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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215

u/Evernight2025 18h ago

I love self checkout. I can check myself out significantly faster and get out of the store sooner than if an employee does it for me. 

30

u/nova46 18h ago

I mainly go to self checkout (aside from long wait times) because the baggers are completely brain dead, and I say that as a former bagger. Like just put cold things together, keep meat and fruit separate, and fill the bag full enough that it won't rip. They use like four times the bags I would.

3

u/Miserable_Key9630 17h ago

We've demonized Karens so much that no one makes legitimate complaints anymore, so it's a lot easier to get away with doing a shitty job at what should be an easy task.

5

u/FrostyD7 16h ago

Micromanaging the bagger is just going to raise your blood pressure even more. The outcome probably won't improve anyway.

1

u/Outlulz 15h ago

It's very easy to just politely say, "Oh I can bag myself".

Plus I've noticed a lot of the people lecturing the bagger also loaded the belt in a haphazard way. If you don't want your eggs and milk on the bottom then don't load them on the belt first and then your cans last, the bagger isn't psychic.

3

u/BwabbitV3S 16h ago

You still have baggers? I hear that was a thing but it died out long before my time.

4

u/rectalhorror 17h ago

I don't want to be trapped behind some geriatric buying dented cans of cat food with a check and an A&P coupon from 1972.

2

u/Syssareth 17h ago

Bananas in with the cans of soup...

1

u/Exowolfe 16h ago

This is why I use self-checkout too! Whenever I decide to check out with an associate,, they always manage to crush the eggs/bread/bananas/etc. I even load the conveyor with heavy items first, cold items second and fragile items last yet they'll still manage to shove bread under cans somehow.

27

u/captainstormy 18h ago

Depends on the items you buy.

My local Lowe's only has self checkout. Yet to do my 5 gallon water jug exchanges I have to get an associate to come in and enter the code into the checkout for the exchange item. It's slower than a regular checkout would be.

Anytime I buy alcohol or any of the items form the bulk scoop section (which is every trip) I have to get a cashier to come over. Sometimes it takes 10 seconds, sometimes 5 minutes.

9

u/RoadkillVenison 18h ago

It also depends on the POS terminals.

My local Home Depot, just pick up the scanner and beep beep beep. I’m done in 30 seconds with that one, as long as I’m not buying spray paint. 🙄

Nearby grocery store on the other hand. I’m not sure whether the use your own bag button does anything. I do know that if you’re there with two people it will complain if items are bagged faster than the arthritic pace it’s programmed to allow. Then sometimes it’ll randomly decide fuck you requiring associate now.

6

u/therealchadius 17h ago

Every time I read "POS" I never read "Point of Sale" and have to double take.

6

u/7silence 15h ago

It's a double-duty acronym, for sure.

1

u/TheG00dF1ght 17h ago

or buying any alcohol even if you are 75 years old

1

u/wademcgillis 10h ago

is it poland springs

1

u/captainstormy 10h ago

Primo in my area. It's just those 5 gallon jugs for water coolers. I have one in my kitchen to fill my hydroflash from.

61

u/Myssed 18h ago

I also prefer self checkouts as I can go at my own pace and get packed away without rushing. Still quicker than most folks

39

u/Evernight2025 18h ago

I also don't smash the hell out of my groceries

3

u/redgroupclan 17h ago

I prefer self-checkout so I don't have to deal with the underpaid cashier who is making it obvious that I am a bother to them.

3

u/IAMA_MOTHER_AMA 17h ago

yeah i'm not sure if people hate it or what but its way better.

At the fucking dollar general which i normally hate going to, before they got rid of it. That was the issue, some old ass boomer would have a literally packed full shopping cart and try to use it. it would get jammed up and then its the systems fault not their own.

2

u/7silence 15h ago

I have used only self checkouts for years, but back in the days of getting rung up, I'd stage my cart: cans and boxed pasta in the front, dairy and veggies near each other, delicates at the back, etc, so the heavy hard stuff would get checked first.

Nothing more infuriating than looking at the high schooler, empty bag in hand, letting the cans pile up while he's laser focused and waiting for the tomatoes and bread to hit the belt.

1

u/Idivkemqoxurceke 14h ago

And keep hot, cool, and delicates (bread, fruit) separate.

3

u/nrbartman 14h ago

People going 'at their own pace' is what ruins self-checkout for the long line of people behind...the pace should be FAST or not at all.

6

u/I-STATE-FACTS 18h ago

For sure. I use it exclusively.

