I don’t like self checkout. Every time I feel I’m doing their cashier job for free.
Is it? Not where I live.
Now if they could just get people to put refrigerated/frozen food back where they found it instead of leaving it wherever they happen to be standing. I love finding some meat sitting on the cereal shelf. Lazy f’ers.
The thing I hate the most about supermarket self-checkout is they put the bag dispensers right against the scale where you need to put your bagged stuff. This leaves so little room the bag will fall over, etc so I have to put it on the floor. Then the register complains that I have removed it without paying, etc. FFS.
It certainly always saves me time. Especially when I cut out doing the part where I pay.
Also, the last time I went to a cashier, because it was the one time I saw a long line at the self-check lane, I stood in the short line, I was third, while the cashier chatted up the customers, left the line to help another cashier with something and was generally very slow. I suspect they’re not required to be efficient anymore, and perhaps even encouraged not to be. I watched as the guy I would have been behind in the self-check line left the store while I was still second in line at the cashier.
At supermarkets in my country they have a system where they will semi-randomly check what you have in your bags the moment before you’d pay.
There’s random things that make it more likely like buying meat but there’s definitely a random element to it.
What i have noticed, however is that at times of financial strife (or just before them), the regularity of me getting checked can go through the roof (25% baseline chance up to 70-80% at peak).
And so I’m beginning to see these signs as a recession indicator. Especially as it’s a massive supermarket chain with access to a lot of customer and market data.
Probably someone smarter than me could use this to make money.
You still need employees to help hapless customers and flag tech problems, the security cameras from above to dissuade theft, and someone to man the monitors of said cameras. They were banking on full human replacement. Can’t wait for our AI future with a store devoid of employees where they drop a net from the ceiling and pepper spray me because I forgot my eggplant was the organic price.
I don’t see any evidence they’re “pulling back”, at least not in Europe. More and more are self service checkouts than ever before. That said I think stores prefer the kiosks where people scan their items than the kind where people have barcode readers and wander the store scanning (or not scanning) goods.
Reads like a misleading statistic. Why would you invest in self-checkout if you already have it in place?
As someone that absolutely despises self-checkout I’d be happy if this was the case, but I don’t believe this. I’ve had stores open up near me this year that only have self-checkout options.
I’m not doing labour for a company where I’m not getting a discount for it. I’d rather wait longer in line for a person to do it than to go through self-checkout out of principle. Plus all self-checkouts I’ve ever used are designed end up pissing me off because they are designed to be user hostile.
Self-checkout was a boon because reduced wages to process customers (in theory).
Now they have an even better mechanism to push: delivery and pickup. Keep the customers away from the merchandise except what they have already paid for. Wal-Mart pushing the promise of free delivery under 22 minutes when I go to check if they have something in-store.
I don’t think this means they are actually pulling out.
Its unclear to me if the 36% is bc they already have the tech so they don’t plan to invest further and new adoption don’t happen bc everyone who “needs” it already has it or if the ones who have it are planning to get rid of it.
To me it just sounds like the people at the top didn’t foresee the problems that actually arise in a real world setting and their overconfidence gets adjusted to a more reasonable outlook but the self checkout will not go anywhere, 36% is still a pretty big number, self checkout might just not be feasible for a lot of places in the first place.
I see it being implemented in more places not less, they are just finetuning it now.
Didn’t realize self checkouts were such a divisive topic, like wtf I’ll take that any day of the week over standing in line behind people who have seemingly never been to a supermarket before and their shit is still standing there all over the place while the cashier is already scanning my products. I get that it keeps someone employed but I think the answer to that is better welfare, not sticking to the old ways just so someone gets to do menial shit for a living.
I’m honestly surprised anyone likes self checkout. It’s such a pain in the ass. Almost always have some sort of error that I need to wait to be rescued from.
Maybe it’s different where you are from, but where I am from human cashiers are way more efficient.
