“things have gotten so bad that it has made many people need to steal, so we can’t keep self checkouts open”
There’s a Walmart near me that I just never bother going to because like 80% of the non-grocery items are locked behind plexiglass. There are 4 self-checkouts and 2 employees assigned to just stand there watching people to make sure they don’t shoplift. They’ve made shopping so hostile that it barely makes sense for it to be a department store at all. Might as well just go back to the old model of telling the employee what you want and then they go get it for you.
I wanted to buy some razor blades and the poor teenager at the Walmart just couldn’t get his magnet key thingie to unlock the plastic lock on the hanger holding the packages. I waited patiently for like 5 minutes and was like look I’ll fix it. I pulled down on the packaging, tore the little cardboard piece and freed the blades in like one try.
I then still paid $40 for them like a good citizen and ignored how much I was getting ripped off.
All while being watched by a million store cameras, three people at the self checkout, the camera reflecting my own image in the self checkout machine, the greeter giving me a dirty look and the detectors at the door.
Its more absurd than airport security how pointless it all is.
Which is basically what they are doing with grocery pickup.
Never thought of it that way… But yes.
I’m here with your regular reminder that is you see someone stealing food, no you didn’t.
I don’t understand. I’ve never seen someone steal food in a grocery store. I’ve helped plenty of people get more food from a grocery store than what they thought they had in their cart though.
Also you didn’t see me at the grocery store and if you did it wasn’t me
Good news, new jobs opening to fill the cashier roles. But watch they will just implement a ticket system and checkout will take 3 hours.
Yeah but tickets cost money so they will make you sign in virtually on their app
Shhhhh don’t give them any ideas
How do I do that on my Linux phone?
Hopefully everyone in the place at any given time will start stealing then. Not one person is going to wait 3 hours to pay for their groceries while cold shit thaws or only for a few items because they want to keep raising prices and enshittifying every damn thing.
Pretty sure the self checkout isn’t where most people steal, why not just walk out the door with whatever you want?
You don’t steal all of it, you just miss the barcode on a couple items for the camera, so it looks innocent if somebody stops you.
Well, it’s just a simple fact When I want something, I don’t want to pay for it I walk right through the door
Jane, were you caught stealing again?
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Self checkout was great for me because I’d have like 3 items and breeze on out. Now people come to them with overloaded carts because they don’t have any actual checkouts.
I swear every time I pull into a manned checkout lane at one specific store I get the nastiest look from the cashiers. There are 3 functional self checkout kiosks and the scale on all of them is slightly under a single square foot. I’m not buying a thanksgiving feast, but forgive me if my regular shopping trip is more than a single cup of yoghurt and a TV dinner, and consequently cannot all fit on the self checkout scale. It’s not like I’m asking them to open a lane just for me, they’re just upset I’ve interrupted their scrolling session.
I try not to go there often, but sometimes my goto location is closed or doesn’t have something I know I’m going to need. I know it’s not all stores or employees because my normal one is pretty good and I can generally use the kiosk without issue, but it’s so frustrating that the culture has shifted to expect all people to use the self checkout regardless of their situation. And I say this as someone who uses them regularly.
Yeah, checkers are so slow. Self checkout lets you slam everything across in like 5 seconds, swipe, leave.
Easy.
Shitty thing is they won’t hire more cashiers when they shut these off.
Guessing they’ll also raise prices when they simply return to previously normal operations.
Thur raised prices when they put them in, they will raise prices when they remove them.
All actions lead to raising prices.
I really wonder who these retailers are. Like, my grocer typically has 2 human and 12 self checkout open, and it’s no question which of those is going to be faster for someone pushing less than a full cart. They don’t even have the floor space to build twelve more full service checkouts. Reminds me of the bad old days when I’d go to the store and they’d have every human checkout line open, every one of them with 5+ people in line, and it’d take 30 minutes just to check out. If you’re a retailer that only processes a couple dozen patrons an hour, then yeah, I can see where a few self-checks wouldn’t be any benefit.
Feels like we’ve reached the enshittification phase of self-checks: big stores are now so beholden to the technology that the vendors can jack up their prices to where self checks cost the store more than a full-service checkout, but they can’t go back because there’s no staff and no space.
