Self-Checkout Was Supposed to Cut Costs. Instead, It Created a Problem Retailers Didn’t Anticipate
2nd October 2026
Yeah, it cut costs by shifting them to the customers, many of whom don’t appreciate doing the work that the vendor ought to be doing.
According to an April survey from Toast, a point-of-sale and restaurant management platform, approximately 36 percent of 340 small and midsize retail operators said they used self-checkout lanes this year, down from 43 percent in 2025.
That decrease could be attributed to merchandise losses.
According to a report from ECR Retail Loss, grocery stores experienced an average 22 percent increase in merchandise losses in the year after installing self-checkout lanes. These losses included both theft and accidental errors, such as missed scans and incorrect product selections.
Gee, who could have foreseen that?