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Woolworths payment change as popular system [Scan&Go] gets axed: 'Devastated'
(au.finance.yahoo.com)
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I genuinely am devastated by this. Until a month ago, I lived somewhere that my two closest Woolies both had this, and it was such an enormous boon.
Having moved so now there aren't any stores anywhere near me with it, I'm so frustrated at having to carry stuff to then bag it once I get to the checkout. Or worse, bag and then re-bag everything twice so I can carry it, and then scan it at the checkout. I thought Scan&Go was going to be the new thing added, just not until stores are getting refurbished anyway, as they do from time to time. But hearing it's apparently being phased out really sucks. Such a step backwards.
I'd have been writing angry letters to Woolies, had they done this before I moved to where I can't use it anyway...
The first time I tried to use the scan and go system, I got pulled up at the exit point and had to prove that I'd purchased the stuff. Wasn't keen on being made to feel like they thought I'd robbed the place, so I never went back to it
I also got picked out for a random check a few times when I first started using it. After passing that process a few times, you seem to be trusted. I haven't been picked out in years, now.
I reckon at first it was probably making me do that about 1 in every 3 shops, which wasn't great. They definitely could have done a better job of making the onboarding experience nicer.
At a certain point I was getting frustrated with it and decided to start counting. After I started counting, I got checked 3 times out of 27 regular shops, and 0 times out of 11 "small" shops (which I defined as, very roughly, 5ish items or fewer, on account of the random checks asking staff to scan 5 items from your bag). Not sure how many times I had used it before I started keeping a tally, but I think around 20, and I think I was checked around 5 or 6 times.
If it had been up to me, I'd have made the first 3 or 4 shops almost guaranteed to not be checked for any new user, and then give them maybe a 1/5 chance for the next 30 or so shops, before easing off into what was apparently somewhere along the lines of a 1/10 chance or less. So you get an early good experience, but then get taught "hey, it is possible to get caught here" in a way that's a little gentler than what it actually was, but persistent enough to lock in that message.
The frequency with which I have problems with old-fashioned self-checkout certainly didn't hurt in converting me to this. Never once had it tell me I did something wrong like self-checkout does constantly. To me it just felt like "oh yeah, a routine random check". (And because it's a machine, I know it's actually random, unlike the "random" checks at airports.) The most irritating part was the fact that it was clearly used rarely enough that staff weren't on the lookout for people standing there awkwardly waiting to be scanned.
Hrm. I would also be annoyed except my store is one of the ones keeping it. I have however used the service at stores that are dropping it. I'm surprised Woolies didn't even give me a courtesy heads-up.
I wonder what the issue with the programme is? Too much shoplifting in some stores? Not enough uptake?
If it's uptake, that's on Woolies. There is almost zero material explaining the system and its advantages. They've done an awful job of marketing it.
I think discovery is a pretty big inherent problem with the system. Unless you already know about it, to discover it requires that you use the app, and spot the "scan & go" option on the very busy home page
Compare that with handheld scanners that were becoming popular in the Netherlands 5 years ago, which create a visible wall you walk past every time you enter the store. Discovery is obviously much better in that method.
Which I think is why they're switching to these tablets in trolleys. People are going to trolleys anyway. I think it's a shame they're going with big cumbersome tablets rather than a simple handheld scanner that could be used with a basket or when just holding a few items, but oh well.
But you're completely right that they did a fucking terrible job marketing it. There were signs up all through the store, but if I didn't already know what it was I doubt I'd pay them any attention. A TV advertising campaign focused on "the shop of the future" it some such tagline could have gone a long way.
Full list of stores closing this feature and those that are keeping it but without the mobile payment here.
Anyone know of other stores, big or small, that have something like this? It's literally been the reason I was a relatively loyal Woolies customer the last two or three years. I've always avoided Aldi because they don't even have basic self-checkout. But nor do I really want to keep going to Woolies and Coles who apparently are actively undoing their advances, even if the point they're going back to is a bit ahead of where Aldi is still at...
Aldi has almost fully converted to self checkout, in Adelaide. Not sure what it's like in other cities but maybe worth checking again if you haven't been for a while.
Interesting. Thanks for the tip.
The Aldis in WA have self checkouts. But they've only been introduced over the past couple of years. Maybe it's the same nationally? Worth another visit to see?
They're pretty good ones, too - the bagging area holds four bags - which is sometimes enough for the whole shop. I don't much love their camera right in your face, though.
Same in Adelaide, almost all self checkouts now.