My local grocery had self checkout for about a year before ripping them out and putting normal ones back in. They don’t seem to be understaffed.
Not all stores are awful on all fronts. They don’t have chairs for their checkout people yet though.
They aren’t bringing back cashiers, they’ll have one cashier with a massive line as a deterrent to get you to download the scan as you go app on your phone so you supply the bar code scanner at your expense and they track your phone and change the digital price tags based on your Palantir profile as you walk up.
Or the other option is Walmart has started remodeling their stores into primarily warehouses. The main entrance is badged only for picker workers to hand orders to Doordash or put app orders in people’s cars. The legacy experience entrance will be a temporary secondary option until they get enough robots to make the building fully lights out and automated. Shambling automatons will emerge from the black hell portal in the surface of The Edifice with your tampons and then run facial recognition on you and sniff your car for drug and explosive residue.
I’ll do a big shop, look shocked at the line up and just walk out. Have fun dealing with my cart.
There’s no way I’ll get an app. I get they’ll have methods to entice people but I held off getting Facebook when it was the big thing, I’ll be ready for when corpos want to fuck around.
In fact I welcome it to see how I do.
Trouble is, all you’re doing by dumping a full trolley is inconveniencing someone who’s paid minimum wage.
I agree that’s not good. What else would I do if I had todownload an app to checkout or have to navigate their self checking that’s just a shit show all the time. If the store is being cheap, not properly hiring people and paying a good wage, that is not my responsibility and I’m not going to have to get some app so I can do my purchase and I’m absolutely not going to take my time to put the items back, and nor would the employees want that either.
I have no responsibility to do free labor for profit hungry criminals.
I’m pretty good at not buying from Safeway when they have an item I want on app-coupon sale.
But since tje new Trump order I’ve gone completely anti-consumerist, only getting stuff I immediately need.
I have done that a few times.
You’re just silly.
Your car itself will sniff you for drugs and explosives every time you start it and every 30 seconds thereafter, not the Walmart robot.
I think this weird anti-self-checkout crowd is just young people who don’t remember the times before self-checkouts. Even if every checkout was manned it was still completely normal to wait upwards of ten minutes, even when it wasn’t that busy. I remember my Mum excitedly running to a checkout because there was only one person queueing there. Nowadays I totally expect there to be no queue at all and I feel hard done by if I have to queue for more than one minute.
Um, no. There are many other categories of people who have issues with self-checkouts. Like anyone who’s legally or by the store’s rules due a discount or tax waiver (people with Indigenous status aren’t required to pay sales taxes in some jurisdictions, for instance), since the software often fails to account for these. Anyone paying cash. Anyone who knows anything at all about UI design or has wrestled with a self-checkout that just doesn’t function properly.
I’ll wait in line rather than deal with a machine that’s broken by design, thanks. Fortunately, the stores around here mostly have reasonable staffing practices, so the wait isn’t long unless some idiot tries to price-match against a flyer or something else weird and unusual.
Jusy FYI - I think self-checkouts can accept cash, but sometimes and sporadically do not, because I often see signs, permanent as well as improvisory, that they don’t.
My problem with the self checkouts is they do require quite a bit of wrangling from the person on staff and that sometimes, depending on the time of day, that person has entirely fucked off to another corner of the store. I’ve abandoned a near-completed self-checkout for the safe harbor of a human-staffed register on more than one occassion.
My experience is that maybe a third of them are set up to accept cash. The others tend to have permanent “Credit or debit only” signage. (I pay in cash quite often, although I’ll grant you that I’m an outlier.)
Yes, and sometimes they count drawers before close, so those registers are closed or card-only.
They can accept cash but those that do work like ass, and also attract less tech-savvy customers. So they need to keep them separated from card-only self-checkouts, otherwise it bogs down everybody. And yes, at that point they might as well convert them back to manned checkouts, because more often than not they require a person to stand by and help the customers with the cash.
That’s only relevant to… I think just one country where self check outs exist. Namely America.
