia store in March, replacing them with traditional lanes with cashiers. This decision joins other recent cases.
At a Missouri branch, the company took action after self-checkouts were linked to 509 police calls in just five months.
During 2024, deepest checkouts will also be reintroduced in stores in Shrewsbury, Missouri, and Cleveland, Ohio, with the goal of improving the shopping experience.
Walmart defends the change
The company ensures that the decision responds to the needs of each community and comments from customers and employees.
In a statement, he explained: “These changes are guided by feedback from associates and customers, local purchasing patterns and the needs of the business in each community.”
Regarding the specific case of Philadelphia, he added: “We updated the checkout area in our South Philadelphia Supercenter to improve the payment experience and allow associates to provide more personalized service.”
The theft problem behind the change
Although self-checkout was promoted as a way to reduce lines and improve efficiency – in addition to reducing labor costs – in practice it has been prone to losses.
A LendingTree study revealed that 69% of users believe that self-checkout facilitates theft, while 27% admitted to taking an item without intentionally scanning it.
Financial expert Ted Jenkins said: “Walmart is not just eliminating self-checkout,” adding that the company would be admitting the economic impact of these thefts.
For his part, retail specialist Bryan Gildenberg explained: “Walmart regularly reviews its stores based on theft and customer experience and eliminates self-checkout in stores with the highest level of theft.”
Another expert, Neil Saunders, pointed out that losses are not always intentional, but accidental errors, such as forgetting to scan a product or registering it twice, also influence losses.
Saunders added that forcing more customers to use employee-attended checkouts solves many of these problems and saves retailers money.
Other retailers make similar decisions
Walmart is not the only company that is rethinking the use of self-checkout.
In 2024, Dollar General decided to retire these machines in 12,000 stores nationwide, leaving only a few available.
On the other hand, Sam’s Club, a Walmart subsidiary, announced that will completely eliminate self-checkouts to implement its artificial intelligence-based technology ‘Scan & Whisk’.
Meanwhile, Costco has also begun implementing similar technologies, although with no plans to completely eliminate self-checkout in all of its stores.
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