Technology

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.

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.

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.

What are they talking about, self checkouts are great. It makes the shopping experience more fair for those with fewer items

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

The only people I've ever encountered IRL or online that can't stand self check out are dumbass boomers that can't figure out how to use them correctly. This article has the same energy as those articles that claim people don't want to work from home.

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.

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.

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.

My own bag. Hand scanner. Zip through the store while loading my bag. Easy check out. Hell no I don't want to use the cashier line.

This seems to be an implementation issue. In my neighbourhood discounter, in Germany, there's three self-checkouts and while they're a bit small they also don't do any of that weighing and whatnot bullshit: You scan your stuff, pay, done. The only thing they can't do is apply best-before rebates.

There's also always a manned till open (or at the very least, when things are slow, a worker hanging out in the vicinity). In practice if the queue is empty you go there, if you have lots of stuff you go there (because it's bound to be faster as you can focus on packing while things get scanned), otherwise you have the choice to use self-checkout. Never had to stand in line for self-checkout, before that happens they open another manned till. What the self-checkouts do is keep small purchases away from the manned tills when they're busy which is exactly what they're good for. I

In my country, it's a huge success. People love it at the point that even Aldi and Lidl implemented the system.

But, the huge difference with the US is cultural. People coming here from abroad have a hard time to make local friends. It can take up to 10 years to make one.

My guess is that people love the lack of social contact more than self checkout itself.

Ehm, it's pretty much a success where I'm from. Sounds more like a personal opinion.

Self checkout is just fine, as long as you have enough of them.

Even better are the handsets you can take around the shop and scan as you go, as nobody wants to really be doing an entire trolley at the self checkout.

Failure?? It’s in every store in the world

I love self checkout, I can steal from corporations with plausible deniability

Hasn't it?

They're always faster than the queue for the cashiers, and they work fine.

The only issue I've had recently is they stopped taking cash for some reason, and I pay in cash. But besides that, they're fast and work great.

This article really sounds like it describes an alternate reality to me. Interesting to see how many people in the comments seem to hate self checkouts but here in the UK they seem to work fine. Shops seem to have found the right balance. In the same shop you'll have queues advancing rapidly at self checkouts and people run tills with shorter queues for customers who prefer the human interaction.

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.

self checkout is a default for me

As a customer, I 💕 self checkout: the great divide between fast and slow

Yea, no. The supermarket I shop at, I just scan everything with my phone as I go, scan a QR code at self checkout and pay.

Worst case I have to wait 2 minutes for someone to do a verification scan (5 random items crom my bag) or wait for them to verify my age.

Maybe this is just a British thing? They're very popular here in NZ

I don't like to interact with people, but I also don't like to work for free for the owner of the chain, so I take one for the comrades and interact with the cashier.

Usually I quite like self check

Except at ALDI.

Before they put in self check the cashiers sped through transactions at lightning speed. Now they've cut the number of cashiers and people sit at SCO slowly scanning and bagging everything....

It's ALDI bruh scan that shit and go to the bagging counter.

As someone who has shoped in the us but lives in europe, that only applies to the us. Self checkout is objectively bad in the us. Here, it is actually pretty good. The only anti theft mechanism is a random check wich happens like once a year to me, no weighing bs. Especially, if you use the option to scan while shopping with your phone or scanner device. Then you just pay in the app and leave, no hastle at the cash register.

We had a CVS Pharmacy location near me that decided to leave that location. Self checkout there was based on assuming everyone was a thief. All their wounds were self inflicted. Almost everything was locked up and you could never find someone to get your item for you. The genius management thought it was going to help profitability by deterring theft. Instead it was a deterrent to willing and eager customers wanting to buy their stuff. When you step over a dollar to get to a dime, your business is on borrowed time.

You can really tell these days who has never worked in a grocery store or restaurant before.

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

It's a common sight at many retail stores: a queue of people, waiting to use a self-checkout kiosk, doing their best to remain patient as a lone store worker attends to multiple malfunctioning machines.

I have never had this happen. The only issues I've ever had is people not understanding something so simple as scanning a barcode and then tap to pay.

Self checkout is one of the greatest advancements I've ever had. Probably the most irritating thing about California is that they made it illegal to use a self checkout to buy beer. The state literally forced me to stand in lines when i can easily scan a barcode.

We have those by me still, I love them. Except when they check the weight of every item so you can't have one person scan and another bagging.

I do not use self-checkout for several reasons, including what other people have said: i don't get a discount, it's taking someone else's job, it's annoying as fuck. Further, I use my own canvas bags, and that machine yells about the weight mismatch no matter what I try. I'd rather listen to nails on a chalkboard.

But i also shop for groceries 1 time per week, which means I'm buying beer, which means the self-checkout STILL requires somebody to help me. I end up standing around for longer than it takes to go through the regular line.

Anyway, the self-checkout lines generally see very loud usage in my NC town.

I think self checkout works for one or two items. But not much more than that. I don't want to have two or three things to checkout and be stuck behind someone with a cart full.

But If I have much more than that, an "old fashioned" checkout is a lot better.

I avoid self checkouts unless the lines at the cashier checkouts are unreasonable.

Half the time I go through one of those I get hit with an error that I've then gotta wait on the attendant to fix. The other half I get bogged down by the stupid process like how you've got to put the item down on the bagging area before you can scan another one or how you can interact with the card reader to pay but the transaction will not complete until you select a payment type on the main screen. Lately, I've noticed some trying to trick me into signing up for rewards or some bullshit.

Much easier to just dump my stuff on the conveyor belt and have the cashier handle everything else.

I enjoy Sam's Club's "Scan and Go" feature in their app. I scan my items and pay in the app. I never have to interact with a soul, and that's peachy keen in my book.