Self-Checkout Hasn't Delivered - Slashdot

Posted by msmash

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  by kellin ( 28417 ) on Monday January 15, 2024 @02:23PM (#64160565)

  I dunno. My wife prefers self-checkout when the option is available, and we never have any issues. Come to think of it, Ive pretty much fallen in line with that sentiment. There's hardly ever a line at any of the supermarkets we go to that have them, so its faster than waiting in checkout with an employee.

  • by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Monday January 15, 2024 @02:32PM (#64160619)

    I dunno. My wife prefers self-checkout when the option is available

    When i have a few items (3 or less) I use self-checkout. However, depending on when and where I go I may have to wait a bit. Some places only have 4 registers while others have 10. Around holidays there's definitely a line. At 7:50 AM on my may to work, not so much.

    When I have many items or discounted items with a special label, or individual fruits and vegetables, I use a human checkout. If there's any problems, they can correct it faster than the person at self-checkout.

  • Yeah. It's not like a regular line doesn't get stuck with waiting on a supervisor frequently as well.

    The only thing I want enforced is max items. If your cart is full, use the full service line. They are faster than you once you get over a threshold of items

  • Thieves.

    I like self checkout too, it is faster for those that know how to use it. But the 'steal things' angle was evident to be a problem from the get go.
    
    My local grocery store used to have 1 oversee 6 checkout lanes, now it is 1 oversees 4 checkouts max plus a 'receipt checker/greeter' is now posted at the exit.

    • Re:

      I like self checkout too, it is faster for those that know how to use it.
      
      I very much doubt that unless the checkers where you shop are either lazy or poorly trained, possibly both. I say that because my sister is a grocery checker and she's tried using the self check line a few times and found it much slower. Why? Because it's geared to the pace of a shopper who knows nothing about how to check themselves out and needs to be walked through each item in baby steps and doesn't allow any shortcuts such a

  • This article fails to capture: It costs around 5% of product cost (eats into margin) to pay employees to do checkout. So, they are saving 5% by going with self checkout. But: the theft rate when using self checkout is around 5% more than it was with manual checkout. So: It's basically a wash for retailers.

    • Re:

      What you either don't understand or are ignoring is that when you go through a regular check-stand, part of what you pay is going to help pay the checker's wages. If you use the self-check option, you're not getting the benefit of a checker but you're still paying for a checker's services, meaning that you're getting (slightly) ripped off and the market is getting paid for something it's not providing. This is one reason why so many places are doing their best to go self checkout only, with no (or almost

  • Re:

    People who have too many items for self-checkout are probably a sub-category of "dumb people" but this is the root of the problem in my experience.

    The more items you have, the more chances there are for something to go wrong and require assistance.

    Also, the amount of staging area you have for bagging, etc, is a lot smaller so you end up taking longer as you shuffle things around.

    Rule of thumb, if you are pushing a cart, you can't use self-checkout.

    • Re:

      You seem to assume the problem is that these people can't count, and therefore are dumb.

      This is incorrect. The people abusing self-checkout know about the limits, know they are well above those limits, and simply don't care. Basically they are, to some degree, sociopaths.

  • Re:

    It really depends, a LOT, on the management of the store.

    American stores, lag behind on self-checkout, A LOT. This is because they haven't switched exclusively to tap-to-pay.

    Canadian stores, usually the self-checkout is managed by one person and there are up to 12 self checkouts for one employee. Sometimes however half these checkouts will be out of service.

    Tap to pay makes self-check out simple and much less annoying. Then it's just up to the management of the store to have enough kiosks. Most of the store

    • Re:

      In my experience, little things like bad inventory updates can slow down check out. A grocery store might have an inventory in the tens of thousands. If the system cannot find the item, that slows things down. At a normal checkout, an experienced cashier can look up the item quickly enough or make a very quick decision about the item to keep the line moving. Other things like the self-checkout employee should be wiping the scanners clean periodically so that mis-scans are less frequent. The employee also sh

  • • My experience explicitly differs. A good checkout person is much faster than any self-checkout I've tried. That's because the self-checkout systems have to do a lot of extra work to make sure they're not over-billing and to guide the user through the process. And that includes the one time when the self-checkout clerk herself did the scanning while I watched to see if it was "just me."

