The self-checkout reversal is growing

Dollar General is joining the growing list of retail chains reversing course on self-checkout technology.

“We had started to rely too much this year on self-checkout in our stores,” Dollar General CEO Todd Vasos said Thursday on an earnings call. “We should be using self-checkout as a secondary checkout vehicle, not a primary.”

Dollar General had aggressively expanded self-checkout stations, adding them to more than half of its approximately 19,000 stores. The company also piloted stores with only self-checkout options and no cashier lanes. Like other retailers, Dollar General bet self-checkout would reduce its labor costs and speed up checkout for customers.