Will Self-Checkout Ever Win Over Its Critics?
Self-checkout stations show little signs of slowing their expansion across retail, yet critics only appear to be getting louder.
In a recent article in The Atlantic, “Self-Checkout Is a Failed Experiment,” staff writer Amanda Mull contends that self-checkout has turned out to be the polar opposite of “convenient,” vexing both consumers and stores.
She opines that while the argument for self-checkout was “scan your stuff, plunk it in a bag, and you’re done. Long checkout lines would disappear,” the reality is vastly different.
“You still have to wait in line,” Mull laments. “The checkout kiosks bleat and flash when you fail to set a purchase down in the right spot. Scanning those items is sometimes a crapshoot — wave a barcode too vigorously in front of an uncooperative machine, and suddenly you’ve scanned it two or three times. Then you need to locate the usually lone employee charged with supervising all of the finicky kiosks, who will radiate exasperation at you while scanning her ID badge and tapping the kiosk’s touch screen from pure muscle memory.”
In a column for TastingTable, Dave McQuilling writes that beyond the “inevitable issues with scanning and bugs with the machines themselves,” along with the frequent need for assistance, having self-checkout stations “costs jobs, shifts responsibility onto the consumer, and serves as a startling example of how companies are happy to inconvenience people if it serves their bottom line.”
He mentioned the “invasive” cameras as well as the loss of human interaction from missing the brief conversations a few times a week with cashiers. McQuilling wrote, “Taking this away, as small and simple a thing as it is, is just a further slip toward the disconnected dystopian universe that science fiction has been trying to warn us about for a century.”
Christopher Andrews, a Drew University sociologist who wrote “The Overworked Consumer,” told CNN last year that, far from being the autonomous money collectors retailers were hoping for, self-checkout stations required supervision, maintenance, and IT support. Self-checkout, he said, “delivers none of what it promises.”
Walmart recently pulled self-checkout lanes from at least three stores in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and ShopRites in Delaware began adding back cashiered lanes to stores, a sign that some retailers may be rethinking self-checkout technology.
Nonetheless, a VideoMining study released in April found self-checkout registers have now become the dominant checkout format in grocery, with its share of transactions rising to 55% in 2022 and the usage of self-checkout by grocery shoppers vaulting by 53% over the last five years. The rapid expansion was attributed to grocers looking to mitigate rising labor costs and shortages as well as seeking to reduce shopper wait times.
Recent consumer surveys from Raydiant and Zebra Technologies show in-store shoppers are increasingly preferring self-checkout options largely to avoid waiting in lines.
Ultimately, self-checkouts appear to be a work in progress. Target is testing self-checkout lanes of 10 items or fewer “in order to reduce wait times and better understand guest preferences.” At some Costco and Walmart locations, hybrid self-checkouts let store associates assist in scanning items. Kroger is introducing artificial intelligence technology that alerts store personnel if an item isn’t scanned.
Discussion Questions
Do the benefits of self-checkout outweigh the drawbacks for both shoppers and retailers? Should the rollout of self-checkout stations be considered a retail failure or a fixable situation, or are they generally working fine?
Poll
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Neil Saunders
Managing Director, GlobalData
Shep Hyken
Chief Amazement Officer, Shepard Presentations, LLC
The benefits of – well functioning – self-checkouts outweigh the drawbacks of not having them and their increasing market penetration tells you everything you need to know. Rolling out self-checkout is not a failure, and I call BS on the bleeding hearts that can’t figure out how to use SCO scanners, which have become increasingly easy to use. There’s no doubt that self-checkout technology can and will get even better, and when it works well, the experience is even better than engaging with a cashier for many consumers (myself included). Ultimately, each consumer gets to decide if they want to use self-checkout or not. It’s not for everyone, but it’s hear to stay.
