I know this isn’t the most popular opinion, but I love self-checkout systems when they’re available and used correctly. My local supermarket closed 2 10-item-or-less lanes and put 6 self-checkouts in the same space. I probably make 2 trips/week to the store for fewer than 10 items, and being able to check myself out has been a huge time saver. There are still another 8 lanes with cashiers for larger shopping trips. If the supermarket can avoid the race to the bottom thinking of "well, we replaced 2 lanes, maybe we can also replace the other 8), it’ll be a nice compromise.
Now contrast that with my local Home Depot, which typically has 1-2 cashiers MAX at any given time. They have turned the checkout process into a tedious pain in the ass, and I’ve more or less stopped shopping there as a result.
When self-checkouts were first rolled out, my friends and I loved them.
As twenty-something introverted nerds, it helped a lot when buying “embarrassing” things like condoms.
You didn’t have to have the checkout person giving you the stink-eye because they’re ultra religious or something.
Now, twenty-some years on, they’ve been abused to the point that some places they’re all that’s ever open, Target and Walmart seem to be the biggest offenders there. When there’s a line down three different aisles because the self-checked is so backed up, it’s defeated the purpose of creating “efficiency.”
However, I’ve noticed that about a lot of business practices lately. We’ve rounded the bend and they’re still doing things that aren’t actually producing efficiency anymore. Like staffing with nothing but a skeleton crew, so anytime someone calls out sick, everything falls apart because you’re short a person. Personal opinion, but if one person missing work wrecks everything, that’s not an efficient way to schedule people.
It’s proof that these MBA business school chucklefucks are just repeating the shit they tell each other ad nauseum, because when it comes to real-world results the results are abysmal and inefficient.
No it’s probably the method that lands the most euros into the shareholders pockets, regardless of the effects in other places. Dollarstore in the US is this but then at an extreme, John Oliver did a nice piece on it.
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The Walmart self checkout layout is generally just bad. Because they are paranoid about theft, it’s setup to make it easy for the worker monitoring to make sure nothing fishy is going on. However, that means that the customers that want to checkout often can’t see what’s open.
This creates lines as the machines aren’t fully utilized.
But further, it’s often the case that for whatever reason these machines need an employee to interact. With 10 machines running at full capacity, that means longer waits for everyone because 3 machines are waiting for an id badge scan.
Walmart can solve some of these problems with more employees but that cost money.
Walmart is the only place where I’ve been stopped during the checkout process because the camera system thinks I’m stealing.
I’m a nerd that tries to minmax my self checkout by putting items in the cart or handbasket in a manner conducive to efficient removal. I’ll position the cart on my left, scanner in front, bags on right, and go as fast as the scanner will register the barcode and display the item on screen.
This works wonderfully everywhere else and I find it rather fun. I can count on Walmart to flag me at least once every trip (even though I slow down there for this reason), with the screen showing the flashing “POSSIBLE THEFT” message and video of me swiping an item quickly across the reader.
Maybe I should start parking the cart in the middle of the pathway like every other Walmart shopper and taking twenty seconds to dig every item out of the bottom of the cart before meandering around looking for where I set down the handheld scanner.
That’s just lean. If one employee is sick, everything falls apart. If the delivery of a specific part to the production line is delayed, everything stops.
It’s all very intentional, because it’s lean. Having buffers of any kind costs money, while making everything lean makes it cheaper to run your company. As usual, all of this is also reflected on profits and dividend income.
edit: splling and gremmar
And it pushes the cost of redundancy into the backs of the workers who didn’t call in sick, and have to work more hours or more tasks in a day or risk being responsible for an underperforming store.
If it actually hurt monthly profits, they wouldn’t do it. The fact that it may hurt longer term profits—through delays, employee retention, or quality control—either isn’t understood by the C suite, or they just don’t care.
My supermarket implemented these barcode scanner you can carry in the store so that you can scan and put your stuff in your grocery bags in your cart as you go, as well as some scales so that you can also scan those items paid by weight, which you can then scan at the self-checkout terminal. They also spot-check every 4th scanners and scan for random items in the cart to make sure you actually added them to your list as a theft-deterrent.
