Technology

Im surprised how many people here hate self checkout. I am much faster at scanning and bagging my own items than most cashiers. I almost never get errors, and if I do I know what to do to clear them typically. I always look at self check first, and then human lines second. Plus, none if that "how's your day? Want to apply for a store credit card?" talk from a bored looking cashier.

Self Checkout hat serious drawbacks:

• the cashiers are not free to be transferred to more important work, they are fired. this is objectively bad.
• regardless if you are scanning the items when putting them into the cart, or you are scanning them at the checkout point - you are now doing the cashiers work, but you are not compensated for your work. the price you pay is the same. you are now an employee, but without being paid. this is objectively bad.
• when a scanning error happens, you are now responsible for it. the industry word for it is theft. you are a thief if your scan isn't correct. the responsibility shifted away from a worker with (depending on locale, forget the US for a moment) insurance and workers rights, allowing for smaller mistakes. But the retailer isn't picking up the responsibility, it just heaps it on the customer. As they did with the work. this is objectively bad.
• depending on the efficiency of this system, the retailer chains (not stores, the chains) are increasing profits. the workers and the customers don't see a dime of that. this is objectively bad.

A store near me in germany has recently switched a number of rows to self checkout. Absolute chaos, nobody wants it, long rows on the few chashier points. I saw it exactly one time, told me what i think, they tried to sell me the convenience, i told them what i wrote here plus that they are located in a commercial area, not a mixed housing/commerce area. Nobody goes there to buy a handful of stuff. People came for "Hamsterkäufe" (german colloquial, hamstering essentially: buying large quantities for reserve), self checkout is not convenient. I will not visit there anymore, there are other stores who don't do this crap.

They better have some pretty specific definitions of “theft” vs “errors”. I think everyone has had the experience of missing something, wondering if you should go back and scan it or if that would get security called on you, etc.

Then you hear the stories like Walmart keeping a running tab and if you go over “$x” it’s grand theft and that’s when they arrest you.

It is the stores job and responsibility to make sure their stuff is all scanned, and rung up correctly. Not the consumer’s. You can’t just offload the labor costs and also shift the risk on the customer.

That’s why I hate self checkout, at least.

I had someone at target try to direct me to the self checkout... I politely declined with "I don't work here"

If I'm doing the work, I should damn well get the employee discount.

They could have saved so much time and money by just paying the cashiers a living wage.

I would be sad to lose my beloved self checkout :( I still want real people and full service lanes for bigger / more complicated purchases, but daily small purchases are much more relaxing self-serve.

Many likely believe self-checkout saves time compared to a cashier lane, but the opposite may be true.

Oh actual cashiers are faster no doubt, but they're almost too fast. They'll spin 15 items through in 3 seconds and I can't check prices or bag fast enough. Once I've paid I still have a minute of bagging with next in line pushing me down and 2 minutes of reading the receipt prices left... in self check out I like being able to catch prices errors as they ring up and have less pressure bagging.

Is it possible there are less businesses doing it because many companies have already done it? I know a lot of people aren't in favour of self-checkouts, but decisions go to where the money and convenience are. We don't go to tellers or the few gas stations that serve because of convenience. We troubleshot our computers and do our own renovations because hiring workers would be too expensive. If you don't like self-checkouts, don't use them. It's as easy as that.

"things have gotten so bad that it has made many people need to steal, so we can't keep self checkouts open"

I was astounded the other day when I visited a town that had a nice busy grocery store. It was like what I imagine the 70's were like. They had 20 lanes OPEN with cashiers quickly and efficiently ringing up items, much faster than I could, with baggers neatly and efficiently filling the bags. There were no waiting lines because everyone found a cashier lane to walk right up to as the last person was finishing up.

It was ten times faster than a self checkout.

I rarely see that anymore. Its usually one lone cashier and a bunch of people waiting for a self checkout machine.

I hate it and won't miss it. The workflow is brittle and the anti-theft measures throw too many false positives. Every third time I use it, it requires staff intervention. I'll always go to a checker if I have the choice of doing so.

As someone who finds interacting with register attendants painful, and doesn't steal, this is unfortunate news.

Self checkout was great for me because I'd have like 3 items and breeze on out. Now people come to them with overloaded carts because they don't have any actual checkouts.

What country is this? They seem to becoming more prevalent here. (Canada) My observation is that people generally look at the cashier lines. If there's too long a wait, they head for the self-checkout. Or, if they only have a few items, they head to the self-checkout.

