Walmart’s Unconventional Approach to Theft Prevention: Why Shoppers Might Disapprove

‘Self-checkout’ systems, which let customers ring up their own purchases, are becoming increasingly common in grocery stores and superstores, including Walmart.

Nevertheless, this does not imply that you are not being observed, even if there isn’t a Walmart employee present to scan your purchases and collect your payment.

Some have claimed that as people become more reliant on technology—such as Self-checkout has not made theft issues any better. It is easier for people to purposefully “forget” to scan a few items when cashiers are removed from the checkout process, giving them the ability to convincingly deny that their actions were the result of an honest error. 

People who genuinely fail to scan an item but weren’t trying to shoplift exacerbate that.

Retailers have attempted numerous approaches to address the issue. Walmart WMT has implemented several measures, such as constructing a store in the Atlanta region that houses a police station and removing self-checkout from a few locations.

Now, a former worker at Walmart has revealed some drastic measures the company is implementing to combat theft at self-checkout.

Big-box retailers such as Walmart are facing a significant challenge, according to Business Insider: loss prevention. The report states that theft and fraud cost Walmart along with other retailers about $62 billion in 2019.

That is approximately 1.6% of the year’s total sales that were lost to theft.

According to Business Insider, the popularity of online shopping has led to an increase in credit card fraud, gift card scams, and other online theft tactics.

To exacerbate the situation, some consumers are now using the self-checkout kiosks to cover up their theft a little bit.

Walmart Implements Strict Self-Checkout Policies

Retailers gain from self-checkout, not consumers. The technique assigns tasks that employees of a store typically complete to customers.

Naturally, self-checkout has advantages for those who prefer not to deal with cashiers or for those who have a small number of items and would rather not stand in line, but in general, self-checkout benefits businesses rather than customers.

Similar to its competitors Kroger KR and Target TGT, Walmart is trying to figure out a way to have its cake and eat it too. It has made several attempts to reduce theft, but one that it isn’t discussing could annoy you. 

These portable devices give employees the ability to view what customers are purchasing at the self-checkout.