What: Self-checkout systems are fast spreading across the world, thanks to Covid-19 and pandemic concerns.

Why it is important: Are these systems delivering the additional productivity points they promised by reducing the need for staff? Or is this happening at the expense of customer satisfaction?

CNN looks into the woes created by self-checkout systems: failures, mistakes, need to wait for a sales associate to unblock the system. In addition to making some customers’ lives miserable, they can also turn into nightmare for retailers: machines are expensive to install, can break down, can lead customers to purchasing fewer items, in addition to increasing losses and shoplifting.

A scholar from the University of Leicester mentions that if a retail store has 50% transactions made through self-check-out systems, it is likely to increase its losses by 77%.

In spite of this, self-checkout systems are expanding, from 23% among US grocers in 2019 to 29% in 2020. Once seen as a magical formula putting customers to work, and reducing the need to have staff, the pandemic has accelerated the expansion of a system which has flaws, but which is also a common trend among all retailers. CNN compares this to an arm race: “if everyone else is doing it, you look like an idiot if you don’t have it”.

Nobody likes self-checkouts but they are everywhere