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.
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
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.
Is there something weird about how your Home Depot did it? I absolutely love the self-checkout at the Home Depots in my state. They all have the wireless hand scanners so I just pull my cart up, beep beep beep beep beep beep beep and off I go I fucking hated before they had self checkout at Home Depots it always took for fucking ever now I'm in and out regardless of whether I need one thing or 20 things
There are two in my area and both have the same problem: there will be a single non-pro bank of 8 self-checkout lanes, and then a bunch of empty lanes, one or two of which will have cashiers. Of the 8 self check-outs , one or two are always broken, so that leaves 6. Add in a bunch of large/heavy/bulky items that are hard to scan and now the line for self check-out is pushed back into the store, blocking multiple lanes and aisles. And as soon as you have certain items in your cart (molding/lumber by the LF, loose fasteners, etc.) you need an assistant to come help you anyway. Maybe it's just the customers in my stores, but it's just a terrible, slow, inefficient process.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
What you're requesting is exactly how Amazon fresh works. the cart itself has barcode scanners on it
Boo Amazon. But great idea
You can do scan and go at Walmart now, if you were previously only using that at Sam's Club. It's fantastic.
Check out USA. Not behind on tech. Congratulations
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.
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.
When I was using food stamps/EBT, I was audited every time I used the hand scanner at Stop and Shop. Luckily, I don't have to use food stamps anymore.
Well that's some bull. The software knows what items are covered and which aren't, so that's just assuming folks needing help are thieves.
Yeah, luckily an Aldi opened down the street and I started shopping there. I don't need food stamps now but with the way prices are going...
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.
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.
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.
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.
At my grocery store the line for self checkout is longer than for the registers, so people would very much be waiting for you. And instead of the time the cashier takes to scan all your stuff being out of your control, they'll judge you personally for being slow instead.
Even with the same lenght line, in here you'd get through much faster because instead of lining up for the one register you're lining up to several self-checkouts
But the people at the self checkouts do it at a fourth of the speed, so it cancels out. Plus the line for the self checkouts is four times as long anyway.
Although it's not always easy to predict how long something takes. Self checkout is less vulnerable to someone paying in all nickels or having an issue with their food stamps. I'll take that chance to not have to stand there and guess what species of banana I'm trying to buy, though.
Not here, people at the self check-outs go fast because they usually have less stuff and slower boomers are afraid of them anyway so they'll be out of your way.
I'll take that chance to not have to stand there and guess what species of banana I'm trying to buy, though.
Here you weight your vegetables, fruits, candies in the shop before you go to the checkout. Apart from Lidl which has either the cashier weighting them for you at the register or you'll weight them at the checkout. But it's the odd one out
I remember we weighed our own vegetables in Norway in the 90s. It stopped when they got the fancy registers which scanned barcodes and had a built-in scale.
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.
What are they talking about, self checkouts are great. It makes the shopping experience more fair for those with fewer items
I feel the people who don't like self checkout keep trying to push the idea that it's bad or putting people out of jobs, rather than just admitting it's convenient for most people. If i want to buy one or two items I don't want to queue up behind 5 people with a full trolley.
I don’t like self checkouts, but not because of that. Probably depends on what chains you go to / where in the world you live, but it was almost always very slow and full of errors for me (most of the time, incorrectly detecting the weight of either side, thus stopping the whole process and making me wait for a human to unlock it). And even if everthing goes well, I have no chance to even reach half the speed that a cashier can.
The one exception is a clothing store that used RFID tags. You put the items in the box and everything is instantly scanned, no mistakes. If it were like that everywhere, I would much prefer it.
This is a very good point- consider all of the friction points that make self-checkout slow and cumbersome. How many of them apply to manned checkouts?
The weight thing is absolutely the most frustrating, and I would put money that it's not an effective theft deterrent.
I don't know if it's intentional, but the places around me seem to have largely solved the problem of cashiers being faster, by putting the slowest people on earth as cashiers...
I've never seen a clothing store using RFID tags before but that's quite interesting technology. I've just done some reading up on it and I hope more places start using it it seems convenient and something I'd like to see adopted on a large scale.
It's pretty great. Though I'm sure it's built into the price (assuming they're talking about Uniqlo).
On the other hand, being able to walk into the supermarket, fill a trolly, then walk through an archway to get rung up...That would be pretty amazing.
Don't know what country you're in, but Decathlon in the UK (and possibly other countries) does this. There are no traditional manned checkouts in there at all.
I have a lot of anxiety, sure I can just 'get over it' or ignore it and go to the actual cashier, but I love having the ability to scan things myself, it is also much quicker because I usually have less items than most. They still have the employee there, there are still other cashiers so I've never seen it get too hectic where I go.
Having express self-checkoit is great. The Kroger near me went full-self-checkout. They have large kiosks that mimmic the traditional checkout belt kiosks, except the customer scans at the head of the belt and the items move into the bagging area.
If you have a full cart, you scan all the items, checkout, walk to the end of the belt, and bag all of your items. Takes twice as long as bagging while a cashier scans (for solo shoppers), and because of the automatic belt the next customer cannot start scanning until you finish bagging, or their items will join the pile of your items.
It effectively destroys all parallelism is the process (bagging while scanning, customers pre-loading their items with a divider while the prior customer is still being serviced), and with zero human operated checkouts running you get no choice
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.
My only critique of self checkout is, when the machine has an error, or if I'm buying alcohol, I have to wait 5 minutes for someone to come fix the problem because there's 10 self checkout kiosks, but only one employee tending them.
That and if your buying more than 20 items and it's a scale.you know after about half a cart it's going to start bitching at you.
"Please place item in bagging area. UNEXPECTED ITEM IN BAGGING AREA!!!"
Please wait for assistance. meanwhile our cashier is busy helping terminal one be allowed buy floor stocked nasal decongestant, terminal three is waiting to be authorized to buy a lighter, and the person at terminal four can't figure out the pad is asking them for their loyalty number and has a coupon they'd like to use.
I just don't use self checkout when buying alcohol or big carts since it's too cramped. At least at all the stores I've been to the attendant is always available so I never have to wait if something goes wrong. Maybe it depends on how tech savvy the area you're in is?
Over here in Germany you can prove your age with your girocard, your bank knows whether you're over 16/18 and relaying that information is good enough in the eyes of the law.
The machines had problems like 10 years ago, but I've had zero problems with them in recent years. Used to be a few of them were always broken and bulk items were hard to find, but now I've not run into any problems. They're great for small purchases, but they're too cramped for big purchases so the belts are still needed.
I see you've never had to use Kroger self checkouts. It's almost like they're purpose built to slow you down.
They got worse recently, too, at least locally. You can't even turn off the insistent voice anymore, so now I have to hear it repeat "please scan your next item and place it in the bag" a dozen times, usually cut off because it takes longer for the damn machine to say that than it does for me to actually scan shit. And now they've added cameras which get easily confused if you, like me, usually just hold your few items in your hands while you're scanning, thinking you're trying to "dupe" the scanner.
I use them but don't like them. Putting people out of work should not be the goal. I mean it's like the manufactured this only have one or two tills open at a time. Then bring in self checkouts to fix the issue the problem. They could have had more cashiers in the first place.
Jobs that don't pay a living wage should not exist. Imagine if our ancestors had accepted spending 200 calories to hunter/gather 100 calories worth of food. Low wage jobs are a trap that send people deeper into poverty.
Also, putting all people out of work forever should be the ultimate goal - automate all the things!
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
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.
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.
self checkout is a default for me
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.
Oh shit, I just started going to Aldi and sounds like I am one of the idiots doing it wrong. The store I am going to seems to be setup same as a typical SCO though. I don't know that I have noticed a bagging counter. Will be looking next trip I guess.
Ah I'm mostly grumbling anyways. The SCOs look the same as anywhere else had I begun shopping at Aldi after SCOs got there I probably wouldn't do anything different either.
But famously the cashiers at Aldi were super fast. They don't bag anything. They just toss it into your cart. They'd often have a spare cart or two and if you had a lot of groceries they'd put it into a new cart for you instead of waiting for yours to be empty. (And also is one of very few places in the US where they let cashiers sit down).
People who would attempt to bag their groceries while at the cashier (unless they only had a few things and got it done very quick) would attract ire from both the cashier and other customers for holding things up since they'd usually be done scanning before you'd get done bagging. Check this meme: https://x.com/ladbible/status/1270736248546758656 and the replies to it calling them out for bagging at checkout.
After you checkout, you were meant to go to the bagging counter and bag your stuff (in your own bags or some people use empty display boxes.) The bagging counter is on the front wall of the store right by the exit (see picture)
But if you notice next time, all the store brand stuff (90% of the stuff there) has unusually large and tall barcodes usually on multiple sides to help the cashiers be as fast as they are.
Also the SCOs at ALDI are some of the quickest I've EVER used in terms of scanning items. It doesn't need any delay between scans. If I only have one layer of stuff in my cart I usually just scan it while it's still in the cart using the hand scanner and can be gone in under two minutes.
