Most of the time, these abstracts refer to how retailers are experimenting with and implementing exciting, cutting-edge technology to transform their stores, websites, and operations. But sometimes, great ideas simply don’t quite work as intended, even when their promise once seemed great.

That appears to be the case for self-checkout lines in grocery and general merchandise stores. Just a few years ago, virtually every big retailer was embracing the notion. Near the exits of stores like Walmart, CVS, Lowe’s, and Wegman’s, customers found a few or many of the self-sufficient lines, encouraging them to scan, bag, and pay for their own purchases. The potential benefits were varied and, seemingly, appealing for various parties to the exchange.

First, self-checkout promised to be faster for consumers, who could quickly scan and pay, especially if they had just a few items, rather than wait in line for cashiers to scan the massive orders being rung up for the customers ahead of them. Second, self-checkout has substantial efficiency benefits for stores. If they do not have to hire as many cashiers, because they shift the task of checking out to consumers, retailers can save substantial labor costs. Third, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, many people actively preferred these options, to limit their close interactions with others. Being able to hold on to and scan all their products, without making unnecessary contact with human employees, offered another line of protection against infection.

More recently however, the detriments of self-checkout have outweighed its benefits, and here again, those potential harms apply to the various parties to the exchange. For customers, the technology appears buggy, frustrating, and inconvenient. Virtually anyone who has tried to self-checkout likely has experienced the deeply annoying “Unexpected item in the bagging area” error message, when in fact they have scanned and bagged the items correctly. Some bar codes are difficult to find and scan, and consumers might not have the capacity to type in the numbers to overcome that issue. If they are buying alcohol or other age-restricted items, they have to wait for a store employee to verify their legal right to make the purchase. And any other issue that arises also means a wait for assistance, which may take an excessive amount of time if there are not enough employees on hand or if the employees tasked with helping them already are busy helping others. Already annoyed by the technology’s glitches, these customers are unlikely to exhibit much patience or understanding and instead may leave irritated, unsatisfied, and resolved never to shop at the store again—or at least check out by themselves.

For retailers, the problems are equally troublesome. Not only are some customers annoyed, but they also often struggle with the technology. If they are buying apples for example, customers might be unsure which varietal they have chosen, and they might ring up Red Delicious instead of the (more expensive) Galas they actually picked. Weighing bulk items might involve more complex operations than customers know how to perform. In addition, especially in busy, noisy store settings, customers might not expect or wait to hear the beep that confirms they have scanned an item, such that they unintentionally put it into their bag without adding it to their total.

And sometimes those sorts of behaviors are not innocent errors. Retailers report substantially higher shoplifting rates in stores with self-checkout, compared with those staffed by clerks. It is relatively easy for customers to ring up three candy bars but slip four into their bag. Or they might erroneously indicate that they have a conventional version of their cilantro, rather than ringing in the more expensive organic version. More purposeful and criminal behaviors also have been documented, as when thieves tape fake barcodes to their wrists and scan them (prompting a beep that covers their activity), rather than the actual tags on products.

Whether purposeful or accidental, such errors in consumers’ own checkout efforts have approximately doubled the loss rates in stores with self-checkout, compared with comparable stores staffed only by human clerks.

In response to these issues, many retailers are reducing or eliminating self-checkout altogether. Walmart and Shop Rite have eliminated them in many stores and appear likely to get rid of them everywhere. Wegman’s also discontinued its mobile checkout option. In the United Kingdom, the Booths supermarket chain is in the process of removing them completely, noting that it hopes to improve both its own performance and customer satisfaction by doing so.

Discussion Questions

1. Do you like and use self-checkout at various stores? Why or why not? Does your answer differ for a drugstore like CVS, a grocery store like Walmart, and a big box store like Lowe’s?
2. Can you think of any other recent technologies that might not pan out in the long term? List them and the issues that might prevent their widespread or persistent adoption by consumers.

Sources: Nathaniel Meyersohn, “Walmart, Costco, and Other Companies Rethink Self-Checkout,” CNN, November 17, 2023; Amanda Mull, “Self-Checkout Is a Failed Experiment,” The Atlantic, October 18, 2023