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SELF-CHECKOUT SHRINK
Sixty-two percent of respondents had self-checkout in at least one or more stores. These stores had between three and four terminals per store, for a total of 15,000 self-checkout stations, and reported 3% higher shrink.
OVERVIEW
Over the past five years, retailers have introduced self-checkout machines, where the customer is permitted to scan their own items, manually identify items such as fruit and vegetables, and place the items into a bagging area, where the item is weighed. The weight in the bagging area is checked against previously stored information to ensure that the correct item is bagged.
There is normally an attendant watching over several self-checkout machines, to provide assistance, prevent theft, and to enforce payment. Attendant assistance is also required for purchase of age-restricted items such as alcohol and tobacco.
The benefit to the customer is in the reduced checkout time, because stores are often able to run four self checkout units where it normally might have had one or two regular lanes. The time efficiency requires that the customers using the machine are reasonably competent, however, as an inexperienced customer can cause the same sort of delays as an inexperienced cahsier on a conventional register...
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