Walmart, Target limiting self-checkouts in some stores. Will others follow suit? [Video]

Some Walmart and Target stores are changing the way they operate self-checkouts, including limiting the scan-yourself registers to paid app subscribers and delivery drivers – depending on the time of day and how busy the store is. 

Target says the company is closing some self-checkouts as one of “a number of tests” the company is trying, while Walmart says its strategy of opening self-checkouts based on staffing and customer demand is nothing new. 

But both come as retailers nationwide continue to grapple with high levels of theft and organized crime. Experts say technology that relies on shoppers to do their own scanning and punch in product quantities tempts even law-abiding citizens to be dishonest. It’s easy to just scan every other item or punch in codes for a cheaper item, and shoppers also make honest mistakes, leading to losses for stores.

Self-checkout, first tested in supermarkets in the late 1980s, gained momentum 20 years ago. But grocers ramped …