The grocer i worked at: We would have DOZENS and DOZENS of carts stolen, we would go out in the city looking for them and take the damaged carts back. Those wonky carts you guys see? Reclaimed but not yet repaired due to tight budgets. The quarter eliminates that. I’ve never seen an Aldi cart in the loose in the city ever.
The problem with self checkout is lots of people who haven’t stolen have been prosecuted after the fact for theft.
One of my jobs at night was watching the self checkouts, I hated doing that. But we had a LOT of theft in our store, a lot of poor people worse off than me here. But it wasn’t only poor people that stole, in fact, a LOT of people who just had no morals stole. For some it was a thrill.
They brought robots in to do one of my jobs after I left. The customers hate it, but it’s not too terrible an idea, it just searches for spills and watches for theft while also watching for pricing mistakes. Basically an assistant, it really doesn’t replace anyone. Just increases QC.