Dollar General has stopped the use of self-checkouts in 12,000 of its stores, leaving them in only a handful of locations. It’s by far the biggest u-turn by a major retailer on the controversial technology. The discount store spent millions installing the self-checkouts, but since then has seen thefts soar. An investigation has linked shoplifting to the self-checkout kiosks, which caused the company’s profits to fall this year. Rather than stripping out self-checkouts, stores will now have them cordoned off, with customers being redirected to use the remaining traditional manned lanes. Needless to say, consumers, who have gotten used to the speed of self-checkout lanes, are not happy about the change. Dollar General is not alone — earlier this year Walmart began removing self-checkout lanes from some of their locations, as has Target. Meanwhile, Costco has placed additional staff in self-checkout areas to supervise shoppers and ensure that all items are being scanned and scanned correctly.
