In the early 2000’s I loved the self-checkout system at my grocery store. It was an express lane that let me grab the few items I needed for White People Taco Night and get out in under five minutes. Then the pandemic hit and shops started going warp-speed, phasing out human cashiers. Their replacement: self checkout kiosks.
New data indicates it may not have been the smartest choice and things are starting to change.
Here’s Five Fast Facts About Self Checkouts:
- 🛒 Why? - Before you start celebrating, you should understand that the changes aren’t due to customer complaints. They’re due to retailers losing money from customer error or theft (aka “shrink”) associated with the system. Do kiosk haters need to thank their local shop-lifter? (probably not…)
- 🛍️ Tech Support - It also turns out that self checkout systems are buggy and costly to maintain. They require a lot of expensive IT work from outside experts.
- 😡 Try Again - Walmart, the company experiencing the biggest customer backlash, has decided to completely remove their current self checkouts in some stores, only to note they’ll replace them with a redesigned system.
- 💳 ID Please - Costco has admitted they’re experiencing shrink due to self checkout, but they’re still keeping it. A company representative said they are adding human employees to assist customers with the process and to check for membership IDs. The last part is probably the real reason.
- 🤯 All In - Not to be outdone, Kroger said “hold my beer” and has gone exclusively to self-checkout in at least one of its stores.
🔥Bottom line: Self checkout isn’t going away. Retailers will just continue to find new ways to make it work so they don’t have to hire cashiers. They don’t care how much of a pain it is for you or their employees. They’re only worried about their bottom line.
How do you feel about self checkouts?
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