      It's clear stores did not do this for 'customer convenience,' but rather to save money on checkout clerks. Again anecdotally, what I've noticed is customers move to self-checkout only when they see lines at the registers with clerks. The 'magic number' seems to be 3 customers, more than that in a line and some people move to self-checkout. Less than 3 in the queue, and people join the line for human checkout. Some people do prefer self-checkout. But I bet if stores, particularly those that have substantially decreased their staffed registers, polled customers, they'd find substantial distaste for self-checkout.

      I generally avoid stores (particularly Target and WalMart) that no longer adequately staff checkout lines. And acknowledgement to our local Market-Basket, which has NO self-checkout lines.

      • This entirely depends on the quality and calibration of the self checkout machine. My local grocery store has very well maintained machines, and I can personally scan items a tad bit faster than the experienced checkers who do it all day long. However, when I go to other stores, especially non-grocery stores, the machines are slow as hell and have that "tutorial" mentality that you describe. The one at my local grocery store has the ability to bypass every single thing it says. It could be mid-talking, and you can already scan 2-3 items ahead of what its reading. It'll ask questions like "choose a payment method", but if your credit card is already in the machine, the voice line plays, but the prompt clears itself out automatically by detecting the card reader's processing.

        As far as your thought on polling: my particular grocery store, even if NOBODY is in line for the checkers, the self checkout will still have people queue up. It is by far and away the preferred method here. But admittedly, I also live in an area that is mostly tech workers, so we're not afraid of using a screen and buttons ourselves, since that's our day jobs.

        • Re:

          Part of this may be the cashier is fatigued by the time you get to the register whereas I only have to ring up a single order and I'm outta there.

        • Re:

          Nah the self-checkout stuff is just worse equipment, especially if it has a paranoid and miscalibrated anti-theft scale. Other people have a different experience than you because some versions are mostly anti-theft. It's still in beta testing. I imagine in the future they will integrate cart RFID tracking, scales on the store shelves, and cameras. That could make for really convenient checkout, or at least replace the stupid checkout scale.

          • Re:

            Cart RFID tracking - assuming you mean "RFID tags on every item" - eliminates self checkout. You walk out the door and you are scanned and debited (or, if your credit card declines, possibly disintegrated by high-wattage lasers?). A system that seems less costly and potentially actually viable is Amazon's method of basically having machine vision watch everything you pick up and put back.

        • Re:

          Mod parent up. This is the fundamental problem with self checkout machines.

          Done well, they're great. The problem is that they're generally not done well. My favorite example is two grocery stores near me. One of them allows me to search alphabetically for non barcoded items such as bulk produce. By the time I've punched in "ONI", there's five pictures of different kinds of onions, and it's easy to tap a picture for "Green Onions" from there; it takes about as long as entering a four digit code. The other st

        • Re:

          It does not depend on that. At least not solely.

          Local stores here around have very well maintained self-checkouts (colleagues of mine service them, so I have some insider knowledge), and still, the cashier is faster at scanning the items. I go to the self checkout only if there is a booth free right now, and I don't have too many items to scan, otherwise, it's too much hassle as I have to wait for the supervisor to unlock the booth again after something does not run as smoothly as required.

          A cashier sca

      • Extra steps

        >> That's because the self-checkout systems have to do a lot of extra work to make sure they're not over-billing and to guide the user through the process.

        There's also a lot of unnecessary steps like "Do you want to apply for our store credit card/loyalty card?" and "Do you want us to email you the receipt?" (and put you on our mailing list) and "Do you want to donate to our selected charity?" (and not receive a tax receipt). Sure, the human checkout clerks are probably supposed to ask those annoying

    • Re:

      And how many kids do you guys have? Buying a shopping cart full as opposed to a hand-basket introduces far more chances that something will go wrong and you have to stand there waiting for someone to come help you.

      And their bagging area is not big enough. Also some items like cakes don't like being turned upside down to scan. And vegetables are in their systems under weird names. Not to mention your kids will go grab something off the scale and you will again have to call someone over.

      So for me, it's u

    • • Re:

        No. I don't go to the store to be social, I go to purchase things I need and/or want. I really don't care to chit-chat with some random person standing in line with me about something I'm most likely not interested in, or the person who's dragging my items across a scanner who gets this confused distant, sometimes terrified, stare if the proper frequency beep isn't emitted.

        • • • Re:

              Every supermarket I know, weighs the items as they're scanned, so leaving everything in the cart is not an option. If one has a large item, a shop assistant is required to exempt the weighing step.

• should be put into a home for their own safety.

  • Re:

    Store owners should have checked out for themselves the promises made by self-checkout.