It’s way faster and less finicky than dealing with the scale that checks if you added the item you just scanned (and complains often that something’s wrong).
I hope this kind of system will stay, it’s really nice going to a self-checkout terminal and pay with your bags already filled.
when I worked at a grocery store for a bit (until a year go), we had that kind of system alongside the regular and self checkouts. It was interesting to see as I had never heard of it before, but it was very fast when it worked. That being said, almost nobody actually used it, and whenever the random checks happened it was almost always when someone had bought more items than usual (not sure if that actually triggers anything or if it was just coincidence) and the system for looking through everything was frustratingly slow for both me and the customers. I feel like the scanners are a great idea, but the theft-deterrent system for it could use a rethink, though Im not sure what exactly could best replace it
Meijers uses your own phone and their app as the scanner. GF loves it, but I find it’s more of a pain in the ass than it’s worth.
The only advantages I’ve seen are that you can use your own bags, and that nobody else uses it, so there are always 4 kiosks available to finalize your transaction.
They’re a godsend at Costco when I have like 5 items and the normal lines are super long.
Your store did it smart. My local grocery store has 8 self checkouts by one door and 8 more on the other end by the other door. Although there are 10 or more normal checkouts with human cashiers, Ive never seen more that two open at a time.
Fuck this bullshit article.
I fucking love self service. I don’t want to deal with people.
Just let me buy my stuff and get out. I don’t want or need small talk.
I want the disgusting supermarket shop to be as cold and sterile as possible.
I bring my own bag. I’d Honestly rather just scan everything as I go. And just pay as I walk out.
Current system is stupid. Walk around shop picking things up. Then take everything out and rebag
There are stores trialling exactly your preferred method. One of my local supermarket chains has portable barcode scanners on a wall. You pick one up, scan your groceries as you collect them, then take the scanner to a self checkout that links to the scanner. At that point you pay for your items and leave.
Best Buy started doing this with their app. I’ve used it multiple times already. It’s so convenient. Scan the barcode with your camera in the app, it adds to the cart, pay when you’re done.
Anecdotal experience: Unfortunately, products that are locked up create a problem. I went in for two items. One of which was a single RAM stick for laptops. The employee refused to give me it even though I was literally going to pay for it on the spot as I had already collected the other item I wanted. He insisted it goes to the register per policy. I quickly got the barcode as he held it, then paid. “There. Paid for. See” as I showed him the screen. Dude was so annoyed as he handed me the RAM.
They aren’t just trialing it. I’ve been shopping this way for 15 years. Once the system was down so I went to another location. I won’t shop without a handheld scanner ever again.
Yup had these a few years ago in UK. Just not all shops do it.
small talk? If you start small talk in Germany, the cashier will probably be confused…
Note to self. Move to Germany.
To do list
Learn German. Get a German job
Cheap ass rent control. C’mon.
Bratwurst. Kick on
When interacting with the bus driver, make sure to say only “Hallo” when you step in. Technically, this is even optional and only 33% do that.
When leaving the bus, don’t say anything. It’d be weird.
And under no circumstances, talk to them between entering and leaving.
The only legitimate way to talk to them is when the bus stopped, you and the driver are both outside and he or she approaches you first.
Whoa there, overachiever. Saying “hello”? A curt smile, a slight nod and a passing glance. All things in moderation, after all.
We don’t smile here, unless there is a good reason.
You need to learn a lot before moving here!!!11
I don’t smile so if fit right in
Literally the opposite of Scotland. Must say thanks or cheers when leaving bus. Weird not to
This is like applauding the pilot after they do the absolute minimum of their job (landing the plane)…
Nah, when you are on a late night run on an (almost, max. 2 pax) empty bus, especially the last run, especially in shitty weather, it’s appropriate to say “Nacht” when you leave.
You form a special bond then and there. The driver is your hero who brings you home in the most shittiest shift.
