Two Walmarts – one in Missouri and one in Ohio – are eliminating self-checkout lanes to enhance the in-store experience.
According to a statement to Business Insider, the company has confirmed the changes at the Cleveland Steelyard location and a Supercenter in the St. Louis area. The transition processes will happen after hours and are expected to be finished in around two weeks.
Brian Little, a spokesperson, stated that the decision was made based on input from employees, customers, and shopping trends in the local area.
He added, “We believe that this change will enhance the shopping experience in-store and provide our associates with the opportunity to offer more personalized and efficient service.”
This move may ring a bell as three Walmart stores in New Mexico did the same last year.
On the other hand, discount chains Dollar General and FiveBelow have both stated their intentions to reduce or eliminate self-checkout in their stores due to high levels of unaccounted inventory.
Despite having more than 4,700 locations in the US, Walmart has clarified that there are no widespread plans to remove self-service kiosks from its stores.
In addition to completely removing the technology from select stores, retailers, including Walmart, have implemented several measures to tackle the challenges posed by self-checkout.
Earlier this year, Walmart stores were reportedly restricting access to self-checkout lanes to customers using either the Walmart+ or Spark delivery apps.
Target also introduced a policy that capped the number of items to ten or less in the self-service lanes—a move that reportedly made the checkout process twice as fast compared to unlimited counts. Some stores even began limiting the operating hours of self-checkout lanes.
Studies have shown that self-checkout contributes to a phenomenon called “partial shrink,” where inventory loss occurs as a result of customers failing to correctly scan and pay for all items in their transactions.