The idea self-checkout is universally unpopular, as the Atlantic article seemed to postulate, is errant nonsense. It is not. Nor is it a failed experiment. The actual truth is that self-checkout is polarizing: some people love it, some hate it, many have mixed feelings. As such, it is not going anywhere; but neither are traditional registers. Retailers need both to satisfy consumers.
The quality of the self-checkout experience also varies between retailers. Target, Walmart, and Whole Foods all have good self-checkout systems which work well with minimal glitches. Others are not so good.
What I would like to see improve, especially in grocery stores, are the options for scan and shop so that the need to scan items at the self-checkout is completely eliminated. This is common in the UK but is much rarer in the US. It is a much more efficient system, even if it does raise concerns over theft.
Your comments are spot on Neil. The Atlantic article was overly critical of self-checkout, which now accounts for more than 50% of grocery transactions. If self-checkout was a “failed experiment,” it would be declining in popularity. Self-checkout technology has improved over the years and it will continue to improve. I also agree that self-scanning while shopping is still one of the most cost effective and customer-friendly checkout options and have been surprised that it hasn’t been adopted more widely. I understand the concern with theft, but it seems like a Costco model of checking receipts (electronic) at the exit would curtail theft.
Agree with everything you wrote….until the last paragraph: I’d put the theft concern first, and from that deduce S&S is never going to really take off.
Self-checkout (SCO) is a work in progress. It’s not perfect, but to paraphrase the Monty Python line: It’s not dead yet! It does provide labor savings for retailers, but that comes with higher shrink numbers. The trick here is determining how much shrink is acceptable. I never thought I would talk about acceptable shrink, but here we are. As for service, in many cases, retailers have reduced the number of cashiers and, along with this, turned off the light on several checkout lanes. The result: Disney lines for the self-checkout area. Again, not good.
SCO definitely needs to be more intuitive for customers to fully accept, and for all the reasons mentioned above, and more. While shrink mitigation techniques need to improve to allow for retailers to cost-justify expanding SCO, automation of checkout is not going away. It will only improve over time.
By the way, RFID would solve most of the problems with self-checkout, from scanning challenges to theft. But produce, deli, and seafoods are a long way from being a good fit for RFID. Perhaps a single cash wrap in that area would be an idea worth exploring. And when I think about the people who miss their conversations with cashiers, maybe they should find an actual neighbor to talk with.
Here’s the thing….self checkout offends a lot of shoppers because they feel like a) it’s taking away jobs (which it does), and b) they don’t like the retailers offloading their work onto them. You can find this all over social media if you look.
The reason that people seem to prefer self checkout is the long lines at regular checkout. But long term, this is not a good thing. Consumers are not stupid. They know that there are longer lines because fewer traditional checkout lines are being manned.
I think at some point we surveyed consumers and 30% were into it. The rest, not so much.
There is one thing I have said forever, ever since retailers thought they would emulate the airlines who now almost punish you for not using automated check-in. Consumers taking steps to remove pain (not friction…really) is not the same as a satisfactory customer experience. It’s pain avoidance.
And, as a final thought, it’s another reason I don’t see “just walk out” ever taking off at scale. “Now you want me to do the bagging and checkout too? Not cool.” We need to not kid ourselves around the customer experience. People, processes and technology. Not just technology.
It is interesting how the general business media is leaning into the ‘Self-Checkout is a failure’ narrative, and the industry media is not. It has its challenges, yes, but with the difficulty the industry has with labor, SCO is a technology that has its place in our industry.
And why do you think there is a spread between the general business media and industry sources ? One has hopes and wishes and the other has actually talked to shoppers
Gee, it’s almost like MSM – MainStreamMagazines…well, one magazine in particular – is creating news to sell copies. Imagine!
Will self-checkout ever win over its critics? Probably not this one, but if it works for you, go for it.
One of the things my company does is watch shoppers to see how they interact on the sales floor. The self-check area is feast or famine; they either work or they don’t. And there isn’t much middle ground, because other than Uniqlo, where you toss your purchases in a bin and it magically rings them up, self-checkouts can be frustrating.
