Walmart rolled out self-checkout to streamline operations and reduce labor - but employees and
customers say it's causing a surge in theftsWalmart's CEO has warned that the retailer may need to close down stores due to theft – but many of the company's customers and employees blame one growing feature of the store for enabling shoplifting: self-checkout.
Walmart CEO and President Doug McMillon told CNBC earlier this month that theft "is higher than what it has historically been" and there will be consequences "if that is not corrected over time." Since McMillon made those comments, more than 100 Walmart customers and former and current employees reached out to an Insider reporter imploring the retailer to rely less on self-checkout.
"They need to hire cashiers again and do away with so many self-checkout," said Mindy Stanley, a Walmart customer from Ashland, Kentucky. "I'd say they are losing so much due to that."
To be sure, Walmart still utilizes cashiers at stores across the nation. But the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retail giant, like so many other retailers, has increasingly relied on automation as a means of improving customer experience and reducing labor cost.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/walmart-rolled-out-self-checkout-to-streamline-operations-and-reduce-labor-but-employees-and-customers-say-it-s-causing-a-surge-in-thefts/ar-AA15dnDN
Brilliant!!!
= new reply since forum marked as read
very illegal, to say the least, and it'd be easy for federal prosecutors to establish a pattern in a chain as huge as Walmart, perhaps qualifying for racketeering charges.
Loss prevention/mitigation is a huge expense for stores, but they're forced to pursue it.
Walmart does report clear shoplifting to the police (but evidently this needs to be done more). But what happens then is up to local law enforcement, not Walmart.
As for the wrongful reporting, that mistake by retail staff can cause big problems, serious costs, and always LOSSES of profit. No gain, no possible win. It's certainly NOT a carefully designed racket to prey on self-checkers and extort payment for not reporting to the police. No idea just how many serious laws a criminal conspiracy like that would break, but a lot!
But MORE, it's just a huge mistake to imagine there even could be profit in preying on customers and losing their business permanently. How about the blow-back from both consumer comunities at large on learning a store was a hostile agent extorting its customers AND from state and federal agencies? And, of course, there'd be not just the large, routine costs of carrying out this racket but also legal costs from those customers who do a lot more than just walk away. Watchdog and civil rights organizations, Adder?
As for "fines," you're referring to civil demand letters for restitution of damanges, which may include some reimbursement of administrative costs. Apparently there's usually little or no effort to collect on them. But in any case, this is not a shake-down to avoid a crirminal record. At this point it's already reported to the police.
rightly saying it rose to extortion.
Of course, let's not forget the thieves and their thefts. No thieving, no attempts by the owner of the stolen items to discourage further thefts.
Speaking of, it's Christmas-theft-from-us time. Since a box containing presents for us, including a pair of antique bookends that had said "Mom!" to our daughter, was stolen from our porch a couple Decembers ago, our family always notifies each other to watch for, and ideally be present for, presents on their way.
