During late May, the California Senate passed SB 1446 entitled the “Retail Theft Prevention and Safe Staffing Act.” The intent was to regulate appropriate staffing levels where self-checkout kiosks were installed. Since this time, deliberate and inadvertent theft has prompted many retailers to remove self-checkout kiosks or to reduce the number and type of items scanned.
The Harvard University, Kenndy School of Business recently conducted a study on self-checkout revealing:-
- 53 percent of workers reported that their stores equipped with self-checkout were understaffed. Most workers in stores with self-checkout have inadequate time to complete work assigned.
- Understaffing creates the potential for conflicts with customers and contributes to unpleasant interaction.
Dr. Daniel Schneider, the Malcolm Winer Professor of Social Policy at Harvard noted “Self-checkout promises labor savings and convenience but when look at the data we find that self-checkout instead leads to problematic understaffing that sets up both workers and customers for toxic interactions.”
Self-checkout does work providing the system is adequately configured and above all every single item is barcoded. Frustration occurs when customers are forced to progress through a series of sub menus to check out a specific variety of tomato or lettuce. The system in use by the upscale Harris Teeter banner of the Kroger Company is vastly inferior and more frustrating than the self-checkout option offered by Aldi. Although both banners offer a choice between manned checkout and self-checkout, there is ready acceptance at Aldi. Chains that have installed self-checkout and have reduced manning of conventional checkout lanes impose delays. Target is a prime example of long lines at both self-checkout due to user-unfriendly systems and at the few operational manned checkout lanes due to understaffing.
Opposition to self-checkout is manifest in state and local laws implemented in some New England states that have imposed minimum employee levels relative to self-checkout stations, and requiring fees for installation of these kiosks to deter transition from conventional to self-checkout.
At the end of the day it is obvious that for small stores especially located in low-income areas, the apparent advantages associated with reduced staffing are more that offset by losses due to theft. In larger stores catering to an affluent clientele delays and frustration erode customer loyalty.