[maxerickson]

Large retailers don't have armed security. At least, not mostly. Things are still at the point where they are more worried about liability than the stuff getting stolen.

The $500 million is less than 1% of their cost of goods. It's an easy place to look for improvements, but it isn't really a threat to their business.

I definitely think things have gotten worse. I've directly noticed a couple of thefts at my local Walmart in the last couple of years and hadn't seen any in previous years. In one case I saw a person just push their cart through a self checkout area. In the other, the self checkout I walked up to had an incomplete transaction sitting there.

[mcphage]

Self-checkout seems to remove some of the human connection in shopping—there isn't even a face to the corporation anymore.