That system has been a thing for at least a decade in most supermarkets in Sweden, is it not a thing in (I assume) the US?
Assumption wrong.
Although may be correct. I don’t know USA shops.
In the UK some shops have had them for 10 + years but not all shops. Lidl for example did not.
Although my current area is NZ. Some shops again do have them but not all.
That’s fucking brilliant and would actually make me not hate shopping with a passion. That system just makes so much more sense.
Yeah the little self scanner thing you can take around the store as you shop is not much of a thing in the US.
My local grocery store does it with their smartphone app. I shop this way almost every time. Bag as I go, then stop at a special self checkout at the end to pay.
Your grocery store has cell service? I lose all service the second I step inside mine
They have wifi! The cell service is crap though.
I stopped using them. It’s always something, requiring me to wait for and deal with people.
The rack with the mobile scanners is full, and scanner not in the rack is not paying, so flag someone to deal with it.
The thing double scanned an item, and it takes someone from the shop to remove the scan, so wait and then explain.
I had a coupon, but the system can’t deal with those. Again wait and explain.
And because now apparently I’m a trouble maker I get flagged for a random check by the system regularly. Again wait and deal with that.
On average, it turned out to be less waiting and dealing with people by getting in line at the regular cashier.
Scan and Go is becoming very wide spread in Denmark. It’s lovely! Cuts down the time for a quick shopping trip on the way home from work to less than half
Had it in the UK. Just not all shops. Needs to be more widespread
Is self scan that rare around you? One of our (Latvia) two big brand supermarkets have scanners you carry around, then deposit at the slef checkout lines. The other one, however, I just scan everything with my phone, then at checkout scan a QR code with my phone and pay.
Yeah unfortunately don’t have those at our nearest places. But I know the UK had lots of them
What you’re requesting is exactly how Amazon fresh works. the cart itself has barcode scanners on it
Boo Amazon. But great idea
Sure, it works great if you’re a single person who doesn’t have all that much to buy, but here’s the thing; if you’re shopping for a family or a multi person household or whatever, and you have to buy a lot of things at once, your self checkouts just plain suck ass because pretty much no matter what you do, you’ll get dinged with an error message every ten or 12 items and have to wait for the overworked and underpaid attendant to come free you up so you can keep going until the next inevitable fuckup.
Self checkout is fine if you have something like 15 or less items, but anything more than that and it’s more trouble than it’s worth.
I always use the store app to scan as I shop and just pay at the machines at the exit here in Portugal. Hate shopping any other way.
Jeez you sure love working for free
I don’t mind self checkout.
I mind that I need the one employee overseeing 12 checkouts every other scan because the system decides something is wonky. I mind that it now has AI that assures said single employee that I’m fleecing them for an $0.80 can of tomato sauce and I now have to wait for this person to dig through my 3 bags looking for this hoisted sauce.
If they’re so determined that every customer is lifting everything at checkout all the time - if only there was a way they could have an employee verify every item gets scanned, every time, perhaps by doing it themselves. Then we could wait in a line and feed our items to them so they can rest easy knowing everything was scanned appropriately. Oh, what science fiction Dreams I have.
This exactly.
Also trying to fit a bunch of awkward stuff off the scale and some of it is leaning against the edge and you have to balance everything just right cause heaven forbid it be off by a gram. Or it getting stuck because a bag doesn’t weigh enough to register.
Like if you don’t trust me fine but don’t half ass it. If I’m gonna steal something from a grocery store it’s gonna way more than a gram and sure as heck isn’t gonna be an empty plastic bag.
Or just RFID chip all the food items and I just walk out of the store and it charges me later based on what I walked out with. If no account exists automatic deployment of security personnel to catch the thief.
I went to one of Amazon’s spots in NYC, it was neat but it feels sus as hell just moseying out of the store 😂
No, don’t add more waste to packaging.
Oh no, did your attempt to cut labor costs and make shoppers do more of the labor that checkers used to do end up increasing shrink?