My local Target isn’t testing “10 items and under” in the self-check out area, that’s the new rule. And good luck finding ample lanes open with live cashiers if you have a cartful, or even just eleven items. You want to talk about lines?
Self-checkouts are touted as a convenience to save shoppers time, when in reality, they are just another customer-serviceless hassle. The customer experience, the technology, and the retailer application all need attention.
People who don’t like people and who shop online love self-checkout, no matter how impersonal and prone to problems. The rest of us are forced to use them at Lowes because they have eliminated cashiers. That’s why I don’t return to Lowes. I suspect more people hate them than love them because we are innately human creatures wanting to connect, not having to learn how to do a job the retailer should have taught cashiers how to do.
Self-checkout will stay, albeit in a refined form and it will be used by certain customers under certain conditions. It is not for everything and not everyone currently alive. A half a generation down the road (10 years), no-one will remember this discussion.
Precisely.
The only issue with self checkout that I see is dealing with large basket sizes. For small to medium shopping lists they are typically MUCH faster and cost effective than traditional checkout. In the case of Walmart pulling them, I am guessing that most shopping trips to WM are for more than 10 items.
Self checkout is not going away.
Oh this is definitely a good one! SCO was never meant to be “completely unattended” – the first implementations had an employee for every pod of 4. Which meant they were well able to monitor, help, and intervene proactively. That ratio has now risen to maybe one employee for a bank of 12. And savvy, jaded consumers who might never otherwise steal, being irritated over having to wait longer to clear some random error on their SCO than they would’ve had to wait in line for full service – that shopper is definitely going to rationalize just skipping the scan next time. If the retailer doesn’t care enough to pay attention, why should the shopper? That’s not a failure of SCO, that’s a retailer being cheap and careless and now having to pay the price.
Do we really need to win over critics? If you don’t like self checkout then you “opine” as one would in this article, biased against (and unfairly biased against). I absolutely appreciate the self-checkout option and my experience has been the opposite at my Costco, local grocery stores and a few other retailers. If the idea is to be customer centric and if there are customers like me who prefer self-checkout then shouldn’t self-checkout be available? And I must add that humans are glitchy too – not every checker is happy, welcoming, customer focused, error free or aware that sharing life stories with customers is detrimental to the experience of the person with one item waiting patiently in line. Bias is a two way street and data can be manipulated to say anything, just ask “AI.” To answer the questions posed in this article we need better data but I suspect we will find that self-checkout, like many initiatives, has both benefits and drawbacks and might be a failure in some places and a success in others. And we may even find that the difference between success and failure may not only be the technology (which can be glitchy) but the implementation and use of the technology (which can also be glitchy or flawed). My vote is to keep them in my neighborhood because apparently we’ve gotten the only good batch of self-checkout registers or possibly have the only shoppers in the country capable of using such flawed, error prone, horrible tech or both.
Self-checkout is about as good as it gets with the current generation of technology, and there’s been about 10 years of effort to make it “ok”. I think as clunky as that might be I’d still rather see 6 or 12 self-checkouts available in a store, vrs. the1 or 2 full-service lanes that seems to be all our local grocers can staff, particularly at odd hours. Let’s remember that for now the alternative to self-checkout is really long lines for few cashiers. There is hope though – with improvements in vision AI there should soon(ish) be a time when you can put all your products on a belt and as fast as you can unload them, a camera (probably multiple cameras) will identify each product as it heads towards bagging. That is what the future holds
Self-checkouts are an introvert’s delight, they reduce time spent in line and often offer a smooth, user-friendly experience.
Retailers save labor costs and store space to optimize square footage. Store associates evolve as tech support and reduce repetitive stress injuries.
As for drawbacks, stores need more staff to help with scanning errors and store associates have evolved into security guards.
