Leading Retailer Phasing Out Most Self-Checkouts – Which Store Is Next?

Self-checkout services have always been a mixed bag for customers, but one thing seems sure: Those kiosks are a hit with retail thieves. And stores are noticing.

America’s largest retailers moved to eliminate self-checkouts at many of their respective locations and the reason is disheartening in many ways.

In March, Dollar General had announced the immediate end of multiple self-checkout kiosks and will remove the devices from more than 300 stores that have the biggest problem with what the retail industry calls “shrinkage” — something everyone else calls shoplifting.

The Dollar General announcement originally came around the same time that other retail titans, like Walmart and Target, announced similar measures, per CBS News.

Now, let’s be honest. The self-checkout idea is one that suffers the slings and arrows of many meme makers, with jokes of treating customers like store employees or complaints that stores are forcing customers to do the work an employee just so the store can fire people.

If you are on social media, it is highly likely you have seen the complaining and joking about self-checkouts.

This one encapsulates all the attacks rather well:

When you do self check out and bag your own merchandise

You are saving the store money

Because that’s one less cashier that store have to pay

Store are putting their CUSTOMERS TO WORK

Some stores are (so greedy) all lines are now self check out lines pic.twitter.com/zjJoKm9jsu

— Malcolm Shabazz (@malcolmshabazz6) October 15, 2023

“When you do self check out and bag your own merchandise,” one X user posted. “You are saving the store money Because that’s one less cashier that store have to pay.”

The user added: “Store are putting their CUSTOMERS TO WORK Some stores are (so greedy) all lines are now self check out lines.”

While the use, function and purpose of self-service kiosks can certainly be debated in a number of different ways, one thing is inarguable; thieves are taking advantage, because that’s what thieves do.

And stores are getting fed up with it, given they way they are all pulling back self-checkout lanes in one way or another.

It’s a shame that American society is breaking down so badly that these machines are facilitating a spike in thievery, of course.

During the March quarterly earnings call where this was announced, Dollar General CEO Todd Vasos and CFO Kelly Dilts specifically noted that tamping down on retail theft was a factor in pulling back the self-service kiosks, according to Fox Business.

Dilts directly attributed “year-over-year shrink headwinds” for the pullback, and noted that the issue “continued to build during the year, increasing more than 100 basis points for both the fourth quarter and full year.”

Dollar General executives made clear that self-checkout was rife with issues — but theft was at the root of many of them, thus prompting the 300 highest shrink stores to close their self-checkout lanes.

In other words, Dollar General is trying to limit its losses due to the habit of five-finger discounts as some morals-free thieves pay for some, but not all of the items with which they walk out of the store.

Dollar General also noted that the company realized a 29.5 percent drop in actual sales during Q4, and a rising retail theft rate is not going to help matters.

So, in many of the worst locations for theft, the company is putting employees back in the driver’s seat at checkout registers.

Granted, the company is also acknowledging that many customers appreciate the one-on-one interaction with an actual employee and they don’t like self-checkout in the first place. So, the move to begin to limit them is probably a good one, even if crime were non-existent (Hah!).

It seems unlikely that the self-checkout machine is going to go away completely in the retail sector any time soon, but that may change as the ravaged economy has more people shelving their morals.

If that trend continues, one can’t help but ask: What other stores are going to start protecting themselves from unscrupulous thieves?

And when will that finally start affecting law-abiding customers, as well?