Report: Grocery chain Hy-Vee scaling back self-checkouts at stores
If you're seeing fewer self-checkouts at Hy-Vee stores lately, it's not your imagination.
The Iowa-based grocery chain, which has dozens of locations in Minnesota and nearly 300 locations across several states, is indeed scaling back or removing the machines altogether.
Why? In a statement to the Des Moines Register, a Hy-Vee spokesperson said, "we just want to provide a better customer experience in several of our stores by bringing back the face-to-face interaction with our employees that we had pre-COVID."
As the paper notes, the chain is only the latest to scale back self-checkouts, with Target having limited its checkouts to 10 items or fewer back in March.
Some Hy-Vee locations have taken a page from Target's playbook, with some self-checkouts being converted into express lanes with a 12-items-or-less limit, the Register reports.
Improved customer service may not be the only reason behind the change.
According to a December 2023 Associated Press report on the controversial machines — with one shopper describing them in the piece as "frustrating" — theft is also a reason retail chains are reevaluating the technology.
"Theft is indeed an issue," the news service noted, with one industry analyst describing it as a "technology that... tempts even law abiding citizens to be dishonest."
"It’s easy to just scan every other item or punch in codes for a cheaper item," they said. "Shoppers could also make honest mistakes, leading to losses for stores."
Bring Me The News has reached out to the company about which stores will be impacted in Minnesota.
Hy-Vee has not yet identified any stores in which the changes have taken place.
