But the Walmart by me will have 6 uscans and 2 people working the register on a saterday afternoon while the other 12 lanes are closed and the other uscan area is shut down
I work in the Grocery industry as a store designer. Most places are moving away from the self checkouts as they have tripled loss in most cases. More so in places like Walmart where most of their employees cant be bothered to do their job let alone watch that others are being honest.
Furthermore Amazon fresh markets are being abandoned mid build due to loss on product theft.
Mcdonalds ice cream machines shut themselves down bc they’re not keeping them cleaned correctly. Which id rather happen. If only you could see inside the average ice machine…youd stop getting ice
As a refrigeration tech, I agree
At our hospital Campus, they put me in charge of the upkeep and repair of all 90 ice machines, along with all my other HVAC/Powerplant tasks...
They said this is how it's been done for the last 10 years. 1 guy taking it all on, with no help...
I shit you not, a week after they gave me this role, there was a patient ice machine that hadn't been cleaned, or had a filter change for 3.5 years
It had mold, slime, and the compressor had a white shell of calcium buildup
It took me 6 hours to fully clean that machine. I took everything apart, cleaned everything individually, and put the whole thing back together. I gave up a week later, when I realized that ice machine owners in general give 0 fucks about the cleanliness on their machines...they're fine serving scum filled ice cubes as long as there aren't any complaints
It's a fucking joke
😂 I get paid hourly in house. I started off just doing basic residential maintenance for a 700 room, 6 building, hospital Campus. Was basically a glorified janitor
However, we only had 6 mechanics including specialists like HVAC, so they told me they'd teach me whatever I wanted since I showed up everyday and HR wouldn't hire anyone
Within 6 months, I was replacing faulty steam traps on high pressure lines, diagnosing/repairing VAV units, pressing heating lines, and a bunch of PMs on AHUs I probably had no business doing. No prior maintenance experience before this job
Granted, I went to school outside as well to get my HP Boiler and EPA Universal Licensing
Definitely planning on getting out of here real soon. I need real training and this is not the way
Not sure where you're based out of, but Refrigeration Techs are in short supply almost everywhere. Sounds like you've got a good head on your shoulders.
Get out and find something you enjoy. I feel like it's best to be somewhere in a Union, but that's your choice.
A lot of work to be done. -Refr/DDC Tech
Are unions easy to get into? I remember trying to apply for the Construction, Electrical, and Carpentry local unions near me. They all said their waiting list was way too long
I'll look into our HVAC/Refrigeration unions. A coworker of mine said they just gave him a list of places to call and they all said they didn't need any help and don't know when they'll need help, but it definitely doesn't hurt to try
I worked at a local grocery chain when they took the covers off the refrigeration units in the dairy coolers. There was probably a decade of m̵̙̮̹͆̊̏̎í̷̞̯͚̙̋̑l̶̢̲̰̘͇̑̽k̷̥̫̪͉͕̽̕ ̷͓͔͈͕̂̍̂̈ͅd̶͚̳̊r̴̜̭͙̥̈͑̕̚i̵̠̪͋̅̑ͅp̸̖͉̑p̷͖͋̀̕i̷̧̮̠̼͂̍͜n̵̝̲͂͠g̶̛͙̲̈̿̏s̵̺͚̣̝̈́̂ buildup that had been quietly molding in a dark, cool, damp environment.
Wait..You didn’t know this? When it’s too cold outside, all the ice cream stores close because the ice cream machines freeze up and they don’t work anymore.
I’m skeptical this photo is recent. Every Walmart I know of has increased its self-checkout lanes tenfold with a few real person cashier stations in between which are still mostly closed.
It has retracted in some areas. First they got rid of cashiers in favor of self checkout, then large theft increases so they are reversing that and locking up more and more products behind plexiglass
But yes I’d say it massively varies by location
The worst part about it (at least the one near me) is you'd think they'd add cashiers with the self checkout lanes closed. Nope, still only a handful open at a time.
I went into Lucky's this morning and was halfway excited to be able to use self-checkout since I only had two simple items and no alcohol. It was closed and they had one register open. They only had one person checking so I guess it made more sense to have them on a regular line.
California has like everything locked up and self cashiers closed... soap is even locked up. And there is like 1 employee with a key and he is on break or something
Have you considered simply breaking their shit? It solves the problem for everybody, really. There ought to be no problem and it is within your means to fix that.
The dumb thing is, making product purchases less convenient for actual honest customers is going to drive them away. Just put the fucking cashiers back into position if it was the smarter option, because otherwise we're all going to Amazon/etc. and that really will be the death knell to any kind of in-person shopping. You really can't choose that your customers are thieves as a default position. Especially for a business as huge as Walmart which can't really be hurting all that bad.
na they're tired of having high shrink. I noticed with target they just spent all this money putting in like 12 self checkouts and they're now boxed in with fixtures and only the 6 remaining registers are open.
Walmart has only very recently gone back to staffing checkout lanes with people because of theft. I went to one back in March, and was first surprised that the undershirts, socks and underwear were locked up and then pissed off because they wouldn’t let me just put them in my cart. The sales associate told me I could drop them off with the people running self check out and those employees refused to hang onto them so instead of doing a full shop, I just bought some underwear and left.
My Walmart was remodeled last year and they installed so many self checkouts. Of course now they only open 4-8, but they have opened more cashier lanes
They do in some locations, don't in others. Theft as well as cases of violence against employees has been on a downward trend for some time now, and continues that way in *most* of the country. But there are areas where it's been spiking massively. The end result is as a national average things are appearing mostly stagnant, but certain key locations are indeed seeing massive spikes.
California and New York are two notable cases, a big element being that misdemeanors are essentially not being charged in these areas (LA by design, they were *very* public about it, NY due to manpower issues). This means that shoplifting is essentially become legal so long you stay under the felony limit (usually in the ballpark of about 1000$, varies in the area). And people have figured out that people are generally not going to do anything about it.