Self-checkout makes theft easier if customers enter PLUs for cheaper items. Consumer habits take time to change, especially among the elderly. Self-checkout is often a colder way to complete the in-store experience compared to friendly human cashiers.
Retailers can solve many self-checkout issues with sufficient labor planning and training to balance efficiency and care.
It’s the allure of putting your checkout destiny into your own hands that will keep customers queued up with the expectation of getting out faster. It’s here to stay.
The Atlantic article paints with too broad a brush. It’s ridiculous to label self checkout as a failure. It can be a nightmare at the grocery store with fresh fruit and vegetables. But it is a dream at Home Depot, where there is always a helpful associate standing by. It’s not the end-all, be-all some had hoped. It is certainly not a failure. It’s called a learning curve.
There’s a spectrum here in my opinion. Some stores do self-checkout really well, and it actually does significantly speed up the time. Others can’t get it together and it ruins the experience. As stores improve their set up and technology here, I do think it will become a better thing. For now though, it’s mostly frustrating.
Self-checkouts have been successful at many retailers and with many consumers, however, there is room for improvement. It is a complex proposition to scan all items correctly and also to make it convenient for consumers and they are gradually getting better over time. Retailers have to avoid fundamental mistakes such as missing or wrong product data that makes scanning difficult or even the absence of any associates in the store to help out with questions.
For stores that typically have many trips with less than 5-10 items, it would make sense to have SCO in almost every store. The absence of a shelf checkout option in a drug store when there is a line of 10 people, each with 2-3 items can frustrate the shopper. However, I have had great experiences at CVS, Home Depot, and Ralphs when I just had a few items and a quick shop.
Self-checkout will continue to grow but may not make sense for all retailers due to their brand experience, or the smaller size of the store. Continued improvements in the technology, commitment to good quality product data in-store, and retail associate support are the keys to making this a bigger success in the future.
For those that learn how to use self-checkout, it is great. For those who struggle, or if there are any glitches, it is frustrating. Most self-checkout stations have an employee to help in those situations, but it’s still a hassle. I don’t see them going away. I see them getting better.
The experience of seniors trying to use self-checkout hasn’t been mentioned so far. So many buttons to push, and how do you get the digital discount thing, and what if there’s no barcode on the product, how do you spell quecumber, is the cost of the white onion different than the red onion, how do you scan a bannana, and who helps you scan your bottle of wine? Of course, I’ve been told these are some of the issues for older folks.
Chalk me up as a geezer who likes to chat with sales associates at the register. We’ve all had a bad experience with self-checkouts that berate the customer…enough.
I believe you have to be in it for the long haul in order to know if it successful and to what amount is it successful. I think there is a point where to many self checkouts are too much, but each retailer – has to find it, and know they will have to invest in more loss prevention resources and tools to justify it’s cost. I believe we are still a long way before knowing its success or failure.
What a silly question: the very first line in this post concedes “little signs of slowing their expansion “, so how can it possibly be considered a failure?? Is it perfect?? Of course not; but it was never supposed to be. It was presented as – and remains – an easily scaleable means of handling low volume customers. The problems I’ve seen are understaffing of the attendants, and shrink dangers (which is likely not something of interest to customers….at least in a good way). But guess what (?), stores that are fumbling these points likely fumble other aspects of running a store as well. This is a non-story.
The Atlantic article and comments from the university sociologist are examples of how pre-disposed opinion or exaggeration gets layered onto available facts and data. If self-checkout is a failed experiment, then we may as well say the internet itself and the use of debit/credit over cash are failures, because while they too are constantly being improved, they are fraught with shortcomings and unintended consequences.
Shoppers still have a choice, in using regular checkout lanes if they want to interact with someone. The reality is self-checkout is constantly being improved as a tool. Retailers are tweaking the flow and use of machines to help them offset labor costs and get customers out the door. The next level of checkout options offer promising signs of experience upside, whether Just Walk Out tech by Amazon, RFID, or scan while shopping.