  • Re:

    I'm kind of surprised by it, at least in the case of Costco.

    It has actually changed how I use the store, because now I can get in and out so much faster than before.

    Hopefully since it's a membership place and they check receipts on the way out, theft and "accidents" are less common and it will continue to be offered there.

• I much prefer self-checkout. I have had some minor issues but overall I like not interacting with cashiers who often make the same mistakes I might. The occasional void/interaction with staff is not a show stopper for me.

  • Re:

    Same here. Self checkout is far faster for me. I also bag things grouped the way that works for me.

    Self checkout also means I don't pay for plastic bags. The default is 0 and I select ok.

• Yeah, it's really weird that people don't want to have to do more work in their spare time.

  Give me a 10% discount on my bill and I'll self-checkout every time. Saving yourself labor by using mine isn't going to be a solid business model for you.

  • Re:

    I'll gladly do more work if I don't have to wait in line behind 3 other people with carts full of groceries. By using self-checkout, I end up with *more* spare time that I can use to relax later. Waiting while an old lady fumbles to pull out her paper checkbook is a an orders of magnitude worse experience than scanning my own items.

    • Re:

      But that assumes that actually happens. The self checkout in front of you causing an error that takes an employee forever to clear is even more annoying than rolling your eyes at an old lady. And people checkout slower than cashiers do to begin with, so it relies on having enough functional machines to start with. Then add to that that stores then reduce staff, so although yeah you might have gotten stuck behind a an old lady in a line... there used to be more open lines.

      • Re:

        Be that as it may, on the whole, I wait far less time now than I did 10 or 20 years ago.

        Probably one reason for that is that in the USA, self checkouts almost always use a shared queue, while traditional registers almost never do. If some shopper gets stuck waiting for assistance at a self checkout, one of the other five stations will probably free up shortly anyway. If some item has a database error with a human cashier, everyone in that line waits while they get a lackey to run back and find the item for

    • Re:

      "wait in line behind 3 other people with carts full of groceries"
      The "10 item or less" line was supposed to fix that.

      • Re:

        The other annoying thing about the "10 items or less" lane is that, in America at least, they still accept checks and bulging sacks of small change as payment methods at these registers.

  • Re:

    If they give you a 10% discount, they are losing out for sure. It costs around 5% of a product's cost to pay for manual checkout employee's wages.

  • Re:

    I generally go for the self-checkouts when I can because I can usually get through the line in about 5 minutes and get through my purchase in a couple of minutes.

    I understand some people don't want to do it - they're free to line up and have the cashier check them out. It's a free country and we have a choice.

    For me, the self-checkouts represent a way to offer more checkouts - the store may have 6 checkout stands, but as everyone knows, only 2 are actually in use at any one time. So stores remove 2 stands a

    • Re:

      This is what I do as well - and for the same reason. Plus I try to shop frequently enough that the number of items I will be purchasing is under the limit for self-checkout (which is "around 15 items" at my local store - which is only 3-4 minutes from my house). Not to mention that I typically shop between 9-11pm when the store is not busy and the self-checkout kiosks are mostly free.

      When I do need to make a larger shopping trip, more often than not I'll place an online order and take advantage of curbside

• "It hasn't delivered anything that it promises," says Christopher Andrews

  I prefer using self-checkout to regular checkout at most stores (or alternatives like the walmart app where you can scan as you shop). I don't have problems with the tech, I'm happy with the experience.

  So, it has completely delivered what it promised for me, a shopping experience that I prefer and saves time.

  Shoplifting and cost savings are concerns of the store, and they are valid concerns. Personally I would increase penalties (or being back penalties for the states that have effectively decriminalized shoplifting) rather than blame shoplifting on self-checkouts.

  • Re:

    Shoplifting has become far easier with self-checkout. For example, let's say I go to the deli and have some meat and cheese cut for me. I now have two small plastic bags. On my way up to self-checkout I fold over the plastic from the deli meat and put the bag behind the cheese. When I scan my order I only scan the cheese. Using my free hand, I scan my card, input my PIN, and take my receipt. The person who's watching everyone would have to be pretty sharp to see I only scanned the top item.

    The same c

    • Re:

      Every self-checkout I have gone to requires you to place the item on the holding scale after scanning it. If you don't place it there, it won't let you proceed. If you place items that haven't been scanned, it won't allow you to proceed. In your case, if you place the meat/cheese combo, it will weight too much (you scanned only the cheese).