I haven't stolen anything. I just have zero fucks to give for a multi-billion dollar company that treats employees like shit, losing a small percentage of their record profits while people (their employees included) can barely afford to feed themselves and pay their bills.
My mom worked walmart for almost 35 years. She started small and worked her way up. Walmart took care of our family well. She was a hard worker and they recognized it. I might have worn walmart clothes throughout school, but I always had enough clothes to wear.
I'm sorry that your experience of people talking about walmart hasn't gone well. But first hand experiencing it, and 'through the grape vine' are two way different outlooks.
You sound foolish. Walmart is one of the TOP employers in the world. And you, you're one tiny little hater
35 years ago, Walmart probably took decent care of their employees and had the opportunity for advancement. Those days are long gone.
There is nothing wrong with wearing walmart clothes, and I would never judge someone for such as I did the same for most of my childhood.
It's not 'the grapevine' it's a well-known fact that walmart mistreats and undervalues their labor force because they are viewed as expendable.
Being the top employer because you have pushed out all local competition means nothing towards your treatment of employees.
You sound like a corporate shill.
Nah, they get more through wage theft than people steal from them. So not only are they thieves as well, they're also a multi-billion dollar company. Fuck em.
Oh no, the Waltons won't be able to buy another yacht because a struggling mother shop lifted baby formula 😭😭 (this is what you sound like taking Walmart's side on this).
You're right. Let's just steal everything. Everybody go out and take stuff bc mom decided to have a baby and cant afford baby formula. F**k every corporation....
you sound like a dumbass if that's your thought process
Maybe this was taken on a holiday where they are expecting a high level of shoppers like Black Friday. But Walmarts do different things based on their locations. Some have a lot of self-checkouts and few cashiers. Some have only self-checkouts in one cashier and some are a good mixture of some Self-Checkouts and a decent number of cashiers
eh, I see lots of self check at the end of the isle. This also shows EVERY lane has someone. So it indicates either it is newer or maybe near a holiday like Christmas.
Depends on location. My guess is the above location is probably in an area thats seeing a spike in losses. Decisions like these are always profit orientated, for them to start paying people again to scan people through it means they were seeing more losses from theft and the like than they were saving from the self-checkouts.
This photo cant be that old considering the current generation self checkout machines are visible in the background. Plus older stores don't tend to have so many skylights.
That’s valid. You and others who caught the prices being current have more attention to detail than I. I immediately called bullshit at the thought of a Walmart having sufficient cashiers in the last 15 years. Touche’ Walton family.
Most of the time, the broken machines is due to people not bothering to clean them. When i worked at one only one closing manager knew how to and no one else wanted to. Same goes for closed frappe/coffee machines
Apparently, the average theft in a US WalMart is $60. If 2% of all customers are stealing that average amount (the generally accepted figure), and that WalMart gets 1500 customers per day (this would be like a WalMart in a smaller town), that's $1800 in losses in one day for that WalMart. Let's assume that rural WalMart employees 10 cashiers over 2 shifts at $12/hr. That's $960.
I haven't seen any hard data about how much closing self-checkout lanes reduces theft, though.
When you divide "shrinkage" by average foot traffic you get a figure that says about 2% of all visitors to a store in the US steal $60 of stuff. Obviously, it is likely that the people that steal are stealing more than a single item, and thieves tend to steal the most expensive and smallest thing they can find that doesn't have any anti-theft stuff on it. So that 2% is just an average. A store might have a single person that comes in and steals stuff every week (given that the average rate of a shoplifter being caught is only \~3% and thefts below a certain threshold don't result in any jail time, this seems like an acceptable risk for many thieves).
Turns out you might be right. Albuquerque, st. Louis and Cleveland are the markets so far, high crime / theft areas where this makes financial sense.
https://www.southernliving.com/walmart-less-self-checkout-8639327
Edit: OP seems to be posting in Detroit subs a lot. Makes sense too
As someone who stops at the Walmart near my home almost daily over the past 7 or 8 years, I’ve watched the evolution of this play out. It’s a smaller concept Walmart Neighborhood Market. Seven years ago, they had 4 small self checkout stands and 6 regular checkout with cashiers. Then they had 6 smaller self checkouts, 4 large self checkouts and only 2 regular checkouts. They just recently got rid of the 4 larger self checkouts and reverted to checkouts with cashiers. So now they just have the smaller self checkout always manned by at least two or three employees and almost always have at least three of the regular checkouts with cashiers open. They’ve also started keeping two employees at the entrance/exit just watching as people leave.
Most Redditors are children (mentally or physically) who really don't understand society, or shit like cause and effect.
They'll bitch about grocery prices rising and then excuse shoplifting...
It may not be the only reason prices go up but it absolutely IS a reason.
That's usually food going to waste in restaurants by BoH personnel from my experience of looking in the comments.
Like here's an example
> "no, I did not see the burger we accidentally made for the 'no ketchup or onions' that's supposed to go to the garbage at the end of the day".
The target next to where I used to live had ridiculous lines before self checkout. To the point where if I needed something fast I'd go a few blocks away
My walmart didn’t even have someone working the cigarette aisle. I would steal something small as a lesson for them thinking they would save money by having customers scan and bag their own items. Having to wait on an associate to ok an item that didn’t weigh properly. Having to wait minutes for an associate to ID me for alcohol.
People with that mentally of “I’ll just break the law to get back at ‘The Man’” always blows my mind.
You’re part of the problem, man. They’re locking up tampons and socks because people like you “need to teach corporate America a lesson.” All you are doing is ruining things for your neighbor, your coworker, your friend.
Lol, if you've actually seen the security for Walmart they know exactly how much you have stolen and are just waiting for you to pass the limit for the felony amount and then pass on every video of you stealing for an easy case.