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
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.
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...
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.
I don't think that's what the article is talking about. The cart and hand scanner are different.
I know entirely too many people who don't use the hand scanner, and it's crazy to me. It is by far the most efficient way to shop. I get irrationally angry when there are people in the self checkout line with a whole cart of groceries. This line is not for you. Get with the times.
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
It is 100% implementation. In other countries there's either a staff member watching over all the self checkouts to make everything go smoothly, or a kind of electronic gate that only let's you leave after scanning a receipt. Usually the scanners are much more reliable and theres a usable UI. Plus a modicum of trust. Also thise hand scanners you can carry around the shop so you don't have to do it at the end (although I think if seen some of them around now).
In the UK there's usually the weight detection mechanic that slows things down 10x and no interactivity with the machine other than it loudly telling you you're doing it wrong. You often need to ask for help anyway.
If it was a quick and easy experience the scheme wouldn't fail.
There's no extra gate or dedicated staff member in my store only whoever's at the till and if the self-checkout is busy they're too busy to watch them.
What I did notice though is that they now put anti-theft tags on more stuff, e.g. the ones on big packages of sausages are new. But it's still the same open beep gate at the end, which I actually triggered exactly once and that was when using the manned checkout, they're older and cashiers need to deactivate the tags manually (and they missed my coffee), the self-checkout ones apparently do it reliably when you're scanning the item.
Over time I think that's probably where this is heading. The store still uses those very old EM fuses/amplifiers as anti-theft tags and of course ordinary barcodes, at some point the larger industry is going to switch to RFID for everything and every item will know whether it's been paid for.
If they cannot apply best before rebates then the store needs to change the system of applying them. One of our local chains uses orange stickers with new barcodes for best before discounts so the self checkout scans and accepts the new barcode with a lower price.
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.
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
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.
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.....
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"?
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.
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.
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.
If you are talking about Germany, yes. I recently (3 years) moved to Germany and I love the tech. I can avoid having contact with the rude people that usually work at the tills.
If the people at the till are rude your problem is probably that you're living in Berlin.
In the US people working the tills are usually TOO nice and you don't want to make smalltalk with them. Only in NYC have I encountered rude till people, and even there, most are pretty pleasant.
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.
I love self checkout, I can steal from corporations with plausible deniability
You're obligated to do it too. They used to pay baggers and it was a separate job from cashiers. Now you play at both, super part time, and with all the money they're saving they graciously raise the price on everything.
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.
My favorite thing about some self checkouts is one big line for like 8 checkouts. You don't have to gamble with who you get in line behind.
As a customer, I 💕 self checkout: the great divide between fast and slow
It surely is. My hobby is to look at a person entering self checkout to remember who they are, as I enter the human checkout. I'm usually bagged, and paid whilst that person on the self checkout is still working through their groceries. The professional human is SO much faster than the self checkout.
It's not always the case, but in the vast majority of times it is, so I choose speed over doing it myself.
You can definitely tell some stores try to funnel people into self checkout by understaffing cashier positions sadly :( at the good ones I'm always at the cashier line as well
All of the local stores here have a mobile scanner which you take when you enter the shop. Then you walk around, take the item you want, scan it and bag it. At the self checkout you put away the scanner, register your card, pay and walk away. This is way faster than regular checkout if you have more than 3 items.
I really prefer self-checkout too. There was an initial year or two when the machines were kinda buggy and did that "unexpected item in bagging area" a lot, but you work around it: just never put your shopping bag on the scale. I scan fast and efficiently, and start bagging my stuff while the payment card is doing its thing. And when I bag my own stuff I can be sure the bread is going to be on top.
The only things I run into trouble with these days: 1. when the backend database doesn't have the right info, like some produce type is entirely missing, or the only option is for organic(=more $ and you know darn well you're not going to select that one). 2. Some stores don't use the barcode on the fruit labels, and you scan the label by accident or out of habit because the other store does use those barcodes. Both situations need a clerk to clear them, and that's 90% of the delay.
I wish I knew why Target is limiting to 10 items. It's pretty annoying. I suspect that theft is what's driving retailers away from it, rather than customers hating it.
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.
Self checkout could be fine, the failure is capitalism/corporations in execution
Turns out even under socialism, I'd still rather have someone else scan and bag my things.
I love self-checkout, because I hate waiting in line.
You would hate the self checkouts around here then.
Policy seems to be that if there isn't a queue then they should shut off half of them to save power. So now there is a queue for the self checkouts.
Also they just don't staff the regular check out lines, so your choice is to leave and go to another store.
My biggest complaint about self checkout at Walmart (specifically) is that I still have to wait in line! There's 20-ish self checkout machines of which 15-20 will be working and like fucking forty regular checkout lanes with two cashiers working. So of course there's going to be a long ass line for the self checkout!
It's lane upon lane of wasted space. If you're only ever going to have 3-4 people working then you should only have 3-4 non-self checkout lanes!
Self-checkout does not make up for stupid people.
My personal favorites are the ones that scan everything, then start bagging everything, then start looking for their card in their handbag, shoulder bag, backpack, pockets etc.
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.
CROM!
Do we have Lemmy bots? This should be a Lemmy bot!
It absolutely infuriates me when I go into a store and this thing isn't working or they don't have it to begin with. And now I have to stand behind someone in line who wants to pay with 350 coupons all of which are out of date except for one, but they don't know which one so now we're going to have to wait while the cashier checks each one.
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 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.
If you work for free, you're bound to make mistakes. Sometimes a pound of fish might get rung up as a pound of oranges.
I bought a potato yesterday that should have cost 79p but it only rang me up for 30p as the scale was broken. I'm a proper little criminal me.
Nothing tastes better than ever so slightly erroneously discounted potatoes.
Grocery stores used to have you bring in a list of what you needed and the grocer picked it all out for you from behind the counter and packed it up. If you walk through a store and put your own groceries in a cart, you're already doing free work for the owner of the store.
I wouldn't change that, and I wouldn't change self checkout. I prefer both. It's not work if I'd rather do it.
(The first paragraph is a true story, but also a joke. Doing "work" is all relative.)
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.
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.
Really? Do you actually go shopping? It’s a phenomenally regular occurrence.
It partially depends on the store. I have found that Walmart and Fred Meyer have some of the worst fucking software in existence and it's guaranteed I will have an issue when I go there. But I've never once had an issue with the Costco machines, WinCo machines, or Safeway machines. I am able to go through self-checkout even with an extremely large cart and get through it without any assistance.
And I fucking love it, it's faster, it's easier, and honestly when I'm shopping I'm usually tired and don't want to interact with anyone as it's the last chore I will do at the end of a long day of various tasks to do
Wegmans is the same way over here on the East Coast. I can check out with alcohol, someone just needs to come over to scan the override. They always have an attendant or two and I rarely have to wait. Most of the time, as soon as they see the alcohol, they come over before I have even scanned it.
When the machines don't babysit you and treat you like a theif, it goes astoundingly fast. I love self checkout, for a lot of the same reasons you do, and I get to pack my bags how I like. I avoid places with the insane systems with cameras, sensors, and scales trying to suss out if you are a theif. Especially as they don't let you scan the next item until the previous is on the other side and don't have handhelds.
The self check out was supposed to decrease the amount of cashiers the store would have to use so they wouldn't have to pay so many cashiers.
They're a detriment to society.
Why? Seems like a win for everyone. The end goal should be to eliminate all jobs so we dan spend our time doing things we enjoy.
The job hasn't been eliminated. You are just the one doing it now. The only benefit is that the store doesn't need to pay you.
You're right, it should be, but greedy CEOs will find a way to make us all still have to have jobs so they can see us toil. Remember, rich have to have something to make themselves feel above us plebeians.
Not a win for the shopper, who now has to scan and bag their own items. Not a win for the now laid-off cashier who is unemployed. Only a win for the company, which has gained free labor.
Oh no, bagging your own items. I already had to do that because we don’t have demeaning jobs like that on this side of the pond.
Massive win for me as a shopper as the self checkout is much faster and doesn’t require human interaction.
Yeah, you know, this is mostly my view on AI. Eliminate jobs! But they’re not going to ditch capitalism, so losing jobs doesn’t mean no work. It means people suffer and starve. Because businesses want us to have money, they just don’t want to pay us that money. I mean, without money, we wouldn’t buy their shit. And eliminating jobs (“costs”) means keeping more of the money for themselves. And more money for themselves means more power and sway over policy.
Can you ever foresee a future in which the world is filled with businesses hiring no one, but people still having money via UBI or however they would arrange to keep capitalism afloat through the continuous circulation of money? The more jobs they cut early, the more money they have to fight the tax increase that UBI would necessitate (in this hypothetical mostly jobless society). If we can’t secure more power in a system that actually values human life, AI and increasing automation will only lead to us, the working class, suffering and dying while the baron class keeps amassing power and money.
In short, capitalism and full automation/AI are incompatible with human life.
