Why Walmart Should Discontinue Self-Checkouts at Forest Lake

Why Walmart Should Discontinue Self-Checkouts at Forest Lake

Is it possible to picture a community where nothing ever changes? Just as people change as they develop from childhood to adulthood, changes become an inevitable part of communities. With every community’s setback, changes must be made to pose a solution or restore the status quo. A significant change in my community at the Walmart store at Forest Lake is the introduction and implementation of self-checkout at the store. Organizations need change to better serve their customers, but at what cost? Self-checkout at the Walmart store at Forest Lake has posed several disadvantages, especially among employees, particularly cashiers. Self-checkouts are replacing cashiers by allowing customers to do it themselves. This change results in the loss of jobs, limited interactions between customers and employees, and a new set of setbacks with the new process. Consistently, the Walmart store should discontinue self-checkouts because self-checkouts reduce employment opportunities reduce human contact, and self-checkout might fail. Hire our assignment writing services in case your assignment is devastating you.

The effects of the use of SCS are shown by customers’ and employees’ feedback. Otekhile and Zeleny state that “self-service technologies are rapidly replacing the traditional way of business and service delivery” (60), and customers have reviewed their applications. Customers took to Yelp and Google to give their reviews, stating, “In line for 10 minutes then cashier told me she was going on break .. where are all the cashiers,” and “Not a single cashier; they just make you scan and check yourself out.” These reviews illustrate the effects seen at the Walmart store at Forest Lake, where the community interacting with SCS is affected by its continuation. The dissatisfaction shown by these customers in their reviews points to the discontinuation of self-checkouts, as it is evident that cashiers are needed and cannot be replaced by technological innovations. Given that Walmart employs the technology, it is thus replacing cashiers at the supermarket, which leads to fewer employees and affects their customers. This effect causes the customers to question the work efficiency of the employees, specifically the cashiers. The consequences will not remain with the employees but also with the organization, which will then gain a negative reputation. Consequently, the customers will opt to shop at different stores, which will inconvenience them, given they’ll have to find another store in a different neighborhood. Accordingly, what benefits does SCS pose for employees and customers? All these facts evidently illustrate that at Forest Lake, the adoption of self-checkouts at the Walmart store causes significant effects on the community, including its employees and customers.

Walmart should discontinue self-checkouts because self-checkouts reduce employment opportunities. Johnson et al. state that “latest innovations and increases in productivity may not result in increased product demand that will in turn create demand for human labor” (3). The SCS provides lanes where customers can check out without the use of cashiers, implying that cashiers are replaced by a technological system, which implies that people will either lose their jobs or those desiring cashier jobs will not have the opportunity to apply for the same; as most of the employees reside in Forest Lake, job loss is a direct challenge to the neighborhood and the employees’ community. It is expected that technological advancements will lead to an increase in employment opportunities, as shown during the industrialization era. However, today’s world is not as it was back then, and communities are different as technology has advanced way more than then and faster, as illustrated in digitization. Continuous implementation of such technologies thus poses a risk to the human system employees. This risk results from the different skills required, and those with low skills may lose their jobs, and others undergo a pay cut. Additionally, employee involvement in customer use of self-checkouts is minimal, rendering them unnecessary under these circumstances. Also, additional innovation in self-checkouts will result in simpler machinery that will be cheaper, continuing the threat to employment opportunities. With a more convenient technological advancement, what use would human labor pose? Consequently, there is no doubt that continuance of self-checkout will cause job loss and a decrease in employment opportunities, and thus, it should be discontinued.