The thing about Indigenous tax breaks? Also relevant in Canada, and I wouldn’t be surprised to discover there was something similar in Australia or New Zealand. It’s only one possible issue of several in that category, anyway. For instance, there’s a drugstore chain in my neck of the woods that provides discounts for seniors on one day of the week . . . but their self-checkouts can’t handle it and anyone who’s due a discount has to go to a cashier. Stuff like that.
I’m over 50 but the queue has to be huge for me to go to self-checkout.
I do not enjoy waiting for someone to come and check if im stealing. I do not enjoy waiting for a go-ahead for goods that are age restricted. I do not enjoy doing unpaid work (wheres my rebate??)
Also - I think cashiers deserve a job.
Same, and exactly all of this. If they want me to do the work that they usually pay someone for, they better offer me a significant discount.
I worked in grocery stores as a teen and I just want that to remain available.
I also do not like the self checkout machine. They have an unacceptable number of steps to pay. They’re horribly programmed. I don’t like the small baggage areas.
I think this weird anti-self-checkout crowd is just young people who don’t remember the times before self-checkouts.
What crowd? As far as I can see, the article is talking about retailers who want to do this, not customers.
The Aldi by me went self checkout. They lost enough business because of it they brought back cashiers. I definitely stopped going because of how clunky it was. The couple times I went I used the single cashier that had a line instead of self checkout which did not.
Boomers still line up at the cashier and will wait 15 minutes when self checkout is empty. But they also buy loto tickets and cigs.
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.
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.
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
Yeah that’s pretty shitty in that case I’d also use the regular checkout
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
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.
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.
I started as a cart attendant, so I noticed that cars entering the parking lot would usually correspond with the traffic lights nearby. Pretty simple and straightforward.
What’s weirder is that most people exit in groups. Maybe not the same group they came in with. Some people might need to go Guest Services for a return. Some people would stop at Food Ave for a snack. Some used the restaurant. Some would peruse softlines (clothing) for an hour or two with multiple trips to the fitting room. Some would go straight back to the pharmacy for their meds. Some families would come in and split up. And there would be the occasional straggler checking out on their own, but there was an overwhelming tendency for several parties to all check out at once. Then they would form their own traffic leaving the parking lot.
I think some of it is subliminal. Once one group starts to check out, that starts to put the beeps of the register, the hum of the convertor belt, the clatter of items being moved, and the rehearsed conversations of a transaction to float through the air of the front of the store. My hypothesis is that customers shopping in the front who were close to done would have their decision to check out accelerated by this.
Some of it could be the result of all of the other psychological manipulation that happens in retail stores. That is a whole science of its own that I am only vaguely aware exists, but it is very likely that a contributing factor too.
Or it could be emergent from human behavior. For example, studies have shown that people will commute ~1hr max to/from work (I can’t remember the exact number, it might have been closer to 45 minutes). Doesn’t matter if they are walking, riding a horse, rowing a boat, driving a car, taking a bus, taking a train, or any combination. Once the time starts to exceed that amount, people either look for a new job or new home, and this has had an impact on the way that neighborhoods and cities grow over time.
Using a cashier to me is easier, and I like talking to the person ringing my stuff.
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.
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.
The ones that need to match the weight of the product are absolutely horrible and full of errors.
The ones that only need to scan barcodes are ok-ish. Sometimes you can run into weird situations, like I managed to find a product that had two barcodes for some reason, and I scanned the “wrong” one and it confused the machines. Or there was a product that printed their barcode so tiny that the machine couldn’t scan it. But those are rare.
The fun part is when you try to buy any alcohol because over here they need to call a human to confirm you’re an adult.
Totally depends on the store you’re shopping at, foremost. Then secondarily what products you’re buying.
Where I live, self checkout is usually faster but I’ll still go through a regular line periodically. Frankly though I’m just picking up groceries most of the time at this point. It’s easy and if the people grabbing you things have a touch of empathy you get fine looking produce and meats too.
Anyways, you’re right it is definitely heavily dependent on where you live. Hell some places, especially in upper middle class areas, have a lot of the detection shit turned off (like you can actively put wrong weight stuff in or bypass the scans entirely - there’s a chance you may still get flagged but it’ll let you finish the order up before someone comes to put a code in to override it).
