WALMART has shut down its contentious self-checkout lanes for good at a major store.
Cops are thrilled after battling high levels of shoplifting – but shoppers now spend longer in queues.
Walmart decided last year to remove self-checkout from its Supercenter store in Shrewsbury, Missouri, 9.3 miles west of St. Louis.
The popular branch has now axed its self-checkout aisles to tackle spiralling thefts.
And now the local police have praised the move as a huge success, reported the Webster-Kirkwood Times.
Shrewsbury Police chief Lisa Vargas told city officials on Tuesday that cop calls to the Walmart Supercenter at 7437 Watson Road have plummeted.
She attributed this to the store's closure of self-checkout lanes last year.
Police calls and arrests at the retailer have dropped by more than 50% since the removal of self-checkout lanes, Vargas added.
This has meant a huge drop in theft arrests as a result.
Walmart axed self-checkout lanes at the Shrewsbury store last April.
It took the decision to chop them out after receiving a plea from Vargas, who was fed up with the constant call-outs to the store.
Worn-out Shrewsbury police reported 309 shoppers being charged with shoplifting between January and May in 2024.
Vargas told the Shrewsbury Board of Alderman back then that those stats represented a massive jump on the same time in 2023, when there were about 45 to 50 retail thefts.
In this year’s update to officials, she said that before Walmart removed its self-checkout lanes, many shoppers were using the staff-free zone as a chance to pinch products.
In 2024, cops in the area responded to 1,915 calls – a whopping 509 of which came from the giant retailer.
Yet there was a significant difference a year later, she added.
We really appreciate Walmart taking initiative and removing those self-checkers
The cops responded to 1,662 calls – with just 183 from Walmart.
The plummeting call-outs resulted in few fewer arrests.
Last year, there were 108 arrests involving alleged thefts from Walmart out of the total 160 arrests from January through May 2024.
But during the same period this year, cops made just 55 arrests, 49 of which were at Walmart.
A happy Vargas reported, “That's a huge change. We really appreciate Walmart taking initiative and removing those self-checkers.”
Brian Little, the global communications director for Walmart corporate affairs, said getting rid of the self-checkout machines would allow for more efficiency.
"We believe the change will improve the in-store shopping experience and give our associates the chance to provide more personalized and efficient service,” he said last year.
Several other Walmart stores have also chopper their self-checkout aisles.
Too few staffed registers can frustrate customers who prefer traditional checkout
After a wave of thefts, the Walmart in the Steelyard location in Cleveland, Ohio, removed this option.
Three Walmarts in New Mexico also removed self-checkout machines in September 2023.
UNHAPPY
USA Today reported in February that some Walmart shoppers continue to complain about the retailer’s self-checkout lanes.
It summed up the situation, “For every shopper who is upset there’s no self-checkout lane to use – and long lines at registers – there’s another one who is upset about having to use self-checkout and sometimes having to wait to do so.”
The paper cited Santiago Gallino, a marketing expert from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, as saying that it was a tricky balancing act for retailers.
“Too few staffed registers can frustrate customers who prefer traditional checkout, while an over-reliance on self-checkout can introduce inefficiencies and revenue loss,” Gallino said.
Also, some shoppers take to social media to share their grievances about lengthy queues.
“Hey @Walmart, how come you don’t have ANY registers open at 8:30 am?” posted one North Carolina shopper.
A spokesperson for Walmart said in a statement, “Decisions related to self-checkout and staffed registers are made at the manager's discretion and are based on several factors, including feedback from associates and customers, shopping patterns and business needs in the area.”