Oh no, how awful for you that you aren’t able to properly afford more *checks notes… Stock Buybacks.
This is how I imagine retailers complaining about this.
Not only that, but the reduced shrink during Covid, tucked up to “normal” levels… but this was then presented as a 100pct increase compared to last year… and thus a huuuge increase.
I mean to be fair, everyone pulled that shit.
The jobs numbers tanking during COVID because everyone had to be let go or furloughed apparently has nothing to do with Biden “bringing America more jobs faster than any previous President” bullshit.
Nah dude, the jobs that left just came back, you didn’t do shit to make that happen, Biden.
As a Democrat voter, makes me sick how hard they are back to pushing “The economy is doing great, you whiners need to just fucking vote for us already, all right!” while holding Trump and Fascism over our heads like a veritable Sword of Damocles. They don’t feel the need to do more because it’s easier to sit on their haunches and yell “But if you don’t vote for us, Trump will turn the US into a fascist state” as if that isn’t an implicit admission that they won’t do anything to stop Trump if he wins (even illegitimately!!!) and will let him run roughshod over US citizens as punishment for not voting Democrat sufficiently enough.
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Not just that. When self-checkouts were first introduced, the argument was that even with the added shrink, the benefits outweighed the costs of employing an actual person. Now, of course, the shrink rates have no longer made this profitable and shareholders are crying.
Personally, I’m fine with self-checkout since I can bag my own groceries exactly how I want them and without having to interact with anyone. That said, I will not be stopping for anyone to check my receipt and my items. If they don’t want the possibility of shrink, then they shouldn’t have gone this route in the first place.
I love self-checkout. Faster, don’t have to rush because someone is waiting for me, don’t have to interact with people, can easily double check it had the correct price etc. They’re fantastic
It’s faster until you need the human operator to keep coming over because the anti-theft sensors keep getting tripped up by false positive readings. Or you need to find some vegetable code that a normal cashier has memorized.
Self checkout is great when it’s done well, and total shit when poorly executed. And unfortunately, it’s not always just a matter of technology (which normally keeps improving); it’s often a matter of business model: sometimes customer convenience is really important, other times loss prevention (which creates frustration) is more important.
I’ve seen countless good self-checkout experiences backslide into crap experience because the business felt that a controlled client is more profitable than a convenienced client.
I almost exclusivity self-checkout for groceries, and it had drastically sped up my checkout time as most people in my area opt to use traditional checkout and the stores are still keeping lots of lanes open (just closing the express lanes). The last 3 times I’ve used a non-self checkout, each time I was double charged for items or didn’t have reduced prices applied and didn’t notice because I was bagging.
Same but mostly because I like to scan each item and see it associated with the price on the screen before adding another item
That too, and I can really efficiently manage the items going into bags given I backpack my groceries and want pretty specific configurations…
Oh my god, YES. With the cashier I feel rushed and packing is a mess…
I use self checkout on the machines that don’t weigh what you buy. Those work so well. The kind that have to weigh what you buy are slow and they always have an issue when I put items in bulk on them. Like two cans of beer if I don’t set both of them down at once it just breaks down and tells me I have the wrong weight in any configuration.
Totally agree. I forgot about those, as I’ve only encountered the weighing ones once in the past very long time and it was a mess, I can totally get hate if weighing ones are the only experience with them.
Don’t forget to sweep the floors and bring in the carts
I hate self checkout because they make the system frustrating as if they don’t trust you. Which they don’t. So they make it weigh items and it yells if you’re too slow putting the item in the bagging area.
If you don’t trust me to do it. Pay someone else to do it.
some terminals have 2 or even 3 cameras pointed at you, displaying on the screen so you know for sure they don’t trust you. they’re probably scanning your face nowadays too so they track individual purchase history
Problem is they save on the humans so you have to do their work too but you don’t see any price reduction or benefit for doing so, and that is on top of all the usability issues…
It gets better, they’ve converted the Walmart tech help for the self checkout into sales people for their master card now.