What’s odd is that some retailers think they can replace staff with self-checkout. That’s not going to work — and retailers should count themselves fortunate that it won’t. That said, it’s also odd that everyone takes “all or nothing” positions.
Self-checkout at my local Kroger’s works exceptionally well. I can use it when I want (only have a few things) and use a staffed checkout when I have a big basket of groceries.
Is there a problem with figuring both are a good idea? And likely a mix like 20-30% self-checkout with 70-80% staffed checkout?
There really are two sides to consider here. From an efficiency and labor standpoint, for the retailer (and likely for shoppers with a couple items), self-checkout makes sense. Why not get the shopper to cover some of those costs? However, when you measure OSAT of a food shopping visit, and the NPS, the scores for the food store are higher for shoppers assisted by a cashier in both cases. And, of course, that is an environment with many large baskets, so naturally scanning 50 items is different than 3. So, in the end, each retailer has to consider both ends of the spectrum and with their choices.
Any survey that says most shoppers prefer self-checkout over cashiers is nonsense. Retailers like self-checkout terminals for obvious reasons. But shoppers do not like them. The fact that some retailers won’t listen to their shoppers is sad and foolish. Am I being too harsh? Nope.
Self-checkout stations present a complex scenario for both shoppers and retailers, with a mix of advantages and drawbacks. While some shoppers appreciate the convenience and reduced wait times, others experience frustration due to technical issues and miss the personal touch of interacting with cashiers. From a retailer’s perspective, self-checkouts do offer efficiency benefits, but they also come with criticism for job losses and the expenses required to maintain these systems.
Labeling self-checkout as a retail failure seems premature; rather, it is a work in progress. To enhance the functionality of self-checkouts, retailers should invest in improving technology, providing on-hand assistance to employees, and addressing issues such as scanning reliability. It is essential to strike a balance between convenience and addressing the concerns of shoppers and employees. Self-checkout can be a valuable option for those who prefer it, but it should coexist with traditional checkout lanes to cater to diverse shopper preferences.
There’s no denying that self-checkout kiosks can sometimes be a bit clunky, but it’s a rarity to see the lines near these kiosks empty. I’d argue that this is because consumers appreciate having multiple checkout options. Shoppers can choose to visit a traditional checkout line, scan and bag their items themselves, or even opt to skip the store altogether and shop online. Providing consumers with the flexibility to shop and pay as they prefer is paramount. For retailers, the self-checkout option can help maintain overhead costs and potential staffing issues, but can also lead to increased shrinkage or theft. It’s crucial to strike the right balance of checkout options to ensure both cost efficiency and loss prevention while meeting the diverse preferences of your customers.
While self-checkout offers labor cost savings for retailers, many consumers find the experience cumbersome and inconvenient. There have even been reports of anti-theft software wrongfully accusing customers of not scanning items they had placed in their shopping bags – an experience that no one wants to go through. Contactless checkout solutions have their place in certain stores and are more useful to consumers than not, but retailers must ensure that they’re providing customers with an array of options that best fit their preferences.
At the end of the day, this is a great example of how important a good user experience truly is. While there are drawbacks to self-checkout as it currently stands, the number of shoppers using it still showcases that there is some level of demand for its convenience. The issue as it stands is eliminating these frustrations.
Instead of focusing on whether or not the benefits outweigh the drawbacks, brands should focus on how they can work with self-checkout service providers to better address common issues with the self-checkout experience and repair the overall user journey.
Self-checkout proves there is a slippery slope and there is no going back for many retailers. There are several retailers where self-checkout has in fact improved the checkout experience, however, that is more about the terrible checkout experience they had prior. As with all technology, especially those aimed at consumers, the experience will require ongoing refinement and optimization over time. The negative feedback may provide an interesting opportunity for retailers who want to go against the trend and use staff-assisted checkout as a customer value and marketing strategy.