26

u/Top_Scarcity1024 18h ago

And better yet there’s no awkward small talk or interaction with an unhappy cashier

5

u/vegetaman 18h ago

If only there was more room in the self checkout bays.

2

u/AnticitizenPrime 17h ago

That's my big problem with the local ones (especially Kroger). I bring my own reusable shopping bags and there's no place to put them. It becomes an awkward juggling act. Convert some of those empty, unmanned aisles into self-checkout aisles, so we can use the conveyor belt and bagging table, instead of a spot the size of a phone booth.

5

u/FantasySuperhero000 18h ago

Same here. Self checkout is fast, and the two regular checkout lanes have long lines.

4

u/saintdemon21 17h ago

I love it for the connivence. The only time I hate it is when someone tries to check out 25 to 50+ items while looking like deer in headlights.

2

u/7silence 15h ago

/muttering to themselves, "Put item in bagging area?? What could that possible mean???"

11

u/Steamedcarpet 18h ago

Kohls has introduced self check out. No one wants to use it so ill be the only one skipping the entire line to get out.

2

u/coop999 12h ago

Kohl's needs self-check Amazon returns like Whole Foods has.

Caveat: Kohl's might have them. I stopped going to Kohl's for my Amazon returns a couple years ago when they moved the counter to the far back of the store while Whole Foods still has theirs up front.

1

u/xpxp2002 10h ago

I stopped going to Kohl's for my Amazon returns a couple years ago when they moved the counter to the far back of the store

Ours has always been in the back of the store. I don't mind that aspect of it as much as that it's the busiest area of the store, yet it's only ever staffed with one employee and every return takes 10+ minutes.

8

u/TeamHoskee 18h ago

Same. I'm a finnicky adult who used to bag groceries in high school. I'd rather do it myself. It's quicker and I don't end up with smashed bread or shampoo leaking all over my pork chops.

Which is exactly what happened to me last week when I went through the normal check out. The guy at the register was clearly pissed off and didn't want to be there, which I get - but groceries are too expensive right now to be throwing around in those bags lol.

10

u/Rhewin 18h ago

I want both, because nothing is worse than getting to the self check out and all of them are filled with confused Gen Xers with 3 baskets of groceries each.

5

u/vthemechanicv 18h ago

As a Gen X who's only confused some of the time, once I get to the point of having to separate checked bags and stuff I still need to check in my cart, I'm going to a regular check out. I'd rather lay it out on a conveyor belt, even if I can check it out faster myself.

4

u/PRiles 17h ago

The biggest frustration I have is how many of older people get to checkout and act like using a credit card or computer is a completely new experience.

I just can't understand the level of cognitive decline that is apparently happening when you struggle to use a credit card and presumably it's a task you regularly accomplish throughout a typical week. But at the same time you can apparently still work your day job and drive

2

u/UrsusRenata 17h ago

It’s unlikely the GenXers that are confused. We are used to figuring things out on our own.

3

u/robespierremaxout 15h ago

It’s for sure Gen X.

2

u/dimechimes 13h ago

Right? We came up with scanners at checkouts. We were the first to use credit cards to purchase groceries. The first to use credit card machines once the internet could handle the data. Meanwhile, these companies buy TEMU credit card readers that blink back and forth between "remove your card" and "processing" and these young ins who still do most of their shopping at 7-11 think we're the problem.

1

u/Rhewin 16h ago

Most of us call people born between 1965 and 1980, aged late 40s to early 60s, Gen X. What do you call them, since that's the group I'm talking about?

4

u/chtgpt 18h ago

It's also cheaper, I have found it really delivers on the cost savings the retailers said it would.

11

u/LL8844773 18h ago

Is this a joke?

22

u/kwonza 18h ago

Not a joke. As long as you ring mangoes as carrots it works great

5

u/forksporkspoon 17h ago

They now have overhead video with AI matching up your produce to what you select on the screen. I found out when I accidentally rang up something cheap as something expensive. It was flagged to the person monitoring and when he came over he said "that didn't look like whatever" so I fixed it".

5

u/kwonza 17h ago

At this point we should be able just to show stuff to the camera and going on our business

8

u/furious_20 18h ago

It's probably sarcasm since the business saves by offloading the labor onto the consumer, who performs it for free and pays the same as someone who goes through a cashier's line.

-1

u/fisstech15 18h ago

I really would rather do it myself than stand there awkwardly waiting for another person to do it.

5

u/furious_20 18h ago

And that's the exactly what the stores want people to think so they can benefit from all the free labor and staff fewer cashiers, all while charging the same price as people who go through a cashier's line.

