Could Self-Checkout Be Removed From Michigan Walmarts

Way back in the day I can remember when people would complain about Walmart not having enough cashiers and how checking out would take too long. Kids loved this time in the store, this was the time to beg and beg about a thousand different line items like candy bars, gum, playing cards, and more until your parents finally give in. At one point the executives were tired of the complaints and decided to put in self-checkout stations.

For a while this was extremely popular as people could avoid the long lines and quickly make their way in and out of the store as they were able to scan their own items. Some people still chose to let cashiers do their jobs and give them a reason to get paid. Self-checkout started to become a problem for both Walmart and customers, which may be leading to changes in the system.

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Shopping Slumps

Firstly, many shoppers were beginning to become frustrated with the self-checkout process for a couple of reasons that were not in their control. The first was that Walmart has been putting less cashiers on duty, causing almost everyone to use self-checkout which doesn't make the process any faster. They also have workers checking receipts after self-checkout and have cameras watching shoppers to verify that they scan every item they place in the bagging area.

The bottom two make some shoppers uneasy as they believe one of two things, that they either need to pay them for doing the cashiers job or they should trust the customer to check themselves out honestly since they are giving the job to them. The camera will send an alert when an item isn't swiped and sometimes an item is scanned, and it looks like it isn't it just causes unnecessary problems.

Walmart Woes

Walmart executives are not happy with the trend of the self-checkout process of their store as they figured it would be something that would help customers enjoy shopping more but would also bring in more revenue. Well, they couldn't have been more wrong as they have cited revenue loss due to an increased volume in stolen merchandise. Also, once again, all the things labeled above have only made customers upset with shopping rather than relieved.

Lending Tree was able to do some research and find out what shoppers think about self-checkout. Well, only 15% of shoppers admitted to using the self-checkout to get away with stealing while another 60% of shoppers said that they believe self-checkout makes it easier to steal. With this information, Walmart has announced that they would be making changes just not sure how yet, but a couple of Walmart's in New Mexico have already removed their self-checkout lanes, could Michigan be next?

Do you think that Michigan Walmart's and other shopping businesses should get rid of the self-checkout? Would you be affected by the change or do you always use a cashier? Should they place some kind of limit around the self-checkout? Or should they leave everything how it is now?