Self-checkout is checking out.
Target is removing self-checkout stations from stores as thieves use the kiosks to conduct their crimes.
Last March, the popular chain announced plans to limit self-checkout to 10 items and limit or remove self-checkout kiosks amid complaints about clunky technology and concerns about rising theft.
Along with paring back customers’ self-checkout hauls, stores will expand the number of traditional checkout lanes available.
Reddit user @jxbermudez72 shared a photo two weeks ago showing where the store they shop at had a large empty space where the self-check out stations had been.
“The target I live near completely got rid of self checkout,” the user wrote.
Plenty of others replied to the thread claiming their local Target had done the same.
And shoppers are not happy with having to wait to have an employee scan their items.
“Ugh, I hate this… I just want to get my groceries without forcing people to do more labor,” someone replied to the thread.
“This definitely is not the better option,” one person said after a terrible experience waiting in line. ” I went to my local Target to pick up a flashlight that was on sale. Took me almost a 1/2 hour. There was a group of people waiting and one girl running herself ragged.”
Another person added: “That’s a shame. I hate having to go thru a manned register. I prefer self check out every time.”
Despite customer frustration, Target attributed the change partly to shifting consumer patterns, as shoppers prefered self-checkout during the height of the pandemic when customers sought minimal contact with others.
The shift also conveinetly comes as Target has recognized a surge in organized retail crime plaguing its stores — and many other popular retailers — nationwide and forcing some to shutter.
A California thief used Target’s self-checkout service to snatch over $60,000 worth of merchandise during a shoplifting spree spanning across 100 visits to the retail store.
In New York, retailers have bemoaned organized shoplifting rings cost them a staggering $4.4 billion a year to supply the booming shadow resale economy.
Shoplifting in New York City alone rose 64% from June 2019 to June 2023, according to the Council on Criminal Justice.
Thieves and middlemen are selling shoplifted goods on resale sites such as eBay and Facebook Marketplace and filling warehouse spaces at illegal pawn shops.
