Walmart Ditches Self-Checkout: A Return to Traditional Shopping Lanes

Walmart is phasing out self-checkout stations at more of its supercenters as the retail giant re-evaluates its approach to automation.

Recently, the world’s largest retailer removed these machines from its South Philadelphia location, opting to reinstate traditional cashier lanes instead.

This move follows the lead of other stores, such as a Walmart in Missouri, which eliminated self-checkout options after they were linked to 509 police calls within just five months.

Throughout 2024, Walmart has reintroduced staff-operated checkout lanes to stores in Shrewsbury, Missouri, and Cleveland, Ohio, aiming to enhance the efficiency of the customer checkout experience.

According to company executives, the decision to revert to staffed lanes is driven by service considerations. “These changes are informed by input from associates and customers, local shopping trends, and the specific needs of each community,” the company stated.

The change was aimed to ‘improve the checkout experience and enable associates to provide more personalized customer service.’

Encouraging customers to scan and pay for their own items was presented as a way to reduce lines and improve efficiency, but also doubled as a way for retailers to cut down on labor costs. 

In reality, these kiosks are especially vulnerable to theft – an issue that retailers claim has been plaguing businesses and forcing them to shut locations altogether. Experts say the rise in shoplifting from people using self-checkouts is really why they are being axed.

Lending Tree found that more than a quarter of people who use self-checkout have intentionally taken an item without paying

Lending Tree found that 69 percent of people who use self-checkout believe they make it easier to steal. A whopping 27 percent of people surveyed purposefully stole an item without scanning.

‘Walmart isn’t just removing self check out,’ financial expert Ted Jenkins told the Daily Mail. He argued that the retailer is ‘quietly admitting’ that when theft leads to major financial loss, there are repercussions.

‘Walmart regularly reviews stores based on theft and customer experience and takes self checkout out of their highest theft stores,’ retail expert Bryan Gildenberg told the Daily Mail. ‘I would not read much more into it than that.’

Retail expert Neil Saunders told the Daily Mail that self-checkouts have led to high theft rates because of both deliberate actions and ‘accidental mistakes.’ 

For example, a person may forget to scan one of their items or accidentally scan a product twice. 

‘Forcing more customers to use manned checkouts resolves a lot of these issues and saves retailers money,’ Saunders said.

Walmart told the Daily Mail its changes are guided by feedback from associates and customers, local shopping patterns and the needs of the business in each community. 

‘We updated the front end at our South Philadelphia Supercenter to improve the checkout experience and enable associates to provide more personalized customer service,’ they said.

Other retail stores are switching from self checkout to traditional cash registers, including Dollar General

Other major retailers are feeling similar repercussions, including Dollar General, who decided to remove self-checkouts from 12,000 stores nationwide in 2024. Only a handful of the self-serve kiosks remain.

Last year, Sam’s Club, a division of Walmart, announced it would remove all self-checkout machines and roll out AI-powered ‘Scan & Go’ technology to reduce checkout wait times.

‘This is one of the fastest, most scalable transformations happening in retail today,’ Sam’s Club President and CEO Chris Nicholas said. 

‘We’re investing with intention – in our fleet, our associates and the member experience – to become the world’s best club retailer.’ 

Meanwhile, Costco, one of Sam’s Club’s biggest rivals, began rolling out the same technology but is not planning on axing self-checkout from all locations.