Noteworthy: Are self-checkouts doing anyone any real favours?

By Bruce Penton on July 9, 2025.

Many people are of two minds when it comes to self-checkout aisles at grocery stores or other retail outlets. One, if you have only a few items and the cashier-attended aisles are jammed, it can make for a quick getaway. But two, technology has taken away a job from someone.

One of the stores I frequent has the self-checkouts, which I rarely use, and another one has yet to provide the service. Probably for a good reason: A Walmart store in Missouri last year closed its self-checkout aisle and shoplifting statistics were significantly reduced.

One would think a store manager would want to reduce theft but keep employee costs down, too. Removing self-checkouts might reduce the level of theft, but it would cost the store in another way – higher labour costs. And how many customers at a place with no self-checkouts might get annoyed at having to wait in line longer and therefore decide to go elsewhere to do their shopping?

In Canada, the issue is coming to a head in a few retail outlets’ executive offices. Canadian Tire is reportedly considering eliminating self-checkout aisles, and six store locations have already made the move.

Not all store losses related to self-checkouts are connected to outright thievery. Some shoppers make an unintentional scanning error or forget to scan a particular item. Others however, use more devious methods to outright steal. Some grocery stores have tight employee security around their self-checkouts, while at some other outlets, you’d need a bullhorn to find an employee for assistance.

A recent poll done by the New York Times showed 15 per cent of shoppers say they have stolen goods via the self-checkout lane, and 44 per cent of those thieves said they’d do it again.

â€¢ Medicine Hat Tourism organizes a number of guided tours over the summer and you don’t have to be a visitor to our city to take part.

The Sunshine Trolley Bus is used for these events, which feature regular guided tours of the city, coffee tours, an ice cream crawl, a market tour, trail tours, bakery and brewery tours. This Saturday features what Tourism Medicine Hat is calling ‘Malts and Medicine Hat Mavericks.’

Participants in this tour will board the trolley at Athletic Park, stop at Trackside Liquor Store for “around the world beer tasting,” followed by dinner and a flight of brews at Medicine Hat Brewing Company before the trolley takes everyone back to Athletic Park to take in the Mavericks-Moose Jaw Miller Express game. Enjoying the game from ground-level box seats at the game, with a beverage included, will conclude the day.

Full details are on the Tourism Medicine Hat website. Total cost of the day’s fun is $115.50, counting GST.

The website advises that if the ballgame is cancelled due to poor weather, guests will receive a ticket for the rescheduled game. The experience at Trackside Liquor and Medicine Hat Brewing Company will go ahead regardless of the weather.

â€¢ Short snappers: For the next few days, Paradise Valley Golf Club is offering free golf for anyone 16-and-under accompanied by a paying adult. The special offer ends Sunday, July 13. … The Medicine Hat Exhibition & Stampede is only two weeks away, so go find your cowboy boots, special shirt and hat. … Hat golfer Sarah Armstrong finished fifth in the recent Alberta women’s golf championship. Another local golfer, Jesse Florkowski, the assistant pro at Connaught, is competing this week in the U.S. Adaptive Open championship in Rockville, Md. The one-armed golfer, who has won a number of adaptive tournaments through the years, was low Canadian (of six) after the first round, with a one-under-par 71, tied for seventh. The leader was at -11. … Until sliced bred was invented, what was regarded as the “best thing since…?” … Monday was Tell the Truth Day, but the guy who told me that is kind of sketchy, so you can’t believe a word the guy says. … Things that don’t exist anymore: Morning visits from the milkman; encyclopedia salesman, door-to-door vacuum salesmen. Yes, kids, those things actually existed. … Great to see the pavement work finished on Division Avenue, giving folks like me a smooth journey to Swirl’s on a hot summer evening. … Hard to believe that on May 7, when the Blue Jays were stumbling along at 16-20, their manager John Schneider would be a top contender for American League manager of the year only two months later.