A GROCERY store owner has slammed self-checkout after a theft spike and vowed to never bring the kiosks into his store.
John Catsimatidis is the latest in a string of retail leaders questioning the utility of the self-service option.
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“Anybody who does it might as well hit your head over with a pipe,” Catsimatidis, owner of Gristedes and D’Agostino’s food stores in New York City, told Fortune.
Self-checkout has been at the center of debate over the customer experience in grocery stores.
What was first introduced as a solution to long wait lines and tedious jobs for workers has transformed into exit door receipt checks and increased surveillance technology.
With the holiday season at its peak, customers are speaking out about how the kiosks affect their shopping trips.
“Going to the grocery store used to be simple, and now it’s frustrating,” Virginia resident Cindy Whittington, 66, told the outlet.
“You’re paying more. You’re working harder to pay for merchandise at their store. And it’s become an ordeal to check out.
“I should get a 5% discount.”
Workers are also tired of managing long lines and brazen thieves who will tear through the self-checkout with an armful of items.
Bernadette Christian, a worker at Giant Food in Maryland, said she’s gotten nervous over confronting customers at self-checkout.
“It would be easy for us to be cashiers, and it would be a lot more safer in today’s world,” she said.
Some major outlets are making alterations at self-checkout to combat retail crime and avoid long lines.
In September, Walmart confirmed that three of its stores in Albuquerque, New Mexico completely abandoned self-checkout in an effort to improve the customer experience.
Walmart spokesperson Josh Havens said: “We continually look at ways to provide our customers with the best shopping experience and that includes adjusting the checkout area in stores.”
Walmart has not confirmed the reason why self-checkouts have been replaced at the three Albuquerque stores.
And some shoppers are fuming over a new rule at Target that asks customers to bring no more than 10 items to the kiosks.
A Target spokesperson told The U.S. Sun the initiative is meant to reduce wait times and “better understand guest preferences.”
However, some shoppers have said the rule had the opposite effect for them.
Despite the criticism, self-checkout appears to be here for good as it’s still offered at around 96% of stores, according to a 2021 study conducted by the Food Marketing Institute.
Another expert raged that customers are sick of the “do-it-yourself economy” and asked retail execs for major changes.
And Walmart is rethinking self-checkout with a new anti-theft device that is supposed to stop criminals right in their tracks.
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