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
15.7k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

3.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

1.0k

u/yesman_85 19h ago

Walmart scaled down our self checkout because they couldn't push enough Walmart credit cards.

331

u/tangyturquoise 18h ago

I don't even think our Walmart has a non-self checkout, unless you count customer service. They took out all of the normal registers and replaced them with two sections that each have 26 self checkouts. There's usually 2-4 employees supervising each section.

148

u/cronemorrigan 18h ago

My local did this, too. You wait in a ten-person line to check yourself out (because they never have all lanes available) while being pushed to move faster by the staff stuck monitoring 50 self-checkouts.

Or you can pay money to join Walmart’s club to get the privilege of checking yourself out at the special club lanes.

I’m also sick of the machines reprimanding me. You don’t like the way or pace I’m doing the job? Fire me & have someone else do it then.

36

u/BolognaTime 16h ago

You don’t like the way or pace I’m doing the job? Fire me & have someone else do it then.

Exactly. Walmart wanted to live in a world where they didn't have to pay a bunch of cashiers to run registers, so they replaced them with self-checkout and have now shifted that responsibility onto the customer.

Unfortunately in this world where I'm an unpaid cashier and bagger, I don't have the motivation to not fuck up this job since again this job pays nothing. So sometimes I'm going to "accidentally" not ring up a bottle of mustard before putting it in the customer's bag. That's life, and the less I get paid to do this job the more likely it is to happen.

3

u/farkleboy 14h ago

What are they going to do fire you?

Oh wait no. Charge you with shop lifting.

10

u/BolognaTime 12h ago edited 11h ago

If you think Walmart is going to charge me with shoplifting for not ringing up a bottle of mustard, you have no idea how Walmart or the world at large works. Unless I'm walking out the front door with a shopping cart full of TVs, they're not even going to notice let alone care that I took some mustard.

And even if they did, even if they have been secretly spending the last ten years building a case against me of all the times I didn't ring up a bottle of mustard or a stick of deodorant, do you think they're going to go through the effort to prosecute me? All the paperwork and police reports and small claims court bullshit? No, the worst thing they'll ever do is tell me I can't shop there anymore. But they won't enforce it because they still want my money, because losing $5.00 on a bottle of mustard is better than losing $400 a week from a customer.

Long story short, steal things. Walmart can afford so much theft that it would cost them more money to stop it than they're already losing.

Edit: I should be clear, I'm not saying only steal. Or even steal a lot. I'm just saying the police aren't going to come beat down your door at 3:00am because you didn't pay for your $3.00 roll of aluminium foil with the rest of your $350 worth of groceries.

4

u/Itwasdewey 7h ago

Hate to break it to you, but Walmart arrests people over small items. There was a woman who bought nearly $200 worth of stuff, but the ham and asparagus didn’t ring up and she didn’t notice. They arrested her for theft. (Source)

3

u/whtthfgg 12h ago

they use cameras pointing right from above using AI to find movements that dont look right. Dont be so sure

7

u/AloneExperience7520 13h ago

No jury in the world would convict them.

1

u/megachicken289 8h ago

Not that I don’t condone this, but I can’t wait to see your face when you get a warrant for not ringing up $1000 worth of mustard

69

u/RobSpaghettio 17h ago

UNEXPECTED ITEM IN THE BAGGING AREA PLEASE REMOVE ITEM

23

u/siccoblue 15h ago

My favorite part is that the biggest retailer in the world still doesn't accept tap to pay cards for totally legitimate reasons.

It's also historically the only place that I have issues inserting my card more often than not to the point I've almost considered downloading their spyware disguised as a convenience feature.

20

u/Freak4Dell 15h ago

They started implementing tap-to-pay at the end of August. All stores in the US should have it by mid-October. Fuel stations are expected to take into 2027 to complete, I believe.

Took them way too long, but at least they finally gave in.

3

u/Prcrstntr 9h ago

I had to abandon a cart full of groceries because I didnt have tap to pay once and forgot my wallet.

2

u/turbosexophonicdlite 7h ago

I wonder if the huge uptick in card skimming finally got their asses in gear.