(I mean, capitalism is incompatible with human life. But we need a complete overhaul of the entire concept of modern life itself before we allow capitalism to go on automating. It only spells disaster for us—even though it could mean utopia. Capitalism will not let utopia exist because it’s not generating profits.)
nope. hate dealing with a cashier, never going back. If I'm grabbing an item or two, I can be out in like 2 minutes. Most places I don't even have to touch the screen or fiddle with a card reader. scan scan, tap phone, I'm out! even at wallmart you can finish a transaction without pushing anything.
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.
My troubles with self checkout usualy has to do with the confirmation weight scale which slows things down tremendously. Sam's self check out featured a lack of scale (Sam's also had a scan-as-you-go app my wife loved).
The two places I go to that have self-checkout seem to have disabled the scales. The only thing that is an understandable hassle is having to check my ID for alcohol.
One of those places knows me well enough to authorize the sale before I can get my ID out, which might be a sign that I have a different problem than the hassle of having my ID checked at the self-checkout.
And my biggest problem is that the self-checkouts I see in stores around me do not accept cash (even though earlier there WERE cash-accepting models - in the chain now merged with another). So even if there are faster lines to the self-checkout, that doesn't help me much.
they also often dont work with any discounts or bulk buy
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 love self-checkouts.
But what I love even more is having one single line for all lanes. It's ridiculous that customers have to guess which lane will move the fastest.
Making a single line is the best thing self-checkouts have introduced around here.
Also, if they won't bag my stuff for me, then I might as well be at the self-checkout. And since they don't offer plastic bags at most places around here, most don't bag your stuff for you.
If there are multiple lines and they won't bag my stuff, I'll go somewhere else that has self-checkout.
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.
Their intent was to cut jobs/costs. They worked as designed. The user experience being improved was never the real goal of these, both on the employee and customer side. I'm fine using them for a small number of items/one item, but if I'm going to buy a bunch of things or anything that requires special handling (alcohol), I just skip them. I also skip them if there's no line at a human checkout because I don't want to drive those folks out of jobs either.
The article says the expected cost savings haven't been realized because people steal stuff and generally suck at scanning & bagging their own groceries.
Ah, the retail theft claim...
Hahaha, that's awesome. I don't believe it, but it is humorous.
Shoplifting was already an issue. Self checkout has scales to check what you're bagging, and cameras. I simply don't believe it's caused a significant increase in theft, no matter how hard they try to claim it.
Further, any issues that stores have with theft/shoplifting is because they refuse to do anything about it. Thirty years ago we stopped shoplifters and took them to security where cameras recorded everything, and called the police to come pick em up. Hell, we usually had a cop on hand for this stuff, and much of security was staffed by cops/retired cops.
Fine, you'd rather let this be an insurance claim, then any issues you have with theft is no longer a concern to anyone, because clearly it's not a concern to you (that is, the company).
People know they won't be stopped/arrested. So there's almost no risk to just walking out.
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.
SCO would be better if you got the same type of scanners as the regular registers
Putting everything from the cart onto a belt, and having access to more than 2-4 sets of bags (or a whole carousel at walmart!) without the dumb "did you scan this?" prompt would make me use SCO every single time. Trying to bag groceries in current SCO is miserable, and the sensors are usually so bad that you CANT EVEN REMOVE FULL BAGS when you need to fill another bag
Some of the supermarkets here have self scanners with a belt, and a packing area big enough for 5-6 bags, it's pretty awesome.
Aside from the odd age-restricted check, the only real problem is Mrs. Scoggins buying three items on it over the course of 20 minutes
Lmao how's Walmart so bad with their self check out but Sam's club is easy? Hate using it at Walmart if I have more than a few items. At Sam's I can load up my cart, scan and pay for everything on the app, person at the exit does a quick check, and I'm out.
I've heard they try new tech at Sam's before rolling it out to the masses at Walmart
I know a few large supermarkets in yhe us that have this that have disabled the weighing and improved over time. Also having one employee for 8 machines doesn't sound like a failure
Also having one employee for 8 machines doesn’t sound like a failure
It's more like 1 employee for 20 machines at my local supermarket. They've been increasing the size of the self checkout area as more customers use them.
I don't see the benefit for me.
They save money and keep it and fire the workers........
And have us do the work for them.
I said all this at the beginning self checkout. I'm for it, but where's the discount for using it since I know it's dropping staff hours tremendously.
I've seen stores drop from 6 cashiers to 1. Listen corp, my din your work is saving you gobs in taxes, insurance, HR costs, scheduling, etc, etc. Where's my cut?
In Brazil I only see more and more places adopting it, does not seem a failure
All these things are just designed to make the shop do less work, and for you to do their job for them for free.
I'm sure in the future we won't interact with people at all, because that's whats cheapest for the company. We will be true "consumers", like animals being fed by machines.
Well, at least if capitalism continues.
I'm sure in the future we won't interact with people at all
Oh god I wish.
I can scan and bag my stuff better and faster any cashier I've met. Fuck standing in lines for someone to do it slower and shittier for me.
Honestly we all carry a barcode scanner in our pockets. If I were running a grocery store, I’d be investing in scan and go instead of self checkout
Many German supermarkets do this. You scan as you put items in the trolley.
Thinking of those two clowns at the hardware store, clearly following me around, very unsubtly acting like they were sure i was there to shoplift. They kept asking what i was looking (which was actually non specific christmas gifts) so I started throwing out meth ingredients, phosphorous, ammonia, neo citran daytime, sodium hydroxide, caustic soda, lye....I know that went right over their heads because they found me a gallon of pure crystal form dry lye. Anyways, she bagged half the stuff up without ringing it through. I'm sure i started a rumour in town, when they told their husbands bout the big biker looking dude asking for obscure chemicals. Took the lye though, that's stuffs hard to find these days.
For most of my shopping, which takes place at our local Walmart (I live in the US), I actually really like using the self-checkout. Now when we make a big grocery run, having a person there makes things easier because they can scan and bag, I can unload things onto the belt and my wife can pull bags off the little turnstile thing and put them back in our cart, but most of the time I'm just running in to grab a handful of items so when I leave I can just walk up to the kiosk, scan my stuff, scan the QR code with the Walmart app on my phone and walk out the door. It'll auto pay with the privacy card I attached to my Walmart account and give me a digital receipt to show if somebody wants to see it at the door. They even have a thing now where you can pay a monthly subscription for "Walmart+" where you can scan and pay for your items as you shop.
monthly subscription for “Walmart+” where you can scan and pay for your items as you shop and never even have to go through the registers or kiosks at all.
This isn't entirely true. You still have to stop by the self checkout and scan a code on the screen there and confirm a few things, but it is way faster.
I want my goods squeezed out of a cold unfeeling robot's bowels right into my home just as long as I don't have to see another filthy human because I use linux and think I'm a fucking cyborg
I like self checkout. Used it largely without issue for over 15 years.
Love self Checkout, but if I can't pay cash I'm not using it. And sadly they're all card only here ....
Over here stores are increasing their prices because people steal at the self-checkout. So they reduce costs by not having cashiers but then increase prices due to theft. Quite some logic.
You'd assume it's an easy balance to make: if (saving on cashiers - loss due to theft) > 0 implement self-checkout else don't implement.
Yes, but: They can shift the cost of theft onto consumers this way, without having to make their line item budget for payroll any bigger. The retailers don't give a fuck as long as they're not the ones paying.
Insurance is more likely to pay for shrink than paychecks.
At my grocery store I can't collect or use points, discounts don't register properly so you need help and no carts are allowed at self checkout. I would rather wait in line.
I hate self checkout. I don’t go shopping just to work. Fuck that, check me out and bag my shit.
Personally, I don't think the technology is a failure. It's the implementation that's the pain point.
I'm no fan of Walmart, but the local store has the lenient self checkout machines that don't make you place and leave your items in the bagging area. And there's a hand scanner for each machine. The hand scanner is pretty close to instant, so I can literally scan an entire cart full of items in under a minute (with caveats) and you don't even have to take things out of the cart to scan them (with caveats). Sometimes there are hiccups and obviously some items are sold by weight, so that'll slow things down.
But even with all that, the implementation is the pain point because they'll only have 1 person running the machines, so if they have to run off to help a customer or multiple people need help at the same time, you just have to wait. Also, the particular store I go to shuts down half the machines ridiculously early in the evening. When the machines break, they stay broken for weeks or months. And they have some kind of ridiculous system where some of the machines are cash-only, some are card-only, but the majority will accept either -- this adds to a lot of inefficiency because a lot of customers don't know which machines are which and if you mess up and pick the wrong one then things get tied up while you wait for a cashier to come and transfer you over to a different one so you can pay.
The other big factor is that customers were trained on the old shitty style self checkouts where you had to scan each item one at a time, place it in the bagging area, leave it there until you pay, and if so much as a speck of dust landed in the bagging area or a piece of onion skin fell off, it would freeze up. So even with the new lenient hand scanners, people still do it the old and slow way.
