How self-checkout took over our favorite stores — and how it's upending the way we shop
Nov 25, 2023, 17:18 IST
- Self-checkout has become ubiquitous over the past few decades — as have its frustrations.
- The kiosks are usually a help for both shoppers and retailers, but there's much room for improvement.
Advertisement
Since the introduction of self-checkout more than 30 years ago, the technology has become ubiquitous in stores across the US and around the world.But as the benefits of the tech have spread in the form of speedier service and higher sales, so have its frustrations, like technical errors for shoppers or rising rates of missing inventory for retailers.In recent years — and especially within the past several months — retailers like Walmart, Costco, and many more have been rolling out new tech and strategies to adjust to evolving challenges in the self-service lanes.Walmart is leaning big into its redesigned checkout zones, which replace traditional lanes with a staffed corral of kiosks where shoppers can opt to scan and pay on their own or have a worker do it for them.Costco meanwhile, which relies on membership fees for most of its profit, has cracked down on shoppers allowing non-members to use their cards at self-checkout registers.Other retailers are seeking new ways to curb losses, which can rise by 31% to 60% following the installation of self-checkout machines, or otherwise bring back a more human touch to an increasingly lonely world.Meanwhile, those anti-shoplifting measures are frustrating some customers who say they are fed up with systems flagging them as potential criminals.Here's how retailers are reimagining their self-checkout strategies.