Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Giant limiting self-checkout to 20 items or less, due to "a significant increase in crime"


The other shoe has dropped in Giant's changes to its self-checkout system, and it's landed directly on the shopper's head. Self-checkout will now be limited to 20 items or less, due to "a significant increase in crime and theft that we and many other retailers are experiencing across our market area," Giant President Ira Kress said in a message to customers. He said the new limit, along with the weighing scale recently added to the self-checkout units, will "mitigate the impact of theft to our business."


Under the new system, parents shopping for large families, or anyone who prefers to get their shopping out of the way once a week, will essentially be forced to go through the traditional checkout lines. However, Giant has tended to shut those down as the evening goes on, angering customers who were averse to self-checkout machines. Kress did not specify if Giant will now keep cashiers at the old checkout lines until closing at stores. But he did acknowledge what will be a major impact on many Giant customers.


"We know that these changes may cause some inconvenience or be disruptive to the experience you are used to," Kress said, "and I assure you we are making these changes out of necessity to prioritize the safety of our associates and customers." A shoplifter was recently caught on video assaulting a security guard at the Bethesda Row Giant store. Corporate policy appeared to limit the guard's ability to escalate his response; even after being struck in the face, he could only plaintively continue to ask the shoplifter to show him a receipt. 

Once again, we see how the failure of our elected officials to respond to increasing crime - one of the most basic responsibilities of their offices - creates negative impacts for the law-abiding residents of our community. It's interesting that business leaders will admit crime is increasing, and is a major problem, before our elected officials will.

11 comments:

  1. The addition of scales to the checkout system is and old upgrade, performed several months ago now. Why are you now just reporting this item? Also, I cannot locate what you quote as a statment from Giants President regarding the reason for the weighting system.

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    1. First of all, the breaking news I am reporting - as the headline and story indicate - is the new limit of 20 items at self-checkout, not the scales.

      But...the scales were not added "several months ago" at all Giant stores. The ones I've seen were installed less than a month ago.

      The statement from the President doesn't mention the specific changes, but instead states that you will notice changes in the self-checkout process - the 2 changes obviously are the item limit and scales.

      As I quoted in the article, he says the reason for the limit and scales is increasing crime and theft.

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  2. This is more of "Maoist Marc" and his allies and their vision for a "business-free", "minimally policed", "crime plagued", "schools failing" Montgomery County of the 21st century.

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    1. Open your myopic eyes, this is not a MoCo issue as you and your retentive conservative, mindsets think. A business's security issues are not the concern of the government, they can institute any measures, whatever, whenever they desire.

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  3. this is dumb!! If people want to shop lift, they can just walk out with the stuff. Why punish everyone!!!!!!!!

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  4. Once again, the rest of us law-abiding folks have to suffer and be inconvenienced ( in addition to costing Giant more $$) because of the increasing criminal element. They cannot build enough jails to house them all.

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  5. I thought the 20 item limit at the self-check stands was to model them after the old "X Items or Less" lanes, that no longer exist. Many shoppers I've noticed would have their months worth of groceries at the self check lines and also were often confused as to how to check out many items, slowing the process down.

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    1. In this case, the company has cited crime as the reason. The number of items alone should not be an issue at most Giants, as they have quite a few self checkout units. Now, stores that have just 2 or 3, I can definitely see that being a problem. Personally, I've almost always had more than 20 items because I tend to get groceries once a week.

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    2. Conservative retentive minds =able to discern key trend lines and comment accurately on them and cause and effect. Left wing adherents love to name call and seem focused on it, all evidence of total intellectual ability and worse yet, the ability to understand what they vote for tends to ruin the quality of life for productive and law abiding citizens. Fools.

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  6. It is now inconvenient for me to do a weekly shop for two, which usually includes at least 25-30 items. I usually shop st Olney Giant. The past two weeks I have carefully counted my items so as not to exceed their 20-item limit. It definitely means I buy less! The manned checkouts are few and were doing a terrible job of packing groceries when I last used them, just before covid era. I don’t want to checkout my own groceries. Covid and poor service are what made me try self-checkout. Giant: fix this!! Meanwhile, I will stick to just 20 items per week from your store, as you demand. Other stores sell groceries after all.

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  7. This seems really late to the game. Most stores with self checkout have had scales for a decade, and Kroger for one has soft limits at self checkout. Buy too many cans of pet food, about
    25 items total, as I often do, and the register will lock until a supervisor inspects what you are doing. It's no big deal. However neither the scale nor this limit have done a thing to stop shoplifting. Good luck, Giant

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