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Is The Walmart Self-Checkout Disappearing

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Gallery Credit: Stacker

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Gallery Credit: Meagan Drillinger

There is a generation that grew up knowing only that you had to pump your own gas. That same generation also knows that at the grocery store, you can check out yourself and bag your own groceries.

There are many stores where self-checkout lanes are commonplace. Target, Home Depot, Hy Vee, and Walmart, for years all have offered the convenience of multiple stations to do it yourself. No interaction with a store employee. No asking, 'Do you have a fuel saver card?" No more having to ask to have your milk double-bagged.

No more long lines waiting for the person in front of you having a conversation with a store employee about last night's rain storm, and how is your garden this week.

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Whew! So much for simple kindness and personable customer service.

First, it was company layoffs, then higher prices accompanied by shrinkflation. Then more workforce downsizing. Years before all that the retail industry was leading us into a new era of shopping called self-checkout. Well, for the retail giant Walmart that is about to change.

Walmart is actually doing an about-face by bringing back more staff to the checkout isles in Ottawa, Canada.

The experiment has more Walmart associates assisting customers at the self-checkout terminals. The test began July 29th with store employees available to scan all items.

Why the shift? According to a USA Today Money report, the spike in theft. Companies like Target, Walmart, Dollar General, and Home Depot have been sounding the alarm on retail theft in recent months. Missing inventory was talked about more during this previous quarter’s earnings call than in any quarter on record.

Walmart stores in Canada have seen a 31% increase in shoplifting cases between 2021 and 2022.

Walmart has not indicated if it will implement the new checkout practice in South Dakota, Minnesota, or any stores here in the United States.

HOW ARE SHOPPERS RESPONDING?

@jeffc4066
2 days ago
Self-checkout was the only reason I kept going to Wal-Mart in the 1st place. Standing in line with 3 items for 45 minutes while the cashier slowly rang up items became wildly frustrating that I simply stopped going. If they remove it, I'm not going back.

@VSpoodle
2 days ago
Maybe if all of these grocery chains hired, trained, and properly motivated enough employees they could make regular checkout a less miserable experience for all.