Walmart should discontinue self-checkouts because they reduce human contact. According to a study by Dean, it was determined that some customers using SCS “had less confidence in using these technologies, missed human interaction more” (232). Directly dealing with technological innovations implies that there will be minimal to no interactions with employees. As shown in the aforementioned reviews, some customers think that there are no employees or maybe that the employees are not hardworking enough because they have to do it themselves. The desire or reminisce of human contact for customers was tied to their age. Older society members have more desire for human contact through employees than younger members of society. At the same time, the older generation has less desire to use self-checkouts than the younger generations, who opt for cashiers rather than technology. Additionally, the adoption of self-checkouts creates a depersonalized aura as employees, such as cashiers, are representatives of any given organization. Their absence leaves customers feeling dissatisfied with any service. Interpersonal interactions between customers and employees influence service delivery and influence the effect after feelings. Additionally, people do not go to stores simply to shop; some go for social interactions, as can be seen with customers constantly interacting with employees. Older generations represent a majority of the customers who shop with interpersonal interactions or human contact in mind. With this in mind, some may be demoralized when they go to the store and find a self-checkout without a cashier. Therefore, the continual use of self-checkout will reduce human contact, which will have numerous effects on customers, especially the older generations, employees, and the organization itself, and thus, it should be discontinued.

Walmart should discontinue self-checkouts because they may fail due to technical difficulties. Dean states that “self-service checkout at a grocery or other retail store was overwhelmingly reported as the most problematic technology to use” (235). The variety of customers visiting the store in the neighborhood is wide, from teenagers to adults and older people. All of them will react differently to their experiences at the store. Customers may have difficulties operating the self-checkout machinery, especially among the older generation, who may shy away from using them due to technological anxiety. The fear of difficulties in use may make customers unwilling to use the technology. The complexity associated with SCS use, even in the presence of guidance, might be challenging to customers as the process might seem complicated or a lot of work for them. In addition, technological devices and machinery are subject to malfunction rendering them unusable, wasting not only a customer’s time but also the organization’s costs. The consequence might be that the money saved in fewer cashiers is spent on fixing the machinery. Also, aggravated customers may hurl insults at employees for the equipment failure, holding them responsible for a problem that they did not cause. In this circumstance, all parties involved will have negative emotions and dissatisfaction. Consistently, a continual self-checkout may pose technical difficulties leading to failure, which will affect all parties involved, and thus, it should be discontinued.

Despite all the aforementioned disadvantages or effects of self-checkout use, Walmart should continue implementing self-checkouts because they reduce waiting time. Self-checkouts are convenient for a majority of the customers that visit a store. According to Orel and Kara, there is “a positive link between electronic service quality and customer satisfaction” (124). This link is attributed to several factors. First, self-checkout is convenient because it saves waiting time. Customers who are in a rush or those who do not desire to queue for long in the limited cashier lanes have the option of a more convenient way of shopping. Second, some customers, especially the younger generation, do not desire human contact with cashiers. In this case, SCS provides them with a convenient way of shopping where they will not have to interact with employees if not needed. Accordingly, the effect here is customer satisfaction, as their goals with regard to saving time and not interacting with anyone are met. Customer satisfaction creates customer loyalty, meaning that the customers will regularly visit, posing advantages for the organization too. Consequently, Walmart should continue implementing self-checkouts because they are convenient for their customers, creating an advantage for the store.

Although the convenience self-checkouts pose to customers, their associated setbacks are greater, and replacing them poses more advantages. The convenience of customer service does not apply to all customers, but mostly to the young generation, who are good with technology and the internet. Johnson et al. argue that SCS “creates a coproduction environment where the consumer contributes time and effort in the delivery of a service that they ultimately consume” (1). With the work shifted over to the customers from employees, the customers may feel overwhelmed by doing everything themselves, including packing, which employees may help with. The previous effects illustrate why SCS should be discontinued at the Walmart Store in Forest Lake. Employees like myself can retain their positions as cashiers rather than be replaced by technological innovations. For the customers, an easy time shopping where they do not have to struggle with technological machinery would foster their satisfaction. Keeping in mind all generations in the community will promote togetherness as the generation gap will not cause stigmatization for those with technological anxiety or who have difficulty using gadgets. SCS failure would increase waiting time, contributing to human interactions, even for those customers who do not want human contact. Subsequently, customer satisfaction would be affected, and customer loyalty would not develop, affecting all individuals involved. Therefore, despite the convenience of SCS in the community, the other impacts are more apparent, and thus its discontinuance would pose advantages.