      • Re:

        This used to be quite problematic as the DBs the scale uses to determine "was that the item he said it was?" I think used net weight and a general allowance for packaging - lots of errors. Haven't had that problem in a long time at the places where I shop. Also, a few stores seem to ignore the scale completely and rely on video surveillance (Wal-mart near me doesn't seem to care if I put the item in the bagging area or not).

      • Re:

        In your case, if you place the meat/cheese combo, it will weight too much (you scanned only the cheese).

        He could scan only the item that costs less per pound/kilogram effectively getting a discount on the other.

    • Re:

      I don't know where you shop but where I shop, the weight of deli items is embedded the UPC [wikipedia.org]. If the weight is off by a lot, the machine will know.

• Self checkout is massively successful and widely adopted in the UK, for example. And British supermarkets operate in the most competitive retail market in the world, and there is no way Tesco, Sainsbury’s et al would use self checkout if it didn’t drive the metrics the way they need to go. Not with the competition from Waitrose et al on the one hand and Lidl et al on the other.

  • Re:

    Self checkout is massively successful and widely adopted in the UK, for example.

    Booth's just removed all self-checkout [businessinsider.com]. Walmart, Costco, and Kroger's are reevaluating [businessinsider.com] their self-checkout policies.

    Not saying you're wrong, just that while it might seem to be successful now, if the cost of implementing and maintaining the systems along with the increase in theft don't work in the store's favor, there could be cutbacks to self-checkout.

    • Re:

      Booths is a small regional chain that most people here (in the UK) have never heard of. All of the big chains are expanding their use of self-checkouts. Where I shop you can even get a hand scanner which lets you scan the items as you go around, when you get to the self-checkouts (for which there is never any queue) you just scan the barcode on the till, it finds the transaction and you pay. That's it. If you're buying age restricted products you do still need a staff member to approve it but there is an o

      • Re:

        One of the regional supermarkets in the Northeast US (Wegmans) just ended their scan-as-you-go program about a year ago, outright telling customers it was due to shrink. And their version required you to go through their app (you would use your phone's camera to scan barcodes) and connect to the store's Wifi. So even with all of the personal data they were collecting (supermarket loyalty account, your device info, etc.) people were still stealing.

        Irony was, when they shut down scan-as-you-go, they added a n

      • Re:

        US supermarkets trialed that "wall of hand scanners, check one out and start shopping" system a while ago - I remember using it in New York in the early 2000s. They've all been retired in favor of mobile apps that do the same thing, now. Those seem to be gaining in popularity, especially at price clubs.

  • Re:

    I love self checkout. All of the problems in the article are skill issues.

  • • Pedant

      The 2nd world was the Soviet bloc.

• Self-checkout is great in a pinch when you have very few items. It's when someone rolls a full shopping cart to the register, that things slow down. Worse, it's when stores only have self-checkers available and maybe 1 human cashier that the process is long and tedious, even if you don't need help from the attendant.
  
  That's why when self-checkers at places like Walmart prompt with a survey, I always tap 3 of 5 stars (unless the attendant helped me, then I give 5 for the attendant). I give 3 because that is average, and having to check myself out as a part-time job with my shopping is an average experience, not a 4- or 5-star experience.

• "Put your items on this little scale, as you scan them. Do not remove any until you're done or the system will lock up. The weight of any bags will lock up the system, so you have to wait until you're done and then pack things up. Scanning alcohol will cause the system to lock up."

  Great. Oh, and, "We're shutting half the stations down because of shoplifters and we couldn't watch you all closely enough and now you get to wait for you 'convenience' ".

  The human cashiers are better.

  • Re: Bad implementation

    Totally. Implementation is terrible. If it read what the basket contains and only asks for money i'd use it all the time and wait time would be 30 seconds/person.

    • Re:

      If it did that, then the assisted checkouts would work better too.

      Though I suppose it wouldn't help fix the issue where the customer stands there for 10 minutes watching the checkout and than, only when asked, realizes that they might need to pay and then starts rummaging around for a card, and then spends 3 minutes putting the card away again.

  • Re:

    This is the true reason the system is failing. There are other stores I have been to where it works great. Five Below went entirely to self scan and it is really easy because you just come up, scan your items, bag them, and then go. There isn't a bagging area that weighs every single item and stops whenever something weighs an eight of an ounce to much. And the self checkout lanes with the belts are even worse. If the belt doesn't like your item, it sometimes sends it down but them at the end alerts and som

  • Re:

    100% this. I wish I liked self-checkout. I like the concept, but in practice, it's slower than waiting for a cashier because the anti-loss features make it kick out from the standard flow 50% of the time (bags weight, your pants touching the scale, scanning a barcode that wasn't meant to be scanned because somehow broccoli heads have a barcode but this grocery store in particular wants you to input it as a "non-coded item").
    
