SHOPPERS are taking to social media to share their gripes with the increase in self-checkout kiosks in stores across America.
They're asking stores like Walmart to ditch the dystopian innovation and bring back human cashiers to scan their items.
Technology has come a long way since the first self-service checkout machines first touched down in an Atlanta Kroger in July 1986.
A report by the Food Industry Association estimates that nearly a third of all grocery transactions are completed at a self-checkout kiosk.
It's still unclear whether or not self-checkout is any faster for customers but as the technology's advanced, there are more potential things that can go wrong at the kiosks.
Most retailers are sticking with the machines though — the money being saved on labor costs supersedes customer complaints.
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CUSTOMER WOES
Shoppers have many gripes against the self-checkout kiosks, with the largest being that they cost customers more time, slowing down their overall shopping experience.
One Walmart customer recently took to social media with his gripes.
An X, formerly Twitter, user documented his experience at what he described as either a Walmart or Winn-Dixie.
He wrote: "The lady checking receipts at the exit was stopping everyone. I didn't choose to participate in that nonsense. I had already filled my cart, emptied my cart, scanned the items, refilled my cart and so I just skipped the exit line and left. I heard her saying "umm - Excuse me “ as I kept walking and raised the receipt above my head, leaving the store. You can either trust me to do self-checkout, or you can put your cashiers back in place like it used to be."
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He also implored the store to keep employing young people to give them job opportunities.
This kind of slowdown also happens often at the self-checkout when pre-determined settings on kiosks require an employee to assist a customer.
Often, self-checkouts are manned by one employee which often delays a shopper's experience.
Then there are times when a product won't scan properly, the system isn't responding, or a mistake has been made that only an employee can correct.
SURGE IN THEFT
A study by the University of Leicester found self-checkout systems more than double the rate of theft in stores.
This rings especially true for Walmart.
In 2015, Reuters reported that the retail giant was likely losing about 1% of its US revenue, or roughly $3 billion every year, to stealing by customers and employees.
A record breaking rise in theft even pushed Walmart to close its final two stores in Portland last year.
Whether it's theft through malicious non-scanning of goods or non-malicious loss through non-scan/scanning errors, the direct correlation has become obvious.
One lawyer on TikTok referred to Walmart's self-checkout as a "shoplifting trap" in a recent story reported by The U.S. Sun.
He cautioned against using self-checkout altogether because shoppers can be prosecuted whether they intend to steal, steal by mistake, or even were completely innocent of shoplifting.
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Shoppers are praising Target for a recent self-checkout change.
Kroger apologized to customers this past September about its own self-checkout issues.
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