Retailers, including Walmart and Costco, reconsider self-checkout lanes

Self-checkout registers at grocery stores may just be a fad, as multiple companies are reconsidering their use.

The second look by Walmart, Costco, and Wegmans stems from complaints that customers have about using the machines, along with growth in possible theft through the use of these checkouts.

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And it’s not just in the United States. Booths, a British supermarket chain, plans to remove its self-checkout stations from almost all 28 stores, two of which will keep these stations.

“Our customers have told us this over time — that the self-scan machines that we’ve got in our stores … can be slow, they can be unreliable, [and] they’re obviously impersonal,” Booths Managing Director Nigel Murray said.

Part of the reason Booths is planning to ditch most of its self-checkout stations stems from customers having trouble identifying the fruit they are trying to check out, as some “don’t know one different apple versus another.” Another problem with self-checkout arises when a customer wants to buy alcohol because a store employee needs to approve the purchase, defeating the purpose of using a self-checkout lane.

Another problem plaguing outlets using self-checkout lanes is “shrink,” a term used to refer to loss or stolen merchandise by consumers, either intentionally or unintentionally. A study by Alpha Galileo found that stores in the U.S. and Europe using self-checkout lanes and apps had a loss rate of about 4%, much higher than the industry average.

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Costco management stated that its shrink has increased “in part, we believe, due to the rollout of self-checkout.”

As a result of these mishaps, some outlets are taking action to tone down the use of self-checkout. Walmart, for example, has removed its self-checkout lanes at several stores in New Mexico, and Costco stated in June that it would be adding more staff to its self-checkout lanes to prevent theft from customers.