Sounds like low trust society issues to be honest. I only see those systems expanding in Switzerland, and they never use annoying scales or complain about unexpected items, because there aren’t even any sensors for that.
Here in Finland handheld scanners have been getting added to more shops, you grab one, scan and bag as you go, and at the end you return the scanner and pay it all at once.
One of the regional grocery stores in my part of the US has these (if you have an account). Before I did online ordering with curbside pickup, this was how I shopped. I didn’t understand why it wasn’t more popular. It made checking out so quick. Every twenty or so trips I’d be randomly “audited,” where some poor employee had to rifle through my bags to double check I wasn’t stealing anything.
The chance to be randomly audited would put me off from ever using it again. Specially when you know that randomly = you look brown or immigrant most of times.
At Giant, I’m pretty sure it’s decided by the system based on some algorithm, not the employee. The one time I was audited, we were in the store for a long time and had removed a few items from the cart after adding them.
The audit consisted of the employee scanning ten random items and confirming we had scanned them too.
Ah, yes, yes. We’re not racist, it’s the system! It’s an algorithm! I never heard that one before. It’s also a sustym that randomly checks you at the airport.
It all depends on how truly random the system is. Each checkout (or ticket, or whatever) assigned a random number between 1 and 20, with 20 meaning audit? That’s non-discriminatory. But it’s also not tuned for the purpose of finding shoplifters (etc).
When you start adding criteria, they are often at least correlated with discrimination. Food stamps were mentioned elsewhere. Flight history to/from a list of hostile countries for airports. The list goes on. Technically not based on things like race, but it’s a paper-thin distinction in some cases.
How do you know there’s not someone looking at se purity cameras triggering random audits?
We have both happen, sometimes combined or scan with phone. I’ve seen some of the American systems, with sensors and weights and speakers (with some voice lines), those are creepy to me.
Can confirm. The only deterrent is the potential for an random bag check by an employee but that never happened to me in years of using self checkout. Some shops have a worker over watching a dozen of stations to help out or just identify suspicious behavior but it’s very unintrusive.
I’ve been a checker and have monitored self-checkouts. We get no training or instructions to watch for suspicious behavior. It’s not the job of a checker / cashier to confront people for suspicious behavior, we don’t get paid enough to do so, or to even care.
So much chocolate weighed through the scales as “fresh veg potatoes”
Thanks for the clarification! My assumptions were wrong ^^ although I saw once a lady who tried to leave without paying, but the worker noticed and they spent a good 5 minutes convincing her to put in cash into the machine, which apparently she had but had to look for in her bag for a looong time.
Over here it’s a mix, some chains use the scales + sensors, some use simple scan machines. I absolutely hate the scale + sensors, some of them are almost completely unusable and the attendants have to keep running around fixing errors or resetting the ones where people just give up mid-cart and go to a manned checkout.
For sure, I use self checkout at at least 5 different places in China and they all work fantastically, including a Walmart.
I don’t get their point that shoppers “need to be socialized into using self-checkout”. Who ever needed to be persuaded? It’s just that they try hard to make it painful. Self checkout was always an over-complicated conglomeration of parts with poor usability, then poorly thought out additions to try to control theft and no counter space . It just never works well. Maybe we should “socialize” retailers into getting their shit together she it can work more smoothly
Consumers want this technology to work, and welcomed it with open arms.
That’s an actual sentence from that actual article. The fuck? I read it, like, four times. Is that even - what??
I think I used self checkout once in my life. I very quickly realized that they’re pushing their work onto me and never went to self checkout again.
I also think those jobs matter. Not great jobs, sure. But they are jobs. I’m sure tech will eliminate cashier jobs someday but I don’t see self checkout doing so.
Those jobs may be important but they’re not the customer’s responsibility. My goal is to get out of there as conveniently as possibly for me, and sometimes that involves self-checkout.
