The Truth About What’s Happening To Self Checkouts – What You Need to Know

For a long time now, we've been debating with each other about the positives and negatives of grocery store life these days.

I remember when the concept of the "self checkout" started.  Immediately, we were divided.  Half of people thought it was a great idea, to make checkouts quicker, less embarrassing when you're buying certain items...and for some people, they just preferred to bag their own items.   And a lot of us depended on the self checkouts during the pandemic.

The other side of it though, worried about people's jobs, about automation taking over our lives, and about a lack of customer service.

And honestly, over the years, I have definitely moved over to the regular use of self-checkouts.  But some of that is because... well, a lot of the time stores don't even offer the idea of a clerk behind the counter anymore.

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Well, one huge grocery store company is going to start phasing OUT the self checkout machines.  And it's a store present here locally in Warrensburg, Hy-Vee.  Hy-Vee recently sent a press release out explaining what they've been doing, and what they're doing to do regarding the self-checkouts.

Hy-Vee spokesperson Tina Potthoff said that in recent months, some stores have gotten rid of some or all self checkouts.  At other stores, self checkouts have converted to express lanes with a limit of 12 items or less.

"We just want to provide a better customer experience in several of our stores by bringing back the face-to-face interaction with our employees that we had pre-COVID," she said.

So... a big supermarket chain could get rid of them soon.  Or, at the very least, start to phase them out.   But...what's the final detail here?  What are we missing?  Why Now?

The short answer?  Skip Scanning.  The Associated Press did a big report on them last December, and "shrinkage" is the biggest Real reason to reduce the self checkout lanes.

"Theft is indeed an issue," the news service noted, with one industry analyst describing it as a "technology that... tempts even law abiding citizens to be dishonest.  It’s easy to just scan every other item or punch in codes for a cheaper item," they said. "Shoppers could also make honest mistakes, leading to losses for stores."

So, yeah, they're telling you it's about customer service, and that might be at least partially true.  But really, they wanna stop or slow people down when it comes to stealing stuff.  Apparently, stores with the average number of self checkout machines could expect to see shrinkage losses 31% higher than the average for those without them, and that stores relying on an above-average number of unstaffed kiosks could see shrinkage rates 60% higher.

What do you think?  Do you like the self-checkouts, or do you want to see them go?

Shoppingly yours,
Behka