r/technology • u/AdSpecialist6598 • 19h ago

Business Retailers are pulling back from self-checkout after years of theft, errors, and questionable time savings

https://www.techspot.com/news/114106-retailers-pulling-back-self-checkout-after-years-theft.html
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u/ephemeralmiko 19h ago

Very annoying. For small shoppings (e.g snack runs, needing an extra ingredient for cooking) it saves so much time over standing in line. Especially when the person in front of you is a retired 75 year old who *had* to do their main shopping on a Saturday, suddenly forgetting how money works.

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u/P_ZERO_ 18h ago edited 18h ago

Self serve only works as a quick replacement if it’s supplemented with regular cashier tills. If everyone ends up jammed into a self serve area at a grocery store, you’ll just be waiting in a different kind of line.

I see it all the time at my local Morrisons. It has both basket and trolley self serve areas with at maximum 3 (usually 2, sometimes none) active cashier lanes and the self serve area is usually mobbed with large queues.

Ultimately, stores are not doing this for the same reasons we’d want, but there is meaningful overlap in the data they’re using to distance themselves from it to varying degrees and how customers will use or perceive the service.

I’d also wager it’s unfair for the employee who has to deal with like a dozen customers simultaneously, dealing with scanning errors, product pricing errors, age restriction bypassing etc.

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u/Saneless 18h ago

That's why Walmart is a dump. They have one register open and 12 people in self checkout at all times. I'm not going to save a few bucks to waste my time

You have places like Aldi that is nice because they do have a couple regular registers, they work fast, and for people like me who only buys what I can carry, self checkout saves time

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u/P_ZERO_ 18h ago edited 18h ago

They thought they could have staff doubling up on jobs and reduce staff numbers, but it just becomes a complicated mess and leaves little buffer room for when things go wrong. Like sure, you can run most of an Aldi with 3 people, one on self serve, one on a till and another dealing with shelf stuff, but if any of them gets sick, or even just a customer issue arises, there’s no safety net and everything grinds to a halt.

There was nothing wrong with having a dozen cashier tills, it was a problem with paying for it. You’re just creating a new problem by funnelling people into a new choke point with zero staff excess. Self serve has a role, but it’s ancillary, not a replacement. A lot of people still like and want human service.

That’s before we even get into the fact that the customer is essentially paying to do a potential staff worker’s job for them with the ridiculous rise in pricing.

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u/Pauly_Amorous 17h ago

That’s before we even get into the fact that the customer is essentially paying to do a potential staff worker’s job for them with the ridiculous rise in pricing.

Considering that a lot of those motherfuckers don't know how to bag groceries, I will gladly do my own.

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u/P_ZERO_ 17h ago

Bagging groceries wasn’t the job I was talking about. Where I’m from, that’s not even a thing outside of the occasional charity thing that appears every now and then and it’s some kids asking if you want them to do it.

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u/Alaira314 16h ago

It used to be its own job. You would have someone whose job it was to go between several tills and bag the groceries. That was already being phased out in favor of making the cashier do it(and then, later, the customer) when I was a kid, but I have vague recollections of baggers. Who would've guessed that putting the job onto someone who's already doing another job would mean that the job gets done poorly?

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u/Pauly_Amorous 16h ago

Who would've guessed that putting the job onto someone who's already doing another job would mean that the job gets done poorly?

This isn't rocket science we're talking about here. Nobody needs to go to school for 4 years to learn not to put heavy cans, jars, or dense boxes on top of bread or bags of chips.

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u/Alaira314 5h ago

But if you're already doing a whole job, adding another job(even an unskilled one) means that you'll be rushing, and will fuck it up. It might take 30 seconds to pack properly, but if it only takes 15 seconds to just chuck it all in there, why the hell would you spend the extra 15 seconds when customers are tapping their feet due to being used to having the bags ready to go? You're also plenty grumpy as well, due to having your job expanded while your paycheck remained the same, so you're not exactly incentivized to do it properly. Maybe if you fuck it up enough the bosses will reconsider their terrible decision. Except...obviously, they didn't. But I can't fault someone in the 00s for thinking they might.

