Whether you love or hate them, self-checkouts are seemingly everywhere. While many businesses have eagerly implemented the technology for the promised cost savings, some are raising concerns over revenue loss from theft. In December, LendingTree published survey results stating that 69% of people who use self-checkouts think they make it easier to steal, and a Capital One report published in January noted that rates of theft are 65% higher at self-checkouts compared to traditional checkouts with a cashier. Consumers have their own complaints, too.
Today, we’ll dive into what you should know about self-checkouts and what states across the U.S. are doing in an attempt to regulate them.
The checkout experience of past, present and future
While the 2020 pandemic increased their popularity, self-checkouts are not new to most consumers. The technology was first introduced in 1986 as a way to improve customer wait times and reduce labor costs by shifting the work of scanning, bagging, and collecting payment to the (unpaid) consumer. Since then, new sensors, cameras, and AI technology have made their way into the stations (anyone have an unscanned item in bagging area lately?).
It’s now quite common for a single staff member to oversee multiple self-checkout stations, rather than check out customers one by one. This has led to a concern that self-checkouts may undercut crucial jobs for communities. However, many consumers prefer the convenience of self-checkout, so much so that 77% of shoppers reported preferring it for its speed in the 2025 Commerce Experience Report. The contactless experience also provides greater privacy when purchasing certain items, as well as other perks – 43% of shoppers reported using it simply because they prefer to bag their own items.
Despite these benefits, others have found that the same issues self-checkouts were meant to remedy seem to persist, such as long lines and understaffing at stores. Meanwhile, other issues have merely been repackaged, like theft and retail shrinkage, which each occur about four times more often at self-checkout stations compared to staffed checkouts. As one professor told CNN, “Consumers are not very good at scanning reliably. Why should they be? They’re not trained.”
What lawmakers want to do about it
Though no statewide mandates currently exist, a handful of states and cities are considering their own proposals for regulating self-checkouts. For example, in Ohio, a bill introduced in April would “require stores to offer at least one staffed checkout, have at least one employee supervising each three self-checkouts and limit customers using self-checkouts to 15 items.” The New York City Council is considering a similar bill for “pharmacies and grocery stores across the five boroughs.” In Massachusetts, a proposed bill would limit grocery stores to operating no more than eight self-checkouts at once and require one staffed checkout station for every two self-checkouts. Connecticut, Rhode Island, Washington, and California have also considered similar statewide mandates. Some cities in California have already passed their own bills, and there is speculation that if more bills pass, retailers may eliminate self-checkout stations entirely to avoid extra costs, as Vons locations in Long Beach, California, chose to do last year after a new regulation went into effect.
Some retailers have already set their own item limits on self-checkouts. For example, Target renamed its self-checkout option “Express Self-Checkout” and introduced a 10-item purchase limit across stores in 2024. Walmart and Dollar General have removed self-checkout entirely from stores in some locations, which one expert said may be because of vulnerability to theft, and implemented item limits in other locations.
As an alternative, some have pointed to AI-driven computer vision as a possible way forward to combat increased rates of theft without restricting or rolling back self-checkouts. However, this would not address the labor and union side of the issue, and the concern remains that any increased cost to businesses would inevitably trickle down to consumers. As one recent Washington Post opinion article put it, “that is the central issue lawmakers must weigh: not whether self-checkout has limitations, but whether a one-size-fits-all mandate improves outcomes or simply shifts the burden elsewhere.”