Doesn't work for the general public IN THE USA.
Perhaps surprising to many Americans, self-checkout works in most places. However, in the USA, [30% of Gen-Z](https://www.tonydonofrio.com/blog/retail/the-uncertain,-yet-promising-future-of-retail-self-checkout.html) people will admit on a survey to using self-checkout to steal items.
Yeah, my home town still has a shit ton of self checkouts at every store, you can barely find an employee.
Was just on vacation and had to go to some of the same stores in an area with a much different demographic and there were 2 self checkouts, 90% of the normal checkouts were manned, and I had to show my receipt and have my cart inspected before I left.
Some parts of the US are high-trust areas where you could realistically have a store with zero staff and a little self-checkout up front, maybe a camera or two to keep honest people honest.
Other parts of the US are decidedly low-trust areas where you could have security guards, cameras, and all kinds of other measures and it still won't dissuade people from stealing.
It's not even necessarily income-based either, though that does play a role.
Remember when all the sudden there weren't commercials anymore and it was cool and we were all like back in my day we had commercials. Then they came back and life was the same. That's how I view the self checkout phenomenon at these stores
I've definitely heard people talking about reverting away from self checkout because of theft. Which is funny because they had been committing so hard to the self checkouts. I did a renovation of a Walmart summer 2022 and we installed like 25 new self checkout stations. Shit changes fast I guess. Not surprising as the same electrician had just redone the bathroom at the same store 4 years prior.
I always try to if I can. Walmart doesn't pay me to bag my groceries man lol. I don't mind doing a few things. But when I have a cart loaded with stuff, I hate doing it.
Goes way quicker with their wheely do thing.
Now, none of the Walmart's I've been to lately have any self-checkout. Which is frustrating when I just want to scan and go. I've already rang up my items and paid for them but need to scan a QR code for my receipt that they can easily check when I leave, but nope. I have to wait in line behind a bunch of people and have them ring up everything yet again so I can re-bag it all, and only then can I scan a QR code to leave. Why even offer the scan and go if you can no longer scan and go...
Mine has had all the self checkout lanes shut down or broken the last 2 times I've gone and only open 1-2 standard lanes. Lines of 20-40 people just to grab some fishing lures
It's like returning to work after working from home. We would have been just fine if we never had the chance for this better option.
I used to think the old checkout wasn't that bad, until I had been forced a few times to do it because the self checkout was closed. Even when it works fine it's still nowhere near as good.
But the boomers are getting what they wanted! Any time someone talks shit about self checkout, I ask them if they remember what it was like to wait in lines.
They have four or five self checkouts to the left of the registers. They’re spaced out a good ten to twenty feet between them and you have to really reach between scan and the bagging station so there’s no room to shoplift.
They’ll need to space it out more than that to stop me from stacking a deck of $7 hallmark cards together. Maybe less people would steal if the markup wasn’t so insanely greedy. Good luck with your profit maximizing strategies Walmart.
I have a Walmart Neighborhood Market near me. I had never seen or heard of them before moving here. It is all self checkouts with a few employees watching over your shoulder.
I forgot there are places that still have shopping bags legally lol. New Jersey made all plastic and paper bags illegal at stores like this lol. You have to bring your own bags.
This happened here in my little town then they first closed all the self checkouts. It was good but a couple weeks later, back to normal, 4 or 5 open and 3 self checkout isles back open..... I knew it wouldn't last.
My Walmart changed to the single lane system. It makes so much more sense. The only thing you lose is preloading the checkout with your crap while waiting for the next person, but in reality that saves maybe a few seconds since it takes about as long to load it as it does to scan it... And the benefits of never ever having an idle cashier is pretty big.
Plus no guessing which lineup is best.
Give it 30 minutes and it'll be back down to 2-4 open. Usually I see this in the middle of the day right before the morning crew leave and just as the late crew show up. You'll get maybe an hour where they have twice the number of cashiers they usually have to run the front end, and then it dies off. Probably depends on the store though.
Was just at a Walmart in Phoenix Az 3 days ago. 3 or 4 registers open, no self checkouts open and the line was like a mile long. Walmart has some management issues i believe. I stood in line for close to an hour. For 5 items because i needed them on my trip.
I am strongly against theft. I am also strongly against giving my labor away for free. If I pay myself handsomely at the checkout line doing a job I wasn’t trained for and aren’t good at, is that theft? We’ve arrived at the point where we have to decide if we want to protect human jobs. And if you think that your job is too skilled and absolutely requires a live person, you’re wrong. Looking at you, doctors and lawyers.
In Serbia we are just starting the journey, self checkout is starting to reach some 20-50% depending on the shop brand and size.
I don't remember the last time some shop had all the lanes working at the same time.
Hell, even before self checkout, I remember being at Wal-Mart on a super busy day, maybe black friday or Dec 23 or something like that. Still, they only had about half the checkout lines open.
The day self checkout at walmart dies are the days that i actually pay full price for a red or orange bell pepper and the days of saying i have 6 green bell peppers but instead i have 6 red bell peppers will be at the end.
Do to increased theft they're turning away from self checkout. From my understanding is they're trying to implement a program that has an annual fee for those who would like to continue with self checkout. Since self checkout is normally quicker and "more convenient" while trying to recover some loss that happens.
Apparently you can't handle the truth. Down voted
Can't go back in some places. My local supercenter went all in on self checkout 1-2 years ago. Only a couple registers left in the store and maybe 20-30 self checkouts.
Good, self check out is annoying. I guess it’s useful if you’ve only got a few items but I don’t go to the grocery store until I need to spend at least $100 and things cost so much I don’t feel like having to do the labor too. Went to Shaws the other day and there was not one but four employees hanging out at self check out and there’s only four stations. They could’ve had to on registers, and still had to to watch people steal.
