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Retailers are not universally abandoning self-checkout. They are adjusting where it fits: limiting some kiosks to small baskets, keeping staffed lanes available, adding loss-prevention technology, or removing self-checkout from selected stores. The reason is that checkout losses include both deliberate theft and ordinary mistakes, while kiosks still need staff support—and any time savings depend on the store and the transaction.
Why retailers are rethinking self-checkout
Self-checkout moves scanning and payment to shoppers, but it does not eliminate checkout work. Employees may still need to resolve mis-scans, product-lookup problems, age checks and other exceptions. Retailers therefore weigh labor and customer-flow benefits against losses, errors, and the staffing needed to keep kiosks running.
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A University of Leicester summary of ECR Retail Loss research, published June 17, 2026, said self-checkout handled 54% of transactions in the stores studied. Across 39 participating retailers with combined annual turnover of €1 trillion, the study summary reported an average 22% rise in store losses in the first year after self-checkout was introduced. That is an average reported association; it does not establish that self-checkout alone caused every store’s increase.
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The Leicester summary distinguishes deliberate theft from honest mistakes. Businesses’ estimates of the share of losses attributable to theft ranged from 6% to 80%, a wide spread that cautions against treating every loss as shoplifting. The study summary identified missed scans as the most frequent loss type, appearing in 1% to 4.8% of transactions, with an average cost of €2.50 per incident. Product-lookup errors appeared in 0.18% to 0.2% of transactions, at €1.50 per incident.
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The same summary said customers corrected themselves after on-screen prompts in more than 80% of cases. Retailers also reported reductions associated with specific interventions: 28% fewer walkaways after exit gates, 12% fewer losses with personal display monitors, and 9% fewer losses with missed-scan identification technology. These are reported outcomes for particular measures, not a guarantee that every store will see the same result.
University of Leicester: study summary on self-checkout losses
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Retailers are choosing different checkout models
| Approach | How it works | What the cited evidence says |
|---|---|---|
| Express self-checkout with staffed lanes | Limit kiosks to small baskets while preserving conventional checkout. | Target says its Express Self-Checkout is limited to 10 items or fewer at most of its nearly 2,000 U.S. stores. Target reported nearly 8% faster total transaction times after the rollout began in 2024, across both self-checkout and staffed lanes; this is the company’s result, not an independent industrywide test. |
| Technology-assisted exit | Use verification technology at the exit rather than relying only on the checkout interaction. | Sam’s Club said members exited 23% faster at locations where its exit technology had been deployed. This is the company’s reported result, published in 2024. |
| Different checkout technology by trip type | Use one format for small trips and another for larger grocery shops. | Amazon said shoppers prefer Just Walk Out for small-format stores and Dash Cart for larger grocery trips. In its January 27, 2026 update, Amazon also said its Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh physical stores were closing. |
These examples describe distinct policies, not a single industry-wide replacement plan. Target’s model pairs a restricted express option with staffed lanes. Sam’s Club’s announcement concerns exit verification. Amazon’s description separates technologies by shopping format and includes store closures, rather than establishing that retailers broadly are removing every form of self-checkout.
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Is self-checkout actually faster?
There is no universal time-saving verdict in the cited evidence. Target reported nearly 8% faster total transaction times after introducing Express Self-Checkout, counting both kiosk and staffed-lane transactions. That company-reported result suggests its rollout improved overall checkout speed in its own context; it does not show that every shopper or store is faster with self-checkout.
At a kiosk, speed depends on the basket and whether the transaction proceeds without an exception. A small, straightforward shop may move quickly; a lookup error or request for employee assistance can interrupt it. Staffed lanes remain important in hybrid models, both as an alternative for shoppers and as a way to manage transactions that do not fit the express format.
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Are retailers getting rid of self-checkout?
Some are restricting or removing it in particular locations, while others continue to invest or redesign how it is used. A TechSpot account of the 2026 Voice of the Retail Industry Survey said 36% of 340 retail operators planned to invest in self-checkout in 2026, seven percentage points fewer than in 2025. That is a reported investment intention, not a count of actual installations or removals, and it comes through secondary reporting.
A separate trade-publication summary said stores with self-checkout had losses 33% higher than comparable stores without it. That comparison is reported by Retail Customer Experience; the University of Leicester’s institutional summary does not include it, so it should not be read as a finding established by that summary.
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TechSpot: reported 2026 retail-operator survey result · Retail Customer Experience: trade summary of self-checkout shrink
What the shift means for shoppers
Expect a mix of checkout options rather than one standard policy. A store may reserve self-checkout for small baskets, keep staffed lanes open, add prompts or scanning checks, or verify purchases at the exit. The trade-off is between a potentially quick, self-directed transaction and the extra friction of error resolution or loss-prevention checks. Which experience is faster or easier depends on the store’s setup and the basket being checked out.
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