I guess if you’re going to commit petty theft I’d suggest you buy a decent outfit from a second hand store and go to a nicer grocery store self checkout.
It depends on the technology. In Holland it’s great. In Belgium it sucks ass. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
They could have saved so much time and money by just paying the cashiers a living wage.
Hmm I like self checkout because I don’t like dealing with retail people. I’m introverted by nature.
Just get me the F in and get me the F out. Charge the correct price and give me correct change. Machines do this SO WELL.
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That’s an interesting take you have. I personally find there needs to be more interaction in self checkouts as they often error meaning you need to wave down / seek out someone to help.
In the register I say “G’day” "ill pack my own " (take my own bags), and “on the card thanks” . Pretty smooth process , plus it helps keep someone employed and not me working for my own groceries I’m paying for.
Pretty smooth process , plus it helps keep someone employed and not me working for my own groceries I’m paying for.
Keeping someone employed for the sake of employment is the exact opposite thing that should happen. If you can pump your own gas, why should you be forced to have someone else do it for you?
If I had the option of someone filling my petrol whilst I just sat in the car I would 100% take that up. That’s a much better service ! Used to happen, guess labor was too expensive. I don’t see there being any harm in helping to keep a young workforce employed instead of doing the work myself for a business?
Shall someone also massage your feet while they pump your gas?
How about also read you a bedtime story?
How about we stop with the useless jobs that waste time and money? Those young workforce could actually be getting experience in a field that is useful to society. And that will get them further in life.
But ah, then you might have to get out of your car and get your own hand dirty. The horror!
You’d rather own slaves, wouldn’t you?
You’re a bit dramatic aren’t you.
I’m guessing you want people to maintain your water and gas pipes. Probably want someone to build the buildings and even chop down the trees for you!? You just want slaves don’t you .
Are you also particularly judgemental of people wanting shelves stocked as well?
I feel like if you have it often your store has particularly bad machines or you’re accidentally doing something wrong. Granted there’s no tutorial and they have a lot of things that can trip them up, but I’m a daily shopper, sometimes twice daily because it’s in close walking distance to me, and I have to have someone come over maybe once a month, and even then it’ll usually be for approving something like a gift card or knife rather than an error.
Eh, yeah some times. Like if you scan an object whilst holding something in your other hand it’ll lock you out, sometimes if things are too light, some times errors in the scanning. I think taking your own bags also causes a bit of grief if there not perfectly zero’ed out on the scales.
I find that when using my own bags it’s easier to just bag everything in the cart rather than using the scale
Yeah every time in Tesco it takes longer for me as the badly calibrated scale and cheap crappy scanner fall down. I hate the faux-cheery voice that blares at you while it doesn’t work too, you used to be able to mute it but no we all have to listen to that patronising fucker now.
I personally find there needs to be more interaction in self checkouts as they often error meaning you need to wave down / seek out someone to help.
Like what?
There is only 2 instances I’ve ever need staff assistance. For age check (regular), and when there is a error with the card terminal (very rare). What other errors can there be?
Just like my comment above, if there are weight issues with you using your own bag, if you scan an item with something in your other hand , if there’s an error with the barcode , if something is too light to be picked up by the scales… im sure there’s many other things .
Until the machine needs to verify an alcohol purchase…
Bro, you can just drink thr alcohol before buying.
The one person managing 10 lanes walks over and types in your age. Works pretty well in my experience.
Lucky you, she walked by me 10 times while talking to 15 other staff.
I’m on the same boat.
This seems very US coded. In euro they’re doubling down even with self scan on the phone or with a tool they give me. I scan them as I put them in my cart and at checkout I just pay and leave. It’s awesome.
Same in Australia regarding doubling down. They’re giving trolleys with an ipad thing on them you scan everything with, and increasing the exit area security so you cannot leave without the staff opening it if you didn’t buy anything, and AI based cameras all over the store and gates that judge whether it should open for you after buying things.
It’s a mix of awesome and horrible.
This is why I don’t shop in stores anymore , I have to do all the work and be treated like a crim. I boycott any place with self checkout and prefer the aldi even though it’s slow with very few registers open.