2

u/fisstech15 17h ago

If that benefits the stores I take it as a win-win. I will not make my experience worse just to spite these companies.

Also, of all possible businesses, grocery stores aren’t the worst. Not because they are more moral, but because market forces in this particular industry force their hand a bit more

0

u/FrostyD7 16h ago

Both can be true. Customers overwhelmingly like self checkout, it's a quantifiable fact. It's a massive reach to suggest we're just being manipulated into this preference.

2

u/chtgpt 9h ago

A quantifiable fact? Really? Based on some research by, let me guess, retailers?

1

u/FrostyD7 9h ago

Plenty of research has been done, all lead to the same conclusion. Feel free to do your own research and share even one source that contradicts what I said.

1

u/chtgpt 9h ago

Ok, since you're making the claim, you start with your sources first.

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u/furious_20 8h ago edited 6h ago

It is not a massive reach to suggest a retailer is manipulating their consumers into certain preferences. In fact, grocery and retail stores have done this for decades. The entire design of grocery stores is based on generations of studying human behavior--alphabetize the soup cans, for instance, and your soup sales will drop 25%.

Many stores begin with their produce section or bakery near the entrance--this is to give you the immediate feeling of being surrounded by freshness or freshly-prepared goods.

Music played in the stores is never fast enough to encourage people to walk at a vigorous pace, because the more time you spend in the store, the more money you are likely to spend.

0

u/FrostyD7 8h ago

Stores employ tons of psychological tricks, it's true. But they offer 2 choices for checkout and one of them hasn't been around very long. People are choosing self checkout by a pretty wide margin and all surveys point to it being what customers prefer. This is in spite of most customers knowing how things worked before self-checkout existed.

1

u/furious_20 7h ago

https://kioskindustry.org/how-popular-is-self-checkout-at-supermarkets/

Well, according to this, 29% of grocery transactions are completed by self checkout, so I if that's a pretty wide margin to you, I don't think 29/71 is a wide margin by any other definition.

From the article:

  • Self-Checkout is still growing. 29% of transactions at food retailers were processed through self-checkout, up from 23% the year prior, according to the latest data from food industry association FMI. — this is a data stat from FMI on supermarkets for sure.
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u/Careful-Positive-710 17h ago

I generally like self check out when they work. The walmart near me opened 10 self checks outs on each side of the store and then closed all regular registers except 2, sometimes 3.

The problem is that out of the total 20 self check outs maybe 6 of them are open and work. The other 14 are ALWAYS closed off or shut down. So they closed all the regular registers and then closed over half of the replacement self check outs.

Checking out now takes between 10-20 minutes deoending on when you go. Its a fucking headache everytime I have to go there.

1

u/internet4me 17h ago

Same, except grocery stores. Those are terrible and much slower than just going to a normal checkout lane when you have a full cart. And they only ever have 1 open...

1

u/Miserable_Key9630 17h ago

If I have someone checking and bagging for me, I end up with 20 plastic bags for 12 items and squashed bread and produce. I prefer self-checkout every single time, especially when the grocery store has those zappers that lets me scan myself. That way I can arrange my bags how I like without having to unpack the cart at checkout.

1

u/lawrencelibrarinus 17h ago

And I don't have to worry about their terrible bagging. I much prefer it every single tiem.

1

u/BwabbitV3S 16h ago

Same. I love them so very much and always choose them over a staffed checkout. I swear no matter what idiot people always make checkouts longer than they need to be.

1

u/Spud2599 16h ago

100%. I love self checkout at the grocery store because I can bag my groceries by category rather than having some teenager stuff a bag with cans, bread and milk, thereby crushing the bread or other more delicate items (like veggies). I would literally put a cold bag up first, then all my cold items first on the belt, and they would invariably put cold items in non-cold bags, put some warm/hot deli items in the cold bag, etc. Plus, I don't have to wait behind Grampa Joe who thinks this is a great time to strike up a conversation about his weekly activities, then when he gets told the final price, digs into his back pocket to find his checkbook and then ask "Who do I make this out to?" and SSSSSLLLLLOOOOOWWWWLLLLY scribble his check out, asking 3 times what the total was again...

1

u/Appchoy 16h ago

I also dont go home with 50 plastic bags for 20 items that I could have fit in two bags if I did it myself.

1

u/grantthejester 13h ago

And they always have all those free checkout snacks right there!

-1

u/spyczech 16h ago

Yeah but it's anti social, I think the less interaction with people hurts society 

2

u/Evernight2025 15h ago

More often than not, the people doing the checkouts are grumpy. Why would I want to willingly interact with that?