Theft driving a push back from self-checkouts

move is unfortunate, but hopefully it means stores will hire more staff to meet need

I suspect I may be in the minority about this, but I’ve grown to love self-checkout lanes. Grocery store? Awesome. Big box store? Sweet. It doesn’t really matter where I’m at or how much I’m purchasing, there is a convenience to the process that I love.

At the grocery store, I like being able to organize my groceries as I ring them up. Fresh foods in one bag, meat in another, dry goods in a third bag. In minutes, I’m through the lane and headed to my car.

And when I get home, it’s all presorted for a smoother unpacking experience in my kitchen.

And at a big box store, I can use the handy scanner gun, and just shoot the big items in the cart myself, which is so much faster than waiting for a clerk to come around and scan it (or even worse, holding the item awkwardly above the cart while the clerk tries to scan it!).

After this long, it’s gotten to the point where I am a woman on a mission in that self-checkout lane. Scan, scan, scan … pay and BOOM! I’m on my way again.

Are there drawbacks? Of course.

Every so often, something doesn’t ring up at an expected price, and I have to wait for the employee manning the self-checkout lane to make their way over to me.

And sometimes (especially at the grocery store!), I feel like the register is heckling me. “Please check the last scanned item …” It’s a security measure, I’m sure, but 1) I put the right item in the bag, and 2) it slows me down considerably, which is annoying.

But overall, I’ve grown accustomed to the process.

So I was a little bothered when I read an article recently noting that stores are starting to step away from the self-checkout concept.

USA Today reports that Target will start limiting the self-checkout lanes to people making purchases of 10 items or less. The company has been testing the concept at a handful of stores, and said customers found the process to be twice as fast, with a better overall checkout experience.

Walmart, meanwhile, has apparently been removing self-checkout at some stores, based on the location, USA Today notes.

Now, I can understand that self-checkout isn’t for everyone.

I initially hated it because stores replaced humans with a do-it-yourself experience, and that was frustrating. I like talking to the checkout staff, and I hate to see good people lose jobs that were pushed back on to the customer.

For a variety of reasons, it makes sense to have a balance – self-checkout lanes and staffed checkout lanes. Some people simply prefer having a human help them, and I completely understand that. And others, quite frankly, NEED a human to help them checkout, and that’s OK too. Self-checkout isn’t perfect, and it’s not for everyone.

But the needs of humans isn’t really a driving force behind the change. Instead, the problem is humans who are taking advantage of the system, which is one of the driving forces behind the pivot away from self-checkout lanes..

USA Today cited a study that found two-thirds of businesses found “self-checkout losses” were becoming more of a problem in their businesses. Self-checkout losses refers to goods not being scanned, whether intentionally (as in deliberate theft) or unintentionally (as in items people thought they scanned but didn’t register).

The fact that people would intentionally steal isn’t surprising – it’s happened since the dawn of time.

Nevertheless, it is terrible that it happens. What’s wrong with people? If you want an item, pay for it.

Hopefully, there’s an upside to the step back from self-checkout lanes. I would think to do this, stores will have to hire more people. At least … that’s what I hope would happen.

Readers, I’m curious. What are your thoughts on self-checkout ? Do you enjoy it or no? Let me know.

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