Self-checkout that’s easy for the honest and uncomfortable for the dishonest

Picture a busy Saturday at the supermarket. Most people at the self-checkout just want to scan, pay and get home to their weekend. The vast majority of them are honest. But the losses are real, too.

Where self-checkout is offered, it now handles 54% of transactions. According to ECR Retail Loss research from 2026, losses rose by 22% on average in its first year. And when retailers are asked how much of that is theft, their estimates range anywhere from 6% to 80%.

Here’s the tricky part: you can’t tell an honest shopper from a dishonest one just by looking. Checking everyone is unfair to your loyal customers, and it doesn’t work very well either. That’s why we believe in a different approach: check less, and find more.

For honest shoppers: fewer stops on the way home

Every basket is weighed on its own, so most shoppers go straight through without a second thought. Known shoppers whose checks keep coming back clean earn your trust, and you can check them less often.

When a check is needed, it’s often just a partial one: a few items, and then they’re on their way. A rescan also works both ways. It catches mistakes in the shopper’s favour too, like refunding an item that was scanned twice.

For your staff: help where it really matters

Every unnecessary rescan pulls an attendant away from a customer who actually needs help. So you can cap how many rescans run at the same time and per half hour. During a rush, staff can pause checks, or flag a basket themselves if something doesn’t feel right.

The Attendant app gives your team a live view of every self-checkout and guides them through each rescan. Clear rules, not gut feeling, make most of the calls, which takes a lot of pressure off your team.

For store owners: profitable, on your terms

You set the rules per store or group of stores, with schedules for your busiest periods. Before anything goes live, you can test new rules on past shopping trips to see how they would have performed.

And you don’t need any new store hardware. It runs in the cloud and connects to your existing checkout software through an API integration, whether that software is from Extenda Retail or not.

For those who try their luck: much harder to game

Fixed patterns get learned quickly. That’s why the rules combine signals such as:

• scanning pace
• items removed after scanning
• a salad-bar box that weighs too little
• a long pause before paying

Random checks come on top. When a check finds unpaid items, trust drops, and the next few visits may get a closer look.

One decision, many signals

No camera, scale or third-party system makes the decision on its own. Their signals are inputs, weighed together with everything else.

Why does that matter? A camera that triggers rescans by itself stops honest shoppers at every false alarm. Weighed together with the other signals, that same alert helps you aim checks where they really count.

What we’d call the world’s best self-checkout

Easy for honest shoppers, supportive for staff, profitable for owners and uncomfortable for those who try their luck. Add a checkout that’s a genuine joy to use, and you have what we’d call the world’s best self-checkout.

Curious how this could work in your stores? Get in touch and let’s talk about Self-service loss prevention and the Attendant app.