My local Aldi has 1 real register and a half dozen self checkouts. Aldi isn’t safe.
and
AImechanical turk based cameras all over the store and gates that judge whether it should open for you after buying things.I highly doubt they’re actually using AI, given every other claim I’ve seen that starts out like this ending up being poorly paid people in a low wage country.
I’m learning a lot in this thread about European dystopia. I guess if y’all like it to each their own. Over here in the US, we’ve had enough.
The thing is, where I live the system works well. It doesn’t make UX choices that make it hard to use, assuming that people are stealing all the time. It’s fast and easy, although so are the human manned checkouts, which also exist and are fine.
US here. Scan-as-you-go plus self checkout is amazing. Lay out your reusable bags in the cart when you arrive then pick-scan-bag through the store. Self checkout becomes a 2 minute process at most, no matter how many items you have and everything’s already bagged for the trip home.
Our local store (Stop&Shop) is rather trashy compared to competitors but we go there because of the fast scan and self-checkout process.
I see a trend of completely automated supermarkets.
You scan your card to walk in. The automated system scans the products you take. And you pay in order to leave.
It works pretty well, and is 24/7. You can be entirely alone in that store. And if you need someone there is a phone to a callcenter.
One problem your forget to foresee: people will leave shit about, leave products outside of freezers, and misplace things. It needs employees
if you need someone there is a phone to a callcenter.
Yeah. Like if you want to leave without buying anything.
I have a smart cart at my local grocery store that adds the products to my account. I just pass through payment, no need for scanning anymore. Love it.
The cart alsof weighs my products so I only have to scan one barcode. It multiplies by itself.
Have they tried adding AI? 3D printing? Quantum computing? Space based solar power?
I don’t think so but CVS and Walgreens installed digital cooler doors so you can see whats in stock before you open the door. Apparently you couldn’t do that before when the doors were 100% transparent glass that didn’t use extra electricity.
Ah, technology. I hope they upgrade to an 8K60 screen?
AI, yes.
Once got flagged for theft because the camera saw me put a box down on the far side of the scanner and then used the handheld scanner because it was large. Evidently the box getting past the fixed scanner without scanning triggers theft even if you scan it.
In a convenience store, I put products on a platform and I don’t have to scan barcode and it just “scans” my whole order all at once with machine vision. It worked well for me, but seems to have the clerk on high alert to watch it like a hawk from any mistakes, which sounds exhausting. I got the sense that it screws up a lot and the clerk is on the hook for it.
Morrison’s (UK) has something called “vision security” which triggers if the machine learning model thinks you haven’t scanned something, the worker then has to watch the video and verify. It kept triggering on me because I often put my bike helmet in the cart. But it’s easy to place the cart slightly away from the camera and then it won’t see.
New store near me has problems with the scales, it charged me $0.07 for four bananas. Luckily nothing really checks for coherency.
No blockchain? Wait blockchain isn’t passe already is it?
No. Yes. Yes. No.
I like it because I don’t have to talk to people. It is otherwise an inferior experience.
Agree. But what is the “otherwise” part you’re taking about?
What other commenters have said: you’re not as good as the professional.
As good as in what? Lifting items over the scanner fast? Because yeah, I am. I go shopping there 2-3 times a week, I know where the bar-code is on all the items I regularly buy, I can scan them just as fast as any professional, probably faster. Some of them are old ladies … And not sure what other quality other than speed there is to scanning your items.
You and some other commenters are super special. Better than the average.
I really don’t see what’s so special about it.
There is nothing special about it, that’s the point. But for some people, it can be important. What if you have a visual or physical disability? An intellectual issue? Etc.
I’m in no way suggesting that traditional checkout should be abolished.
It certainly always saves me time. Especially when I cut out doing the part where I pay.
I was astounded the other day when I visited a town that had a nice busy grocery store. It was like what I imagine the 70’s were like. They had 20 lanes OPEN with cashiers quickly and efficiently ringing up items, much faster than I could, with baggers neatly and efficiently filling the bags. There were no waiting lines because everyone found a cashier lane to walk right up to as the last person was finishing up.