Of course I was recently on the other side of this conversation when trying to buy beer at self-checkout. The other person claimed it’s easy, but I claimed the extra steps and edit made it less convenient
I think self checkout is a good way for stores to get more customers through faster but the stores seem to think they are a replacement for human cashiers and they are not at all. They are nice to have in addition to human cashiers.
Failure?? It’s in every store in the world
I’ve never seen the level of problem described in the article. Self checkouts work fine around here (Massachusetts) and people seem to prefer them to the cashier checkouts.
I don’t recognize these pain points. I always use the self checkout and it’s usually quick and painless. My experience is.
Edit: seems I made the assumption that everyone uses wireless scanner handles.
- When we enter the store we scan the ID to get a wireless scanner handle.
- Collect your wares, scan with the handle, placing them directly into the bags along the way.
- Put the handle back and blip your membership id (card or qr code on phone) again to start the checkout.
- Blip your payment card.
- Walk out
Every once in a while I get caught in a random check, which is kind of a pain, but it’s so infrequent that it is acceptable.
Is this not how it usually works?
Ok now I am curious where you live that you have to provide ID to shop. Here in the US we scan the items and then swipe our payment card, the ID is only used to check your age for tobacco and alcohol purchases which can’t be sold to minors. An employee has to come look at the ID to make sure a minor hasn’t borrowed someone else’s, so it doesn’t even get scanned. Employees just swipe their work badge and confirm that they checked your age.
As for the pain, a lot of self checkout systems have very limited space and can be awkward to run all your items through. Manned stations have the conveyor so you can unload multiple items from your cart at a time to be scanned. They also have more end space so you can have room to bag everything if you are doing a big shopping trip.
I think they mean ID as store loyalty card and/or membership card. Not actual government issued ID.
I think they may be talking about the “discount” tracker cards. The ones which you fill out an application to get, so you can get the special “discount” (really what the price used to be).
I would assume they meant something like a CostCo proof of membership ID.
This is how self checkouts at CostCo work in the US, however they are pretty good about having plenty of regular cashiers available as well.
Exactly, a membership id to checkout the wireless scanner that you have with you in the store.
It works like that for me too. Even better if your list is short enough to avoid getting a cart.
Wait, you don’t have to scan every item at the checkout?
At least here in the UK a lot of larger supermarkets give you the option of taking a little handheld scanner with you and doing it as you shop. When you go to the till you just scan a barcode that’s on the till and it connects the till to the scanner so you can pay for everything. I don’t personally use it because I’m too disorganised a person to pack as I go and also remember to scan everything, but it’s fairly popular. It typically exists as an alternative way of using the self checkouts, the option to scan everything at the checkout itself is still there
Some places near me trialed that. It got dropped post covid because “forgetting” to scan things was an even bigger problem than with regular self checkout.
No, we (most supermarkets in Sweden) get a wireless scanner handle that we have with us in the store. So we scan each item when we take it from the shelf and put it in the bag/cart. When we get to the self checkout we just put the handle back and pay.
Not for me. Take in consideration that I don’t do a lot of shopping. Two of the maybe four times times I used a self check-out last year;
- So I go to the self check-out. One of my items is on clearance. I scan it. It shows full price. turns out I needed to scan a different bar-code for the clearance. However, I can’t remove the already scanned bar-code from the list, so now I need to call assistance.
- My kids drink a lot of coke zero, so when it goes on sale I usually buy a lot of it. In this case, I took all that’s left in the store. I scan one bottle, do a quick count and adjust the number of bottles accordingly. I place the bottle in my cart and realize I’ve counted one too many. I can’t take it off, and now need to call assistance.
This sounds like a terrible user experience. Is this a case of “we have implemented a terrible self checkout system and now no one likes to use it”?
I bet it depends heavily on what stores you frequent and where. Also which country ofc. In from the Netherlands and have similar experience, some stores even have portable DIY scanners… so I scan while I shop and just hand in the scanner and pay.
I forgot to mention the wireless scanner in my op, but that is part of the steps I listed.
Is this not how it usually works?