    Except at the cheaper grocery stores around me, they now have usually 1 cashier, a
• I saw yesterday people waiting in a huge line for self checkout. A few steps away were cashiers standing idle. This tells me that self checkout are for lazy NPC.

• I use it just about whenever it's available, and I very rarely have an issue (less than once per year I'd say). I had something double-scan last fall, took like 30 seconds to get the person over to show and clear it.

  While there's still occasionally queuing, I don't have to pick one line and hope it doesn't get blocked by a slowpoke (because self-checkout usually has bank-style single-queue for multiple checkouts), I don't have to have idle chit-chat with a clerk or bagger, and I get to bag things my way (so don't throw a gallon of milk in a bag with bread or something dumb like that). It's also not like clerk check-out is 100% perfect, they'll occasionally double-scan something, run out of receipt paper, etc. I find that self-checkout is faster and smoother for me.

• Customers are still queueing

  And how!

  Our stupid local Walmart has converted most of the original checkout lanes to self-serve; I counted 30 self-checkouts (two-thirds of those '10 items or less', the rest larger with more space to place your groceries), but they're nearly useless:

  • - Most remain 'closed' because they don't have enough employees on staff to monitor all of them at once (WTF happened to the staff that used to man the traditional checkout lanes that got removed???).
  • - This creates a long queue of people waiting to get a machine, before even beginning to checkout.
  • - And thanks to the lack of staff, you have to wait a minute or more before you get help when you need it with these stupid machines. And pray you only need help once.

  What makes it worse is when of those pesky Walmart employees then hover over your shoulder and wait until you're about to pay to start pushing their Walmart Mastercard on you.

• when an cashier makes an scan error you don't get jail. But then you make an scan error at the self check out walmart does not let you pay up no they call the cops and you make go to jail and or get an demand letter to pay an $200+ fine.

  • Ironically, the least of my worries

    I'm faster at scanning than the idiots they hire, and faster at paying and all the rest. The real issue is the annoyances they put in the way in the interest of 'loss control'. It's more like 'customer control'. The more difficult they make the experience, the less likely I am to shop there.

    The loud registers yelling out every time you scan something and whining about scales not being in balance because you moved something on the tray - no interest whatsoever in going to those places. Ironically Walmart

  • Re:

    I'm waiting for someone to turn around and sue a store for not providing proper training to customers for self checkout when this happens. Someone is going to do it and it's going to be absolutely brilliant if they can pull it off.

    • Re:

      They won't risk it with anyone who would fight back. Get that in front of a judge and watch how quick the case deflates. Prosecutors would more or less refuse to pursue the case, both because of the small dollar value and the expectation that they'd lose. Then the responsive lawsuit would be more of a pain in the ass than the loss was worth. This is why Walmart trains their people to not bother with small ticket loss. Deterrence without deterring customers from coming there is the name of the game.

• Crazy, not only do I not want to pay higher prices for groceries because you want more money, I also don't want to work as your retail cashier or managing your bagging, payment systems or anything else.

  It's like I've come to your location to be a customer, and not an employee. It's as if, the prices I'm pay includes, some sort of service. Like, someone ringing me up for the purchases I want to make.

  Imagine, a new type a store, a store, that is a grocery store, where you pick out your items, walk to the front and pay for you goods after they ring them through. Not a self service warehouse.
  What's next? If the shelves don't have what I want I can go to the back and stock the shelves for you so I can buy it?

  I work in IT, how would those of you in management and execs when you have a problem, I just send you a document on how to fix it, and charge you more money as time goes on. Sounds good to me!

  • Re:

    Well why do you even want to walk around the store and take items from the shelves, or transport them home afterwards?
    Why do you consider taking items off the shelves, dragging them around the store and then dragging them home to be your job, but somehow counting the items and taking payment should be provided by the store?

    If you want the full service then that's already an option, you choose what you want and it arrives on your doorstep.

    • Re:

      Oh is that how we're doing this? You either keep doing more and more yourself or you must have full service that they deliver to your door?

