Is self-checkout saving stores money or just wasting your time?
BOSTON – For stores, self-checkout is supposed to be a cost saver. For customers, it's supposed to be a time saver. But is self-checkout still worth it?
Suddenly, retailers are not saving as much money as they once were with self-checkout. As for shoppers, many point to frequent scanning errors.
Target and Walmart self-checkout
Now, some big retailers are scaling back self-checkout efforts.
"We're rolling out express self-checkout with limits of 10 items... and opening more traditional lanes," a Target spokesperson told WBZ-TV.
"It will improve the in-store shopping experience and give our associates the chance to provide more personalized and efficient service," Walmart said in a statement about its self-checkout efforts.
WBZ shopped at both stores over the past several days. At Target's express checkout, there was a long line with just one or two traditional lanes.
The same was the case at Walmart. There were just two lanes open for traditional checkout, and a long line at self-checkout.
Why are stores unhappy with self-checkout?
One of the big motivators for tweaking things is theft. Stores are losing a lot of money as shoppers scan one item and skip another.
Fifteen percent of shoppers say they have stolen from self-checkout and 44% say they would do it again.
Lauren Beitelspacher is a professor at Babson College, and an expert in retail and consumer behaviors.
She said that during the pandemic, people didn't want to buy items face-to-face, and stores were having a hard time with staffing. At the time, self-checkout fixed both issues. But now, theft is a problem and long lines make fewer fans of the self-scans.
"I don't know exactly how much money they're losing, but retailers are already losing so much money with returns and investments in e-commerce," Beitelspacher said.
Does Market Basket have self-checkout?
Market Basket is a unicorn in the "bag it yourself" world. The grocery store chain has 90 locations, but zero self-checkout lanes.
Joe Schmidt is the director of operations at Market Basket, which has 30,000 workers. Schmidt said self-checkout would take jobs away.
"We just got a response the other day from a customer that came in to say, 'please don't ever do self-checkout,'" Schmidt said.
Experts say new technology will make it better and more secure, but added that it's never going away.
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