Theft has always been a problem in retail.
Some people shoplift because they're criminals while others steal because they're hungry and don't have the money to buy what they need.
Shrink, as the industry calls it, has increased meaningfully, and many retailers have cited it as a drag on their profits.
As a percentage of total retail sales in 2022, shrink accounted for $112.1 billion in losses, up nearly 20% from $93.9 billion in 2021, according to the 2023 National Retail Security Survey from the National Retail Federation.
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Theft issues have not been helped by self-checkout. Taking cashiers out of the checkout process makes it easier for people to intentionally "forget" to scan a few items while having plausible deniability that their actions were a legitimate mistake.
That's compounded by people who were not trying to shoplift but truly miss scanning an item.
“Retailers are seeing unprecedented levels of theft coupled with rampant crime in their stores, and the situation is only becoming more dire," said the retail federation's vice president for asset protection and retail operations, David Johnston.
Retailers have tried to solve the problem in a variety of ways. Walmart WMT has taken a number of steps, including building an Atlanta-area store with a police station in it and taking self-checkout out of a handful of stores.
Now, a former Walmart employee has noted some extreme steps the retailer is taking to battle theft at self-checkout.
Image source: Walmart.
Walmart takes extreme self-checkout measures
Self-checkout benefits retailers, not customers. The method transfers to shoppers work that a store's employees normally do.
There are, of course, benefits for people who don't want to interact with cashiers or those who have only a few items and don't want to wait on line, but generally, self-checkout helps stores, not customers.
Walmart, like rivals Kroger KR and Target TGT, wants to figure out how to have its self-checkout cake and eat it, too. It has tried a number of ways to cut down on theft, but one it's not talking about may upset you.
"If you have been to Walmart, you have probably been in these self-checkouts," a former Walmart employee, who showed her employee badge, said in a TikTok post. "What you probably didn't know is that Walmart employees who work in the self-checkout area carry devices called TC Devices."
Those handheld machines allow workers to see what people are buying at the self-checkout.
"We're able to see everything you are purchasing, how much your total purchase is, and how much each item costs," the former employee shared.
The poster, who goes by the name "obeygoddess," shared what the TC Device screen looks like and it literally shows a sort of running receipt of a customer's purchases.
Employees with the devices have the option to pause self-checkout for any customer and "pretend that there's something wrong with the machine if we suspect that you are stealing," she said.
Once the "pause" button is hit, the self-checkout station goes into what looks like an error mode or your screen will freeze.
"At that point, you have no choice but to call for help and once we come over we pretend like something is wrong with the machine," she added.
"[Obviously,] there's nothing wrong with the machine because we paused your transaction on purpose, but we suspect that you're stealing, so we're trying to make it seem like there's something wrong with the machine."
If employees suspect someone is stealing, employees will take everything out of the customer's bags while saying they will ring them up at another machine.
"At that point, they will just take you to a main checkout where there's an actual person to cash you out. The point is: Do not steal from Walmart self-checkout. They can see everything," she added.
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