Dont ring the funeral bells just yet, but the self-checkout kiosk horror show could be nearing its end.
So far, the grand experiment in robot cashiers is an abject failure.
In 2023, Target restricted self-checkout kiosks in some stores toten items or less.
Photo: Reshetnikov_art / Shutterstock.com (Shutterstock)
Walmartpulled the machines outof a number of locations altogether.
Booths, a British grocery chain, abandoned self-checkout entirely.
Dollar General made enormous bets on self checkout tech in 2022, but it recently announced the project flopped.
We should be using self-checkout as a secondary checkout vehicle, not a primary.
The biggest problem is theft.
One in five shoppers reported that theyve accidentally stolen items during self-checkout in a survey fromLending Tree.
One in seven said theyve stolen from self-checkout on purpose.
A system of four machines can costupwards of six figures.
Thats true even though 67% said theyve had self-checkout machines fail.
It turns out human beings might still have something to offer.
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