NEW YORK: Customers were promised that self-checkout would allow them to avoid long lines and save money for retailers. Workers were meant to be freed from tedious tasks. However, the reality is that customers are complaining about clunky technology and workers are feeling frustration over the need to monitor the machines, not to mention the ongoing issue of theft.
Cindy Whittington, 66, of Fairfax, Virginia expressed her frustration: “Going to the grocery store used to be simple, and now it’s frustrating. You’re paying more. You’re working harder to pay for merchandise at their store. And it’s become an ordeal to check out. I should get a 5% discount.”
A survey by FMI, an industry group, revealed that in 2021, self-checkout transactions made up 30% of total transactions, almost double the number from 2018. Additionally, 96% of retailers surveyed offer self-checkout.
However, self-checkout is facing challenges during the holiday shopping season, with some retailers adding restrictions and others pulling out of the technology altogether.
Walmart removed self-checkout kiosks in three of its stores in Albuquerque, New Mexico. To reduce wait times, Target is now limiting the number of items to 10 that shoppers can scan at some of its stores nationwide.
The British supermarket chain Booths has been eliminating self-checkout at most of its stores in response to backlash from customers. Wegmans also discontinued its self-checkout app a year ago due to “losses”, although it still offers self-checkout registers at its stores.
Self-checkout, first tested in the 1980s, gained momentum 20 years ago and was further ramped up three years ago to address labor shortages caused by the pandemic.
Technological advances, such as self-checkout and online sales, have been the main driver in the declining number of cashier jobs. According to Labor Department data, there are about 1.2 million people currently working as cashiers, compared to 1.4 million in 2019.
Christopher Andrews, chair of sociology at Drew University, said, “We are at an inflection point where if Americans are willing to do this and show an interest, then stores will probably expand it because they want to slash that labor cost. But right now they’re just seeing downside. They’re seeing frustrated customers. They’re seeing increased costs and shoplifting.”
Theft is indeed an issue. Andrews said a technology that relies on shoppers to do their own scanning and punch in product quantities tempts even law abiding citizens to be dishonest.
Still, self-checkout isn’t going away, especially with stubborn labor shortages. And plenty of people love it. Ellen Wulfhorst, 65, said using self-checkout brings back her childhood when she played with a toy register.
Robin Wissmann Doherty of South Salem, New York, who has a progressive neurodegenerative disease and uses a walker, finds self-checkout makes her shopping experience easier.
Stew Leonard Jr., president and CEO of Stew Leonard’s, a supermarket chain, said that 25% of its customers use self-service. He noted one-third of its registers are unmanned, with the possibility of that number increasing to 50% in the next few years.
Retailers have been adding cameras or sensors at kiosks to monitor shoppers. Kroger, for example, has deployed artificial intelligence technology at a majority of stores that triggers alerts when something is amiss.
Amazon’s “just walkout technology” is in more than 70 Amazon-owned stores and more than 100 third-party retailers across the US, allowing shoppers to check in with Amazon’s app on their phones and then walk out without having to check out.
However, for some workers, the tedium of self-checkout brings frustration from another angle. Bernadette Christian, 59, a worker at Giant Food in Clinton, Maryland, mans six self-service stations at once and is afraid to confront difficult shoppers.
“It would be easy for us to be cashiers, and it would be a lot more safe in today’s world,” she said. – AP
