Dollar General has launched several pilot stores that are entirely self-checkout. The company plans to test this system in 200 stores this year, with the goal to have the service featured in 11,000 stores.
At the end of the quarter, self-checkout was available in more than 8,000 Dollar General stores, with the retailer seeing the service receiving strong customer approval. This includes the pilot self-checkout only stores, where associates are available to assist customers.
Very few retailers have moved entirely towards a self-checkout-only model. Walmart has been testing the self-checkout only system consisting of traditional and belted self-checkouts. Amazon was the pioneer of the concept with its Amazon Go stores. But the current labor crunch and high costs has led to an accelerating the roll-out of self-checkout, especially in formats such as dollar stores and drug stores.
Tennessee-based Dollar General has over 18,000 stores in 47 states and record sales of over $34 billion in 2021.