      Why stop there? Go to shelves? What, are you lazy? Why don't you drive down to the farmer who farms your goods? In fact, if you're not going to go full service and have it delivered to your door, why don't you farm it yourself?
      You want beef? And you're just going to walk around a store and pick up pre-butchered meat? That's silly! Either get it delivered to your door ste

• I used to use the self-checkout at my local grocery store. They replaced the machines with new ones that are very annoying and hard to use, so now I don't unless the lines with humans are backed way up. Unfortunately, they store has not hired any more checkers so of the ten available check out lines usually only two or at most three are actually in use.

• The stores have conflicting agendas with the self check-out which is why it is a mess. They want loss prevention, increased throughput, lower labor costs. The customer wants an easier experience. Retailers don't invest in giving the customer what they want, and keep things overly complex to reduce their own costs.

  A simple example is the bagging area... which really does not exist. They put a scale, but it is a poor way to track items. They don't accommodate the fact that if you have to pay for bags then ma

  • Re:

    Its never going to work because it requires billions of people to behave honestly.
• Improving the customer experience was never the goal. The goal was to reduce staff. Now they have one or two people helping manage eight self checkouts and customers trained to begrudgingly use them because they are still faster than standing in line behind the senior citizens with full carts.
• All I know is that I was never trained to use these scanning devices.
  
  So the occasional error where something doesnt get scanned is to be expected.
• I spend at most 30sec at checkout with a full cart. I scan items w their hand held scanners, go to self-checkout, Apple Pay, grab receipt and I'm gone.

• I used to prefer self-checkouts, but maybe if they weren't configured to treat you like a thief by default they'd have delivered.

  Kroger is the worst I've ever seen. During their busiest hours, there are at most two human cashiers. Non-peak times, there's only one. Every other lane was replaced with self-checkouts.

  The problem? You've got a cart full of groceries and can't scan more than one item every 3 seconds. Once you hit a preset limit of 20-30 items, it has to call for backup while you wait imp

• I like being my own facilitator, and when I'm my own blocker, it's hard to be upset. My order of preference, in order:

  - Self Checkout
  - Female clerk, short line
  - Female clerk, long line
  - Male clerk - any line

  *Women are better at knuckling down and getting the job done despite it being unfulfilling work. Men drag ass..*

  ( *statistically. I'm sure exceptions exist)

  • Re:

    False. Statistically, woman tend to be in that kind of job for longer and become proficient at it. Most men, especially young guys are there as it's just a job and it's not something they're going to stay at. So they're often slower.

    I have male cashiers at a grocery store out here and a few of them have been there for years, they're way faster than the woman there. Young woman who haven't been there long drag ass too.

    Ultimately the sex is irrelevant, it's if they're a good worker + time doing the job where

    • Re:

      That's fine. I'm using the "I assume it's true around me, so I'm assuming it's true for everyone" method of painting the world in my preferred colour.

• Are you telling me that throwing technology at a non-problem hasn't really helped? (Slaps cheek in surprise.)

• The heck is this guy is smoking, the self checkout where I am is a success. Works fine, and people use it all the time.

  I prefer it by far, as all the kids around have become unable to articulate a word anyway. They just mumble at you if you end up at a normal checkout.

• At least where I am, the technology is not an issue, it is the layout. Over time the companies gave up on keeping all your items on a scale until checkout, and letting you pull off bags and put them in the cart as often as you want. This made things work very well.

  The problem is they downsized all the self checkout to a tiny shelf for items to be scanned and two bags for putting items into. Works fine for a few items, but at grocery stores with a cart full of items, I have to keep pulling a few items out of the cart, bagging them and making room in the cart to free room for more bags. It was very efficient when there was plenty of counter space. Add to this the reduced number of cashiers and all the self scan machines are constantly in use.

• This is one of those things where they put something in place and it wasn't ready and now it's a failure. Have some patience. In my grocery store there was a bit of a learning curve for me and the store. I found it imperative to turn off the stupid talking bot to get through the process. The constant yakking made me amazingly anxious. Now I'm pretty good at it. It helped that they kept putting fewer, more and more inept, people at the cash registers. So the choice was wait a long time while watching a poorl

• If the cashier somehow makes an error (and errors happen, it's humans at work, so errors will happen), it's an error, if I detect it I inform them and they can fix it, and if I don't detect it, well, the store either wins or loses some money. Either way, I don't care.

  If I make a mistake scanning the item and don't notice it, I could be charged with theft. And in my position, even the accusation of a crime is enough that I may well be suspended or even lose my job.

