In a retail self-checkout system, a customer places an item to be purchased into an itemization area. The system identifies the item by using an item detector/scanner or, alternatively, through a customer input at a touchscreen display or other suitable device. The system then determines whether the item satisfies predetermined security criteria to ensure that the item in the itemization area is in fact the identified item. If the item satisfies the security criteria, the system deactivates a security tag affixed to the item to be purchase. If the item fails to satisfy the security criteria, an alarm summons store personnel to provide human intervention in the self-checkout process.