By DIANE DENISH
Corner to Corner
© 2024 New Mexico News Service

If you do grocery shopping for your family, you have undoubtedly used self-checkout. That’s what I was doing recently when shopping for two items in a nearby store.

I noticed a new sign had been posted: “Self-check-out restricted to 15 items or less.” I had not seen that before.

On the contrary, there were times I had stood in self-checkout lines when the regular cashier stations were all closed or only had one checker. People had large carts full of items. Fresh foods, paper goods, canned goods, liquor or wine or beer, you name it.

The sign made me wonder what prompted the change. Scanning, bagging, and paying complete, I headed over to the long-time cashier, Margarita, who was supervising the area.

After her usual warm welcome and “I’ve missed seeing you lately” greeting, I asked about the sign. She told me a story of self-checkout that is also playing out nationally.

Theft is a problem, she said, with some customers who intentionally skip scanning expensive products. Some have figured out how to scan in cheaper prices. The more items the more likely the theft.

Self-checkout began early in the last century. The first Piggly Wiggly “self-service supermarket” was created in 1918. This was the beginning of putting customers to work for supermarkets without pay. From the start it was designed as a way to lower labor costs.

According to CNN Business, the more robust effort came with the first modern system, called Check Reboot, piloted by Kroger in 1986. It’s much different from what we see today; customers would scan items, someone would bag them, and then you would go to a central cashier to pay. (At least they were still doing the bagging!)

A decade later Walmart began to test the system, and in the 2000s they expanded it, as did Albertson’s and others that were cutting costs in the 2001 recession.

The premise was this: Self-checkout would lower wait times, eliminate labor costs and revolutionize the grocery industry. Machines don’t call in sick, and they always show up.

In 2020, Walmart began testing stores that were exclusively self-checkout. Machines and customers working for them.

Fast forward to 2024.

A surprising shift occurred. In the fall of 2023, the retail giant removed all of its self-checkout machines in six U.S. stores. The Canadian company Giant Tiger and others began following suit.

Why?

Christopher Andrews, author of “The Overworked Consumer: Supermarkets and the Do-It-Yourself Economy,” says, “Self-checkout delivers none of what it promises.”

Customers are not the most reliable scanners and make mistakes. And, by some reports, 67% of customers either dislike self-checkout or find it too frustrating. Some customers are thieves and don’t scan expensive items. And, given the lax oversight, theft through self-checkout is high and costly.

 Self-checkout still requires attendants to help customers and monitor theft, but monitoring theft can put employees in danger from aggressive thieves. Machine maintenance adds costs as it requires highly skilled IT expertise. Waits can be longer, not shorter, due to unpaid, untrained workers: customers like you and me.

And, Andrews says, some stores have figured out that due to theft, self-checkout actually hurts the bottom line.

There is little question that some form of self-checkout is here to stay. After 40 years you would think it would be flawless, but it’s not. And from a customer point of view, it’s sorely lacking in customer service.

Longtime cashiers we see every time, like Margarita, wonder where I’ve been lately, ask about my grandchildren, or give me a hug when they heard my husband died. That’s customer service no machine will ever provide.