  No thank you, I'll wait in line. Not to ment

• Self Checkout is great if you have a handful of items, but once you get more then it takes too long to be worth it.

  When you're checking out a cart of groceries, you have one person taking items out of the cart, one person scanning items, and one person bagging them. Replacing 3 people with just one obviously isn't going to be as fast

• Too many online lawyers are saying that self checkout is a bad thing and to never use it. They argue that you can be held liable for scanning errors, and the video taken automatically at every counter is accepted as fact in court and is difficult to dismiss. Despite the video often not including the customer's face in the shot.

  Self checkout is something that saves a business money, lets them cut labor, and shift some of their shrink costs onto the consumer? No thanks, it isn't a good deal for me.

  Consequence

  • Re:

    So, i too have given considerable thought to Sears, and how it seems obvious in retrospect that they could have been Amazon. I'd submit a few points that go beyond 'thick-headed managers who couldn't see the future'...

    1. In fairness, I agree that the Sears Catalog, and the traditional order-by-mail model could have been kept as an online thing - browsing and searching, with the result being a printout of the order forms that then ultimately got mailed. That likely would have been a good move, but they disco

• They tend to be fiddly, the table is tiny so if I have a lot of stuff I'm shuffling stuff back and forth and hoping I don't miss something if I have a lot of items. And at the end of the day, it's so the store can save some money on labor by having me do what an employee used to do. The only one I do like is Sam's club and their scan and go app. That is awesome. No checkout, just scan them as you put them in the cart, and head for the door. Yes, it still cuts their labor costs but at least it's not really
• The biggest problem is one that I see in my local WalMarts. While they may have dozens of self checkouts, less than 25% are open at one time. It appears that they don't want or can't pay to have enough employees to keep even these "time savers" up and running all at once.

• There have been multiple documented cases where people (with no prior stealing) have forgotten to scan something in the cart or on the bottom, and stores like Wal-Mart and Kroger have them arrested for stealing.

  If you let them scan your items they can't accuse you of stealing, but anytime YOU use self-checkout, you are opening yourself up to making an honest mistake, being accused of stealing, being arrested for stealing, and an eventual prison sentence. If you don't believe me, search youtube for "self che

  • Re: Accusations and prison for mistakes

    Alabama? That was their first mistake.

• Of the two grocery stores closest to me, one only added self checkout this year, and the other expanded their self checkout to the point there are only a few regular register lanes now. So I guess they haven't gotten this memo yet?

  From my experience, having the new self checkout at the first store is great. Getting out much faster. The other can be a bit more trouble because the one employee they have staffing the area tends to get a bit overrun with all the issues at one machine or another at times. Coupon

• If I have three items or less, I'll use self-checkout. It's a nice replacement for the convenience of an express line. It's not a good replacement, at the moment, for the cart full of groceries with some items needing a manage to sign off on them.

  I'd also like to point out that all the people bitching to high heaven about automation taking jobs probably shouldn't be bragging about using self-checkout to avoid having to deal with people. There's a little cognitive dissonance there I just can't quite wrap my head around. Probably my spectrum-self jumping around for attention.

• I have two major problems with self-checkout.

  1) I am not being paid to do the work of a cashier. I didn't sign an employment contract to work for free.
  2) If I mess up, I don't get written up, I go to jail.

  • Re: Mess up go to jail...

    Where the hell do you live that âoemessing upâ at a self-checkout means going to jail? In California, they wonâ(TM)t even call the cops for blatantly stealing hundreds of dollars of items.
• Make stickers of UPC codes from cheaper products, stick them on your grocery items. Discount!

• So I shop at a Wegman's near me - and for a while they had an app - you scan and bag your stuff as you shop, and just have to pay when you hit the register.

  They killed it due to Loss Prevention (aka people stealing stuff) issues. Same reason they have made self checkout harder - weighing every item now as you bag it.

  The zero trust need/mentality that drives means it's not reaching its potential and going backwards. I never even saw them try doing random audits or something.

• I usually expect people at the self-checkout to be fast and efficient and am pretty annoyed, when they are not. (Line people who don't ready their payment while standing in line and then search for their card for what ferls like forever).

  It doesn't help hat the software of most checkout terminals is horrible. My supermarket (big chain) had a station where there was no visual or acoustic feedback when you hit a button - and it was also pretty slow. So, before I knew better, I hit the "pay" button around t

• Everyone keeps talking like this is going to be reversed. Rumors of self-checkout's demise have been greatly exaggerated. They're only rolling it back in certain key markets and they're still rolling it out more in ALL THE REST. Sorry to say, labor fans (not really, I'm being facetious,) but this battle is over, and profits have won.

