Missouri Walmart Just Ditched Self-Checkout for Good

Well, that was sudden. A Missouri Walmart store just ripped all of the self-checkout lanes out of their store and it was all because of recent police reports.

It's no huge secret that there are Walmart stores all over Missouri, but this one in particular just did something abrupt and remarkable. This is the Walmart Supercenter that's located in Shrewsbury, Missouri. If you're not familiar with this part of Missouri, Shrewsbury is located in the south-central part of the St. Louis region.

According to a new report just shared by Yahoo News originating from Men's Journal, this Missouri Walmart just suddenly removed all of their self-checkout lanes. The story says that there were a staggering 509 calls to the police just during the first 5 months of the year alone. That number resulted in a snap judgement by management to completely take the self-checkout lanes away completely. As a result, the calls to the police for shoplifting have been cut in half. Remarkable.

I realize that this is a St. Louis area Walmart, but it makes me wonder if this is the future. Will Walmart now start reducing or even completely eliminating self-checkout in the smaller Missouri towns also? If it reduced shoplifting in the big city, then that same principle might apply to other stores, too. There's been a general pushback against self-checkout and lack of human cashiers anyway. Maybe this crime number will be enough to make that shopping option disappear altogether. Time will tell if this is an isolated store response in Missouri or the sign of bigger things to come.