CLEVELAND, Ohio — Walmart said on Friday that it will get rid of the self-checkout lanes at its Cleveland store in Steelyard Commons but keep them at its shops in the suburbs.
A Walmart spokesman, Charles Crowson, said that the store will no longer have self-checkouts starting on Sunday. Instead, there will only be checkouts with staff.
He said that this choice was made “after taking into account feedback from customers and employees, research on how people usually shop in stores and market needs.”
He said that the change would last forever and would take two weeks to finish. There are no plans to get rid of self-checkout lines at any other Ohio Walmart. This includes 15 stores near Cleveland. There is only one Walmart shop in Cleveland, and it is in Steelyard Commons.
Business Insider says that some Walmart shops in New Mexico no longer have self-checkout lanes. Crowson said there are no plans to get rid of them across the country.
People asked Crowson why only the Steelyard store was picked and if theft or shrinkage at self-checkout lanes was a problem. He said the choice was made for several reasons.
Crowson replied in an email, “We know retail crime is a problem, and as a company, we’re paying attention to it.” “As I said before, the decision to change our checkout area was made for several reasons, including those I listed in my previous answer.”
Walmart shut down a store in Cincinnati and one in Mayfield Heights in early 2022. And shut down a store in Columbus in February, saying it wasn’t making enough money.
The word “shrink” or “shrinking” refers to when a store has fewer items in stock than it should. It is called “shrink” when things are lost because they were stolen or broken or went bad before they could be sold.
In the past few years, retailers have said repeatedly that shrink and organized retail crime are getting worse.
In the fiscal year 2022, shrink grew to 1.6%, according to the most recent poll from the National Retail Federation. This means that stores lost $112 billion.
