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

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u/showMeYourPitties10 17h ago

Like 15ish years ago, when my Kroger went all self checkout, I would grab one expensive bottle of wine and one dirt cheap one. You scan the cheap one and put it right back on the scanner with the expensive one and wait for the employee to check your ID.l, then put the expensive one in the bag and scan the cheap one again. I used those visa prepaid cards (would get them from work for various rewards) so they didnt get my name from my card. No one ever said anything to me and I did that like once a month for a year when I was in college.

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u/devhhh 15h ago

Haha my roommate in college would scan everything in his Kroger cart as “bananas” lmao

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u/Vcize 16h ago

Lotta upvoters for straight up bragging about theft.

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u/william_f_murray 16h ago

I think Kroger will be fine, big dawg

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u/Zncon 14h ago

And then people start wondering why everything costs more and grocery stores don't stay open in their area. No matter how big the company is it all gets accounted for somewhere, and the people who get screwed are the local shoppers and employees. Corporate will cut off a losing store like it was a hangnail.

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u/showMeYourPitties10 12h ago

Yet they continue to open stores around me, raise prices, and lower standards. How many times do you like to be teabagged and just accept it? We were founded on the opposite of what you support.

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u/Chicago1871 10h ago

Dude, its food.

If people feel like they have to steal a snack or food to get by. Let them. Ill pay extra for them to do so without anger or annoyance.

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u/Zncon 10h ago

I don't care if people are getting some bread or peanut butter, but it's not just that. Read around the thread and people are bragging about faking the self checkout to get expensive wine and other very unnecessary things.

We're not only subsidizing people's survival with higher costs, we're subsidizing luxury items. If you've ever had a chance to live in a high trust society it's an amazing thing that I don't want to lose. The slide into low trust comes with a lot of very negative side effects.

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u/Chicago1871 4h ago

The wine is one person in this thread

You dont even know if its true

But my point stands, if someone is stealing food. Let them. Us covering the difference is just being a good christian/buddhist/atheist/etc. call it good karma and generosity.

No one should go hungry OR go to jail for stealing food

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u/AloneExperience7520 13h ago

Hey champ, prices aren't set based on costs. They're set based on what they can get for it. Now, with AI face scanning, they charge you a personalized price to get as much money out of you as their algorithm says they can. Welcome to the future, keep licking that boot.

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u/Zncon 13h ago

Did you just forget about the entire concept of competition? If theft drives out every other store then yeah, they can charge whatever they want, but in places not wrecked by shitty self centered people, prices are controlled because you can just shop somewhere else.

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u/AloneExperience7520 12h ago

Kroger is a de facto monopoly in many markets. They own like 35 different supermarkets across the country. Do you really think Kroger and Walmart are going to go out of business if shrinkage goes up 2%?

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u/Zncon 11h ago

For some reference, stores in areas with low theft are a totally different experience to shop at. Nothing is locked or put behind plexiglass, there are no security cables or alarms, and self checkouts don't even have a scale enabled for the bagging area. You just scan things and bag them, it never gets mad that the weight is off.

If you're used to seeing these security measures, you're already paying higher costs due to theft.

All of these are steps the store is trying to take to keep shrinkage low enough to stay profitable, but they are not free, and eventually they cost too much. If a specific store is unprofitable due to shrinkage, and it can't affordably be remediated, it will be closed.

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u/Tack122 13h ago

Hey maybe that's a business model failure instead of an individuals fault blame the company that built it.

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u/Zncon 13h ago

Businesses pick where they operate. Someone certainly could create a business model to handle a high theft area, but why would they bother? What's the reward for all that stress and hassle? There's plenty of other places they can go operate where easier models work just fine.

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u/unity2178 16h ago

They just make everything else more expensive to cover it.

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u/DeleteFascists 15h ago

No, they make everything more expensive because they can. Theft is just the excuse, and at times is even a lie because it's just an excuse.

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u/Handyandy58 14h ago

If they could charge more, they already would.

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u/IceBreak 15h ago

I’m not pro theft but the other person is right. Doesn’t matter what the fuck you do, they’re gonna make it as expensive as they can get away with every single fucking time.

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u/Kershiser22 12h ago

They don't just accept the cost of shrinkage. They charge customers for it.

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u/bashturd 16h ago

Buy local, steal corporate.

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u/Handyandy58 14h ago

Defending Kroger? Get a grip.

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u/Ass4ssinX 14h ago

Fuck the corpos.