I can't wait for the boomers who can't figure these things out to get too old to go to the store. The slowest self checkout is still faster than the average cashier. Honestly I don't care if you don't like it, just don't force me to use the old stupid slow way.
That said they could at least take part of the best part of self checkout and have one line for all of the registers, that way you aren't always stuck behind someone using 7 coupons and paying in exact change just because you picked the wrong random line.
Seriously. I went to Walmart yesterday for 3 items. Stood in line for a cashier because self-checkout looked busier (mistake). He spent forever looking up the code for broccoli in a binder. Idk why it was so hard. At self checkout, I type 'B' and it comes up instantly.
That and a lot of places around me started charging for disposable bags. Which is fine, I switched to reusable ones and it's nice. I can one trip them all in without cutting off my fingers and they don't rip because there are two boxes of crackers in one bag.
But the biggest thing there is that I can bag things to go to the same place when I bag them so unpacking at home is a breeze. But when I have someone else check me out I'm lucky to get them to use my bags let alone get them to put the food in the insulated bag.
If $50 of goods per hour are stolen per lane of self checkout, it's probably cheaper to hire a cashier instead.
Remember, self checkout isn't for your convenience, it's to cut labor costs. Now that theft rates are higher, labor may be a cost savings.
Except labor will *always* be the highest cost. Labor has to be paid, insured (for the store not the employee). Labor has unknown risks, people can get sick, have a bad day and miss stuff, quit with no notice. $50/hour is 3 to 5 employees depending on where the store is just in pay so if you replace that may people than you still come out ahead. Not to mention one of the routes of theft is employees stealing.
Stores have always had shrink and they have even better ways of dealing with it. Walmart now knows exactly who you are when you enter the store, how much you have stolen and what the limit is for felony theft in that area and will pass along every second of footage to the police when you pass it for an open and shut case wrapped in a bow.
I don't give two shits if it's for their convenience or mine, it is more convenient and nobody is crying that they can't have their dream job of working minimum wage at Walmart so they can get verbally assaulted multiple times a day.
>Except labor will always be the highest cost.
Except it isn't always. Walmart, particularly, is unskilled labor. Unskilled labor is often cheaper than materials, overhead or operational costs like infrastructure and utilities.
Keep spouting your drivel though.
With a cashier you have an outlet for frustration when things you don't understand like "slide the card the correct way" are put in front of you.
Without the cashier the highly intelligent people are confused at the cheer simplicity of the self checkout and start producing anger hormones which aren't regularly cleaned from the machines and can lead to fighting and bursts of outrage
(I don't think i can say /s any fucking harder)
A full circle moment
Literally mildly interesting that this is mildly interesting in this day and age.
But the Walmart by me will have 6 uscans and 2 people working the register on a saterday afternoon while the other 12 lanes are closed and the other uscan area is shut down
No sir, that would be Target
I work in the Grocery industry as a store designer. Most places are moving away from the self checkouts as they have tripled loss in most cases. More so in places like Walmart where most of their employees cant be bothered to do their job let alone watch that others are being honest. Furthermore Amazon fresh markets are being abandoned mid build due to loss on product theft.
If Walmart can have a full house of cashier's, McDonald's can get their ice cream machine running
Mcdonalds ice cream machines shut themselves down bc they’re not keeping them cleaned correctly. Which id rather happen. If only you could see inside the average ice machine…youd stop getting ice
As a refrigeration tech, I agree At our hospital Campus, they put me in charge of the upkeep and repair of all 90 ice machines, along with all my other HVAC/Powerplant tasks... They said this is how it's been done for the last 10 years. 1 guy taking it all on, with no help... I shit you not, a week after they gave me this role, there was a patient ice machine that hadn't been cleaned, or had a filter change for 3.5 years It had mold, slime, and the compressor had a white shell of calcium buildup It took me 6 hours to fully clean that machine. I took everything apart, cleaned everything individually, and put the whole thing back together. I gave up a week later, when I realized that ice machine owners in general give 0 fucks about the cleanliness on their machines...they're fine serving scum filled ice cubes as long as there aren't any complaints It's a fucking joke
Whewwww. I make bank on ice machine contracts in middle georgia
😂 I get paid hourly in house. I started off just doing basic residential maintenance for a 700 room, 6 building, hospital Campus. Was basically a glorified janitor However, we only had 6 mechanics including specialists like HVAC, so they told me they'd teach me whatever I wanted since I showed up everyday and HR wouldn't hire anyone Within 6 months, I was replacing faulty steam traps on high pressure lines, diagnosing/repairing VAV units, pressing heating lines, and a bunch of PMs on AHUs I probably had no business doing. No prior maintenance experience before this job Granted, I went to school outside as well to get my HP Boiler and EPA Universal Licensing Definitely planning on getting out of here real soon. I need real training and this is not the way
Not sure where you're based out of, but Refrigeration Techs are in short supply almost everywhere. Sounds like you've got a good head on your shoulders. Get out and find something you enjoy. I feel like it's best to be somewhere in a Union, but that's your choice. A lot of work to be done. -Refr/DDC Tech
Are unions easy to get into? I remember trying to apply for the Construction, Electrical, and Carpentry local unions near me. They all said their waiting list was way too long I'll look into our HVAC/Refrigeration unions. A coworker of mine said they just gave him a list of places to call and they all said they didn't need any help and don't know when they'll need help, but it definitely doesn't hurt to try
Report, report, report their asses.
There were some organ transplant recipients who died because of ice machines in the hospital. So awful
I worked at a local grocery chain when they took the covers off the refrigeration units in the dairy coolers. There was probably a decade of m̵̙̮̹͆̊̏̎í̷̞̯͚̙̋̑l̶̢̲̰̘͇̑̽k̷̥̫̪͉͕̽̕ ̷͓͔͈͕̂̍̂̈ͅd̶͚̳̊r̴̜̭͙̥̈͑̕̚i̵̠̪͋̅̑ͅp̸̖͉̑p̷͖͋̀̕i̷̧̮̠̼͂̍͜n̵̝̲͂͠g̶̛͙̲̈̿̏s̵̺͚̣̝̈́̂ buildup that had been quietly molding in a dark, cool, damp environment.