I want to shop without them generating a profile of me. I want to pay with cash. I don’t even want them to know who I am. And I don’t want random checks…
Fortunately, I have never seen your scenario in Germany where I’m living…
Are you Dutch? I recall an old NJB video describing how Dutch supermarkets worked like this. (Plus, Martin is a name I associate with the Netherlands…)
But no. Most often, you put stuff in your trolley or basket, then when you get to the checkout, you scan the things and bag them yourself one-by-one, then pay.
Here in Australia, one of our two main supermarket chains in the last 2 years rolled out something similar to what the Netherlands has had for at least half a decade. You use their app on your phone and scan things with the app as you go, before paying through the app and scanning a QR code at the exit.
The other main chain, and the two main smaller chains, have made no moves to follow, so you’re stuck with a long line for a small number of open checkouts, or the self-checkout where you have to scan everything after you get to the checkout.
I live in Sweden. The system in the Netherlands sounds similar to what we have. There are also wireless scanners you can use throughout the store if you don’t want to use your phone.
In 🇫🇮 these mostly are hybrids: conventional checkouts plus a variable nr. of self-checkout points. Some chains have also portable scanners but only recently (I recall that in 🇸🇪 they have existed for years).
Based on my own N of 1 -experience I use the “human check out” slightly more often than machine. Why? Hmmm. The conveyor belt makes everything roll a bit smoother ;D
The BBC article, I understood, was maybe more about the totally or almost totally cashier-less stores.
My local shop around the corner doesn’t even require scanning a card or anything like that. Just get the handscanner at the entrance by pressing the button on the screen. Scan your shit and put it in the bag, go to the self checkout, put the scanner in the machine, touch your phone to pay and it’s done. I love it, I can be in and out in about 1 minute if I only need a couple of things. They’ve put in about 10 self checkout machines in the place of 3 old fashioned checkouts. Usually there is only one oldskool checkout open with a large line of old people.
Only irritating thing is people with like 100 items scanning all their shit at the checkout (if you don’t want to use the handscanner), it takes forever. I don’t get why people do that, but luckily there are enough self checkouts there is always one free.
They let me avoid human interaction if I choose, AND they’ve hurt these big retailers while showing them the value of giving people more shifts/hours?
Spectacular success if you ask me! It would be fun to have worked on this tech and then see it helping others by failing or being sabotaged, lol. That’s not a feeling you usually expect when you launch a product.
They let me avoid human interaction if I choose
I used to like them for this at least, but now my local store has someone come talk to you and do the whole “did you find everything OK?” and loyalty card conversation while the other machines in the background need their attention and people are getting impatient. if you have headphones in they’ll literally just keep trying and wait until you remove them to say “yep, nope, no thank you, don’t need the pamphlet, thanks, nope, yep all good”.
I avoid them entirely now, there’s no value and only drawbacks. I’ll wait in the long human checker line as long as I need. the human doesn’t stop scanning randomly half way through the slow scan, bag, wait loop and start emitting loud alarm noises for an employee to come over (sometime in the next 10 minutes) and be forced to review a video of your whole self-checkout process titled “CHECK THOROUGHLY FOR THEFT” before they can unlock the machine and stop the alarm.
Around here you cannot use coupons without assistance, and each one needs a 3 button confirmation sequence.
Did you get 2 or more of the discounted breads? Whoops, those gotta get individually checked to make sure you didnt secretly duplicate the coupon! Grab the meat that expires next week for tonights dinner, which gets a lil price slash to make sure it sells? Nope, sorry, that one also needs to stop the cart and call for help too.
None of this in a regular stand, those scan coupons like normal. I guess theyre afraid I know how to make these discount codes at home?
They let me avoid human interaction if I choose
Not even that, really. There’s always a cashier or two who needs to hover over my shoulder to check an eye or protect against shoplifting or help with a malfunctioning device. The change is in their role. Cashiers are no longer helpfully bagging your groceries, they’re just functioning as underpaid rent-a-cops.
It would be fun to have worked on this tech and then see it helping others by failing or being sabotaged, lol.
