“More theft occurs in such stores. Retailers’ losses due to self-service checkouts can amount to one to two percent of sales. That is a lot and significantly more than with traditional checkouts,” said Stephan Rüschen, professor of food retail at the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University in Heilbronn.
There are big differences depending on the location, with the risk being higher overall in cities than in rural areas. Rüschen refers to discussions with retailers and other industry representatives.
Despite the higher risk of theft, he believes there is no way around retailers relying more on self-service checkouts in the future. “There is a shortage of staff everywhere in retail. In addition, customers now appreciate and expect the service because they don’t want to stand in long queues,” he said.
High risk of theft
According to Rüschen, there are already numerous preventive measures in place to combat the high risk of theft. As an example, he cited supervisory staff in the self-service checkout area and exit gates that only open after the receipt has been scanned. Video also makes it possible to detect when customers have not scanned products or have given incorrect information when weighing and selecting fruit. Retailers are required to further expand theft prevention and detection, said Rüschen.
Police crime statistics also show that there has been an increase in thefts in shops in Germany recently. Rüschen does not believe that the main reason for this is the sharp increase in the number of checkouts where customers scan their products themselves. This is mainly due to high inflation, rising prices and falling purchasing power.