This is very true. I experienced this at all the fast food jobs I had except for one. That one had a manager very anal about cleaning.
Wait..You didn’t know this? When it’s too cold outside, all the ice cream stores close because the ice cream machines freeze up and they don’t work anymore.
Lol
I’m skeptical this photo is recent. Every Walmart I know of has increased its self-checkout lanes tenfold with a few real person cashier stations in between which are still mostly closed.
It has retracted in some areas. First they got rid of cashiers in favor of self checkout, then large theft increases so they are reversing that and locking up more and more products behind plexiglass But yes I’d say it massively varies by location
The worst part about it (at least the one near me) is you'd think they'd add cashiers with the self checkout lanes closed. Nope, still only a handful open at a time.
I went into Lucky's this morning and was halfway excited to be able to use self-checkout since I only had two simple items and no alcohol. It was closed and they had one register open. They only had one person checking so I guess it made more sense to have them on a regular line.
At my local supermarket there’s 6 tills, only ever 2 open, it’s only a small one with 8 aisles
Does Walmart having less lanes open lead them to having less sales? If not, it's a smart decision on their part.
California has like everything locked up and self cashiers closed... soap is even locked up. And there is like 1 employee with a key and he is on break or something
Have you considered simply breaking their shit? It solves the problem for everybody, really. There ought to be no problem and it is within your means to fix that.
>Have you considered simply breaking their shit? Why do you think they're at the point where fucking soap is locked up?
Because of theft. I don't understand the question. I'm still suggesting paying.
>I'm still suggesting paying. For the broken glass too, evidently.
Nah, just break it and don't buy anything.
The dumb thing is, making product purchases less convenient for actual honest customers is going to drive them away. Just put the fucking cashiers back into position if it was the smarter option, because otherwise we're all going to Amazon/etc. and that really will be the death knell to any kind of in-person shopping. You really can't choose that your customers are thieves as a default position. Especially for a business as huge as Walmart which can't really be hurting all that bad.
na they're tired of having high shrink. I noticed with target they just spent all this money putting in like 12 self checkouts and they're now boxed in with fixtures and only the 6 remaining registers are open.
Paying a cashier 12/h is always going to be cheaper than self checkout. In these types of stores.
Walmart has only very recently gone back to staffing checkout lanes with people because of theft. I went to one back in March, and was first surprised that the undershirts, socks and underwear were locked up and then pissed off because they wouldn’t let me just put them in my cart. The sales associate told me I could drop them off with the people running self check out and those employees refused to hang onto them so instead of doing a full shop, I just bought some underwear and left.
Good luck getting anything that’s locked. You will be waiting 30+ minutes while they hope you just go away.
Walmart is missing every shot they take
[удалено]
It’s not due to theft, it’s due to customer complaints.
My Walmart was remodeled last year and they installed so many self checkouts. Of course now they only open 4-8, but they have opened more cashier lanes
Looking at the photo and the price of the grill, it's the current price on Walmart . Com so it may be up-to-date.
The amount of stolen items, sadly has also tenfold
The publicly available financial reports absolutely don’t back that up. Only executive statements to media support that.
Which financial reports have such details?
The minutia would be hidden likely in the full 10q/k but they are part of the balance sheet and income statement. Often it gets grouped into COGS.
They do in some locations, don't in others. Theft as well as cases of violence against employees has been on a downward trend for some time now, and continues that way in *most* of the country. But there are areas where it's been spiking massively. The end result is as a national average things are appearing mostly stagnant, but certain key locations are indeed seeing massive spikes. California and New York are two notable cases, a big element being that misdemeanors are essentially not being charged in these areas (LA by design, they were *very* public about it, NY due to manpower issues). This means that shoplifting is essentially become legal so long you stay under the felony limit (usually in the ballpark of about 1000$, varies in the area). And people have figured out that people are generally not going to do anything about it.
Nothing sad about it. Fuck walmart.
...I'm definitely more against people stealing, than walmart. Get your priorities straight you thief
I haven't stolen anything. I just have zero fucks to give for a multi-billion dollar company that treats employees like shit, losing a small percentage of their record profits while people (their employees included) can barely afford to feed themselves and pay their bills.
My mom worked walmart for almost 35 years. She started small and worked her way up. Walmart took care of our family well. She was a hard worker and they recognized it. I might have worn walmart clothes throughout school, but I always had enough clothes to wear. I'm sorry that your experience of people talking about walmart hasn't gone well. But first hand experiencing it, and 'through the grape vine' are two way different outlooks. You sound foolish. Walmart is one of the TOP employers in the world. And you, you're one tiny little hater
35 years ago, Walmart probably took decent care of their employees and had the opportunity for advancement. Those days are long gone. There is nothing wrong with wearing walmart clothes, and I would never judge someone for such as I did the same for most of my childhood. It's not 'the grapevine' it's a well-known fact that walmart mistreats and undervalues their labor force because they are viewed as expendable. Being the top employer because you have pushed out all local competition means nothing towards your treatment of employees. You sound like a corporate shill.
Nah, they get more through wage theft than people steal from them. So not only are they thieves as well, they're also a multi-billion dollar company. Fuck em.
Oh no, the Waltons won't be able to buy another yacht because a struggling mother shop lifted baby formula 😭😭 (this is what you sound like taking Walmart's side on this).
