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Why Walmart And Big Retailers Are Removing Self-Service Tills
https://www.whatjobs.com/news/usa/us-business-news/why-walmart-and-big-retailers-are-removing-self-service-tills
By Hugh Fort in US business news, posted April 24, 2024
Walmart is the latest U.S Retailer to announce it is reducing the number of self-service tills as retailers battle a wave of theft.
The company has revealed the number of the tills will be reduced at stores in St Louis, Missouri and Cleveland.
Fox News reported the company said: "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 including at our Shrewsbury, Missouri, store.
"These decisions were based on several factors, including feedback from associates and customers, shopping patterns and business needs in the area.
"We believe the changes will improve the in-store shopping experience and give our associates the chance to provide more personalized and efficient service."
A Walmart spokesperson told Business Insider: "We believe the change will improve the in-store shopping experience and give our associates the chance to provide more personalized and efficient service."
"We believe the changes will improve the in-store shopping experience and give our associates the chance to provide more personalized and efficient service"
Walmart is the latest store to announce it is reducing its self-checkouts.
In March, Five Below announced it would be cutting back on its self-checkout machines to reduce theft.
CEO Joel Anderson said Five Below has "now evolved" to associate-assisted checkout across its over 1,500 locations.
He added locations susceptible to more "shrink" - an industry term for lost or stolen merchandise - are mostly offering cashier-run checkouts.
The retailer is adding receipt checking, extra employees, and more security guards at such stores.
Target has also converted its self-checkout option to "express," which requires 10 items or fewer at all self-checkout registers.
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Neil Saunders, the managing director for retail at GlobalData, told CBS that stores wanted to see how pulling back on self-checkout would play out.
He said: "Self-checkout is an area of the store people can steal things.
"Retailers are very actively trying to reduce it, or in Target's case, put more restrictions around self-checkout to try to reduce the losses they incur from it."
Fox News Digital previously reported Dollar General is also pulling back on self-checkout machines.
Last month, the company announced it would remove the self-checkout option from 300 stores experiencing the biggest loss of merchandise.
Dollar General will also limit self-checkout to transactions consisting of five items or fewer.
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