It depends on the technology. In Holland it’s great. In Belgium it sucks ass. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I like self checkout because i can generally get finished and out of the store sooner than if I go through the cashier. But some grocery checkouts do seem to often have hypersensitive scales and the worst nagging if you’re 2 ms slow to get your item into your bag, or God forbid you take a moment to rearrange things and mess up the calibration. I imagine they have a terrible urge to prevent people from stealing a grape.
At my grocery store I used to use the self checkout until they instituted a new policy where they would randomly check you and verify that the contents of the bag matched the receipt. Well fuck that, I ain’t gonna be treated like a criminal. I’m back to waiting in the line, let them do the work.
Yeah that’s pretty shitty in that case I’d also use the regular checkout
Lol, the only place I’m letting them check my work is Costco. I don’t even take my receipt from the machine at other places, and have told employees on more than one occasion that they can go get my receipt from the machine or go check with LP and keep walking.
They can’t legally stop you, so I’m not playing their games.
They can ban you from the store.
Is it a membership store? If not, they would need to have a posted policy that you’re required to follow for that to be a real threat.
The drone at the front of the store is not allowed to do more than request to see your receipt, and playing off that you can’t hear them is also a good option I’ve used in the past when they try.
At mine there’s one cashier who’s an absolute delight which serves as such a stark contrast to the self checkout that accuses me of stealing regularly and is very hesitant to actually scan some items. Add in that cashiers are faster and I can pay while they scan and it’s just a better experience unless the line is crazy and I don’t have many items
Is it a subscription based store, like a Costco?
If so, you signed up for the cart checks. The only thing you can do is not shop there.
If not, once you pay for it, it’s yours, and they have no legal right to touch it or check it unless you give them permission.
All you have to do is kindly say “no thank you” and keep walking. If they stop you, they’re violating other laws.
If they suspect you of theft, they can calls the cops. Otherwise, they must let you pass.The corpos and cops know the laws and, as such, your rights. It’s time we all know them, too, so we can put them (corpos and cops) all in their place on the ground.
I have thought about all of this at great length. The problem is that they can ban me from the store.
They can, but if they ban you for not allowing them to check, that’s illegal, and you can sue. If they ban you for theft, they need the cops to prove it.
Keep in mind, you must be kind when you refuse. A nice smile and kind “no thank you” is enough. If you’re combative, they can ban you for that. If they’re dicks that ban for the sake of banning, fuck em
I think a balance is good.
I worked at Target a long time ago as a Front End manager, before the days of self checkout. So I know how to cashier quickly and efficiently, and I get annoyed shopping at other places where the employees or customers are being slow.
I also appreciate just how volatile needs can be and how difficult it can be to staff. There have been books written on the subject, but in short for large stores with a lot of volume, customers do not usually trickle into checkout constantly as one might expect. Instead, they crash against the front of the store like waves. Personally when i’m shopping I try to identify these waves and time my checkout between them. At Target, we would often only have a couple of dedicated cahsiers, and would call the cart attendant or floor employees to help out for these waves. Self-checkout helps to smooth this out a lot and reduces all that walking back-and-forth.
I also hated all the upselling they made cashiers do. Target credit/debit cards and extended warranties on electronics. As an employee it was obnoxious and felt like we were annoying customers. As a customer, I was annoyed. One of my complaints about self-checkout today is how they ask you so many questions. My local grocery store self-checkout requires 5 button presses after i’m done scanning, which i think is bad design.
But also sometimes people need help. Some products are more complicated to buy. Some people are disable. Coupons are a plague upon society which machines are incapable of addressing. Some people just plain want a social experience, and it’s good to have human employees standing around in general. So I like the idea of having a mix.
And, of course, Universal Basic Income so we can stop asking “but what about jobs?” about every new innovation (but fuck AI though).
I agree, I have nothing against both being an option. In my bubble, everyone pretty much uses self checkout exclusively whenever available, except maybe for a large haul, so I was surprised to see how many in the comments actively dislike it.
That part about waves is interesting, it’s absolutely true and it happens all the time but I never really thought about it.
Using a cashier to me is easier, and I like talking to the person ringing my stuff.
It’s not my fault if the chocolate milk lid is loose.
