- Retailers were hoping to save significant labor costs by implementing self-checkout lanes.
- Recent moves by major retailers suggest it’s proving more difficult than expected.
- It appears that many stores still need physical personnel to help customers with their purchases.
Self-checkout may not save you money.”revolutionSome retailers were looking forward to it.
More than 30 years after the introduction of self-checkout and the promise of lower labor costs, the technology has become widespread in stores across the United States.
Currently includes retailers Costco, Walmart and Kroger are rethinking some of their self-checkout strategies. Some businesses still feel they need employees to provide anti-theft protection, purchase assistance, ID verification, receipt verification, and more.
Costco, for example, has started asking employees to verify their membership cards. Assists in self-checkout lanes and assists with scanning products.
The company said the measure will help crack down on shoppers who inappropriately share their memberships at self-checkout. Costco relies on membership fees for most of its profits.
Walmart announced last week that pull the self-checkout At least three stores in Albuquerque, New Mexico, replaced lanes with traditional manned cash registers.
The company did not elaborate on the reason for the change, saying it has no plans to eliminate self-checkout “widely.”
Walmart began rolling out a hybrid approach to self-checkout in 2020. The redesigned checkout zone replaced traditional lanes with a corral of staffed kiosks, giving shoppers the option of scanning and paying themselves or having an employee pay for them. .
The press release touted the human touch of the redesign.
“With this new layout, you will be greeted at the entrance and supported throughout the entire process,” store managers said in a release. “We’ll walk into any register. Whether you want to check out one item or all of your items, we’ll help you the way you want. If you have any questions, we’ll help you right away.”
Meanwhile, Kroger is eliminating traditional checkout options at at least one store in favor of self-checkout. But Kroger told Retail Dive that the change will not result in any layoffs, and that it will still have front-end staff to help scan and bag groceries.
This is a far cry from the labor minimization promised to technology retailers.
Kroger and Costco did not respond to requests from Insider for details on their self-checkout strategies. A Walmart spokesperson said the company continues to review and adjust its procedures as needed.
Retailers are investing in technology to monitor self-checkout theft
Industry estimates suggest that inventory losses could increase by: 31%~60% — or more — depending on the number of self-checkout stations used in the store.
Matt Kelly, a loss prevention expert who worked in asset protection at Home Depot, told Insider last year that self-checkout forces retailers to make trade-offs between saving on labor costs and increasing theft costs. Ta.
“Essentially, it means there will be less attention to the deal,” Kelly, now at Liveview Technologies, added at the time. “And there will be more opportunities for dishonest people to be dishonest.”
Walmart and Kroger use sophisticated video monitoring and sensor technology to track products in their stores and self-checkout lanes. But some shoppers told Insider they are still seeing unpaid items go through without raising alarm.
Missing or skipping scans is not always intentional. Both humans and machines make mistakes. In any case, the solution seems to be the same. Assigning employees to monitor and assist customers.
Christopher Andrews, a sociologist at Drew University and author of “The Overworked Consumer,” said: CNN Far from being the autonomous cash collection machines retailers had hoped for last year, self-checkouts required monitoring, maintenance, and IT support.
Self-checkout, he told the publication, “doesn’t provide anything that is expected.”
Indeed, many retailers are still investing in this technology. But some people seem to be rethinking how to use it and whether to involve more people in the process to make it go more smoothly.
Watch now: Popular videos from Insider Inc.
Loading…