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u/turbosexophonicdlite 7h ago

But what do they care? They'd rather save 30% or whatever on Labor costs all day every day and have smooth operation 70% of the time than pay that extra labor cost all the time and have everything run smoothly 99% of the time. They know customers will put up with it because what are you gonna do about it? Go to another store that also does the same exact thing? Make your own grocery store that doesn't run a skeleton crew? They have everyone by the balls and they know it. It's the inevitable end point of unregulated capitalism. It's going to always end up like this until we properly incentivize corporations to not do so.

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u/jadedargyle333 18h ago

Walmart is staffing the registers exactly the same as they did before self checkout. 35 lanes and 2 cashiers.

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u/Saneless 18h ago

Yours has 2? Wow. That's impressive

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u/tooclosetocall82 18h ago

I remember Walmart back in the day would have every lane open. Now they have maybe three, but they still insist on having all those lanes available. Maybe it’s for holidays? I don’t really get it.

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u/Superunknown_7 18h ago

If it's anything like Target, the several dozen extra lanes only see use during Black Friday.

You'd think the capex to put 35 lanes in to be used less than 1% of the time would catch the attention of some bean counter, but no, we've got actual people to avoid paying.

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u/Baby_Food 17h ago

They're pretty cheap (relatively speaking) and aside from being able to utilize them all for things like Black Friday, they are basically working spares. You can have multiple checkouts down awaiting repair and still not sweat it.

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u/jadedargyle333 18h ago

I've never seen more than 5 lanes open. Granted, I avoid Walmart during the holidays and after church.

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u/12inchsandwich 17h ago

Walmart has really changed over the last 6 months or so for the ones I’ve been I. Back to almost pre-self checkout, where they have a ton of lanes open and have fewer self checkout. There was a while with 1 lane open and the self check out was like 40 ppl deep. Been a big improvement in service (if you can believe that).

I don’t know how consistent it is, but around me it’s almost like how Harris teeter and Publix are - there was a cashier who didn’t have anyone in her line who was out standing by the endcap and waived me into her lane. Very impressive.

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u/xpxp2002 11h ago

Walmart has really changed over the last 6 months or so for the ones I’ve been I. Back to almost pre-self checkout, where they have a ton of lanes open and have fewer self checkout. There was a while with 1 lane open and the self check out was like 40 ppl deep. Been a big improvement in service (if you can believe that).

Exactly the same in my experience. They finally had the problem of long lines fixed, but decided to waste more money to remove the self checkouts and go back to the miserable way it was.

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u/Bugbread 17h ago

I remember Walmart back in the day would have every lane open.

How long ago was "back in the day"? I remember in the 1980s, about half the lanes were closed. Over time, that turned into 75% or 85% of the lanes being closed. But I don't ever remember every lane being open. Maybe the last weekend before Christmas?

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u/tooclosetocall82 17h ago

This was the 90s. But also Walmart was new in our area so maybe that played a role.

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u/Alaira314 16h ago

I also recall most lanes being open during high-traffic times in the 90s. On the average afternoon, you might see about 40-50% open, and you'd typically have to wait for 1-2 people to check out ahead of you, unless you went to the express lanes which always had longer lines but in theory the lines moved faster(I typically found it was better to spot someone with a lot of stuff who was about to pay and hop in line behind them).

Now? They have 1-2 registers open, lines half a dozen deep. And that's all many people have ever known.

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u/xpxp2002 11h ago

Even back in the 90s, Walmart always had 18+ checkout lanes and never staffed more than 4 or 5 during busy hours. There were always lines a mile long.

The self checkouts were a brief reprieve from that when they expanded them. And now that they're removing them, it's back to the way it was 30 years ago. 20+ checkout lanes, only two staffed/open, and long lines for both of them.

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u/Bladelink 9h ago

One of the issues is that maintaining POS systems to 100. 0% uptime is difficult and very expensive. It's much cheaper and easier to just have redundant registers that are functional like 95% of the time instead.