In a new stadium in my city you swipe your credit card, pick up food or drink in a little monitored area and walk out with your items. It is an interesting idea but it is also creepy. That's probably what stores will be like eventually -- at least the ones with the resources to implement something that expensive and complex.
As far as self checkout, I don't mind it for small orders or when it is more convenient for me at the grocery store. Unexpected item in bagging is a bad consumer experience, and buying produce/alcohol is also a pain. If I feel like I am going to run into trouble I head for the traditional lines.
I really despise the ones at big box hardware stores that show a video of you checking out. I'm not stealing, don't judge me or make me judge myself with that unflattering angle.
I was cool with using them (less social interaction, scan and bag at my own pace), but over time I'm getting lazier and lazier
I never understood the "less social interaction" argument. Cashiers don't care if you go through the whole interaction with them without making eye contact and only saying what's absolutely necessary for the transaction. Plus, self checkouts are very picky and if you mess anything up even a little bit they start loudly inviting someone to come help you anyway.
It's not about whether they actually care. It's about whether I'm worried they might care. It's very stressful for neurodivergent people.
Standing near someone is too much social interaction for me and I can do the self checkout blindfolded.
A human at the other end of the exchange forces you to think about that human, to consider that human, and to acknowledge the existence of that human, whether they speak or not. Don't have to feel that way with a machine.
Yes, some people are that bad that even silent interaction produces anxiety. It's why I prefer emails and texts instead of live phone calls. I can communicate on my own time after thinking it through and not feel obligated to respond immediately (that's what Asperger's does to a MF)
I would rather spend (modestly) more time checking my own than less time standing idly with nothing to do but watch some kid checking out my goods. It feels better to be an active participant. Where it breaks down for me and my 12 items is when all the self-check lanes are clogged with people trying to ring up a full cart of groceries, who still haven't figured out how to work self-checks, who are encumbered by a baby in one arm and a phone in the other hand, or who just can't move all that well.
Managers using the presence of self-check as an excuse to understaff the actual checkouts makes all of those problems worse, and makes the checkout process suck for everyone.
I worked every position in a grocery store during high school and college. I am now unwilling to work any of them without being paid to do so. And my current rate is many multiples of what they pay their employees.
I wonder if this sentiment was common when the introduced the stores where you have to go and pick up the products instead of telling someone what you want.
Part of me wishes the old dry good / mercantile shops were still a thing in my area. I still make occasional trips to stand-alone butchers, bakeries, green grocers, florists, and delis but if I need shelf stable stuff my only choices are supermarkets or convenience stores.
Same. And knowing that I have been an efficient cashier in the past makes the awkwardness of the self checkout super frustrating. If you have the items coming down the belt and are in a groove and so it regularly, you can get through a cart of items so fast. Between the poor UI and theft deterrence the self checkout is way slower.
Ans what happens to the people whose jobs are eliminated by the self checkout? Yeah, it’s a crap job, I know, I’ve done it. But if the only alternative in our current system is more homelessness and absolutely desperate poverty then I’ll skip the self checkout. I’d love to live in the glorious future where machines do all the grunt work and people are free to spend their time in better ways. But it seems humanity can’t have nice things.
Make it through the process without getting any help.
Do it as fast as a trained cashier.
In a good season, my batting average for #1 might be .300, which would not be bad were the game baseball. As far as #2 is concerned, I have never come close. It's like I throw 30 mph pitches. Things get real when I'm trying to look up bananas or something and the helper comes up behind me. "It's 4198. Here, let me do it." Thanks, I already lost #2 and you just made me lose #1…again.
I very specifically wait in line to make an actual employee scan my items and bag them. I will go out of my way to make the corporation pay someone to do the job rather than pass the labor on to me the customer. They sure as hell aren't passing on any savings to me, so they can pay a human to check me out.
The savings is your time. It’s generally much faster to go self checkout, especially for small purchases.
You do the work for the company and pay them! Fuck self-checkout!!
The value added by a cashier is not worth the amount of time I expend waiting for them to become available. Self checkout is a win for me and for the retailer.
You are free to wait for a full-service cashier if you like. I'd rather be on my way.
Nah fuck that, I don't have to talk to a single person, don't have to wait in line, don't have to have forced smalltalk, it's great
Realize that many elite schools are pay to win and these business failures make sense.
This is probably a difference between countries, but personally I love it here in the Netherlands. I go to the store after work multiple times a week and I have yet to encounter a queue or problem that stalled me longer than 1-2 minutes. Usually I can just directly walk to a self-checkout machine, check out my stuff, pay by holding my debit card (or phone) against the payment terminal, and be on my way. I like it way more than the old way of doing things, because I now have time to properly pack my bag and I don't have to talk to anyone. It's also way more space efficient. There's even the option to take a scanner with you so you can scan while shopping, though I have yet to try that.
I'm not using it only because the two retailers in the country don't need to have my credit card info and/or phone number.
I just watched a comedy special where the comedian calls them the "the shoplifter lanes".
Unstaffed tills were supposed to revolutionise shopping.
They were?
Self-checkout systems are already old fashioned. Most stores in my town have apps for that now, where customers scan items as they bag them in their own bags while walking through the store and then just beep out. This removes the need for a queue, the payment terminal, the receipt and the stupid exit gate. Customers are allegedly randomly checked, but I've never seen that.
I hate self-checkout. It's just annoying and a downgrade from an actual. cashier. I'll use it when I have to. But really it's just terrible.
However, scan as you shop. That's just great. Put your bags in the trolley, scan and put it straight in the bag. Go to checkout machine, pay and your stuff is already bagged.
Well, I work in retail exactly in this field for chain of roughly 100 small grocery stores mostly in rural villages in central/eastern Europe. We do have couple larger stores, where larger doesn't mean big in global scale, for us it means they need 2 cash registers most of the day.
We do have few stores equipped with self check out registers too. There are 3 types for us and all of them with different pros and cons.
Bigger stores. We have 2 stores where we installed SCOs as an addition to regular check outs. It works great if you have just a couple items and don't want to wait for those 3 people standing in line. I prefer to use them with most of my shopping there, because they are often empty/instantly available unlike regular check outs.
We have 3 small village stores with one regular check out that we expanded with one SCO. These shops are open 24/7, while cashiers are there for roughly 8 hours a day and the rest is full automatic. You get in through ID, pick your stuff, check out and leave. It is great idea, but prety novel in this region and people are not used to it yet. Remember we're talking about villages with less than 1000 people.
We also have 2 completely self check out stores. Meaning there's no live personnel tobinteract with, only one person to go in, refill shelves and leavd. There's only one SCO and it also works 24/7 as number 2. This is in the smallest villages, with under 500 people and it's pretty successful so far. People are happy they have place to shop locally, because if it wasn't for this they'd be left without shop whatsoever.
Just my 2 cents. Also bear in mind this is Europe, where people are definitely not used to take long drives very often. Especially not because your everyday shopping needs. Be happy to answer if you had some questions.
Got a dozen cans of soup. Scanned ten cans of soup. Got two pounds of bulk pine nuts ($34.99/lb). Paid for two pounds of bulk barley ($2.49/lb). Etc.
“One thing that we have learned is that piracy is not a pricing issue. It’s a service issue" -- Gabe Newell
Oh come on, really?
Don't get me wrong, I don't care about some big chain losing some money, for me it's a matter of principle to not fuck with the system unless really needed.
Two cans of soup, I don't care. But pine nuts? Cheating the system for some "luxury" goods and not some essentials is pretty low.
Corporate is cheating the system just to save a few bucks in wages. I see it as OP balancing the books.
I would have been more understanding if it was always on the level of two extra cans of soup or comparable.
But 2 lbs of pine nuts is not balancing the scales, that's abusing the system.
It depends on the country, but in the US I see nothing wrong with this. Wage disparity is so high here that taking items from a store owned by billionaires doesn't feel like much of a crime. I wouldnt do it, personally, unless I was less well off financially, but I am most definitely not going to judge someone else for doing it.
I mean I could understand (but not necessarily approve) if it would be a few everyday groceries here and there. But pine nuts? 2 lbs? Sorry, but that's just ridiculous.
I can completely understand if people have to steal food to make ends meet. It's a tragedy that they have to do it, but it's the system's fault and not theirs.
But OP doesn't seem to fit into that category.
To be honest, my uncivilized self doesn't even know what a pine nut is, so if you say it's a luxury item, I'll take your word for it. In that case, I can agree that it's a bit ridiculous and selfish. Still I wouldn't call the cops or anything. If it was my friends or family I'd most definitely give them a hard time about it, though.
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.
Link to said piece
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Link to said piece
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Thank you kind sir!
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
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.
