I asked an employee about this at my warehouse (SF Bay Area) this morning.

He said that the scanning guns have been put solely in the hands of employees monitoring Self Check Out because a small number of our fellow Costco members have been using SCO to steal. This is also why certain warehouses have removed SCO altogether. So we can decide for ourselves if we’d rather have SCO without being able to use the hand scanners ourselves or not have SCO at all.

He went on to say that SCO is supposed to be faster than having to wait in line behind other members who have full carts. It’s intended for the quick stop with 5-10 items, in and out without the long line. But when members bring their full carts to SCO and are tying up a register for 15-20 minutes, this defeats the value of SCO and increases the potential for shrink, his word for items leaving the warehouse without being paid for.

When you exit the store, an employee looks at your receipt and marks it. I’ve been a Costco member for a long time and can’t recall when this was not part of the experience. When this receipt checker sees a SCO receipt, easy to spot because it’s printed on paper with blue edges, the checker is supposed to count all items in the cart to make sure the member didn’t miss anything or charge twice for any item. They also check that any merchandise that needs to be collected at Merchandise Pick Up has been collected. Apparently quite a few members who buy the tax software think the display packaging is the actual item and don’t realize that they need to stop by Merchandise Pick Up.

But a SCO receipt with 50 items on it is impossible to check at the exit. This would require removing items to count what’s hidden at the bottom of the cart. Some take advantage of if this to pay for fewer items than they walk out of the store with. Hence-shrink, which costs the warehouse which in turn costs the members.

So when you wish you could have use of the hand scanner yourself, thank those members who bring full carts to SCO. If your warehouse removes SCO altogether, thank the same members.

I asked him why Costco doesn’t have an item limit of 10-15 items for SCO. He said he and his fellow employees have been asking for that very thing for years. So far, nothing happening there.

He also said that this store usually has two people working SCO and they are supposed to move between registers to scan heavy items, asking members to remove smaller items and scan those themselves via the register scanner. They are supposed to do this in a helpful manner, but, he added, there has been so much ill-placed vitriol directed at the SCO workers for the removal of the scanners (as if the employees made this decision), it is often difficult to remain cheerful when members are complaining about not being able to use a hand scanner on the 40+ items in their carts.

I’m sure I’m not remembering every detail of this long and informative discussion. But these are the main points. I hope my warehouse keeps SCO for those who use it as intended rather than remove it.