A Southern Californian lawyer has claimed that retailers cannot survive using self-checkout systems. Companies will eventually have to revert to regular cashiers, according to his TikTok post.
As a criminal defense attorney with over 17 years of experience, Dod Ghassemkhani has over 25,000 followers on his TikTok, Dod Law Criminal Defense.
He frequently gives his thoughts on various legal issues on the platform. In addition, he answers people's questions from a lawyer's perspective.
Recently, Dod was asked about the changes in stores, such as Target and Walmart, which have started using self-checkout lines.
He was asked: "What do you think about the stores switching to self-checkout lines?"
According to Dod, the majority of the cases that he handles are related to theft. He said that most of these cases are related to stealing from self-checkout.
"All these stores are gradually switching to self-checkout lines to save on labor costs. If you look around the country, all the stores' Target, Walmart even department stores, are now gradually changing to self-checkout lines to save on labor costs. However, the majority of the theft-related cases I get at my firm result from theft from self-checkout lines. So what's going to happen Is these stores trying to save on labor costs are going to have an increase in theft. Eventually, they will have to switch back to having a live person do the checkout once they realize it's not worth it." - @dodlaw / TikTok
"I don't do self-checkout anymore," said one commenter on his TikTok post.
Others came at it from a different point of view: "That's the price they will pay…potential lawsuits."
The TikTok video has over 15000 views.
According to Voucher Codes Pro, "nearly 20 percent admitted to having stolen at the self-checkout in the past" (via The Atlantic).
The market for self-checkout systems in retail is growing in the United States. It is anticipated to be worth $2.97 Billion by 2028.
As of October 2022, there were 4,662 Walmart stores in the US. Texas has the most number of these establishments, with over 500 retail stores. This is about 11% of all the company's US locations. The second-largest state with the most Walmart stores is Florida, and California with 278 establishments for every 142,129 residents (via Scrapehero).
Final thoughts
Self-checkout lines are convenient, but they increase potential theft cases. Not to mention that they save on labor costs, which is usually a good thing if that also means lower prices, but in this case leads to an increase in theft cases, which may increase prices.
What do you think about this?
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Disclaimer: This article is only for educational and informational purposes.
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