The original check-out lanes were already incredibly efficient. Self-checkout is comparatively clunky and time-consuming, which is why you’re encouraged to use lanes for more than 15 items.
I wouldn’t call it particularly helpful, even from a labor standpoint. Everyone is functionally more miserable than they were ten years ago. What we’ve got with this technology is a sunk cost that businesses are loathe to write off as a failure.
I hate when cashiers bag my groceries. I have the large reusable bags, and they put like 4 things in each. Why? I always tell them I’m going to bag my own at this point anyways just to get my grocery bags full.
Even when they had plastic bags here, I’d be surprised at how little they’d put in some bags. Those things can handle more, fill them up!
That’s the part I like the best about self checkout. I can set up a couple of bags and then optimize what I scan. Put all the freezer stuff together, fridge stuff, soft things on top, heavy stuff at bottom. Helps that they got rid of the weighing where I shop, that shit was so annoying plus it limited your total space to however big the weighing table was (unless you got someone to reset it so you could remove some bags back to your cart).
This is the second article in the last month I’ve found here on the Fediverse pronouncing the death of self checkout and honestly I just don’t see it. Most of the stores around me have only just recently expanded their self-checkout areas and I vastly prefer using it unless I’ve got more than 25 items.
I’d honestly probably stop going to a store that decided to not allow me to check out on my own. Small talk and having to make a minimum wage worker suffer through it is just not something I want when I’m running to the store for a gallon of milk. I vastly prefer being able to throw in some earbuds, get my shopping, check out, and get out to having to interact with anyone while I’m just trying get my shit.
I am surprised too. Self checkout only intensified recently in my country. What is surprising is that the dislike seems to come from the corporate side. So it exist since 1990, and just now they realised they are loosing money on it. Pretty weird… But I’m all in on big corpo losing money because they didnt want to pay wages.
Mark my word: they installed self-Passport machine in Paris airport in planning for the Olympic tourists grand arrivals. It will be a disaster!! It doesnt work, it is slower than having an human check your pass, and a lot of travelers will be very angry at thoses machines. Plus I suspected you can trick them easily if you’re a criminal
Maybe this is just a British thing? They’re very popular here in NZ
Though the BBC is obviously identified most with UK, it in fact has many international publications. This article focuses on the US, with only a reference to “Booths in the UK”, a very small supermarket group I have never heard of before.
Self checkout in the UK is commonplace and largely popular, though some of the general customer criticisms in the article are familiar to me as a regular user of them.
I mean Booths aren’t that small, they’re just exclusively north-western & fill the same niche as Waitrose, who have virtually no stores in the north west as a result
That means their customer base is pretty much a perfect intersection of people who won’t want to use a self-checkout - older people & people who are friendlier to strangers
28 stores is small by UK supermarket standards. Sainsbury’s alone have over 1400. I can’t reasonably consider Booths reflective of trends across the country, perhaps for the reasons you suggest.
OP’s question as to whether the UK is rejecting self checkout on any level isn’t really addressed by the example in this article.
Booths is basically unheard of anywhere else in the UK. The only reason I’ve heard of them is because the bald guy on TikTok that reviews the worst towns in the UK did a video on them.
Same here in Switzerland, very well made and pretty efficient. But I really hate the fact that I’m basically working for the store.
They’re very popular here too, but a lot of older people really struggle with them, so they’re widely hated by boomers that want things to be like the 80’s again.
The technology is a bit shit, and more often than not there’s a lot of waiting around for someone to unblock you. Where it was probably a “failure” to many is in the initial promise of being able to get rid of employees and replace them with self-scan.
… but a lot of older people really struggle with them, so they’re widely hated by boomers that want things to be like the 80’s again.
In my experience it’s not that older people are struggling with it. It’s that Walmart has 300 self checkout kiosks but only two are open and the line for a regular register is almost out of the premises.
And the CVS self checkout always ends up confusing itself and constantly yelling at you to place the item in the bagging area.
