Retailers spent a decade removing humans from checkout lanes. The data that came back forced them to reconsider.
Self-checkout was sold to the industry as a straightforward efficiency play with fewer cashiers, faster throughput, and lower labor costs.
What it produced instead was a theft environment that grew steadily worse and is now generating a regulatory response. Walmart, Dollar General, and others are pulling the machines. But bringing humans back is expensive and, as one retailer is demonstrating, not the only option.
