Walmart has been removing self-checkout machines from stores for over a year. The company frames each removal as a response to local shopping patterns and a desire for more personalized service. The data driving those decisions tells a more specific story.
The most recent removal came in March at a South Philadelphia Supercenter, the only one of the city’s five Walmart locations to shift entirely to cashier-led checkout. A small number of self-checkout lanes remain available exclusively for Spark delivery drivers. The Philadelphia location joins a list that includes a Supercenter in Shrewsbury, Missouri, along with stores in Cleveland, Ohio, and New Mexico, all of which pulled the machines in 2024.
What happened in Shrewsbury after the machines came out
The Shrewsbury location offers the clearest before-and-after picture available. From January through May 2024, the Shrewsbury Police Department responded to 509 calls from that store. During the same five-month window in 2025, that number fell to 183. Arrests dropped from 108 to 49 over the same period. The local police chief attributed the reduction directly to the removal of self-checkout.
That kind of outcome is difficult to argue with, and it appears to be informing Walmart’s ongoing store-by-store review.
The survey numbers behind the industry’s theft problem
A December 2025 LendingTree survey of 2,050 U.S. consumers added broader context to what Shrewsbury’s crime statistics showed locally. The survey found that 27% of self-checkout users admitted to intentionally leaving with at least one unscanned item, up from 15% who said the same in 2023. That 12-point increase over two years is a significant shift in self-reported behavior.
Another 36% said they had accidentally left with an unscanned item. Of those, 61% kept it rather than returning to pay. Taken together, 69% of self-checkout users agreed that the machines make theft easier, and 55% of those who admitted stealing said they would do it again.
LendingTree’s chief consumer finance analyst connected the behavior partly to economic conditions rather than treating it as purely opportunistic. Food prices were 2.7% higher in March 2026 than a year earlier, and the USDA projects food prices will rise 2.9% across all of 2026. Retail analyst Neil Saunders noted that unattended kiosks combine intentional theft and accidental walkouts in a way that staffed registers largely prevent, and that the math on shrinkage increasingly favors returning humans to the checkout lane.
Walmart is also spending heavily on store upgrades
The self-checkout pullback is running alongside a broader reinvestment in physical stores. Walmart announced plans to overhaul more than 650 Supercenters and Neighborhood Markets across the country this year, with improved checkout experiences listed among the stated priorities. Twenty new locations are expected to open later this year or in early 2027.
In Pennsylvania alone, the company said it will remodel 32 locations, four of which are in the Philadelphia region in Montgomery and Berks counties. Those upgrades will include updated store layouts, expanded services and a store-based app for navigating aisles and booking services at Walmart Auto Care Centers. Walmart said it has invested more than $518 million in Pennsylvania store upgrades over the past five years.
Walmart+ members at remodeled locations will also gain access to free pharmacy delivery and same-day order fulfillment in as little as an hour at some stores.
Other retailers are recalibrating too
Walmart is not alone in reversing course. Dollar General removed self-checkout machines from 12,000 stores nationwide in 2024. Target and Five Below have also scaled back or limited the machines at select locations. Sam’s Club, a Walmart subsidiary, announced plans to replace self-checkout with AI-powered scan-and-go technology. Costco has begun stationing employees in line to scan cart contents before customers reach the register, though it has not announced a full elimination of self-checkout.
Legislation is beginning to catch up
Seven states are actively pursuing or considering laws that would regulate self-checkout deployment. California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island and Washington are all examining measures that would set minimum ratios of employees to kiosks, cap the number of items allowed through automated lanes, or require a balance between staffed and self-checkout options.
In New York City, a council member introduced an amendment that would limit self-checkout purchases to 15 items in supermarkets and pharmacies and require at least one employee for every three kiosks operating simultaneously.
The combination of store-level crime data, consumer survey findings and incoming regulation is narrowing the case for large-scale self-checkout deployment. What began as a cost-cutting and efficiency measure has become, at many locations, a net liability. Walmart’s store-by-store review suggests the rollback has more ground to cover.