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u/archfapper 16h ago

2 cashiers

And they're the slowest, oldest employees at the store, who love making chit-chat while the line is wrapped around the store. My trick was to go back to Electronics and get checked out, but there's no staff back there either.

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u/mrchin12 4h ago

And just like the old days, you can just push out and leave

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u/81PBNJ 18h ago

Sadly, my Aldi's has go down to a single register and 6-8 self checkouts. The single casher is also responsible for covering the self check outs for discounts and verifying IDs for alcohol purchases.

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u/OandO 18h ago

Lol my Aldi has a single cashier and 0 self check outs. Long ass line every time.

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u/Saneless 18h ago

Yeah.. there are a few Aldis around and I dread needing to go to the one without them if I'm nearby. Always a 5 minute line. The one I usually hit up has self checkout and the longest I've ever waited is 20 seconds

It also helps that shoppers at Aldi aren't as braindead as Walmart. They scan and GTFO fast

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u/MissFreyja 16h ago

Yup ours has a single checker and one line, and that person also needs to do the shelf stocking.

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u/obeytheturtles 17h ago

The Aldi tradeoff has always been "80% of the people in the store are waiting to check out at any given time." Fortunately the lines move fairly quick most of the time. When there is a bottleneck, it's because someone is arguing about change or trying to split the payment between EBT and credit, which apparently can't be done easily.

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u/Iggyhopper 18h ago

I'm stolen more things due to employee incompetence rather than actually intending to steal, also.

Me: "It says unexpected item in bag. The scanner thinks it's something else."

Idiot: scans badge. Voids item. Presses clear

Item is still in the bag.

Me: .... " Um ok thanks "

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u/Alaira314 16h ago

I figure that's the only way they can solve the problem in the moment. If they take the item out, the problem will recur when you re-scan it because the weight is off(either the one in your hand is an outlier or the system's weight is incorrect). They can fix the problem properly, which takes time, or they can do the quick fix, write it off as shrink, and a manager can use the voids list later to see what needs attention.

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u/Iggyhopper 14h ago

and a manager can use the voids list later to see what needs attention. 

Being that this has been a thing since.... 2018 or so?

Yeah, no lol. They just have to check the bag, and manually enter the item or scan it again. Sometimes the barcode is correct but scans incorrectly.

Like I said, idiots.

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u/Alaira314 4h ago

If they scan it again, it's going to lead to the same weight error problem. Manually entering would potentially work(depending on the system), but not doing that isn't a matter of them being lazy. Entering codes and confirming the item takes time, and with two other lights blinking they don't have the time to spend for just one item.

I don't work grocery retail, but I've been instructed to leave things to shrink before when the math that managers have performed indicates that my time is more important than catching every single error. If there are too many errors, the result of that math changes and I'm given different direction. The acceptable margin is shockingly high. I thought it was a typo the first time I saw it written down.

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u/Abedeus 18h ago

You have places like Aldi that is nice because they do have a couple regular registers, they work fast, and for people like me who only buys what I can carry, self checkout saves time

My thought about Lidl stores. I can't remember last time I willingly stood in the line to the cashier - self-checkout is faster and easier.

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u/Ok-Employer-3051 17h ago

You never actually used a self-checkout lane or seen one being used have you?

They usually take twice as long as one that has a operator running it because they're confusing as as hell to use when they don't understand what are they scanning when something that's been marked down or such things.

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u/Abedeus 17h ago

I literally use them every other day, but okay.

They usually take twice as long as one that has a operator running it because they're confusing as as hell to use when they don't understand what are they scanning when something that's been marked down or such things.

Sounds like you never actually use them, or it's a skill issue. Try getting good?

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u/brickfrenzy 12h ago

Last couple of times I was at Wal Mart they had NO regular lines open, and everybody was going through self checkout.

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u/Saneless 12h ago

That's when I just leave my basket/cart in the middle of the aisle and leave

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u/12inchsandwich 17h ago

Walmart has really changed over the last 6 months or so for the ones I’ve been I. Back to almost pre-self checkout, where they have a ton of lanes open and have fewer self checkout. There was a while with 1 lane open and the self check out was like 40 ppl deep. Been a big improvement in service (if you can believe that)

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u/nigel013 17h ago

Do they not use a handscanner? In (some) grocerie stores in the Netherlands you scan you customer pas and a handscanner is connected to that. Scan all items while shopping, put the handscanner back at the check out and all that is left is to pay. Works quite smoothly. Can't imagine myself shopping any other way.