Is there something weird about how your Home Depot did it? I absolutely love the self-checkout at the Home Depots in my state. They all have the wireless hand scanners so I just pull my cart up, beep beep beep beep beep beep beep and off I go I fucking hated before they had self checkout at Home Depots it always took for fucking ever now I'm in and out regardless of whether I need one thing or 20 things
There are two in my area and both have the same problem: there will be a single non-pro bank of 8 self-checkout lanes, and then a bunch of empty lanes, one or two of which will have cashiers. Of the 8 self check-outs , one or two are always broken, so that leaves 6. Add in a bunch of large/heavy/bulky items that are hard to scan and now the line for self check-out is pushed back into the store, blocking multiple lanes and aisles. And as soon as you have certain items in your cart (molding/lumber by the LF, loose fasteners, etc.) you need an assistant to come help you anyway. Maybe it's just the customers in my stores, but it's just a terrible, slow, inefficient process.
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.
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.
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
Literally the opposite of Scotland. Must say thanks or cheers when leaving bus. Weird not to
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.
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
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.
What you're requesting is exactly how Amazon fresh works. the cart itself has barcode scanners on it
Boo Amazon. But great idea
You can do scan and go at Walmart now, if you were previously only using that at Sam's Club. It's fantastic.
Check out USA. Not behind on tech. Congratulations
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.
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.
When I was using food stamps/EBT, I was audited every time I used the hand scanner at Stop and Shop. Luckily, I don't have to use food stamps anymore.
Well that's some bull. The software knows what items are covered and which aren't, so that's just assuming folks needing help are thieves.
Yeah, luckily an Aldi opened down the street and I started shopping there. I don't need food stamps now but with the way prices are going...
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.
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.
To be fair, anything that allows a Swiss person to avoid small talk will be overwhelming popular.
Am.. am I swiss?
All of Lemmy is Swiss apparently
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.
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.
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.
At my grocery store the line for self checkout is longer than for the registers, so people would very much be waiting for you. And instead of the time the cashier takes to scan all your stuff being out of your control, they'll judge you personally for being slow instead.
Even with the same lenght line, in here you'd get through much faster because instead of lining up for the one register you're lining up to several self-checkouts
But the people at the self checkouts do it at a fourth of the speed, so it cancels out. Plus the line for the self checkouts is four times as long anyway.
Although it's not always easy to predict how long something takes. Self checkout is less vulnerable to someone paying in all nickels or having an issue with their food stamps. I'll take that chance to not have to stand there and guess what species of banana I'm trying to buy, though.
Not here, people at the self check-outs go fast because they usually have less stuff and slower boomers are afraid of them anyway so they'll be out of your way.
Here you weight your vegetables, fruits, candies in the shop before you go to the checkout. Apart from Lidl which has either the cashier weighting them for you at the register or you'll weight them at the checkout. But it's the odd one out
I remember we weighed our own vegetables in Norway in the 90s. It stopped when they got the fancy registers which scanned barcodes and had a built-in scale.
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.
What are they talking about, self checkouts are great. It makes the shopping experience more fair for those with fewer items
I feel the people who don't like self checkout keep trying to push the idea that it's bad or putting people out of jobs, rather than just admitting it's convenient for most people. If i want to buy one or two items I don't want to queue up behind 5 people with a full trolley.
I don’t like self checkouts, but not because of that. Probably depends on what chains you go to / where in the world you live, but it was almost always very slow and full of errors for me (most of the time, incorrectly detecting the weight of either side, thus stopping the whole process and making me wait for a human to unlock it). And even if everthing goes well, I have no chance to even reach half the speed that a cashier can.
The one exception is a clothing store that used RFID tags. You put the items in the box and everything is instantly scanned, no mistakes. If it were like that everywhere, I would much prefer it.
This is a very good point- consider all of the friction points that make self-checkout slow and cumbersome. How many of them apply to manned checkouts?
The weight thing is absolutely the most frustrating, and I would put money that it's not an effective theft deterrent.
I don't know if it's intentional, but the places around me seem to have largely solved the problem of cashiers being faster, by putting the slowest people on earth as cashiers...
I've never seen a clothing store using RFID tags before but that's quite interesting technology. I've just done some reading up on it and I hope more places start using it it seems convenient and something I'd like to see adopted on a large scale.
It's pretty great. Though I'm sure it's built into the price (assuming they're talking about Uniqlo).
On the other hand, being able to walk into the supermarket, fill a trolly, then walk through an archway to get rung up...That would be pretty amazing.
Don't know what country you're in, but Decathlon in the UK (and possibly other countries) does this. There are no traditional manned checkouts in there at all.
Before they put self checkout, we had a fast lane, 10items max. Now no more of fast lane.
I have a lot of anxiety, sure I can just 'get over it' or ignore it and go to the actual cashier, but I love having the ability to scan things myself, it is also much quicker because I usually have less items than most. They still have the employee there, there are still other cashiers so I've never seen it get too hectic where I go.
Having express self-checkoit is great. The Kroger near me went full-self-checkout. They have large kiosks that mimmic the traditional checkout belt kiosks, except the customer scans at the head of the belt and the items move into the bagging area.
If you have a full cart, you scan all the items, checkout, walk to the end of the belt, and bag all of your items. Takes twice as long as bagging while a cashier scans (for solo shoppers), and because of the automatic belt the next customer cannot start scanning until you finish bagging, or their items will join the pile of your items.
It effectively destroys all parallelism is the process (bagging while scanning, customers pre-loading their items with a divider while the prior customer is still being serviced), and with zero human operated checkouts running you get no choice
Especially those ones where you can grab a hand scanner to scan your items as you go, and use it to put everything into the terminal when paying.
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.
My only critique of self checkout is, when the machine has an error, or if I'm buying alcohol, I have to wait 5 minutes for someone to come fix the problem because there's 10 self checkout kiosks, but only one employee tending them.
That and if your buying more than 20 items and it's a scale.you know after about half a cart it's going to start bitching at you.
"Please place item in bagging area. UNEXPECTED ITEM IN BAGGING AREA!!!"
Please wait for assistance. meanwhile our cashier is busy helping terminal one be allowed buy floor stocked nasal decongestant, terminal three is waiting to be authorized to buy a lighter, and the person at terminal four can't figure out the pad is asking them for their loyalty number and has a coupon they'd like to use.
I just don't use self checkout when buying alcohol or big carts since it's too cramped. At least at all the stores I've been to the attendant is always available so I never have to wait if something goes wrong. Maybe it depends on how tech savvy the area you're in is?
Over here in Germany you can prove your age with your girocard, your bank knows whether you're over 16/18 and relaying that information is good enough in the eyes of the law.
The machines had problems like 10 years ago, but I've had zero problems with them in recent years. Used to be a few of them were always broken and bulk items were hard to find, but now I've not run into any problems. They're great for small purchases, but they're too cramped for big purchases so the belts are still needed.
I see you've never had to use Kroger self checkouts. It's almost like they're purpose built to slow you down.
They got worse recently, too, at least locally. You can't even turn off the insistent voice anymore, so now I have to hear it repeat "please scan your next item and place it in the bag" a dozen times, usually cut off because it takes longer for the damn machine to say that than it does for me to actually scan shit. And now they've added cameras which get easily confused if you, like me, usually just hold your few items in your hands while you're scanning, thinking you're trying to "dupe" the scanner.
I use them but don't like them. Putting people out of work should not be the goal. I mean it's like the manufactured this only have one or two tills open at a time. Then bring in self checkouts to fix the issue the problem. They could have had more cashiers in the first place.
Jobs that don't pay a living wage should not exist. Imagine if our ancestors had accepted spending 200 calories to hunter/gather 100 calories worth of food. Low wage jobs are a trap that send people deeper into poverty.
Also, putting all people out of work forever should be the ultimate goal - automate all the things!
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
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.
Ehm, it's pretty much a success where I'm from. Sounds more like a personal opinion.
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.
self checkout is a default for me
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.
Oh shit, I just started going to Aldi and sounds like I am one of the idiots doing it wrong. The store I am going to seems to be setup same as a typical SCO though. I don't know that I have noticed a bagging counter. Will be looking next trip I guess.
Ah I'm mostly grumbling anyways. The SCOs look the same as anywhere else had I begun shopping at Aldi after SCOs got there I probably wouldn't do anything different either.
But famously the cashiers at Aldi were super fast. They don't bag anything. They just toss it into your cart. They'd often have a spare cart or two and if you had a lot of groceries they'd put it into a new cart for you instead of waiting for yours to be empty. (And also is one of very few places in the US where they let cashiers sit down).
People who would attempt to bag their groceries while at the cashier (unless they only had a few things and got it done very quick) would attract ire from both the cashier and other customers for holding things up since they'd usually be done scanning before you'd get done bagging. Check this meme: https://x.com/ladbible/status/1270736248546758656 and the replies to it calling them out for bagging at checkout.
After you checkout, you were meant to go to the bagging counter and bag your stuff (in your own bags or some people use empty display boxes.) The bagging counter is on the front wall of the store right by the exit (see picture)
But if you notice next time, all the store brand stuff (90% of the stuff there) has unusually large and tall barcodes usually on multiple sides to help the cashiers be as fast as they are.
Also the SCOs at ALDI are some of the quickest I've EVER used in terms of scanning items. It doesn't need any delay between scans. If I only have one layer of stuff in my cart I usually just scan it while it's still in the cart using the hand scanner and can be gone in under two minutes.