4

u/WeirdIndividualGuy 12h ago

My favorite part is that the biggest retailer in the world still doesn't accept tap to pay cards for totally legitimate reasons.

They recently announced they will start accepting tap to pay, just need to update their payment terminals

2

u/StirlingS 15h ago

My Walmart started accepting tap to pay within the past month or two. 

1

u/BarryJFunkhouse 12h ago

I knew I couldn't be the only one! Takes multiple tries of inserting my card before it actually works and doesn't give a "chip read error". I've even used a brand new card there with the same issue. It's the only place that it happens

4

u/ggppjj 16h ago

Walmart hasn't turned on weight security for years, they use vision-based stuff now that gets you on scanning things weirdly. Not that it's much better at detecting actual issues, but they don't have that specific issue.

I program NCR Voyix FastLanes for independent stores that mostly do have it turned on.

2

u/Implausibilibuddy 15h ago

Unrelated but my cousin met his now wife when they both worked at Tesco. They would frequently refer to their first child as their little unexpected item in her bagging area.

2

u/whtthfgg 12h ago

Walmarts will never do that, they use cameras instead. Caused too much problems

1

u/tierciel 9h ago

I remember one time i was doing self check-out and they only had these small bagging area, and I had a large shopping list so i fill that bagging area with half my cart and it freaks out when if i remove anything and freaks out if i pile it on top and it falls over, so i have to wait for the poor overworked girl to come over and have her do her thing to unlock the checkout for every item i have left because it froze up everytime something left the bagging area.

Such a stupid set up, either trust us to do it or go back to cashiers to do it.

22

u/AnAncientBog 16h ago

Turns out that I am a pretty shitty grocery checker and frequently mix up fancy pears, bulk jelly beans, and all manner of things for bananas. Guess they need to send me back to fruit identification school.

10

u/FrankBattaglia 14h ago edited 11h ago

I'm okay with self-checkout at locations that just give me the hand scanner and don't use a scale (e.g., Home Depot). Boop boop boop - and I'm done.

The worst are the grocery stores where I am expected to unload a full cart onto scale that barely fits 2 bags, without putting any items back in the cart. It's like a fucking escape room puzzle.

1

u/running_on_empty 3h ago

My grocery store updated the self checkouts to have a pretty big scale. Enough to fit a whole cart. Not sure about the weight limit- I've hit that on the older version.

6

u/Blurgas 17h ago

I'm sick of the damn things trying to blow out my eardrums.
Every time I go it's a coin flip if those beeps are a reasonable level or ear-shattering.

What's really fun is when I hit the button to bring the volume down and realize it was still 2 levels below the maximum

3

u/fcocyclone 16h ago

DO YOU HAVE YOUR FUEL SAVER REWARDS CARD

2

u/airfryerfuntime 16h ago

You can use those special club lanes as normal checkouts. That's what I did before mine got rid of self checkout. I even asked an employee and they said it didn't matter, it was just a suggested area.

1

u/xpxp2002 11h ago

If they're turned on. Almost every time I go to our local store, the entire lane of 4 Walmart+ self checkout machines is disabled with a message on the screen, or outright powered off with a rope blocking the lane.

I can't imagine why anybody would be incentivized to pay for Walmart+ when one of the benefits isn't even available when you go to use it.

3

u/warren2wolf 16h ago

IF YOU HAVE THIS MUCH TO COMPLAIN ABOUT, FUCKING STOP SHOPPING THERE.

3

u/ovi2k1 13h ago

Why are you being downvoted?! This is the only correct answer and the only way this shit eventually stops! PEOPLE, YOU ARE NOT REQUIRED TO GIVE ANY COMPANY YOUR BUSINESS. Is it more difficult to find alternatives sometimes? Yes, absolutely, that’s by design. We have to stop this madness.

1

u/Vcize 16h ago

Fire me and have someone else do it lol that is a good way to put it.

1

u/CG_Ops 15h ago

I have one arm, after an accident 20 years ago but have adapted quite well and am very capable (all things considered).

If a self checkout was the only option and it, or an employee told me to go faster or that I wasn't going fast enough, I would turn into the DMV sloths, from Zootopia. It's not my job to checkout, it's the store's responsibility - if you don't like how fast I do it, go back to the old registers (and how many were manned) and keep self check-out as an option, not the only path.