In conclusion, the community at Forest Lake and the Walmart Store in the same location have undergone numerous changes with the adoption of self-checkouts. SCS have reduced costs by reducing employee cashiers, thereby causing or leading to job loss. Additionally, some customers have difficulty using them, which causes frustration and may cause them to shift their loyalties elsewhere. All these factors show that SCS is not all it is thought to be. Therefore, if the Walmart store at Forest Lake discontinues self-checkouts by replacing them with cashiers, employment opportunities will increase, and human contact will also be increased, in addition to improving efficiency as technical difficulties associated with self-checkouts will be avoided, preventing failure.

Works Cited

Dean, Dwane H. “Shopper Age and the Use of Self‐Service Technologies.” Managing Service Quality: An International Journal, vol. 18, no. 3, 2008, pp. 225–238. https://doi.org/10.1108/09604520810871856.

This source is about the role of age and generation gaps in the use and attitudes toward Self Service Technologies such as self-checkouts. This source is credible because it was published in the Managing Service Quality International Journal, which introduces the topic and gives the historical background on the same, which fits perfectly with its timeline. Further, the author was affiliated with the University of New Mexico at the time of publication. This source will help me with my paper because I will use it to support my argument by posing the impact of age on customers’ self-checkout preferences and impacts.

Johnson, Vess L., et al. “Factors Affecting Coproduction Resentment within a Self-Checkout Environment.” Journal of Computer Information Systems, vol. 61, no. 6, 2020, pp. 529–538. https://doi.org/10.1080/08874417.2020.1808866.

This source is about the side effects of self-checkout use, from mental effects on customers to job loss among employees. This source is credible because it is recent and published within the last three years. Additionally, it was published by the International Association for Computer Information Systems, in affiliation with the University of North Texas. This source is valuable because it will support my argument by addressing the main points of my thesis pertaining to job loss and its impacts on customers.

Orel, Fatma Demirci, and Ali Kara. “Supermarket Self-Checkout Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction, and Loyalty: Empirical Evidence from an Emerging Market.” Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, vol. 21, no. 2, 2014, pp. 118–129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2013.07.002.

This source is about the quality offered by self-checkouts, whereby it assesses the quality of the services based on numerous factors, including convenience and customer satisfaction. This source is credible because it was published within the last ten years and in the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services. Additionally, the authors were members of the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences at the time of publishing in Pennsylvania State University York Campus. This source will help me with my paper by supporting my counterargument and the opposing view on discontinuation by pointing out the benefits of self-checkout.

Otekhile, Cathy-Austin, and Milan Zeleny. “Self Service Technologies: A Cause of Unemployment.” International Journal of Entrepreneurial Knowledge, vol. 4, no. 1, 2016, pp. 60–71. https://doi.org/10.1515/ijek-2016-0005.

This article is about the long-term effects of self-checkouts, including unemployment and other organizational side effects. This source is credible because it was published within the last ten years in the International Journal of Entrepreneurial Knowledge. In addition, at the time of publication, the authors were affiliated with Tomas Bata University and Fordham University. This source will help me with my paper by supporting my argument on the need for self-checkout discontinuance. The source not only elaborates on unemployment but also on customers’ dissatisfaction with the service.

Walmart Supercenter. Google Reviews, Google, 2023, https://www.google.com/search?q=Walmart%2Bstore%2Bat%2Bforest%2Blake.&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#lrd=0x52b2e79850606bb9:0xd89d805335b82fb9,1,,,.

This is a Google review about the Walmart Store at Forest Lake. This source is credible because it was updated this year. Additionally, the author of the review is a customer of the Walmart Store at Forest Lake. This source will help my paper by supporting my argument against the continuation of self-checkouts, by showing customer dissatisfaction with self-checkouts.

Walmart Supercenter. Yelp, 2023, https://www.yelp.com/biz/walmart-supercenter-forest-lake.

This is a Yelp review about the Walmart Store at Forest Lake. This source is credible because it was updated within this current year. Also, the author of the review is a customer of the Walmart Store at Forest Lake. This source will help my paper by supporting my argument against the continuation of self-checkouts, by illustrating the need for cashiers.

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The community the writer will talk about is the Walmart store at Forest Lake. That is where I work as a cashier.