Some retailers pulling reins on self-checkout to limit thefts
Target is the latest retailer to tweak its self-checkout lane after going all-in during the “contactless” pandemic.
Beginning Sunday, the red-dot retailer is limiting shoppers to 10 items or fewer at the self-checkout registers.
Target promises to open more traditional cashiers with employees staffing the registers.
The news comes as retailers across the United States deal with inventory theft, called “shrink” in industry parlance, at self-checkout registers.
Walmart earlier this week said it's shifting some self-checkout stations to certain members only, specifically delivery drivers and Walmart+ subscribers.
Dollar General, which is reeling from shrink, is eliminating almost all of its self-checkout stations across its stores.
The retailer is removing selfcheckout stations at more than 300 locations with the highest shrink rates, and converting others at 9,000 stores to employee-assisted stations. In the remaining stores with self-checkout, shoppers will be limited to five items or fewer.
“We are moving with a sense of urgency,” Chief Executive Officer Todd Vasos said on an call with analysts Thursday. The company said it will remove as many as 1,000 items from Dollar General stores to simplify operations.
Dollar General said gross margins fell during the fourth-quarter from a year ago due to higher shrink, increased markdowns and more sales in consumables that generally generate less profit.
In one case last year, a former pastor in Florida was accused of running an organized crime ring that stole at least $1.4 million in home-improvement merchandise from Home Depot.
“This is billions of dollars we've had to absorb into our cost structure,” Decker said in an interview in Las Vegas. “This is the result of very, very serious societal problems.”
Because of Home Depot's level of profitability, it has opted to remain in cities where other major retailers have closed stores, Decker said. In Oakland, for example, restaurant chains including Yum! Brands Inc.'s Taco Bell and In-N-Out, as well as Target Corp., have shuttered locations in recent months as a result of rising crime.
But when Home Depot initiated a plan last year to open 80 new stores over five years, widespread theft led it to remove some cities that it had penciled in to get new locations. The decision was meant to prevent both potential losses and threats to employee safety, Decker said.