Self-checkouts have infiltrated all types of retail chains over recent years, with companies hoping to shave down some costs by replacing human workers with machines and making customers do the job instead.

But, it seems that the concept isn't working out so well in Ontario, where numerous brands have slowly been culling the new kiosks from their stores.

As more and more self-checkouts rolled out in stores like Loblaws, Metro, Giant Tiger, and even Dollarama, an Ottawa Walmart got rid of a number of its recently-installed apparatuses last year, opting for a more "full-serve experience" from real employees.

The switch, customers claim they were told by staff, was allegedly due to an uptick in theft.

How many people who have used self checkouts have found that Walmart has overcharged them due to scanner pricing mistakes? I have been overcharged multiple times at self checkout…
I’ve never been undercharged …
Could it be Walmart is missing it’s profit from stealing from you?

— Dan Hilton 🇨🇦 (@DanHilt70032640) August 2, 2023

And, according to the CBC, other Ontario locations of various different brands have followed suit, whether it's the Giant Tiger in Stratford, Canadian Tires in Toronto and elsewhere, or other big brands that originally jumped on the self-checkout trend.

The same is apparently happening across Canada and south of the border, too, with some saying customers found the machines frustrating and difficult to use or were against them taking over jobs once held by employees.

And, of course, the theft issue remains a problem, with self-checkout being one of the easier ways to steal — whether on purpose or by accident through user error, as consumers are not trained on these machines, which can glitch or be confusing.

'Steal from Loblaws Day' posters are popping up in Toronto https://t.co/uTWlfqZrLe

— blogTO (@blogTO) April 19, 2024

Canadians have also seemed increasingly happy to willfully steal from grocery giants who are raking in multi-billion-dollar profits lately — at least based on admissions on social media — especially while food prices remain ridiculously high compared to other countries, and to what they were only a few years ago.

Even shoppers in notoriously pricey locales like Switzerland and Iceland seem to be better off than we are — just one reason people are opting to cheat on their grocery bills or fully stop shopping at big chains, like in the case of the Loblaws boycott taking place in May.