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
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.
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...
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.
I don't think that's what the article is talking about. The cart and hand scanner are different.
I know entirely too many people who don't use the hand scanner, and it's crazy to me. It is by far the most efficient way to shop. I get irrationally angry when there are people in the self checkout line with a whole cart of groceries. This line is not for you. Get with the times.
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
It is 100% implementation. In other countries there's either a staff member watching over all the self checkouts to make everything go smoothly, or a kind of electronic gate that only let's you leave after scanning a receipt. Usually the scanners are much more reliable and theres a usable UI. Plus a modicum of trust. Also thise hand scanners you can carry around the shop so you don't have to do it at the end (although I think if seen some of them around now).
In the UK there's usually the weight detection mechanic that slows things down 10x and no interactivity with the machine other than it loudly telling you you're doing it wrong. You often need to ask for help anyway.
If it was a quick and easy experience the scheme wouldn't fail.
There's no extra gate or dedicated staff member in my store only whoever's at the till and if the self-checkout is busy they're too busy to watch them.
What I did notice though is that they now put anti-theft tags on more stuff, e.g. the ones on big packages of sausages are new. But it's still the same open beep gate at the end, which I actually triggered exactly once and that was when using the manned checkout, they're older and cashiers need to deactivate the tags manually (and they missed my coffee), the self-checkout ones apparently do it reliably when you're scanning the item.
Over time I think that's probably where this is heading. The store still uses those very old EM fuses/amplifiers as anti-theft tags and of course ordinary barcodes, at some point the larger industry is going to switch to RFID for everything and every item will know whether it's been paid for.
If they cannot apply best before rebates then the store needs to change the system of applying them. One of our local chains uses orange stickers with new barcodes for best before discounts so the self checkout scans and accepts the new barcode with a lower price.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.....
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;
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"?
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.
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.
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.
If you are talking about Germany, yes. I recently (3 years) moved to Germany and I love the tech. I can avoid having contact with the rude people that usually work at the tills.
If the people at the till are rude your problem is probably that you're living in Berlin.
In the US people working the tills are usually TOO nice and you don't want to make smalltalk with them. Only in NYC have I encountered rude till people, and even there, most are pretty pleasant.
To prove your point, will you be my friend?
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.
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.
I love self checkout, I can steal from corporations with plausible deniability
You're obligated to do it too. They used to pay baggers and it was a separate job from cashiers. Now you play at both, super part time, and with all the money they're saving they graciously raise the price on everything.
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.
My favorite thing about some self checkouts is one big line for like 8 checkouts. You don't have to gamble with who you get in line behind.
As a customer, I 💕 self checkout: the great divide between fast and slow
It surely is. My hobby is to look at a person entering self checkout to remember who they are, as I enter the human checkout. I'm usually bagged, and paid whilst that person on the self checkout is still working through their groceries. The professional human is SO much faster than the self checkout.
It's not always the case, but in the vast majority of times it is, so I choose speed over doing it myself.
You can definitely tell some stores try to funnel people into self checkout by understaffing cashier positions sadly :( at the good ones I'm always at the cashier line as well
All of the local stores here have a mobile scanner which you take when you enter the shop. Then you walk around, take the item you want, scan it and bag it. At the self checkout you put away the scanner, register your card, pay and walk away. This is way faster than regular checkout if you have more than 3 items.
I really prefer self-checkout too. There was an initial year or two when the machines were kinda buggy and did that "unexpected item in bagging area" a lot, but you work around it: just never put your shopping bag on the scale. I scan fast and efficiently, and start bagging my stuff while the payment card is doing its thing. And when I bag my own stuff I can be sure the bread is going to be on top.
The only things I run into trouble with these days: 1. when the backend database doesn't have the right info, like some produce type is entirely missing, or the only option is for organic(=more $ and you know darn well you're not going to select that one). 2. Some stores don't use the barcode on the fruit labels, and you scan the label by accident or out of habit because the other store does use those barcodes. Both situations need a clerk to clear them, and that's 90% of the delay.
I wish I knew why Target is limiting to 10 items. It's pretty annoying. I suspect that theft is what's driving retailers away from it, rather than customers hating it.
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.
Self checkout could be fine, the failure is capitalism/corporations in execution
Turns out even under socialism, I'd still rather have someone else scan and bag my things.
I love self-checkout, because I hate waiting in line.
You would hate the self checkouts around here then.
Policy seems to be that if there isn't a queue then they should shut off half of them to save power. So now there is a queue for the self checkouts.
Also they just don't staff the regular check out lines, so your choice is to leave and go to another store.
My biggest complaint about self checkout at Walmart (specifically) is that I still have to wait in line! There's 20-ish self checkout machines of which 15-20 will be working and like fucking forty regular checkout lanes with two cashiers working. So of course there's going to be a long ass line for the self checkout!
It's lane upon lane of wasted space. If you're only ever going to have 3-4 people working then you should only have 3-4 non-self checkout lanes!
Self-checkout does not make up for stupid people.
My personal favorites are the ones that scan everything, then start bagging everything, then start looking for their card in their handbag, shoulder bag, backpack, pockets etc.
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.
CROM!
Do we have Lemmy bots? This should be a Lemmy bot!
It absolutely infuriates me when I go into a store and this thing isn't working or they don't have it to begin with. And now I have to stand behind someone in line who wants to pay with 350 coupons all of which are out of date except for one, but they don't know which one so now we're going to have to wait while the cashier checks each one.
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.
Same here in Switzerland, very well made and pretty efficient. But I really hate the fact that I'm basically working for the store.
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.
If you work for free, you're bound to make mistakes. Sometimes a pound of fish might get rung up as a pound of oranges.
I bought a potato yesterday that should have cost 79p but it only rang me up for 30p as the scale was broken. I'm a proper little criminal me.
Nothing tastes better than ever so slightly erroneously discounted potatoes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_miGclPFGs
Grocery stores used to have you bring in a list of what you needed and the grocer picked it all out for you from behind the counter and packed it up. If you walk through a store and put your own groceries in a cart, you're already doing free work for the owner of the store.
I wouldn't change that, and I wouldn't change self checkout. I prefer both. It's not work if I'd rather do it.
(The first paragraph is a true story, but also a joke. Doing "work" is all relative.)
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 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.
Really? Do you actually go shopping? It’s a phenomenally regular occurrence.
It partially depends on the store. I have found that Walmart and Fred Meyer have some of the worst fucking software in existence and it's guaranteed I will have an issue when I go there. But I've never once had an issue with the Costco machines, WinCo machines, or Safeway machines. I am able to go through self-checkout even with an extremely large cart and get through it without any assistance.
And I fucking love it, it's faster, it's easier, and honestly when I'm shopping I'm usually tired and don't want to interact with anyone as it's the last chore I will do at the end of a long day of various tasks to do
Wegmans is the same way over here on the East Coast. I can check out with alcohol, someone just needs to come over to scan the override. They always have an attendant or two and I rarely have to wait. Most of the time, as soon as they see the alcohol, they come over before I have even scanned it.
When the machines don't babysit you and treat you like a theif, it goes astoundingly fast. I love self checkout, for a lot of the same reasons you do, and I get to pack my bags how I like. I avoid places with the insane systems with cameras, sensors, and scales trying to suss out if you are a theif. Especially as they don't let you scan the next item until the previous is on the other side and don't have handhelds.
The self check out was supposed to decrease the amount of cashiers the store would have to use so they wouldn't have to pay so many cashiers.
They're a detriment to society.
Why? Seems like a win for everyone. The end goal should be to eliminate all jobs so we dan spend our time doing things we enjoy.
The job hasn't been eliminated. You are just the one doing it now. The only benefit is that the store doesn't need to pay you.
You're right, it should be, but greedy CEOs will find a way to make us all still have to have jobs so they can see us toil. Remember, rich have to have something to make themselves feel above us plebeians.
Not a win for the shopper, who now has to scan and bag their own items. Not a win for the now laid-off cashier who is unemployed. Only a win for the company, which has gained free labor.
Oh no, bagging your own items. I already had to do that because we don’t have demeaning jobs like that on this side of the pond.
Massive win for me as a shopper as the self checkout is much faster and doesn’t require human interaction.
Yeah, you know, this is mostly my view on AI. Eliminate jobs! But they’re not going to ditch capitalism, so losing jobs doesn’t mean no work. It means people suffer and starve. Because businesses want us to have money, they just don’t want to pay us that money. I mean, without money, we wouldn’t buy their shit. And eliminating jobs (“costs”) means keeping more of the money for themselves. And more money for themselves means more power and sway over policy.
Can you ever foresee a future in which the world is filled with businesses hiring no one, but people still having money via UBI or however they would arrange to keep capitalism afloat through the continuous circulation of money? The more jobs they cut early, the more money they have to fight the tax increase that UBI would necessitate (in this hypothetical mostly jobless society). If we can’t secure more power in a system that actually values human life, AI and increasing automation will only lead to us, the working class, suffering and dying while the baron class keeps amassing power and money.
