> I wasn't able to find any evidence of 'lots of stores removing them' though...
IKEA is phasing them out in Germany, and all German store chains that had self-checkout have since removed them, or are in the process. There is not a single chain that is actively deploying new ones, or keeping them.
Strange, quite the opposite experience here in Canada.
Our biggest pharmacy (Shoppers Drug Mart) and dollar store (Dollarama) both with thousands of stores are going to be deploying self-checkouts soon. Various grocery stores and big box stores all over the city already have it.
Ikea only has 2 stores in the area so even if they remove it it won't be that noticeable in terms of deployment...
It may be Imea is trying more of a customer service thing for certain stores ala Amazon's focus on human interactions vs actual ROI or popularity.
Edit: according to an international study theft increased from 1-2% to 4% but 60% of the people polled said they only stole it because the item wouldn't scan. This seems to be a technical and UX problem. There is a lot of room for improvement with the machines and from my experience it varies by store.
Otherwise 75% of people said it made their experience faster.
I wasn't able to find any evidence of 'lots of stores removing them' though...
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/bryanpearso...