After years of investing in self-checkout machines, some major retailers are starting to reverse course.
Dollar General said it has eliminated self-checkout options at about 12,000 locations, a majority of its stores, after it began the process in the first quarter this year. Five Below is working to remove self-checkout entirely in some of its āhighest-riskā locations. Target also announced steps to limit or eliminate self-checkout options at some stores this year, and Amazon is pulling its āJust Walk Outā cashierless checkout system from its grocery stores.
The U-turns are occurring at retailers that once touted the upsides of fully self-service stores. As recently as 2022, Dollar General described self-checkout technologyās potential to āenhance the convenience proposition, while enabling our associates to dedicate even more time to serving customers.ā The company had tried to test stores with 100% self-checkout kiosks in hundreds of its retail locations.
The decisions come amid retailersā ongoing efforts to tamp down on āshrink,ā an industry term for all the ways inventory can get lost, including through error or theft by shoppers or employees.
Some of the companies shifting gears on self-checkout have blamed theft for their moves. In March, Five Below CEO Joel Anderson said the most significant change the company made in testing theft mitigation efforts was to replace self-checkout options with employees. Dollar General CEO Todd Vasos said in May that the companyās goal is to restrict self-checkout to high-traffic, low-theft locations.
Still, the industryās shoplifting complaints have occasionally raised eyebrows, and at least one retail executive admitted last year to overstating shrink concerns.
Shrink at self-checkouts ācan be absolutely intentional from bad actors,ā said Claire Tassin, a retail and e-commerce analyst at Morning Consult, āor it could be accidental.ā
āI know Iām not the only one who has struggled with a self-checkout machine,ā she said. In some cases, though, customers may be purposefully āpretending to scan something and just bagging it anyway.ā
People are always complaining about the machinesā being difficult to use, or loud, or just challenging in some way.
According to a LendingTree survey last year, 15% of self-checkout users admitted to stealing while they were using the machines. About 41% of consumers said they almost always use self-checkout when itās available, but 21% said the option feels like theyāre performing āfree labor,ā and 14% saw it as taking a job from a would-be cashier.
Representatives for Dollar General and Five Below didnāt immediately comment.
Tassin said some retailers may also be looking to improve the customer experience. āPeople are always complaining about the machinesā being difficult to use or loud or just challenging in some way,ā she said.
Thatās how Jerome Osei described them recently at a Morton Williams supermarket in New York City. āI have to wait for someone to come in and fix it, and itās just a waste of time,ā he said, opting for the cashier checkout, instead.
Other shoppers there had more favorable views. āSuper fast, easy, convenientā was fellow shopper Jessi Claytonās review. āItās a great option to have, especially when youāre in a hurry.ā
Consumers whoāve fretted about self-checkoutsā impact on jobs might be cheered by the recent rollbacks. Five Below and Dollar General said theyāre reinvesting in workers as part of their changes.
āIt tells us that it is more profitable for the retailer to pay employees to manage checkout,ā Tassin said. āAnd theyāre of course going to be better at it than the average untrained consumer than it is to support the machines, where theyāre probably getting less-than-accurate checkouts from consumers.ā
But despite the shift back toward human cashiers, she doesnāt expect shoppers to have to pay more. āRetailers know consumers are pretty pressed for prices. So I donāt think this will make a massive, meaningful difference in consumer pricesā at the moment, she said.
While some stores are moving away from self-checkout, the option doesnāt look like itās going away any time soon. An estimated 44% of transactions at grocery stores took place in self-checkout lanes last year, according to the Food Industry Association, up from 29% in 2022.