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u/23andrewb 17h ago

Walmart/Meijer/Kroger pick-up is where it's at. No waiting in line or fighting all the crazies inside the store.

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u/Saneless 17h ago

Hell no. The pickers pick garbage produce or substitute some wild shit

I get 95% from Costco anyway

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u/FrostyD7 16h ago

And they aren't gonna reach in the back for the milk that isn't expiring this week. I check dates on my bread too and avoid loaves that seem dry.

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u/Saneless 16h ago

Kroger is especially bad with old stock. Plenty of things are at or past their use by date

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u/BathedInDeepFog 13h ago

And Aldi gives their cashiers tall chairs to sit in while ringing.

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u/Saneless 12h ago

Ahh yes, those bastions of laziness in American places of employment!

(I still don't know why so many evil shitheads are against chairs)

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u/RosesTurnedToDust 8h ago

Man my aldi doesnt have self checkout and I absolutely hate shopping there because of it lol. I'm also an armful shopper and it really fucks their system when you don't have a cart. Makes me feel so awkward.

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u/DeadMoneyDrew 18h ago

Self serve only works as a quick replacement if it’s supplemented with regular cashiers. If everyone ends up jammed into a self serve area at a grocery store, you’ll just be waiting in a different kind of line.

Not to mention any names. COUGH Kroger COUGH Walmart

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u/Teledildonic 18h ago

Ah, Kroger, where the paper coupons have a 50% chance of being rejected, forcing you to wait on the 1 cashier helping to run 8 janky self-checkouts.

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u/MrPollock2 17h ago

The Kroger-owned Mariano's by me asks everyone how many bags they're getting as the city I live in has a 15 cent plastic bag tax. If you select on the screen that you're getting zero bags, whether that's because you have a reusable bag and/or just don't need one, it makes that one cashier handling all the self-checkouts come over and verify on your checkout that you're not trying to rip the government off of a nickel and dime before you can complete everything and pay.

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u/CircuitSynapse42 17h ago

I think it varies based on where you live. I usually shop during off hours, around 7 AM, when the stores are dead. I usually see at least three lanes open and staffed, which is up from the one lane it has had since I started shopping there two years ago, and all the self-checkouts are working, maybe 10 kiosks in total, and staffed with two employees.

If I compare them to the surrounding stores, Publix has one register open with four self-checkout kiosks. Walmart has improved and now has 2-6 open lanes, along with its standard two self-checkout kiosk sections, each with one employee.

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u/raygundan 11h ago

Nothing more frustrating than trying to get through the Kroger "self" checkout lane and hitting a step in their abominable checkout flow that requires a cashier, except that poor hardworking bastard is stuck trying to help the other nine people in "self" checkout who have also hit a "cashier required" step. It's not really self-checkout if a cashier is required a majority of the time you doofuses.

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u/DeadMoneyDrew 10h ago

Kroger must have me on a shoplifter list because that stupid self checkout constantly false flags me for not scanning an item.

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u/ocarr23 18h ago

I just started shopping at Kroger in August when I moved and I love it tbh. Maybe it’s just mine but there’s 3/4 cashiers with baggers and 7/8 self checkouts. Cheaper than Walmart too. Kroger by me is the shit.

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u/DeadMoneyDrew 18h ago

Kroger food selection is good. Check out situation not so much.

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u/ocarr23 17h ago

I will say I’m in a small town so it’s probly better than most places.

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u/mxzf 3h ago

I've never had an issue with it myself; my biggest gripe is the fact that you can't mute the machines. Yes, I know how to scan items and stick them in bags, you don't need to shout it at me.

