Are self-checkout lanes a thing of the past or future?

While Hy-Vee stores are moving away from self-checkout lanes inside their stores, a spokeswoman for Walmart, the world's largest retailer, said that chain is adding them to more stores nationally.

West Des Moines-based Hy-Vee has removed the machines or discontinued using them because of lack of use, among other factors, according to Ruth Comer, Hy-Vee assistant vice president for media relations.

"The few stores that had them, I think it's about half a dozen, have removed them or disabled the equipment for a couple reasons," Comer said. "One is that we had them as an experiment in those few stores for several years, the equipment is now out of date, it needs to be updated.

"We're not anticipating at this time replacing them because they did not get a lot of use by our customers."

Hy-Vee found that most customers prefer human interaction through the regular checkstand, she added.

"Taking them out in stores where they exist and replacing them with regular checkstands allows us to serve customers better in the way that they want to be served," she said.

Self-checkout lanes have been closed at the Hy-Vee on Edgewood Road in Cedar Rapids since July 24, said Kyle Haase, an assistant manager at the store. He said the machines were years behind technologically.

"Toward the end of the run there, we were just having a lot of technical problems with them, and so it seemed like almost every order we'd have to go over there because the machine would stop or it would just get to a point where you needed a human to come over and assist with it," Haase said.

"It wasn't just a self sufficient self-checkout lane, which really they should be."

He said while such lanes saved on labor costs, the store couldn't afford to keep them on if the machines weren't operating correctly.

Meanwhile, 2,000 Walmart stores nationwide now have self-checkouts, said corporate spokeswoman Ashley Hardie. The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer plans to have them in 3,000 stores by the end of the year, she added.

"We continue to add them based on customer feedback," Hardie said. "What we're hearing from our customers ... some of their feedback is we know that more self-checkouts ensure more lanes and a faster checkout. Customers are also telling us they like the option from a privacy standpoint, if they're buying personal items.

"They can also track their spending while they check out, so kind of checking their budget."

Joe LaRocca, National Retail Federation's senior assistant protection adviser, told USA Today in an April 2012 story that many retailers likely would be adding self-checkout lanes as easier-to-use systems have been introduced.

Walmart's Hardie said the chain is testing a scan-and-go checkout option on the Walmart smartphone app in which customers can scan the price on items as they shop. Customers then will be able to scan a QR code at a checkout  that will wirelessly transfer the list of scanned items to the register.

"We're hearing from our customers they like that as an option because they can also bag as they shop," she said.