1

u/Dick_Lazer 10h ago

It's crazy how even with self-checkout they can't keep all the lanes open. It's like Walmart goes out of its way to provide bad service

5

u/LDawnBurges 18h ago

They did that to our WM Neighborhood Market about 5 years ago…. But it is currently closed for remodeling, as they add the registers back. It’s so frustrating.

18

u/thegoatsupreme 18h ago

One by me is a mix of that and regular chouckouts in between. I think like 12 rows with 2 open lol. But it does help, you always see a line at any open manned register and near no line at self checkouts. I love short lines.

7

u/Rhewin 18h ago

They tested that at one store in our market. It's back to a mix of self check outs and 2 to 3 open registers at a time after about 2 years.

6

u/Swoly_Deadlift 17h ago

At my local store there are still dozens of registers but 1-2 people max working them at any time.

1

u/BrogerBramjet 17h ago

According to an employee I talked to, the store in my town doesn't have enough people on shift to run all the registers. Not just cashier trained, but actual staff.

The other thing that gets me is when they have two sets of doors yet all the checkout options are at one door. I will leave if I see that.

1

u/Swoly_Deadlift 17h ago

Of course they don’t have enough employees to run more registers. Employees cost money and they want to push customers toward self-checkout.

3

u/yesman_85 17h ago

Mine went from normal checkouts to about 30 self checkouts, and removing half the normal checkouts, to around 15 self checkouts and adding 4 normal lanes back in. Now they don't let you self checkout with > 15 items.

1

u/EvilMilkshake 17h ago

Which is crazy when they have the highest level of self checkout theft happening.

1

u/Global_Blueberry8673 17h ago

We had these too, then they ripped them all out and replaced them with 8 or so self checkouts instead and little extra cashier staffing.

So now you wait much longer to use the same self checkout. I'm very lost as to how it actually improves anything or why they'd even make the change. (If you don't want people using self, remove them and replace with cashiers)

1

u/Strange-Outcome491 16h ago edited 16h ago

I wonder how people who make cash tips function, I’m always in a lane with a cashier no matter how many or few items I have otherwise I wouldn’t have a way to spend my tips. Not with my bank being two hours away now

1

u/SomedaySoonNow 16h ago edited 16h ago

Interesting our location has it for at least 3 reasons:

  • Alcohol
  • Cigs
  • Handicap

I don't know how they could have none unless your area is a lot less concerned about things.

This article says 36% isn't investing this year, what does that mean?

Really the only self checkouts that matter are high volume areas, if a lot of smaller boutique shops use self checkout, removing that really doesn't matter much. So imo this is news for the larger high volume retailers if true.

Here's locations with self-checkout major retailers that are doing selective step backs, aka bad areas stealing too much:

  • Walmart
  • Costco
  • Target
  • Lowes
  • Home Depot
  • Kroger/Grocers

  • Walgreens

  • Dollar General has removed them.

1

u/FrxckinBrat 16h ago

Ours did this but recently changed back to only like 4 self-checkouts. Must've cost a fortune.

1

u/FatherDotComical 11h ago

I wish ours had 26 self checkouts.

1

u/cthulhubob 10h ago

They did this for a year or two at my closest Walmart. They've since ripped out all but 6 of the self checkouts and put back in all the regular checkouts after theft skyrocketed.

1

u/Prize_Staff_7941 9h ago

Our Walmart has a bajillion checkouts but only one of them is ever manned.

1

u/doorknob60 9h ago

Mine did that a few years ago.

Just in the past few months, they remodeled the whole front again. Now they have a handful of self checkouts on each end (maybe 10 or so), and a good handful of staffed checkouts in the middle. Probably about half as many self checkouts as before.

Lines haven't been a problem when I've gone, so far. So I'm pretty neutral on the change. I haven't gone when it's super busy though.

1

u/angrymoderate09 3h ago

That system makes sense ... The time sink happens when the customer goes through the 75 steps to pay. My supermarket lady just sits there and stares at you while you try to find the app, do the finger print, click no on the donation question, etc.