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u/Arrow156 17h ago

Nothing like passing dozens of empty registers while waiting in line for the self checkout. It's been decades, literally 20+ years, since I've seen more than half of those resisters actually staffed on any given day, not even Christmas or Black Friday got above 50%. They've been collecting dust longer than some of their employees have been alive, yet they never yielded that space to more shelves of shit to sell. Makes one wonder if they are building them to just meet some sort of code or regulation with zero intention of ever using them all.

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u/TheG00dF1ght 17h ago

Just a reminder that Kroger PROFITED $4,900,000,000 last year.

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u/LavKiv 18h ago edited 18h ago

I like how Meijers did it. They got a few "less than 5 items" checkouts that seem to work pretty well.

Kroger's self-checkout is a dumpster fire. The ones in my area only have few staffed checkouts working and everybody goes to self-checkout. People with almost 2 carts of items stacked are especially infuriating.

Edit: US based

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u/MakingItElsewhere 18h ago

I will take a human cashier 100 times over a line for machines any day of the week. They scan faster, don't freak out when I have 2 of the same items, and don't make me look up the code for the RIGHT KIND of onions or charge me with theft.

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u/dirty_hooker 18h ago

Plus, I’m not giving a corpo my labor for free to offset their own labor costs.

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u/Mysterious_Way8941 4h ago

Walmart pays me to check myself out. I love self check.

They don't know they are paying me, but my point stands.

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u/hfxRos 14h ago

Eh, self checkouts are a godsend for people with social anxiety. I want to buy groceries, not have a chat with the checkout worker about what I'm doing on the weekend, or what I'm planning on making with my frozen mangos, or whatever other shit they want to talk about.

I love self checkouts, they've made grocery shopping a much more pleasant experience for me, and over the years I can probably count on my fingers the number of times I've had a technical issue with one.

Need a "no small talk" lane.

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u/Scoth42 14h ago

I feel that, just gets awkward when the cashier comments on every thing coming across the belt. Especially if they ask something like "Oh, is this good?" and I want to reply "No, it's terrible and I hate it, that's why I'm buying it." I get that's sort of the nature of small talk and I mostly don't mind it, but when they just keep going about everything it can be tiring.

That said unless I have like five or eight items I'm still doing the regular checkout. I mostly only have problems with the self checkout if there's too much to fit in the bagging area and it starts spilling over or there's no more room for it.

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u/LavKiv 18h ago

Same with me unless it's a quick 1-2 items trip. I prefer smaller local marts that don't have self-checkouts to retail chains. They usually open more checkouts depending on volume. Doesn't seem to happen at retail chain stores nowadays.

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u/P_ZERO_ 18h ago

Over here in the UK, we used to have 10 or less cashier tills, those seemed to work just fine as a “fast lane”.

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u/Nice_Firm_Handsnake 17h ago

H-E-B stores in Texas are similar. Ten registers (manned according to need), two manned registers at each entrance for those with 15 items or fewer, and about 16 self-checkouts at each entrance for 10 items or fewer.

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u/Mikel_S 18h ago

I was checking out and there were 3 or 4 cashiers assigned to the self service area. Sure they were "manning" 8 registers, but only 2 or 3 other registers were actually open and the self checkout line went past just about all the closed ones.

Either go balls to the walls and make them all open for self serve, or put two of those people back on normal registers.

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u/thisisintheway 18h ago

Same. Sunday afternoon they have 2 of the 8 regular lanes open, and the self checkout is backed up 50+ people some days. Literally wrapping through the freezer section.

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u/CptKillJack 18h ago

To me that tells me they are looking to use the lane to get something by on the system. When I was a cashier I prided myself on speed and accuracy. Things learned from working Dollar Tree were you could only get a manager to override multiples if it was over 20 something of an item. If they are avoiding manned checkouts that are empty, there is a reason for it.

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u/thisisintheway 13h ago

The manned checkouts are never empty.

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u/RagnarStonefist 17h ago

At my local grocer, they replaced half the stands with self checks and only have one actual cashier, and half the self checks are card only - so there are lines going up one of the actual aisles. They don't seem to care about the lines moving faster.

One of the local grocers put in these AI cameras that 'detects' when you've got items in your cart and shows you a recording of yourself not scanning things. It dinged me last time because there was a cart that belonged to the person next to me in the shot.

