Self-checkout was sold as the future: a quick and convenient way for retailers to keep checkout lines moving. But a new national survey is shining a light on a side effect the industry can’t ignore: more shoppers are walking out with unpaid items, and what they’re taking says plenty about the state of working-class America.
A LendingTree study found 27 percent of people admit they’ve stolen from a self-checkout. Not high-priced gadgets or luxury goods, but food staples. Nearly half of all respondents said they can’t afford essentials, and price spikes tied to tariffs aren’t helping.
Some retailers have pulled self-checkout kiosks back or eliminated them altogether. Others have added limits, increased staffing or leaned on more surveillance. Target introduced a 10-item cap. Dollar General, Five Below and Walmart scaled back or reconfigured lanes in 2024. Everyone is trying to balance “customer convenience” with loss prevention.
Retailers aren’t expected to ditch the machines entirely. Some shoppers enjoy them, but the industry is also turning toward new monitoring tools and AI systems designed to watch for suspicious behavior, which raises new questions for workers and customers.
No one asked for these machines. Instead, corporate executives who want yet another yacht decided to force them on us.
Here are three reasons why these self-checkout machines are bad for the customers, workers and the country as a whole
1. They kill jobs, resulting in a race to the bottom.
Working class Americans have faced a rough struggle over the decades and jobs have become more scarce. Using self-checkout machines reduces the number of jobs, which increases the supply of workers who are desperate for any job. This puts downward pressure on the wages of existing jobs as the available unemployed labor pool increases.
2. Self-checkout machines don’t pay taxes.
Each job killed is a reduction in taxes paid by a potential worker. It’s also a reduction in taxes paid by the employer. This decrease in taxes paid means less revenue for government and consequently fewer services it can provide to those in need.
3. Customers hate these machines.
Want to anger your customers? Put in a self-checkout machine. It’s almost a guaranteed way to increase checkout times and frustration as customers wait for an employee to help them with the constant computer errors and misunderstandings.
There is no replacement for the human element.
Customers prefer human beings to machines. There is no replacement for person-to-person interaction.
Shoppers like to deal with real human beings who greet them with a smile, ask if they need anything else and bag their groceries. Self-checkout machines do none of that. But they do cause frustrated and angry customers who have to wait for a human to help them when something goes wrong, as it often does.
Everyone suffers when a worker is replaced by a self-checkout machine or other device that a human used to operate.
Unemployed people are unable to pay the taxes to pay for police officers, firefighters, teachers and other professionals we rely upon for essential services. Employers with fewer employees pay less in payroll taxes that also support these services.
The study indicated what we’ve been saying all along. For unions, the trend echoes what members have said for years. When wages stall, when prices outpace paychecks and when corporations save on labor instead of investing in frontline workers, families feel the strain.
Self-checkout theft isn’t a tech issue. It’s an affordability issue. Until prices stabilize and wages rise, no mix of cameras, AI or redesigned kiosks will address the real problem.
Do your part, take the time and do not use self-checkout when you shop.
