Revamping In-Store Experience: Walmart’s Shift Away from Self-Checkout

Two Walmarts—one in Missouri and another in Ohio—have removed self-checkout lanes to enhance the in-store experience.

Confirming these changes to Business Insider, Walmart stated that the transition processes at the Cleveland Steelyard branch and a St. Louis-area Supercenter will occur after hours and are expected to conclude within approximately two weeks.

Brian Little, a spokesperson for the company, explained that these decisions stemmed from feedback received from both employees and customers, as well as local shopping trends.

“We anticipate this change will elevate the overall in-store shopping experience and enable our associates to deliver more personalized and efficient service,” he remarked.

This move might ring a bell, as last year, three Walmart stores in New Mexico underwent similar transformations.

Meanwhile, discount retailers Dollar General and FiveBelow have announced plans to reduce or eliminate self-checkout options in response to high rates of inventory discrepancies.

With over 4,700 locations across the United States, Walmart clarified that there are currently no widespread plans to remove self-service kiosks from its stores.

In addition to discontinuing self-checkout technology in select stores, retailers like Walmart have implemented various measures to tackle the challenges associated with self-service checkout.

Earlier this year, Business Insider reported that several Walmart outlets were restricting access to self-checkout lanes exclusively for users of the company’s Walmart+ or Spark delivery apps.

Target introduced a policy limiting the number of items to ten or fewer in self-service lanes—a change that reportedly doubled the speed of the checkout process compared to unrestricted conditions. Some stores also began implementing restrictions on the operating hours of self-checkout lanes.

Studies have shown that self-checkout systems contribute to a phenomenon known as “partial shrinkage,” where inventory loss occurs due to customers failing to correctly scan and pay for all items during transactions.