Improving Retail Operations: Understanding the Drivers of Abandoned Products at Checkout Points in Zimbabwean Supermarkets

The ever-increasing incidences of abandoned goods at checkout points threaten the viability of retail operations in many supermarkets. Abandoned products are associated with reshelving costs, deteriorating value due to multiple handling, and turning checkout points into a mess. The incidences of dumped goods at checkout points can be reduced if retail operations managers get some insights into the motivations behind such retrogressive consumer behaviour. The need to get such insights led to this study that conducted interviews with customers who had just abandoned their picked products at checkout points. The aim of the study was to find out the reasons behind the abandonment of goods by customers at retail checkout points. To achieve this objective, a phenomenological research approach was adopted. A sample of 30 conveniently selected participants, determined through reaching a saturation point, was interviewed. Data collection took 5 weeks during the months of December 2024 and January 2025. The data was analysed thematically. The results indicated that customers dump products at checkout points due to several reasons, such as insufficient funds, discrepancies between checkout price and shelf price, checkout price unavailability, checkout system failure, and slow-moving queues. The study recommended that supermarkets should engage banks to provide balance inquiry facilities inside or closer to the supermarkets, ensure matching of checkout prices with shelf prices, prompt pricing of new stocks, maintenance of robust service recovery systems, and improve order processing speeds at checkout points.