It was ten times faster than a self checkout.
I rarely see that anymore. Its usually one lone cashier and a bunch of people waiting for a self checkout machine.
I don’t get why people think they will be more efficient and faster than someone who’s used to pass products all day. Cashiers already know where to look for the barcodes and remember the codes for vegetables without having to look anywhere. Self-checkout is only faster in the beginning because few people use it. When it becomes the only option, prepare for even longer queues with people passing the products in such calmness as if they’re doing it in purpose
It wasn’t about speed, it was about reducing spending on wages
That’s right. 4-6 registers with one employee.
In my experience, stores with that kind of ratio are miserable to shop at. At high demand hour the most you can get away it is 2 register with 1 employee, maybe 3 if the self-checkouts are very good (good UI, not error-prone).
You aren’t faster at checking it out per item. The supermarkets are just keeping it understaffed all the time so the human checkout has a long wait while self checkout does not, so it’s faster to not wait. I try to not use self checkout, but if I have a few items it just makes me feel guilty about making other people wait behind me.
As they keep having understaffed situations, sometimes there’s no other option except self checkout. Which honestly should be illegal.
It’s only more efficient when I use it, which sounds like a joke about “it’s only wrong when someone else does it.” But if I am only buying a quart of ice cream and some toilet paper, I actually can scan those faster because I don’t have to pass them to a person to scan them for me. My typical use case is roughly the same speed as a cashier. I also know how to use the machines fairly well.
However, your last sentence is exactly right. Once one idiot gets to self-checkout, the whole thing goes to shit for everyone. Or if something doesn’t scan, or it is a bottle of Nyquil that some stores require ID to buy, then it is so much longer to get a person over to help you.
I refuse to use them because of liability. Too many cases of people being falsely accused of stealing.
When the employees try to shoo me to the self checkout I just stare at them awkwardly.
But I am more effecient than the cashier. Dunno how it is like where you’re from, but a cashier job is either for people who are nearly retired, or a teenager’s first job.
So, in the same footprint of three cashiers that will have 3 queues waiting around, there can be 12 self checkouts with no queues at all.
For most people that is definitely true. I however was a cashier for six years before graduating college and am at the very least just as fast. My problem is usually the scanner won’t keep up with me since there always seems to be a delay for the system to verify I have put the item in the bag before it lets me scan another.
Same. I worked in retail for years, I can use a cash register just fine. These things are infuriating though no matter what you do. Terrible cashier-user experience compared to just like a regular grocery store checkout line
The idea of the self-checkout was that you literally just pass by some scanner with a full cart and it instantly displays the list of items with prices and sum. You just need to tap your card or phone on the reader and are done with it.
The implemented reality was very far away from that idea though. That’s why it failed.
Customers are pissed because they have to do the cashier’s job. And they do compensate themselves with some extra price reduction as a system requiring cooperation obviously can’t reliably detect theft. And if you had a detective watching the cams, you could as well just go back to cashiers - which they seem to now do.In the end this is yet another failed “fake it till you make it” bet on future tech which just didn’t materialize in time. Shops can tank some customer dissatisfaction for a time and then profit a lot from being the first to do the new thing when it becomes actually possible a few months later. But pissing off the shoppers isn’t a good long-term strategy.
In many cases, I am faster than the available cashiers at my local grocery store, because they’re old. Also depending on what I’m buying, idc how my stuff is bagged so I can just throw it in a single bag and go vs them taking 3 bags to do the same thing.
But to me, the main reason to use self checkout is that I don’t have to interact with anyone. No conversation, no upsells, just me and a machine. The only reason I’ll go to a cashier is if I have a lot of stuff or if I’m buying alcohol.
You don’t think machines can up sell you? Ok.
When has a self check out given you purchase suggestions? I mean I can see them doing it, but I haven’t seen it
McDonald’s kiosk? Wouldn’t you like hash browns with your order?
Would you like to round up for the Boys and Girls club?
What upsell is the grocery store cashier doing? Stamps and ice?
To suggest a machine is incapable of up selling even more obtrusively than a cashier is dishonest.