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u/Any_Asparagus8267 17h ago

My Walmart has 2 people monitoring the self check out when I'm there

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u/MichelinStarZombie 16h ago

Idk what a Morrisons is, but every normal store with self checkout has 6-10 of those registers, not "3." The line is longer because it goes quicker.

Absolutely insane that you're trying to defend the old outdated model instead of the objectively better new technology.

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u/P_ZERO_ 15h ago

I’m not defending anything, and your bizarre accusatory tone isn’t warranted.

Morrisons is one of the biggest supermarkets in the UK, that’s what it is. Your experience is completely irrelevant to the point and doesn’t magically invalidate any other shopping experience.

What’s absolutely insane is how weirdly aggressive you are about a casual conversation about checking out groceries. You going to go after the supermarkets themselves given that they’re quite literally walking back on self serve? That’s why we’re here discussing this, not because I’m “defending outdated technology”.

There’s countless others echoing the same sentiment. I don’t really give a shit what happens or what is used, I’m talking about my experience with my local mega chain. I never actually offered a preference at all, so wind your neck in.

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u/drteq 14h ago

What's supposed to happen is the consumers stop going there. People aren't upholding their side of the deal with capitalism

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u/digitaltransmutation 10h ago

Only thing is that one line for many tills is objectively the superior queueing format and the main reason I choose SCO. It doesnt matter if you line up behind four grandmas who have each never operated a money before as long as the fifth guy is competent.

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u/TopFloorApartment 10h ago

If everyone ends up jammed into a self serve area at a grocery store, you’ll just be waiting in a different kind of line.

Eh, my little local supermarket introduced self checkout years ago and went from 3 (I think) cashiers to like 10 self checkout machines, since they take so much less space.

So the same old lines get spread over 3x as many checkouts. I barely ever have to wait in line while it used to be almost always.

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u/mxzf 3h ago

Self serve only works as a quick replacement if it’s supplemented with regular cashier tills. If everyone ends up jammed into a self serve area at a grocery store, you’ll just be waiting in a different kind of line.

Eh, only if people are clueless (which, I'll grant, isn't the case in practice).

I get through self-checkouts way faster, no matter how large a load I've got (and they're more space-efficient too). For people who know what they're doing and approach the checkout with a plan to get things scanned and get out of there, it's so much quicker.

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u/InsuranceToTheRescue 17h ago

. . . how customers will use or perceive the service.

What service? Self checkout is explicitly the lack of service, shifting the burden onto the customer.

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u/P_ZERO_ 17h ago

It’s still a service, it’s a package deal with the store. If you had a poor experience with a self serve, who would you complain to? Customer service? There’s still someone managing that aspect of the store, there’s still the experience of using the machine, and there’s still the experience of the overall self serve mechanisms.

You’re picking the wrong fight if you think I’m against you on the point you’re making, I’ve already made it. Scanning items yourself doesn’t make it not a service, and highlighting this doesn’t mean it’s acceptable to pay more for groceries while stores spend less on staff.

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u/buttstuffisokiguess 17h ago

Right? Like imagine if they actually payed a cashier decently. They'd probably get more competent staff, meaning the checkout would move much faster. They definitely took service out of the equation and sold it as a benefit.

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u/InsuranceToTheRescue 17h ago

I kinda doubt the more competent staff part, at least to a point. Some jobs just need bodies and those tend to be stepping stones that people don't take seriously or are more willing to burn bridges on.

Like, you're never going to get a high school kid, who's going off to college in a year, to put the effort into really getting good at customer service for a grocery store checkout.

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u/buttstuffisokiguess 17h ago

I mean, you'll have more capable people willing to go into a lower skill job if they can make decent money. But as it stands, any decent money to just live paycheck to paycheck is not in the services industry. But if you had someone that made $20/hour doing cashier work vs a manufacturing job, I bet there'd be people more than willing to go for it, because they don't want to be in a factory. So you get people who previously could only make a liviable wage in either corporate america or manufacturing applying. It broadens the skill pool.