Dive Brief:
- Kwik Trip is adding self-checkouts to all of its new stores, a company spokesperson confirmed.
- The convenience retailer plans to open about 30 new stores in 2024, all of which will have the self-checkouts. There are no plans at this time to retrofit existing stores with this technology.
- A number of c-stores are increasingly adding self checkout options to their stores, from massive multinational companies like Alimentation Couche-Tard to smaller regional players like Minuteman.
Dive Insight:
Kwik Trip began adding self-checkouts to its new builds about six months ago. The spokesperson was not able to state the number of stores that currently use the technology, but said all new builds since the program was implemented have them. Some of those stores are in Wisconsin and Minnesota, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which first reported the news.
Kwik Trip said in April that it expected to open more than 30 new stores by the end of 2023.
The company also noted that the self-checkouts are not replacing any jobs. Using self checkout often lets retailers redirect their employees to other jobs, like cleaning, or shift the hours so there are more workers at peak times.
Self-checkout isn’t without its issues. Columnist Frank Beard pointed out in a recent piece that there are “several valid concerns about self-checkouts ranging from poorly designed user experiences to an increased attack surface to theft.” However, he also pointed out that self-checkout is a fine solution in most circumstances, and “generally very good in convenience stores.”
Unlike automated checkouts, which have found more traction in venues like sports arenas, self checkout has been seeing regular uptake in the c-store industry. And even within that technology, experiences can differ, from the most common machines where the customer scans items to computer vision-aided terminals.
La Crosse, Wisconsin-based Kwik Trip is one of the largest c-store operators in the U.S. with over 800 locations in its network.
