Letter to the Editor: Full-Service Shopping Must Return

DISCLOSURE

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In 1916, Clarence Saunders invented the concept of self-service grocery shopping by opening a Piggly Wiggly grocery store in Memphis so shoppers would choose their groceries with ease rather than wait for an employee to pick their items for them back in the old days.  Fast forward 100 years, the self-service shopping concept has become a bad idea due to the increase of shoplifting and other retail theft.  

Regardless of if a retailer has self-checkouts and increased security systems, people will resort to shoplifting and other retail theft.  Negligence is also a reason for retail loss after watching social media videos of unattended children damaging items in stores.  If someone shoplifts at a chain store like Walmart, that person would be banned from all of the chain’s stores for life in addition to criminal charges.  

The concept of full-service shopping must return to deter retail theft, especially in the digital age where people can place their orders online or over the phone for curbside pickup or delivery the following day.  The shopping responsibility must be reserved for employees who have been through extensive background checks to ensure items are inspected and sold ethically without loss to the business.  The days of going into a big box retailer or "mom and pop store" should be a thing of the past not because of the COVID pandemic, but because of the increase of retail theft.  

Removing self-checkouts are not the full solution to deterring retail theft.  Full-service shopping back in the 1800s is the solution with modern upgrades.  Self-service shopping must be abolished.