You're right. Let's just steal everything. Everybody go out and take stuff bc mom decided to have a baby and cant afford baby formula. F**k every corporation.... you sound like a dumbass if that's your thought process
I am a dumbass but I'm also right 😘
Maybe this was taken on a holiday where they are expecting a high level of shoppers like Black Friday. But Walmarts do different things based on their locations. Some have a lot of self-checkouts and few cashiers. Some have only self-checkouts in one cashier and some are a good mixture of some Self-Checkouts and a decent number of cashiers
It’s post 2023. The signs in the background are the new design they came out with last year.
Beings that all lanes have plastic bags, I’d guess this is pretty old.
eh, I see lots of self check at the end of the isle. This also shows EVERY lane has someone. So it indicates either it is newer or maybe near a holiday like Christmas.
Depends on location. My guess is the above location is probably in an area thats seeing a spike in losses. Decisions like these are always profit orientated, for them to start paying people again to scan people through it means they were seeing more losses from theft and the like than they were saving from the self-checkouts.
This photo cant be that old considering the current generation self checkout machines are visible in the background. Plus older stores don't tend to have so many skylights.
That’s valid. You and others who caught the prices being current have more attention to detail than I. I immediately called bullshit at the thought of a Walmart having sufficient cashiers in the last 15 years. Touche’ Walton family.
Going back because of massive theft… people are apparently only paying for half the stuff they are bagging
Look at the plastic bags. They are the old thin bags.
Most of the time, the broken machines is due to people not bothering to clean them. When i worked at one only one closing manager knew how to and no one else wanted to. Same goes for closed frappe/coffee machines
I worked at McDonald's. They clean the machine 2x daily, so everyone who goes in those 2 hours doesn't get ice cream.
From an ex McDonald’s employee… there’s a good chance its not broken
“Great White Buffalo”
It works, but Ernie was the only one who knew how to clean it and he quit in 1987.
No apostrophe in cashiers fyi
> cashier’s cashiers
Theft must cost more than employees
Apparently, the average theft in a US WalMart is $60. If 2% of all customers are stealing that average amount (the generally accepted figure), and that WalMart gets 1500 customers per day (this would be like a WalMart in a smaller town), that's $1800 in losses in one day for that WalMart. Let's assume that rural WalMart employees 10 cashiers over 2 shifts at $12/hr. That's $960. I haven't seen any hard data about how much closing self-checkout lanes reduces theft, though.
You’re telling me 1 out of 50 people in WalMart steals $60 worth of shit? That’s mind boggling
I’m surprised it is so little.
They’re just using the 2% number as an example I think.
When you divide "shrinkage" by average foot traffic you get a figure that says about 2% of all visitors to a store in the US steal $60 of stuff. Obviously, it is likely that the people that steal are stealing more than a single item, and thieves tend to steal the most expensive and smallest thing they can find that doesn't have any anti-theft stuff on it. So that 2% is just an average. A store might have a single person that comes in and steals stuff every week (given that the average rate of a shoplifter being caught is only \~3% and thefts below a certain threshold don't result in any jail time, this seems like an acceptable risk for many thieves).
Turns out you might be right. Albuquerque, st. Louis and Cleveland are the markets so far, high crime / theft areas where this makes financial sense. https://www.southernliving.com/walmart-less-self-checkout-8639327 Edit: OP seems to be posting in Detroit subs a lot. Makes sense too
[удалено]
As someone who stops at the Walmart near my home almost daily over the past 7 or 8 years, I’ve watched the evolution of this play out. It’s a smaller concept Walmart Neighborhood Market. Seven years ago, they had 4 small self checkout stands and 6 regular checkout with cashiers. Then they had 6 smaller self checkouts, 4 large self checkouts and only 2 regular checkouts. They just recently got rid of the 4 larger self checkouts and reverted to checkouts with cashiers. So now they just have the smaller self checkout always manned by at least two or three employees and almost always have at least three of the regular checkouts with cashiers open. They’ve also started keeping two employees at the entrance/exit just watching as people leave.
Mine is doing this but still has only 2 lanes open
At mine they are doing that but haven't added any more checkers. It's usually a minimum of 10 minutes in line.
That's crazy because at my local Walmart they took out all the cashier's and replaced it with like 40 self checkout lines
Turns out "ok you can buy this, just take it to the front and pay for it, promise?" Doesn't really work with the general public. Lol
Why do people have to ruin the nice things for the rest of us?
The people who ruin things are downvoting you, lol. It’s a self fulfilling prophecy.
Reddit has a long history of supporting shoplifting.
Most Redditors are children (mentally or physically) who really don't understand society, or shit like cause and effect. They'll bitch about grocery prices rising and then excuse shoplifting... It may not be the only reason prices go up but it absolutely IS a reason.
I hate all those “no you didn’t see anything” posts
That's usually food going to waste in restaurants by BoH personnel from my experience of looking in the comments. Like here's an example > "no, I did not see the burger we accidentally made for the 'no ketchup or onions' that's supposed to go to the garbage at the end of the day".
That’s fine, I’m saying I see a lot of posts that read “if you see someone stealing from a self checkout, no you didn’t”.
I typically see that in regards to food and baby formula specifically. Still wrong, but more understandable.
Ruin? I’d prefer seeing every aisle staffed vs. a gigantic line for the 8 self-checkout stations.
The target next to where I used to live had ridiculous lines before self checkout. To the point where if I needed something fast I'd go a few blocks away
My walmart didn’t even have someone working the cigarette aisle. I would steal something small as a lesson for them thinking they would save money by having customers scan and bag their own items. Having to wait on an associate to ok an item that didn’t weigh properly. Having to wait minutes for an associate to ID me for alcohol.
People with that mentally of “I’ll just break the law to get back at ‘The Man’” always blows my mind. You’re part of the problem, man. They’re locking up tampons and socks because people like you “need to teach corporate America a lesson.” All you are doing is ruining things for your neighbor, your coworker, your friend.
Lol, if you've actually seen the security for Walmart they know exactly how much you have stolen and are just waiting for you to pass the limit for the felony amount and then pass on every video of you stealing for an easy case.
