If you’ve ever stood at self-checkout scanning your own groceries and wondered why you’re doing the cashier’s job, you’re not alone. Retailers are over self-checkout too.
Only 36% of the 340 retailers in this year’s Voice of the Retail Industry Survey plan to invest in it, according to TechSpot. That’s down seven points from last year. It was the least popular tech in the survey and the only one losing steam.
And it isn’t even faster. A Kroger exec admitted back in the late ’80s that scanning your own stuff takes longer. It just feels quicker because you’re doing it. Shoppers scan slower and make more mistakes, and a 2021 survey found over two-thirds have hit snags at the machines. Then there’s theft, both accidental and on purpose.
So stores are walking it back. Walmart, Costco and Kroger have added staff to self-checkout lanes. Dollar General pulled the kiosks from 12,000 stores in 2024, and Target capped its lanes at 10 items. Even Amazon ditched its cashierless stores after reports that workers in India were actually doing the checkouts remotely.
If you’ve ever stood at self-checkout scanning your own groceries and wondered why you’re doing the cashier’s job, you’re not alone. Retailers are over self-checkout too.
Only 36% of the 340 retailers in this year’s Voice of the Retail Industry Survey plan to invest in it, according to TechSpot. That’s down seven points from last year. It was the least popular tech in the survey and the only one losing steam.
And it isn’t even faster. A Kroger exec admitted back in the late ’80s that scanning your own stuff takes longer. It just feels quicker because you’re doing it. Shoppers scan slower and make more mistakes, and a 2021 survey found over two-thirds have hit snags at the machines. Then there’s theft, both accidental and on purpose.
So stores are walking it back. Walmart, Costco and Kroger have added staff to self-checkout lanes. Dollar General pulled the kiosks from 12,000 stores in 2024, and Target capped its lanes at 10 items. Even Amazon ditched its cashierless stores after reports that workers in India were actually doing the checkouts remotely.
