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Thank you. From Wondery, I'm David Brown, and this is Business Wars Daily on this Thursday, November 30th.

Today, what was once hailed as a cost-saving innovation is now causing a lot of headaches.

Self-service checkout machines were first introduced back in the 80s to save on labor expenses.

In the early 2000s, the machines rapidly expanded in supermarkets, and during the height of the

pandemic, in 2020, they were seen as a way for customers to pay without getting too close to another person, according to CNN.

But now, self-checkout machines are falling out of favor with many major retailers.

Why?

Quite simply, they lead to more merchandise losses, either due to customer error or intentional shoplifting, known in the biz as shrink.

Shrink has been an issue for retailers for a while now, and while it's true that shoplifting

has contributed to it, retailers have recently started pointing the finger at self-checkout strategies.

One study of retailers in the U.S., Britain, and other countries in Europe found that companies

...