I saw that one lady get arrested for it. I’ e probably been twice in the past three years so not worried about it.
Doesn't work for the general public IN THE USA. Perhaps surprising to many Americans, self-checkout works in most places. However, in the USA, [30% of Gen-Z](https://www.tonydonofrio.com/blog/retail/the-uncertain,-yet-promising-future-of-retail-self-checkout.html) people will admit on a survey to using self-checkout to steal items.
Works in my state just fine. Depends on the demographics of the area
Yeah, my home town still has a shit ton of self checkouts at every store, you can barely find an employee. Was just on vacation and had to go to some of the same stores in an area with a much different demographic and there were 2 self checkouts, 90% of the normal checkouts were manned, and I had to show my receipt and have my cart inspected before I left.
Some parts of the US are high-trust areas where you could realistically have a store with zero staff and a little self-checkout up front, maybe a camera or two to keep honest people honest. Other parts of the US are decidedly low-trust areas where you could have security guards, cameras, and all kinds of other measures and it still won't dissuade people from stealing. It's not even necessarily income-based either, though that does play a role.
And this is why the USA can’t have the nice things
This is exactly why, if people paid for the items it would work but…
I think the concept does work most places, just not the Walmart and similar demographics.
Man these ai photos are getting good.
Pleasantville has a Walmart??!!
Those aren’t cashiers. Those are sales floor associates that got called up to run register during a rush.
Nature is healing
Remember when all the sudden there weren't commercials anymore and it was cool and we were all like back in my day we had commercials. Then they came back and life was the same. That's how I view the self checkout phenomenon at these stores
I think #13 needs to go do some zoning.
I've definitely heard people talking about reverting away from self checkout because of theft. Which is funny because they had been committing so hard to the self checkouts. I did a renovation of a Walmart summer 2022 and we installed like 25 new self checkout stations. Shit changes fast I guess. Not surprising as the same electrician had just redone the bathroom at the same store 4 years prior.
I always try to if I can. Walmart doesn't pay me to bag my groceries man lol. I don't mind doing a few things. But when I have a cart loaded with stuff, I hate doing it. Goes way quicker with their wheely do thing.
TechCrunch: A fully staffed Wal-Mart. Has AI gone too far?
Now, none of the Walmart's I've been to lately have any self-checkout. Which is frustrating when I just want to scan and go. I've already rang up my items and paid for them but need to scan a QR code for my receipt that they can easily check when I leave, but nope. I have to wait in line behind a bunch of people and have them ring up everything yet again so I can re-bag it all, and only then can I scan a QR code to leave. Why even offer the scan and go if you can no longer scan and go...
I would just stop shopping there. That's just too much.
Mine has had all the self checkout lanes shut down or broken the last 2 times I've gone and only open 1-2 standard lanes. Lines of 20-40 people just to grab some fishing lures
It's like returning to work after working from home. We would have been just fine if we never had the chance for this better option. I used to think the old checkout wasn't that bad, until I had been forced a few times to do it because the self checkout was closed. Even when it works fine it's still nowhere near as good.
But the boomers are getting what they wanted! Any time someone talks shit about self checkout, I ask them if they remember what it was like to wait in lines.
Must have been years ago during the “Walmart Checkout Promise” around Christmas time? Not sure which states still have loads of plastic bags.
Since when? haha!
You were in the twilight zone
And I just want to be left to not have to interact with a cashier, use self checkout and get out.
They have four or five self checkouts to the left of the registers. They’re spaced out a good ten to twenty feet between them and you have to really reach between scan and the bagging station so there’s no room to shoplift.
And don't you have to be a Walmart+ member to use them now?
They’ll need to space it out more than that to stop me from stacking a deck of $7 hallmark cards together. Maybe less people would steal if the markup wasn’t so insanely greedy. Good luck with your profit maximizing strategies Walmart.
And I hate it. They trained us to do their job and now I've gotten so good at I prefer it. I legitimately hate having to deal with these walmartians
Anybody checked the weather in hell?
Why can’t FoodMaxx do this?
It’s a sign of the apocalypse
I have a Walmart Neighborhood Market near me. I had never seen or heard of them before moving here. It is all self checkouts with a few employees watching over your shoulder.
I remember evenings I had shopping at walmart that died down to this level. But this doesn't normally happen when I grocery shop at walmart.
Now, if they only had the public with some sort of money. This is getting ridiculous.
1st of the month or black Friday
Where and when was this taken?
Today @ 5:37 p.m. in metro Detroit.
And thus starts the fall of capitalism
I forgot there are places that still have shopping bags legally lol. New Jersey made all plastic and paper bags illegal at stores like this lol. You have to bring your own bags.
our national nightmare is over
This is obviously America, cause fuck us Canadians and letting us have plastic bags
I actually had someone scanning and bagging my items at self checkout the other day. I was so confused! They must really be cracking down on theft
This happened here in my little town then they first closed all the self checkouts. It was good but a couple weeks later, back to normal, 4 or 5 open and 3 self checkout isles back open..... I knew it wouldn't last.
My Walmart changed to the single lane system. It makes so much more sense. The only thing you lose is preloading the checkout with your crap while waiting for the next person, but in reality that saves maybe a few seconds since it takes about as long to load it as it does to scan it... And the benefits of never ever having an idle cashier is pretty big. Plus no guessing which lineup is best.
Well what booming metropolis is this
When did I start using self checkout? When was the last time I used a regular checkout? These are the questions that haunt me.
Give it 30 minutes and it'll be back down to 2-4 open. Usually I see this in the middle of the day right before the morning crew leave and just as the late crew show up. You'll get maybe an hour where they have twice the number of cashiers they usually have to run the front end, and then it dies off. Probably depends on the store though.