  • Re:

    Perhaps, but it occurs to me that, in the highly competitive world of grocery retail, a way to differentiate your store is to have all human checkers. Or at least, more than the mega department store down the block.

    Profits do win. But they have to realize that they're losing sales by insisting on self-checkout. Maybe not a lot. But maybe some, and maybe it's increasing.

• There are some valid points against self-checkout.
  
  1. They break A LOT, the old Walmart I use to frequent always had at least two machines down, day, night, weekends, it didn't matter at least two self-checkouts were broken, not off or disabled, broken!
  
  2. They enable stealing by accident. If you're stealing with intent then screw you, but if you're stealing by accident, because something doesn't scan, or you hear the scan sound next to you, and think your kiosk registered the item, or you key in the wrong item, then whose fault is that?
  
  3. They're an accessibility nightmare on overdrive! Walmart use to have kiosks where the screen and debit pad could tilt, to allow people within a range from 121 cm — 213 cm to check out comfortably, now, if you're 180 cm or taller good luck!
  
  I have vision and pain issues, and thanks to self-checkout only 1 lane of “traditional” checkout is usually open. This forces you to use self-checkout, but I can't change the screen or debit pad position at any store I go to, not just Walmart. This means I can't read the screen, and to pay I have to basically kneel, which as a person with pain issues, I can't always do. If you try to adjust the screen or debit pad, it can break off. At a Shoppers Drugmart I was trying to tilt the screen, and it snapped off the board securing it.
  
  This leads into a related point about accessibility, how “normal” people are basically the new restricted class. I'm 184 cm tall (6'1” in yankee units).
  
  4. They lead to false claims about stealing!
  
  There was a manager at the Walmart I frequent who used to run up, accuse me of stealing, then close out the self-checkout I was on, and start ringing me up manually. This happened 5 or 6 times in a row, and then she demanded I remove myself from the store and never return. When I asked why, she said (to paraphrase): “You're stealing from us, every single time you check out we find stuff you're not scanning.”, I asked for proof, she laughed and said (to paraphrase): “You know you're guilty!”, so I said: “Prove it, I'll wait here until you call the police, and we can do this right now.”. Another associate came over and said: “Stop treating this guy like a criminal, you always run up and accuse him (me), but he never steals anything.”.
  
  5. They take longer! Some stores have NO “traditional” checkouts staffed. When they have “traditional” checkouts, even at Xmas, 1 or 2 might be open, and 1/2 the self-checkouts are disabled.
  
  6. This was mentioned, but they take more person power, and more equipment! I think the current balance at Walmart is 2 people for 4 checkouts, and both have handheld devices.
  
  7. They misfire or lockup all the time, and then prompt with multiple screens asking you to double and triple check everything is accounted for.
  
  Are they paying me? I'll try to scan everything, but it's not my job to double and triple check. Since the screens can't move, and I have vision problems, I can't read what I've scanned, so I try to hear the beep, but as stated earlier, what if I mishear it?
  
  What have we honestly gained from them? What has any store gained from them? Do they save cost or person power?

• I used to be a grocery checker, so in most cases I'm ok with doing the work myself. The problem enters when I need the one clerk on duty for the four rows of kiosks to do something that requires an authority I do not have, like verifying ID for alcohol. There have been times when I got tired of waiting (10 or 15 minutes) abandoned the kiosk, and switched to a line with a live checker. And yes, I realize I'm leaving a kiosk in an unworking state, but what other choice is there?

  There are stores where I don

• Speaking strictly from a consumer perspective, self-checkout works for me for a few items or at a Wal-Mart where there is ONE checkout open out of 30 and there is a couple folks lined up there with 100 items each. In general though, when I go to the grocery store for example, I never use self checkout because it sucks dealing with those small areas and large shopping trips (family of 5 doing a weekly grocery run).
  
  On the other hand, Wegmans for a while allowed you to scan items using the Wegmans Scan app
• When I go to the grocery store, the self-checkout aisles are the most popular ones, usually because they're also the fastest moving. At fast food joints, it's about 50-50.
  
  Maybe this guy lives in idiot town where people don't understand how to scan a barcode and select the "credit card" payment option, but where I live in Michigan, the system works just fine.