Why Are These Major Illinois Retailers Changing Self-Checkouts?

If you've noticed more self-checkouts closed, you're not alone.

Self-checkouts are both good and bad. For introverts like me, it's nice to not have to talk to someone and be able to get your groceries and go. But also, the self-checkouts seem to only work half of the time and when they do, you're left screaming at them that there is not unscanned item in the bagging area.

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But if you've noticed that the self-checkout kiosks at places like Walmart and Target are closed more often, you're not wrong. According to TODAY, there's a tactic behind that.

Why They're Closing Self-Checkouts

Wasn't the whole point of self-checkouts in the first place to be convenient for the consumer? And so why are they doing this?

Now, a lot of self-checkouts are become relegated to specific customers. Several Walmarts have signs up by self-checkouts that say: "Attention: This self checkout is for Spark shoppers and Walmart Scan & Go only."

And it's not like it's made life any easier, like TikTok has found out.

@the_lingerers looks like the rumors might be true. #walmart #selfcheckout #denver #shopping #ihateselfcheckout #walmartreceipts ♬ original sound - The Lingerers

For Walmart, they're working to pretty much let each store decide when self-checkouts will even be open. Meanwhile, Target says that there's no updates to it's self-checkout policy but I (and several TikTokers) have definitely noticed the lanes closed much more often than they used to be.

Why The Change

A lot of it is because people keep stealing stuff from these stores. It's obviously easier to do if it's in a self-checkout.

It's not an issue to close self-checkouts but you need to keep the lanes staffed if you're going to do it.