It has literally never happened to me over the past decade short of rounding up for charity. Can they? Yes, it could be programmed in, but I’ve never experienced it.
It wasn’t about the cashier, it was about the line.
Before self checkout, the wal mart near me would on a typical day have 3 or 4 cashiers working. At the height of their adoption, they had 28 self checkouts typically up.
But now, they have 2-3 self checkouts open and a big line, while you can generally find one of the handful of cashiers with no one waiting. It baffles me that people would wait to self-checkout when there’s a cashier open with no line, unless people have just that much social anxiety (a wal mart seems a tricky proposition) or else people are liking their chances for skipping scan of an item here or there.
Sometimes I think that people must have some psychological tendency to just go where others are without any thinking about it. There’s no other explanation fur such behavior
I scan my items as they go into the bag. As I get to the checkout all I have to do is pay. That is waaaaay more efficient than going to a traditional cashier.
Yeah, but while you are queued they can feed you ads.
Some of the pros around here are not very good and take longer than I do, but the Aldi ones are usually fast with those giant barcodes! The last one, however, charged me for two melons but I didn’t have any, removed one, but not the 2nd so I had to go back over. My data points and the workmanship around here show sometimes quicker than me, but not if a line for them and none for diy.
Self checkout in theory is better for both sides - business and consumer.
That said most self checkout as implemented is insufferable. The modern experience is waiting 5 minutes for someone to clear out your order because you accidentally clicked the version of Limes that this store doesn’t sell, despite it being an option on the POS, or to tap no / decline on the 5 different “Donate? Round up? Bag? Survey? Phone number?” prompts, or for the POS to lock up because you scanned a single can 3 times rather than 3 cans once, or for the cart to lock up so you slam your shin into it because the camera determined you were a thief.
Personally I avoid all self checkouts.
Is this how it works in the US? Because everywhere I use them in Europe they are pretty smooth if you’re not buying alcohol.
At least in the major retailers in my area - yes.
They are annoying AF and that’s coming from a pretty antisocial person.
Even when buying alcohol you just have an employee walk 3 meters to you, you show your ID and the employee clears it. Thats how it is in some stores, others just prohibit alcohol completely.
Canada is halfway between the two. The best part of self checkouts is one queue feeding into many stations. Traditional tills drive me fucking mad i hate them so so much!
Give me a canadian tire, winners, or dollarama style checkout with one big ass queue feeding into all tills. Then grandma can pay in 19th century haypennies and coupons as an excuse to get her socializing fix outside the nursing home, and i can get my fucking groceries in a timely and non-infuriating manner.
I’m an Anerican and I’ve not really had any of these issues. The bagging area one yes, but otherwise no real problems and I’ve never in my life had a cart lock up. I try to avoid self check out, it’s not my job so why am I doing it?
it’s not my job so why am I doing it?
I never get this take. Like, back in the day it also wasn’t my job to pack the groceries into a cart and haul them to the cashier. You entered a store, like a lot of pharmacies still work today, there was a clerk behind a desk and you told them “I’d like three ounces of flour, 4 eggs and a litre of milk”, they fetched it for you. So, where are the complaints that walking through a big store “is not my job”?
Everybody is like “no, a store is juuust right, when it works like in my childhood. Everything else is against the order of the world!”
I completely understand all the other, technical, cultural, issues one can have with a self-checkout, but this “not my job” attitude weirds me out, somehow.
it’s not my job so why am I doing it?
Do you also need a separate clerk to pack your groceries right next to the one that scans them?
No, the one who scans my groceries also packs them.
it’s not my job so why am I doing it?
Never understood this concept. It’s not your job to fill up your gas tank either, so we should ensure someone is hired to be sure that occurs correct?
No its not us based, I’ve never had a self check here that has that issue. They lock down for if they think you are stealing (I’ve never had repeated scans trigger that its usually if you try to hide a barcode or something) or age restrict but other than that as long as it isn’t an operator issue its pretty streamlined.
Even while buying hard liquor, I just get a “are you +18” prompt and I just press yes. lol
Although they have a little magnetic cap on them.
Some of them are great. Lidl comes to mind.
Lidl just simply doesn’t let you leave