In short, capitalism and full automation/AI are incompatible with human life.
(I mean, capitalism is incompatible with human life. But we need a complete overhaul of the entire concept of modern life itself before we allow capitalism to go on automating. It only spells disaster for us—even though it could mean utopia. Capitalism will not let utopia exist because it’s not generating profits.)
You're right! There should be no jobs!
nope. hate dealing with a cashier, never going back. If I'm grabbing an item or two, I can be out in like 2 minutes. Most places I don't even have to touch the screen or fiddle with a card reader. scan scan, tap phone, I'm out! even at wallmart you can finish a transaction without pushing anything.
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.
My troubles with self checkout usualy has to do with the confirmation weight scale which slows things down tremendously. Sam's self check out featured a lack of scale (Sam's also had a scan-as-you-go app my wife loved).
The two places I go to that have self-checkout seem to have disabled the scales. The only thing that is an understandable hassle is having to check my ID for alcohol.
One of those places knows me well enough to authorize the sale before I can get my ID out, which might be a sign that I have a different problem than the hassle of having my ID checked at the self-checkout.
And my biggest problem is that the self-checkouts I see in stores around me do not accept cash (even though earlier there WERE cash-accepting models - in the chain now merged with another). So even if there are faster lines to the self-checkout, that doesn't help me much.
they also often dont work with any discounts or bulk buy
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 love self-checkouts.
But what I love even more is having one single line for all lanes. It's ridiculous that customers have to guess which lane will move the fastest.
Making a single line is the best thing self-checkouts have introduced around here.
Also, if they won't bag my stuff for me, then I might as well be at the self-checkout. And since they don't offer plastic bags at most places around here, most don't bag your stuff for you.
If there are multiple lines and they won't bag my stuff, I'll go somewhere else that has self-checkout.
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.
Their intent was to cut jobs/costs. They worked as designed. The user experience being improved was never the real goal of these, both on the employee and customer side. I'm fine using them for a small number of items/one item, but if I'm going to buy a bunch of things or anything that requires special handling (alcohol), I just skip them. I also skip them if there's no line at a human checkout because I don't want to drive those folks out of jobs either.
The article says the expected cost savings haven't been realized because people steal stuff and generally suck at scanning & bagging their own groceries.
Ah, the retail theft claim...
Hahaha, that's awesome. I don't believe it, but it is humorous.
Shoplifting was already an issue. Self checkout has scales to check what you're bagging, and cameras. I simply don't believe it's caused a significant increase in theft, no matter how hard they try to claim it.
Further, any issues that stores have with theft/shoplifting is because they refuse to do anything about it. Thirty years ago we stopped shoplifters and took them to security where cameras recorded everything, and called the police to come pick em up. Hell, we usually had a cop on hand for this stuff, and much of security was staffed by cops/retired cops.
Fine, you'd rather let this be an insurance claim, then any issues you have with theft is no longer a concern to anyone, because clearly it's not a concern to you (that is, the company).
People know they won't be stopped/arrested. So there's almost no risk to just walking out.
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.
SCO would be better if you got the same type of scanners as the regular registers
Putting everything from the cart onto a belt, and having access to more than 2-4 sets of bags (or a whole carousel at walmart!) without the dumb "did you scan this?" prompt would make me use SCO every single time. Trying to bag groceries in current SCO is miserable, and the sensors are usually so bad that you CANT EVEN REMOVE FULL BAGS when you need to fill another bag
Some of the supermarkets here have self scanners with a belt, and a packing area big enough for 5-6 bags, it's pretty awesome.
Aside from the odd age-restricted check, the only real problem is Mrs. Scoggins buying three items on it over the course of 20 minutes
Lmao how's Walmart so bad with their self check out but Sam's club is easy? Hate using it at Walmart if I have more than a few items. At Sam's I can load up my cart, scan and pay for everything on the app, person at the exit does a quick check, and I'm out.
I've heard they try new tech at Sam's before rolling it out to the masses at Walmart
I know a few large supermarkets in yhe us that have this that have disabled the weighing and improved over time. Also having one employee for 8 machines doesn't sound like a failure
It's more like 1 employee for 20 machines at my local supermarket. They've been increasing the size of the self checkout area as more customers use them.
I don't see the benefit for me.
They save money and keep it and fire the workers........
And have us do the work for them.
I said all this at the beginning self checkout. I'm for it, but where's the discount for using it since I know it's dropping staff hours tremendously.
I've seen stores drop from 6 cashiers to 1. Listen corp, my din your work is saving you gobs in taxes, insurance, HR costs, scheduling, etc, etc. Where's my cut?
In Brazil I only see more and more places adopting it, does not seem a failure
Same in Europe, it seems a success.
All these things are just designed to make the shop do less work, and for you to do their job for them for free.
I'm sure in the future we won't interact with people at all, because that's whats cheapest for the company. We will be true "consumers", like animals being fed by machines.
Well, at least if capitalism continues.
Oh god I wish.
I can scan and bag my stuff better and faster any cashier I've met. Fuck standing in lines for someone to do it slower and shittier for me.
Honestly we all carry a barcode scanner in our pockets. If I were running a grocery store, I’d be investing in scan and go instead of self checkout
Many German supermarkets do this. You scan as you put items in the trolley.
Sam's club has this and it is amazing
i only check myself out whenever i shoplift
You mean selecting the non-organic item but you actually have organic one? Would be an "honest" mistake.
Thinking of those two clowns at the hardware store, clearly following me around, very unsubtly acting like they were sure i was there to shoplift. They kept asking what i was looking (which was actually non specific christmas gifts) so I started throwing out meth ingredients, phosphorous, ammonia, neo citran daytime, sodium hydroxide, caustic soda, lye....I know that went right over their heads because they found me a gallon of pure crystal form dry lye. Anyways, she bagged half the stuff up without ringing it through. I'm sure i started a rumour in town, when they told their husbands bout the big biker looking dude asking for obscure chemicals. Took the lye though, that's stuffs hard to find these days.
For most of my shopping, which takes place at our local Walmart (I live in the US), I actually really like using the self-checkout. Now when we make a big grocery run, having a person there makes things easier because they can scan and bag, I can unload things onto the belt and my wife can pull bags off the little turnstile thing and put them back in our cart, but most of the time I'm just running in to grab a handful of items so when I leave I can just walk up to the kiosk, scan my stuff, scan the QR code with the Walmart app on my phone and walk out the door. It'll auto pay with the privacy card I attached to my Walmart account and give me a digital receipt to show if somebody wants to see it at the door. They even have a thing now where you can pay a monthly subscription for "Walmart+" where you can scan and pay for your items as you shop.
This isn't entirely true. You still have to stop by the self checkout and scan a code on the screen there and confirm a few things, but it is way faster.
I want my goods squeezed out of a cold unfeeling robot's bowels right into my home just as long as I don't have to see another filthy human because I use linux and think I'm a fucking cyborg
That's not how it works with the stores I frequent. Usually about half the self-checkout kiosks don't have anyone at them.
I'd shop somewhere else if they took self checkout away. It's so much faster.
I like self checkout. Used it largely without issue for over 15 years.
Love self Checkout, but if I can't pay cash I'm not using it. And sadly they're all card only here ....
Over here stores are increasing their prices because people steal at the self-checkout. So they reduce costs by not having cashiers but then increase prices due to theft. Quite some logic.
You'd assume it's an easy balance to make: if (saving on cashiers - loss due to theft) > 0 implement self-checkout else don't implement.
Yes, but: They can shift the cost of theft onto consumers this way, without having to make their line item budget for payroll any bigger. The retailers don't give a fuck as long as they're not the ones paying.
Insurance is more likely to pay for shrink than paychecks.
At my grocery store I can't collect or use points, discounts don't register properly so you need help and no carts are allowed at self checkout. I would rather wait in line.
I hate self checkout. I don’t go shopping just to work. Fuck that, check me out and bag my shit.
Personally, I don't think the technology is a failure. It's the implementation that's the pain point.
I'm no fan of Walmart, but the local store has the lenient self checkout machines that don't make you place and leave your items in the bagging area. And there's a hand scanner for each machine. The hand scanner is pretty close to instant, so I can literally scan an entire cart full of items in under a minute (with caveats) and you don't even have to take things out of the cart to scan them (with caveats). Sometimes there are hiccups and obviously some items are sold by weight, so that'll slow things down.
But even with all that, the implementation is the pain point because they'll only have 1 person running the machines, so if they have to run off to help a customer or multiple people need help at the same time, you just have to wait. Also, the particular store I go to shuts down half the machines ridiculously early in the evening. When the machines break, they stay broken for weeks or months. And they have some kind of ridiculous system where some of the machines are cash-only, some are card-only, but the majority will accept either -- this adds to a lot of inefficiency because a lot of customers don't know which machines are which and if you mess up and pick the wrong one then things get tied up while you wait for a cashier to come and transfer you over to a different one so you can pay.
