Police in Shrewsbury, a suburb of Missouri, saw big changes after Walmart removed its self-checkout machines. This happened in spring 2024 at a local Supercenter. Over the next five months, police calls to the store dropped by nearly two-thirds. Arrests fell by more than half. From January to May 2023, officers logged 509 calls, including thefts, fights, and disorder. In the same months of 2024, after the machines were gone, calls fell to 183. Arrests went from 108 to 49.
Shrewsbury’s police chief, Lisa Vargas, thanked Walmart publicly for taking out the self-checkouts. She said the change improved public safety right away. This store is not alone. Walmart also removed self-checkout from three stores in New Mexico in October 2023 and one in Cleveland, Ohio, in April 2024. These moves show a bigger shift. After years of adding machines everywhere, Walmart is pulling back in places with high theft and problems. The company’s own data no longer supports keeping them in all stores.
The Automation Gamble Meets Theft
Self-checkout started as a big push to modernize stores. Around 2015, chains like Walmart, Target, and Dollar General spent billions on these machines. They promised shorter lines, fewer staff, and quicker shopping. By 2020, many leaders thought cashier-free lanes would become the norm in busy supermarkets and big-box stores.
But these systems have weak spots. Shoppers scan and bag their own items with little supervision. This freedom makes theft easier. Retailers call all losses from theft “shrink.” Self-checkout leads to much higher shrink than lanes with cashiers. The machines save on labor costs, but theft wipes out those savings.
Data Behind the Reversal
Studies show self-checkout causes more losses. Shrink rates hit 3.5 to 4 percent of sales there, compared to 0.21 to 1 percent at manned registers. In produce sections, losses are 16 times higher without cashiers. In the U.S. food retail world, worth about $1 trillion, this adds up to over $10 billion in lost profits each year from self-checkout.
For Walmart, Target, Dollar General, and others, 2024 was the tipping point. Theft costs now outweigh staff savings. Loss prevention teams found that kiosk-related shrink cancels out payroll cuts in just one or two years. Removing machines from risky stores makes more money.
People change how they act too. A 2023 LendingTree survey said 15 percent of self-checkout users admitted stealing, like by scanning items wrong or skipping payment. Of those, 44 percent said they would steal again. Experts say self-service feels less personal. Shoppers see it as abstract, so some cheat without guilt.
Industry-Wide Rethink and Beyond
Big chains are changing course. In March 2024, Dollar General cut self-checkout from 300 high-loss stores and added controls to about 12,000 of its 20,000 locations. Target limits self-service to 10 items per order in many stores. Costco, Wegmans, and ShopRite add more staff to watch machines or restrict their use.
Executives now call shrink a real business threat. Walmart’s May 2024 outlook mentioned pressure from certain store setups, which experts link to self-checkout. Stores track losses by location, item, and theft type. They tried fixes like weight sensors, cameras, and AI to spot problems. These caught some theft but frustrated honest shoppers with errors. Supervised self-checkout often needed as much staff as regular lanes.
The changes go further. States like California, New York, and Illinois push laws for better loss prevention or staff at machines. Some places may limit transaction sizes. Tech firms and investors see this as a warning for other automation, like robots or kiosks elsewhere. It shows systems relying on trust can fail against fraud.
In communities, people debate. Some say bringing back cashiers improves service and safety after stores pushed too much work onto shoppers. Others want talks on wages and prices instead of just theft. For now, experts predict a mix: keep self-checkout in low-theft spots with staff, remove it from bad ones. New tech blends machines and people. The lesson for chains like Walmart is simple: sometimes, more humans at the register beats theft losses.
Sources
Kiosk Marketplace, Walmart reverses course on self-checkout following spike in theft police calls, June 2024
Yahoo News, Walmart Makes Sudden Self-Checkout Decision After Theft Spike, June 2025
CSP Daily News, Theft With Self-Checkout Amounts to 3.5% of Sales, 2024
Progressive Grocer, Walmart Retools Self-Checkout Strategy in 2 States, April 2024
CNN, Walmart, Costco and other companies rethink self-checkout, November 2023
Blue Book Services, Study finds self-check has 16x more shrink than cashier lanes, March 2025