Technology

Safeway pulls self-checkout kiosks from California locations

Photo: Adobe Stock

June 4, 2024

Grocer Safeway has pulled self-checkout kiosks from several Bay Area locations in California.

The removal is due to customer theft, according to a KTVU report, and the grocer did not detail which locations were removing the kiosks.

"Operational changes have been made at select stores throughout the Bay Area given the increasing amount of theft," Safeway said in a statement, according to the news outlet. "Self-checkout kiosks have been removed at a few stores. Like other local businesses, we are working on ways to curtail escalating theft so we can ensure the well-being of our employees and foster a welcoming environment for our customers."

The news comes on the heels of other leading retailers and grocery chains removing self-checkout kiosks, as well as a report that self-checkout adoption is on the rise. More retail enterprises are embracing self-checkout, with 43% of retailers having mature systems in place and 17% expanding self-checkout deployments, according to a NCR Voyix study conducted by Incisiv.

In early March, Walmart announced it was removing more self-checkout lanes from store locations, including Shrewsbury, Missouri, Cleveland, Ohio and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Later that month Dollar General announced it was pulling self-checkout lanes from 300 locations due to retail theft.

In late March a Target store in Dorchester, Massachusetts shut down all shelf-checkout kiosks and is directing customers to a cashier line.

In early April, Amazon announced it was pulling out its Just Walk Out cashierless technology in Amazon Fresh stores being revamped and will not be deploying the technology in new stores. Amazon deployed the shop-and-go technology in one of its Amazon Fresh grocery locations in June, 2021 after deploying it in its Amazon Go stores years earlier.