My main issue with self checkout is simple. They constantly incorrectly flag me for shoplifting and then proceed to show my shiny bald head from top down to everyone within 20 feet on the checkout screen. It is not a flattering angle.

Didn't realize self checkouts were such a divisive topic, like wtf I'll take that any day of the week over standing in line behind people who have seemingly never been to a supermarket before and their shit is still standing there all over the place while the cashier is already scanning my products. I get that it keeps someone employed but I think the answer to that is better welfare, not sticking to the old ways just so someone gets to do menial shit for a living.

It certainly always saves me time. Especially when I cut out doing the part where I pay.

Fuck the fucking idiots who ruined this

In North Italy almost all groceries stores offer

Self checkout: where you do your groceries and at the end you scan the item one by one

Advanced self checkout (you are registered to the store): you get a PDA and you scan and bag all the groceries while you roam the store. Then you scan a qr, you get the total, pay and go. No Id checks for alcol or anything (sometimes you get a random partial re-reading where you get an sales person coming and scanning 3 items at random from your bag to check if you scanned them, or a total re-read)

Normal slow cashier point

Advanced self checkout is something I would never give back. Even if I buy a lot of things, the quick payment process is so quick that nothing compares.

I can enter and leave a store in under 10 minutes buying a lot of stuff (note that I go there walking multiple time per week)

I'm mixed.

I dislike peopling in person, and I hate lines with a passion, but I also hate putting cashiers out of business, running the register myself, and waiting for one person in charge of 17 registers to come over and figure out WTF just went wrong with the checkout process, which is also peopleing and lines.

This seems very US coded. In euro they're doubling down even with self scan on the phone or with a tool they give me. I scan them as I put them in my cart and at checkout I just pay and leave. It's awesome.

This feels surreal, self checkout is insanely normal here and theres no scales and or other sensors besides normal cctv. Switzerland, for context.

So is this a US specific thing or not? The article doesn't really make that clear.

Have they tried adding AI? 3D printing? Quantum computing? Space based solar power?

Pretty funny coincidence here

Hmm I like self checkout because I don't like dealing with retail people. I'm introverted by nature.

Just get me the F in and get me the F out. Charge the correct price and give me correct change. Machines do this SO WELL.

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Shitty thing is they won't hire more cashiers when they shut these off.

You still need employees to help hapless customers and flag tech problems, the security cameras from above to dissuade theft, and someone to man the monitors of said cameras. They were banking on full human replacement. Can’t wait for our AI future with a store devoid of employees where they drop a net from the ceiling and pepper spray me because I forgot my eggplant was the organic price.

I don't see any evidence they're "pulling back", at least not in Europe. More and more are self service checkouts than ever before. That said I think stores prefer the kiosks where people scan their items than the kind where people have barcode readers and wander the store scanning (or not scanning) goods.

Good. Fuck self check out.

They aren't bringing back cashiers, they'll have one cashier with a massive line as a deterrent to get you to download the scan as you go app on your phone so you supply the bar code scanner at your expense and they track your phone and change the digital price tags based on your Palantir profile as you walk up.

Or the other option is Walmart has started remodeling their stores into primarily warehouses. The main entrance is badged only for picker workers to hand orders to Doordash or put app orders in people's cars. The legacy experience entrance will be a temporary secondary option until they get enough robots to make the building fully lights out and automated. Shambling automatons will emerge from the black hell portal in the surface of The Edifice with your tampons and then run facial recognition on you and sniff your car for drug and explosive residue.

All self-checkouts I see around here are either completely empty, or full of workers who have to help the people using them, at least about 1 worker for every 4 self-checkout stations.

The article talks about time savings but it was always about labor costs and I have a hard time believing it didn't deliver on that front.

I use self-checkout occasionally. On the one hand I don't absolutely hate if I have a few items. Yea, I cannot scan nearly as quickly as the pros. Which is fine if I have three things. Luckily I have mever either been accused of theft myself or seen it happen to anyone else.

That said, I will absolutely not be sad to see these machines go. Nothing of value will be lost.

Hire more cashiers and pay them a living wage so they don't have to immedeately sign up for food stamps right after being accepted into employment. Our government should not be subsidizing the billionaires, who are all mentally unwell from having long since surpassed mere riches.

Questionable savings? I have saved A LOT of time at self checkouts, especially when just buying a few things. It's way faster than standing in line behind people seemingly doing their yearly shopping.