Your Walmart shopping experience could be about to change in a big way.
You see, Walmart just relased data from a test where it removed all self-checkout machines at its location in Shrewsbury, Missouri…
That one simple change resulted in a collapse in thefts at the store – saving Walmart an enormous amount of money.
And Walmart is taking action to capitalize on this…
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Walmart has already announced that the Shrewsbury self-checkout machine removals are now permanent, and has also removed self-checkouts in Cleveland, Ohio.
In fact, Walmart is reportedly reconsidering its overall approach to self-checkout…which could obviously have massive implications for shopping nationwide.
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Retail theft is an ongoing problem nationwide – you didn’t need me to tell you that, you’ve undoubtedly heard plenty of stories – and stores are trying out different tactics to combat stealing.
Chances are good you’ve seen some of those tactics – like security guards standing at the doors, looking over every shopper as they come through.
Plenty of stores have also invested in enhanced detection and surveillance capabilities as well (think: Video cameras, detectors, all that kind of stuff).
The only problem: None of it really seems to be working.
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In 2016, retailers lost an estimated $24.4 billion to retail theft.
By 2024 the annual losses had nearly doubled, to $45 billion.
And third-party estimates believe the losses could pile up to $53.7 billion by 2027.
That’s a TON of money.
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And that rise is coming despite all the work retailers are doing to try and prevent shoplifting – like security guards, surveillance, etc.
So they’re spending all of this money to prevent shoplifting…and it’s not working.
Nothing has been.
Until this Walmart experiment.
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The Walmart in Shrewsbury, Missouri was in a pretty bad place.
Theft was skyrocketing.
They were calling the police more than twice a day – 509 calls between January and May 2024. The cops made 108 arrests there during those five months.
At their wits’ end, they decided to try something different.
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The results were immediate.
Those 509 police calls?
They dropped to 183 in the same period this year.
And arrests fell off, too – from 108 in January-May of 2024 to just 49 in January-May of 2025.
And here’s why…
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I don’t want to spend a ton of time trying to dissect all the reasons people shoplift, but broadly you can describe them as some combination of:
– Because I like it (some people really are this way, although of course not the vast majority of shoplifters)
– Because I have no choice (prices are too high, and I can’t afford this food)
– Because I won’t get caught
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Removing self-checkout machines gets right to the core of the third reason – people absolutely worry they’ll get caught if they’re interacting with a store clerk rather than some faceless machine.
Plus, let’s face it, once you make eye contact with an employee…it’s hard to think of shoplifting as a “victimless crime” at that point, you know?
Shoplifting is never going to zero, because there are economic factors (people can’t afford stuff) and sometimes personal factors involved…
But it’s clear that getting rid of self-checkout has an enormous impact on the overall volume of shoplifting.
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Self-checkout has become big business in the United States, with one estimate going so far as to value the industry at $5.7 billion.
Many grocery stores – and especially Walmart – pushed hard into self-checkout to try and save money.
If you ring your own food up, then Walmart (and Safeway, and Giant, and whoever else) won’t have to pay so many people to do that work for you.
It was the automation of the future!
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It’s certainly a great deal for the store – when you look strictly at labor costs, anyway.
And sometimes self-checkout is even convenient!
I’ve certainly appreciated the chance to “skip the line” and just ring myself up for a half-gallon of milk, a loaf of bread, and two heads of broccoli on my way home from work.
It’s certainly saved me plenty of time, sometimes.
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So you’ve got this interesting set of different trade-offs that Walmart (and other grocery stores) will have to manage:
– You save money on labor by having self-checkout
– You lose more money to theft by having self-checkout
– Some of your customers will want self-checkout, some of the time
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Let me tell you how this goes from here.
Leave aside Walmart’s decision process – I don’t know how they’ll ultimately fall on the balancing act of those three issues I just described…
Every other grocery store is going to ask themselves the same question that Walmart did.
“What would happen if we removed self-checkout?”
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I’m sure we’ll be seeing more tests like Shrewsbury’s in the months to come as more stores – especially those suffering from extensive theft – staff up and figure out whether self-checkout is “really” worth it.
As for me, I’m hoping everyone comes out with a balanced approach. Costco does it really well – you’ve got self-checkout as an option, but then they have people at the door checking your receipt.
(Of course, a big part of why it works for Costco is that everyone’s buying a TON of stuff at Costco – hard to run when you’ve got 50 pounds of bananas in your cart, right?)
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I think it’s fair to say that the great self-checkout debates of 2025 are just beginning.
So – what do YOU think?
As a consumer, do you like self-checkout?
Would you like to see more or less of it?
Let us know in the comments!
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