Are Cash Registers On The Way Out?

By Kim Zimmermann, Managing Editor

There are segments of the retail industry — supermarkets in particular —that will probably never completely eliminate the checkout lane. While they are admittedly in the minority according to an IHL Group survey, some supermarkets such as Albertsons and Big Y have ripped out their self-checkout lanes over the past few years to make room for even more traditional checkout lanes.

In the IHL survey,executivesat these supermarkets cited the need to enhance their customer service, and some suspect the real reason was that the machines were clunky and not always used for their intended purpose of quickly checking out some bread and milk.Have you ever gotten stuck behind someone with a cart full of stuff who thinks self-checkouts are a great way to keep their kids entertained?

The move away from the traditional cash wrap, however, is a fairly recent phenomenon, mostly due to consumers’ heavy reliance on cash up until a few decades ago. An infographic on the evolution of the customer checkout experience is a stark reminder of how far we have come from a cash-only society, as it shows only 2% of shoppers used debit cards and just 8% used credit cards in 1995.

While shoppers may still stand in the checkout lane at the grocery store, there are plenty of retailers where it makes sense to give over that floor space to merchandise, especially as mobile payment technology advances. JCPenney plans to eliminate traditional cash registers by the end of 2014. While some question if the beleaguered retailer will be around that long, if they execute it correctly, it could be a “good thing,” to borrow a phrase from Martha Stewart, who apparently won’t be selling her wares at JCP any time soon.