Walmart Removing Self Checkout – Fact Check
Seems to be a popular topic considering it is generally referencing less than 10 store. You see nice headline when you search and then the articles talks about two or three stores removing out of thousands. Retail Dive for example. It’s popularity is due to traffic audience tendencies and catering to that audience in order to gain higher advertising rates. To a large extent most of the audience is media in fact and irrelevant to a buying audience. A buying audience might be small grocer wanting to compare problems with NCR versus Fujitsu. Both of those companies have big clouds over their heads in one way or another.
The usual questions are:
Walmart removes somne self-checkout lanes from its branches. The list of locations where self-checkout lanes are being removed now includes Shrewsbury, Missouri, Cleveland, Ohio and Albuquerque, New Mexico, according to a Daily Express U.S. report.
According to the report, many retailers are reducing the number of self-checkouts as a response to an increase in shoplifting. The news outlet claims that self-checkout thefts are five times more likely than traditional cashier checkout theft.
Niel Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, told the news outlet: “Theft rates at self-checkouts are reasonably high both because of deliberate actions and accidental mistakes. Forcing more customers to use manned checkouts resolves a lot of these issues and saves retailers money.”
April 2024
Walmart said it has removed self-checkout lanes at two additional stores — one in Shrewsbury, Mo., and another in Cleveland.
“As part of our announced plans for additional investments and improvements to facilities across the country, we’ve decided to remove self-checkout lanes and replace them with staffed lanes at select locations,” Brian K. Little, a spokesperson for Walmart, told Supermarket News.
The decision was based on several factors, including feedback from employees and customers, shopping patterns, and business needs in the area, he said.
“We believe the changes will improve the in-store shopping experience and give our associates the chance to provide more personalized and efficient service,” Little said.
Last year Walmart said it had removed self-checkout from three stores in Albuquerque.
The company has previously stated that it has no plans for the widespread removal of the service, and Little said the company had no additional news to report about changes in its checkout lanes.
Earlier this year Dollar General said it was removing self-checkout from 300 stores, and scaling it back at other locations, due in part to high levels of theft. Customers are now limited to a maximum of five items in the self-checkout lanes.
Costco, meanwhile, said it added more personnel to its self-checkout areas after discovering that non-members were using the self-checkouts using the membership cards of other individuals.