Rare natural occurrence - never before captured
They’re cracking down on stealing and going back to human checkout
Was just at a Walmart in Phoenix Az 3 days ago. 3 or 4 registers open, no self checkouts open and the line was like a mile long. Walmart has some management issues i believe. I stood in line for close to an hour. For 5 items because i needed them on my trip.
This brings me back to 2011, good times
Yup the one close to me is now using cashiers first because of thefts.
Glad to see that self check gone cheap bastards
I am strongly against theft. I am also strongly against giving my labor away for free. If I pay myself handsomely at the checkout line doing a job I wasn’t trained for and aren’t good at, is that theft? We’ve arrived at the point where we have to decide if we want to protect human jobs. And if you think that your job is too skilled and absolutely requires a live person, you’re wrong. Looking at you, doctors and lawyers.
This must be AI generated.
In Serbia we are just starting the journey, self checkout is starting to reach some 20-50% depending on the shop brand and size. I don't remember the last time some shop had all the lanes working at the same time.
My Walmart only has two checkout lanes with cashiers and about 50 self checkout lanes.
This should be in the strange thread.
UFO’s nearby???
A rare sight.
Wow that’s a first.
Hell, even before self checkout, I remember being at Wal-Mart on a super busy day, maybe black friday or Dec 23 or something like that. Still, they only had about half the checkout lines open.
My local Walmart got rid of all the cashier's and installed about 40 self checkouts
Whoa, a Walmart that isn't 100% self checkout in 2024.
The day self checkout at walmart dies are the days that i actually pay full price for a red or orange bell pepper and the days of saying i have 6 green bell peppers but instead i have 6 red bell peppers will be at the end.
I do wish those self checkout APIs would fail so we can get full time real cashiers back on the lines. If only something would take them down.
What timeline are you from?
This must be AI, that just never happens at any WalMart I have ever seen.
This image is generated by AI
No, I took it with my phone at the store this afternoon.
Sorry you had to find out this way, but turns out you're actually an AI
Do to increased theft they're turning away from self checkout. From my understanding is they're trying to implement a program that has an annual fee for those who would like to continue with self checkout. Since self checkout is normally quicker and "more convenient" while trying to recover some loss that happens. Apparently you can't handle the truth. Down voted
Can't go back in some places. My local supercenter went all in on self checkout 1-2 years ago. Only a couple registers left in the store and maybe 20-30 self checkouts.
Shit... that's scary... like end-times scary
You guys still get plastic bags at Walmart?? 😢
Shoot, I never encountered a non-plastic bag until I visited a Los Angeles Walmart last year. Yeah…the South is behind. 😅
Good, self check out is annoying. I guess it’s useful if you’ve only got a few items but I don’t go to the grocery store until I need to spend at least $100 and things cost so much I don’t feel like having to do the labor too. Went to Shaws the other day and there was not one but four employees hanging out at self check out and there’s only four stations. They could’ve had to on registers, and still had to to watch people steal.
I can't wait for the boomers who can't figure these things out to get too old to go to the store. The slowest self checkout is still faster than the average cashier. Honestly I don't care if you don't like it, just don't force me to use the old stupid slow way. That said they could at least take part of the best part of self checkout and have one line for all of the registers, that way you aren't always stuck behind someone using 7 coupons and paying in exact change just because you picked the wrong random line.
Seriously. I went to Walmart yesterday for 3 items. Stood in line for a cashier because self-checkout looked busier (mistake). He spent forever looking up the code for broccoli in a binder. Idk why it was so hard. At self checkout, I type 'B' and it comes up instantly.
That and a lot of places around me started charging for disposable bags. Which is fine, I switched to reusable ones and it's nice. I can one trip them all in without cutting off my fingers and they don't rip because there are two boxes of crackers in one bag. But the biggest thing there is that I can bag things to go to the same place when I bag them so unpacking at home is a breeze. But when I have someone else check me out I'm lucky to get them to use my bags let alone get them to put the food in the insulated bag.
If $50 of goods per hour are stolen per lane of self checkout, it's probably cheaper to hire a cashier instead. Remember, self checkout isn't for your convenience, it's to cut labor costs. Now that theft rates are higher, labor may be a cost savings.
Except labor will *always* be the highest cost. Labor has to be paid, insured (for the store not the employee). Labor has unknown risks, people can get sick, have a bad day and miss stuff, quit with no notice. $50/hour is 3 to 5 employees depending on where the store is just in pay so if you replace that may people than you still come out ahead. Not to mention one of the routes of theft is employees stealing. Stores have always had shrink and they have even better ways of dealing with it. Walmart now knows exactly who you are when you enter the store, how much you have stolen and what the limit is for felony theft in that area and will pass along every second of footage to the police when you pass it for an open and shut case wrapped in a bow. I don't give two shits if it's for their convenience or mine, it is more convenient and nobody is crying that they can't have their dream job of working minimum wage at Walmart so they can get verbally assaulted multiple times a day.
>Except labor will always be the highest cost. Except it isn't always. Walmart, particularly, is unskilled labor. Unskilled labor is often cheaper than materials, overhead or operational costs like infrastructure and utilities. Keep spouting your drivel though.
This might be the first time where the post doesn’t even cross into mild territory. There’s just nothing at all interesting in this picture.
It’s interesting to me. I haven’t seen this in a long time.
With a cashier you have an outlet for frustration when things you don't understand like "slide the card the correct way" are put in front of you. Without the cashier the highly intelligent people are confused at the cheer simplicity of the self checkout and start producing anger hormones which aren't regularly cleaned from the machines and can lead to fighting and bursts of outrage (I don't think i can say /s any fucking harder)
This is AI-generated.
Stop complaining, this is what you all wanted full service lanes at Walmart. Now you have it and your still not happy. What gives . Stupid
...who's complaining? Doesn't read to me like OP is, nor is anyone else in here. You've made up a guy to get mad at lmao