The other big factor is that customers were trained on the old shitty style self checkouts where you had to scan each item one at a time, place it in the bagging area, leave it there until you pay, and if so much as a speck of dust landed in the bagging area or a piece of onion skin fell off, it would freeze up. So even with the new lenient hand scanners, people still do it the old and slow way.
In a new stadium in my city you swipe your credit card, pick up food or drink in a little monitored area and walk out with your items. It is an interesting idea but it is also creepy. That's probably what stores will be like eventually -- at least the ones with the resources to implement something that expensive and complex.
As far as self checkout, I don't mind it for small orders or when it is more convenient for me at the grocery store. Unexpected item in bagging is a bad consumer experience, and buying produce/alcohol is also a pain. If I feel like I am going to run into trouble I head for the traditional lines.
I really despise the ones at big box hardware stores that show a video of you checking out. I'm not stealing, don't judge me or make me judge myself with that unflattering angle.
It doesn't work everywhere. Smaller store like CvS? Sure
Being watched like a hawk in Walmart? Not a comfortable experience and would rather work with someone face to face
I was cool with using them (less social interaction, scan and bag at my own pace), but over time I'm getting lazier and lazier
I never understood the "less social interaction" argument. Cashiers don't care if you go through the whole interaction with them without making eye contact and only saying what's absolutely necessary for the transaction. Plus, self checkouts are very picky and if you mess anything up even a little bit they start loudly inviting someone to come help you anyway.
It's not about whether they actually care. It's about whether I'm worried they might care. It's very stressful for neurodivergent people.
Standing near someone is too much social interaction for me and I can do the self checkout blindfolded.
A human at the other end of the exchange forces you to think about that human, to consider that human, and to acknowledge the existence of that human, whether they speak or not. Don't have to feel that way with a machine.
Yes, some people are that bad that even silent interaction produces anxiety. It's why I prefer emails and texts instead of live phone calls. I can communicate on my own time after thinking it through and not feel obligated to respond immediately (that's what Asperger's does to a MF)
I would rather spend (modestly) more time checking my own than less time standing idly with nothing to do but watch some kid checking out my goods. It feels better to be an active participant. Where it breaks down for me and my 12 items is when all the self-check lanes are clogged with people trying to ring up a full cart of groceries, who still haven't figured out how to work self-checks, who are encumbered by a baby in one arm and a phone in the other hand, or who just can't move all that well.
Managers using the presence of self-check as an excuse to understaff the actual checkouts makes all of those problems worse, and makes the checkout process suck for everyone.
I worked every position in a grocery store during high school and college. I am now unwilling to work any of them without being paid to do so. And my current rate is many multiples of what they pay their employees.
I wonder if this sentiment was common when the introduced the stores where you have to go and pick up the products instead of telling someone what you want.
Part of me wishes the old dry good / mercantile shops were still a thing in my area. I still make occasional trips to stand-alone butchers, bakeries, green grocers, florists, and delis but if I need shelf stable stuff my only choices are supermarkets or convenience stores.
Same. And knowing that I have been an efficient cashier in the past makes the awkwardness of the self checkout super frustrating. If you have the items coming down the belt and are in a groove and so it regularly, you can get through a cart of items so fast. Between the poor UI and theft deterrence the self checkout is way slower.
Ans what happens to the people whose jobs are eliminated by the self checkout? Yeah, it’s a crap job, I know, I’ve done it. But if the only alternative in our current system is more homelessness and absolutely desperate poverty then I’ll skip the self checkout. I’d love to live in the glorious future where machines do all the grunt work and people are free to spend their time in better ways. But it seems humanity can’t have nice things.
I treat self-checkout as a game with 2 goals:
In a good season, my batting average for #1 might be .300, which would not be bad were the game baseball. As far as #2 is concerned, I have never come close. It's like I throw 30 mph pitches. Things get real when I'm trying to look up bananas or something and the helper comes up behind me. "It's 4198. Here, let me do it." Thanks, I already lost #2 and you just made me lose #1…again.
I very specifically wait in line to make an actual employee scan my items and bag them. I will go out of my way to make the corporation pay someone to do the job rather than pass the labor on to me the customer. They sure as hell aren't passing on any savings to me, so they can pay a human to check me out.
The savings is your time. It’s generally much faster to go self checkout, especially for small purchases.
You do the work for the company and pay them! Fuck self-checkout!!
The value added by a cashier is not worth the amount of time I expend waiting for them to become available. Self checkout is a win for me and for the retailer.
You are free to wait for a full-service cashier if you like. I'd rather be on my way.
Nah fuck that, I don't have to talk to a single person, don't have to wait in line, don't have to have forced smalltalk, it's great
I thought lemmy was anarchists and you have everyone simping for the corporate food overlords, what gives?
Realize that many elite schools are pay to win and these business failures make sense.
This is probably a difference between countries, but personally I love it here in the Netherlands. I go to the store after work multiple times a week and I have yet to encounter a queue or problem that stalled me longer than 1-2 minutes. Usually I can just directly walk to a self-checkout machine, check out my stuff, pay by holding my debit card (or phone) against the payment terminal, and be on my way. I like it way more than the old way of doing things, because I now have time to properly pack my bag and I don't have to talk to anyone. It's also way more space efficient. There's even the option to take a scanner with you so you can scan while shopping, though I have yet to try that.
I'm not using it only because the two retailers in the country don't need to have my credit card info and/or phone number.
I just watched a comedy special where the comedian calls them the "the shoplifter lanes".
They were?
Self-checkout systems are already old fashioned. Most stores in my town have apps for that now, where customers scan items as they bag them in their own bags while walking through the store and then just beep out. This removes the need for a queue, the payment terminal, the receipt and the stupid exit gate. Customers are allegedly randomly checked, but I've never seen that.
I hate self-checkout. It's just annoying and a downgrade from an actual. cashier. I'll use it when I have to. But really it's just terrible.
However, scan as you shop. That's just great. Put your bags in the trolley, scan and put it straight in the bag. Go to checkout machine, pay and your stuff is already bagged.
Well, I work in retail exactly in this field for chain of roughly 100 small grocery stores mostly in rural villages in central/eastern Europe. We do have couple larger stores, where larger doesn't mean big in global scale, for us it means they need 2 cash registers most of the day.
We do have few stores equipped with self check out registers too. There are 3 types for us and all of them with different pros and cons.
Bigger stores. We have 2 stores where we installed SCOs as an addition to regular check outs. It works great if you have just a couple items and don't want to wait for those 3 people standing in line. I prefer to use them with most of my shopping there, because they are often empty/instantly available unlike regular check outs.
We have 3 small village stores with one regular check out that we expanded with one SCO. These shops are open 24/7, while cashiers are there for roughly 8 hours a day and the rest is full automatic. You get in through ID, pick your stuff, check out and leave. It is great idea, but prety novel in this region and people are not used to it yet. Remember we're talking about villages with less than 1000 people.
We also have 2 completely self check out stores. Meaning there's no live personnel tobinteract with, only one person to go in, refill shelves and leavd. There's only one SCO and it also works 24/7 as number 2. This is in the smallest villages, with under 500 people and it's pretty successful so far. People are happy they have place to shop locally, because if it wasn't for this they'd be left without shop whatsoever.
Just my 2 cents. Also bear in mind this is Europe, where people are definitely not used to take long drives very often. Especially not because your everyday shopping needs. Be happy to answer if you had some questions.
Got a dozen cans of soup. Scanned ten cans of soup. Got two pounds of bulk pine nuts ($34.99/lb). Paid for two pounds of bulk barley ($2.49/lb). Etc.
“One thing that we have learned is that piracy is not a pricing issue. It’s a service issue" -- Gabe Newell
Oh come on, really?
Don't get me wrong, I don't care about some big chain losing some money, for me it's a matter of principle to not fuck with the system unless really needed.
Two cans of soup, I don't care. But pine nuts? Cheating the system for some "luxury" goods and not some essentials is pretty low.
Corporate is cheating the system just to save a few bucks in wages. I see it as OP balancing the books.
I would have been more understanding if it was always on the level of two extra cans of soup or comparable.
But 2 lbs of pine nuts is not balancing the scales, that's abusing the system.
It depends on the country, but in the US I see nothing wrong with this. Wage disparity is so high here that taking items from a store owned by billionaires doesn't feel like much of a crime. I wouldnt do it, personally, unless I was less well off financially, but I am most definitely not going to judge someone else for doing it.
I mean I could understand (but not necessarily approve) if it would be a few everyday groceries here and there. But pine nuts? 2 lbs? Sorry, but that's just ridiculous.
I can completely understand if people have to steal food to make ends meet. It's a tragedy that they have to do it, but it's the system's fault and not theirs.
But OP doesn't seem to fit into that category.
To be honest, my uncivilized self doesn't even know what a pine nut is, so if you say it's a luxury item, I'll take your word for it. In that case, I can agree that it's a bit ridiculous and selfish. Still I wouldn't call the cops or anything. If it was my friends or family I'd most definitely give them a hard time about it, though.