Technology

I love self checkouts especially if I’m just grabbing a few things because I’ve gotten the rhythm of them down really well and get in and out much more quickly. And in reality they should only be used to offload the customers that meet that exact profile, “just grabbing a few things, not intimidated by tech”

That said the problem is two fold, people do not understand the optimal use case of self checkouts, and two companies see them as a way to cut as much labor as they can which in many cases forces those who don’t meet the ideal criteria into using them.

There’s no way to send feedback, or to log a fault with the machine, so the store operators have to deal with every single exception manually, over and over, instead of getting the thing fixed.

• “Place your bags in bagging area” (ok, done)
• “Unexpected item in bagging area” (How can it be unexpected, you just told me to put my bags there. Operator logs in and clears fault)
• (remove bags) “item removed from bagging area” (so you want me to put my bags there, but you don’t, but you do. Operator logs in and clears fault)
• “We couldn’t scan the last item” (yes you could, it’s on the screen there. But if I take it back and scan it again, I get “item removed” and then it won’t scan it again. Operator logs in and clears fault)
• “unexpected item in bagging area (again)”. (So I successfully scanned the thing, but you didn’t expect me to put it in the bagging area? Where should it put it instead? Operator logged in and clears fault)
• “have you forgotten to scan something?” (No, that’s my walking stick and the extra bags I brought that I didn’t actually need after all. Operator logs in and clears fault)

Does anyone actually test these things before installing them at the stores? Does anyone review the faults to see how to improve the scanning and item recognition? Are you really creating a better customer experience by having half a dozen customers holding up the line while waiting for the operator to come and clear a fault?

I personally prefer self checkout at the grocery store because I get to bag my groceries the way I want to (grouped by frozen food, cans/bottles, non-food, etc.). It’s annoying to carefully group my items at the regular checkout conveyor only to have the cashier randomly bag them at the end. And even if I offer to bag them myself, I have to do it awkwardly while the cashier and next customer wait and stare, which isn’t the case for multiple self-checkout counters.

I think self checkouts have their place in the world, but too many suits with low brain cell counts have tried to treat them as the panacea for everything, and got dollar signs in their eyes and started salivating when they saw the prospect of firing all their cashiers. But they really don't lend themselves well to a lot of types of retail establishments.

The Walmarts near me are exclusively self checkout at most hours of the day. They still have a dozen or more normal checkout lanes, but they're almost always unmanned. Instead, they corral everyone into their "open concept" self checkout area which is a nightmare of shopping carts bumping into each other and customers with zero situational or spatial awareness stepping on each other's toes. The best part is, the machines get their knickers in a twist so often that they now have pretty much exactly as many employees standing around the self checkouts to babysit customers and unjam the machines (and watch for theft, I'm sure) as they had normal checkout cashiers in the first place.

Both of our local Home Depots have self checkout "desks," each of which is a big table with the scanner and monitor facing the customer. I suppose their self checkout theft rates have gotten so high that they've converted all of their checkouts back to cashier operated ones, but they kept the same self checkout machines... Just, the employee operates it instead of you. So we've come full circle and just reinvented the normal checkout but worse, because both you and the employee are on the same side of the same counter breathing in each other's faces.

I do like the single self checkout kiosk at the Autozone across the street, though, simply because their entire staff seems to be perpetually doing something that doesn't involve helping customers or addressing the ever-lengthening line in any capacity whatsoever. And also practically no one else has twigged to the self checkout machine at all. So when I just need a can of Brakleen or a quart of oil or whatever the fuck, I can just scan it and bounce while everyone else is standing around in line growing old.

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Self checkout has only been convenient for handful of items. People that go through with a cart full and a half deserve the frustration.

Go to a real person if you have big order. However companies should treat their employees better so they don't leave.

I prefer a handler who is fast and accustomed to checking customers out all day. The self checkout is only as efficient as the current person occupying the kiosk.

The most prevalent chains here have self-checkouts, and it is frustrating because they are card-only! So even if there are unccupied counters, if you want to pay with cash, you stand in the regular line. And this is despite some years prior there were cash-accepting machines in one of these chains.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

After Dwayne Ouelette took over the Canadian Tire in North Bay, Ont., last year, he decided to buck the trend and ditch the store's four self-checkout machines — which had been there for a decade.

When self-checkouts began their rise to prominence about a decade ago, they were seen as a way for retailers to cut labour costs and speed up the checkout process.

And a new survey commissioned by U.S. personal finance website LendingTree found that out of 2,000 Americans polled online last month, 15 per cent admitted to stealing at self-checkout.

Back at Canadian Tire in North Bay, general manager Derek Shogren says self-checkout theft is an issue, but that it was only a small part of why the store ditched its machines.

The general manager of the Canadian Tire in Mississauga that removed its four self-checkouts earlier this year told CBC News that theft and customer preference were factors in its decision.

In England, Booths managing director Nigel Murray told the BBC that self-checkout was ill-suited for the supermarket because it sells numerous unpackaged items that don't have scannable barcodes.

The original article contains 929 words, the summary contains 180 words. Saved 81%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

We need more places where you can scan and checkout with your phone. For example: https://www.bigy.com/myExpressCheckout

This single-handedly changed where I buy groceries - I can essentially just walk out the front door as soon as I have everything I need. Don't need to worry about:

• Waiting in the massive checkout lines (even the self-checkout lines are long...)
• Taking everything (or mostly everything) out of the shopping cart for the cashier to scan.

I hate those things so much, buying a red bull, red light and wait for someone to arrive to check that I'm over 16. It happened to me so many times and normally I like technology, but those things, no thank you.

Good, those things are garbage