Five Below - Self Checkout Not Allowed

[storewanderer]

Another braindead chain who must have decided to follow Target's non lead on restricting use of self checkout (of course now Target isn't restricting anything to do with self checkout in any store I've been into). This at Five Below is not quite as bad as Dollar General who completely killed the self checkout software entirely and deactivated the lanes, but close.

Five Below, has a policy in place that customers can no longer scan their own items or do anything on the self checkout screen. The store employee is to perform scanning of items, bagging of items, and all on screen functions. The only thing the customer can interact with is the pinpad.

The store I went into today was not following this policy however they had signs posted on the self checkouts that said "PLEASE WAIT- AN ASSOCIATE WILL HELP YOU." But the 3 "associates" were just standing over by the door talking, another customer was already checking themself out, so I just checked myself out too and was in/out in 15 seconds. So the self checkouts are still self checkout software (unlike at Dollar General where the self checkout software was killed)... at least.

Curious I went over to Reddit and found the following:
~ttps://www.reddit.com/r/FiveBelow/comments/1c9 ... they_wont/

Watching that customer/employee interaction for a tiny purchase - that is PAINFUL. Way too much back and forth interaction. Completely out of line and unnecessary for one item purchases.

These chains are braindead and will lose a lot of customers over this type of decision.

[Alpha8472]

That is terrible. I would be fine if they had several cashiers at regular check stands. Just make sure the registers are staffed, and I would gladly use a cashier.

I visited 5 Below for the first time the other day. It had many interesting looking pop culture items. However, chips were cheaper at the Chevron gas station. I swear every food item is marked up. This is not a very affordable store and their electronic gadgets seem low quality. It is as if they are going to breakdown in no time at all.

[ClownLoach]

Five Below was growing exponentially until inflation hit and clobbered the dollar store industry. I have not seen a new store open in a while. I think the inflation issue along with the failure of all self checkout clobbered them, and the prospects of having to increase payroll spending by returning to full service checkout limit their ability to expand at the pace they did before. I know a manager who ran one of these for a while and one of the biggest problems was inaccuracy of scanning by the customer. Because it's a dollar store they don't understand the fact that each item has a different bar code to generate the order. So they purchase say 6 phone accessories that are $5 each and scan the first one multiple times than none of the others. Customer thinks this isn't a problem because they're $5 each and they scanned 6 so the total is correct. They aren't necessarily shrinking out, but now the counts are all wrong and the stores automatically replenish. It doesn't take long for this to turn into mountains and molehills, suddenly they have 60 lightning cables on the next truck even though they don't need that many, while the regular USB cables are now all out of stock and sales get missed. There isn't necessarily a loss calculated at inventory, but they lose a lot of sales because they have major out of stocks caused by inaccurate scanning that have to be found when they scan the shelf and update the count to generate the reorder.

I have heard that many retailers are switching to the self checkout kiosk type format simply for the fact that it uses less space. When they can use cash recyclers then they also reduce cash shortages and simplify the operation.

Home Depot in my market has fully exited self checkout and just operates with the exact same kiosks but in regular register mode. We aren't a high shrink area but they have been on this program just short of two years now. All the self checkout signage was fully removed and replaced with standard signage. The self checkouts that didn't have cash recyclers have had a regular cash till added. But they generally don't use any equipment but the self checkout units now unless the store is very busy. These are all stores that got the full front end remodel with a reconfigured service desk and the large pod of self checkouts, and all the floor space that was freed up went to the online order storage area as well as expanding the promotional/seasonal areas. I have a new Home Depot under construction nearby (a rare entity these days) and I expect to see they will have the same setup, full service checkout but only using the self checkout equipment, counters, etc.

As discussed elsewhere Costco installed self checkout primarily to add more registers to the front ends which didn't have the physical space to do so. It so was intended to serve as an unwritten express lane for those who always wanted one. In the vast majority of California stores there is enough sales volume for them to staff the self checkouts as a semi-full service program during nearly all hours of operation. They sacrificed one or two full service lanes to add between 6 and 9 self checkouts that operate basically as full service, and the lines reduced dramatically.

If you look back at old pictures of retail stores, checkout stands have grown over the past several decades as impulse buy stations with ever growing magazine racks, candy and gum racks, soda coolers, and more. The extra add on, high profit sales encouraged stores to set up the largest checkout stands possible. Old stores did not have these massive checkout stands that take up so much room. So in a lot of ways the stores that decide to convert to using the self checkout kiosk fixtures as full service checkstands are really going back to the way things used to be, enabling that floor space to be repurposed for online order storage, programs like Starbucks, etc.

I do not expect to see any store "switch back" to traditional checkout stands even if they remove self checkout, except for large format stores like Walmart that devote ample space to the front end.

[storewanderer]

I am still seeing Five Below opening stores all over anytime I travel I see at least a store or two coming soon. Their stock is doing great. We will see where they end up in the future. I do NOT hold any of their stock.

When I go into their stores in my area they have very few customers and the customers buying items seem to only buy an item or two. The stores are VERY poorly stocked. Their pricing is terrible on anything that any other store sells (like their attempt to have a small drugstore personal care/cleaning type aisle, or their expanded candy/snacks). This is much different from the initial Five Below units I visited across the country 10 or so years ago- those stores were packed with customers and had multiple registers open with lines and many people buying 2+ bags of product. Inventory was piled high and it felt like they had some deals on fun items and the few candy/snack items they had also were priced low.

Maybe what will happen is ultimately Five Below merges with either Dollar Tree or Dollar General to get the buying power those two have on consumables but reach a different customer segment than those two reach. As far as what Five Below could bring to the table for Dollar Tree/Dollar General- probably not much beyond controlling a "competitor." First Family Dollar or Popshelf need to get out of the way.

The kiosk checkout has some issues. From a safety perspective I don't like it when a customer is able to look into the cash drawer. Also the kiosk has a small work area which makes it cumbersome for both customer and employee. Going back to the old COVID/6 foot rule these do not work at all if both an employee and customer are involved with every transaction. The small work area also makes it more difficult for loss prevention to view activities through the cameras, though new cameras are better and better and this is becoming less of an issue.

I think Five Below is another retailer who thought they could install self checkout with no weight sensors, never watch the self checkouts, and it would work. I also question if the shrink they think is being caused by self checkout is really being caused by self checkout or if it is other factors such as warehouse issues, customers damaging items while looking at them on the sales floor, or natural shoplifting where stuff goes straight from shelf to parking lot and doesn't get anywhere near a checkout unit.

[Alpha8472]

Five Below attracts teenagers and young adults due to the pop culture items. The stores look fancy with colorful signage. Many of these customers would never set foot in a messy Dollar Tree.

Trying to sell Five Below items at Dollar Tree will be hit or miss. The pop culture items may sit there for a long time. When you have cheap $1.25 items and $5.50 items next to each other, the average frugal Dollar Tree customer is going to go for the cheaper item. For example, cell phone charger cables.

I don't see how combining these two price structures is going to work.

[storewanderer]

Five Below attracts teenagers and young adults due to the pop culture items. The stores look fancy with colorful signage. Many of these customers would never set foot in a messy Dollar Tree.

Trying to sell Five Below items at Dollar Tree will be hit or miss. The pop culture items may sit there for a long time. When you have cheap $1.25 items and $5.50 items next to each other, the average frugal Dollar Tree customer is going to go for the cheaper item. For example, cell phone charger cables.

I don't see how combining these two price structures is going to work.

Dollar Tree is already adding aisles of merchandise over $1.25. But I don't think the Five Below items generally would work there. I was thinking about that. Also who knows how many would get stolen/broken with how Dollar Tree is. The losses on higher dollar items will add up quick with how poorly Dollar Tree staffs its stores.

[mbz321]

This at Five Below is not quite as bad as Dollar General who completely killed the self checkout software entirely and deactivated the lanes, but close.

Off topic, but was DG supposed to get rid of self checkout everywhere? I popped into one back on May 5th and it was still open and people were using it. I wanted to, but an associate actually flagged me over and opened the register.

[storewanderer]

This at Five Below is not quite as bad as Dollar General who completely killed the self checkout software entirely and deactivated the lanes, but close.

Off topic, but was DG supposed to get rid of self checkout everywhere? I popped into one back on May 5th and it was still open and people were using it. I wanted to, but an associate actually flagged me over and opened the register.

It is still active in some number of stores. Supposedly most/all Market format stores still have it, along with some scattered regular format stores. But they are still doing the software updates weekly to kill self checkout.