Technology

It wasn't about speed, it was about reducing spending on wages

You aren't faster at checking it out per item. The supermarkets are just keeping it understaffed all the time so the human checkout has a long wait while self checkout does not, so it's faster to not wait. I try to not use self checkout, but if I have a few items it just makes me feel guilty about making other people wait behind me.

As they keep having understaffed situations, sometimes there's no other option except self checkout. Which honestly should be illegal.

In many cases, I am faster than the available cashiers at my local grocery store, because they're old. Also depending on what I'm buying, idc how my stuff is bagged so I can just throw it in a single bag and go vs them taking 3 bags to do the same thing.

But to me, the main reason to use self checkout is that I don't have to interact with anyone. No conversation, no upsells, just me and a machine. The only reason I'll go to a cashier is if I have a lot of stuff or if I'm buying alcohol.

Some of the pros around here are not very good and take longer than I do, but the Aldi ones are usually fast with those giant barcodes! The last one, however, charged me for two melons but I didn't have any, removed one, but not the 2nd so I had to go back over. My data points and the workmanship around here show sometimes quicker than me, but not if a line for them and none for diy.

But I am more effecient than the cashier. Dunno how it is like where you're from, but a cashier job is either for people who are nearly retired, or a teenager's first job.

So, in the same footprint of three cashiers that will have 3 queues waiting around, there can be 12 self checkouts with no queues at all.

I scan my items as they go into the bag. As I get to the checkout all I have to do is pay. That is waaaaay more efficient than going to a traditional cashier.

It's only more efficient when I use it, which sounds like a joke about "it's only wrong when someone else does it." But if I am only buying a quart of ice cream and some toilet paper, I actually can scan those faster because I don't have to pass them to a person to scan them for me. My typical use case is roughly the same speed as a cashier. I also know how to use the machines fairly well.

However, your last sentence is exactly right. Once one idiot gets to self-checkout, the whole thing goes to shit for everyone. Or if something doesn't scan, or it is a bottle of Nyquil that some stores require ID to buy, then it is so much longer to get a person over to help you.

What self-checkouts have you been to? Typically there's a bunch of people fumbling through trying to get them to work. They don't know where barcodes are, if it's unmarked food they spend so much time trying to figure out how to search for it.

People who don't understand self-checkouts are the worst part.

Same here - I bring one bag from home and when it gets full I stop shopping. Even waiting behind one half full shopping cart in a cashier line is slower than waiting for an available self-checkout.

Sam's in many locations has the thing where you scan items (by phone camera) in real time in the app as you place them in your cart. This is a way better experience because you pay by credit card in the app, then walk straight out of the store.

There's literally no point to going through a normal lane at Sams, unless you're buying a gift card that can't be activated in the app purchase.

There's a Walmart near me that I just never bother going to because like 80% of the non-grocery items are locked behind plexiglass. There are 4 self-checkouts and 2 employees assigned to just stand there watching people to make sure they don't shoplift. They've made shopping so hostile that it barely makes sense for it to be a department store at all. Might as well just go back to the old model of telling the employee what you want and then they go get it for you.

They'd rather change their operations than lobby for the poorest to have enough money to not have to steal.

I liked my teenage job as a cashier back in the day, it was relatively easy, got to talk to customers, literally no stress to take home, and you could quietly judge people based on what they bought

I mean, you also acknowledge that cashiers are human beings and let them do wild things like have a stool or chair to sit on, or drink water as needed. As a country, the US has already shown itself to lack the necessary consideration and decency to let us leave these companies to their own devices with something like self-checkout. They will unfailingly select to most inhumane, awful way of implementing something that maximizes their profits at the cost of dehumanizing their employees and customers, while degrading the service they offer.

We introverts pay the price 😭

As someone who also doesn't enjoy interacting with register attendants, but does steal, I too find this to be unfortunate news.

Pulling back doesn't necessarily mean cancelling all existing self check-out systems. It probably means they will have both, which is how it's supposed to be, to be honest. Sometimes I just want to scan three items and leave and other times I want someone else to deal with it.

Agreed. I am sad.

I'm a introvert and hate dealing with people, but for some reason I don't like using the self-checkout. I don't know why. But anyway, I recommend moving to Finland. My interactions are as follows:

A very quick eye contact with a nod as a hello.

I pay, receive the change, say thank you.

I go away.

There is no small talk or push for registering for their bonus card systems, etc, here. You go in, do your thing, say thank you, go away. And saying anything is optional. I do it because I feel like that's the least I can do for the poor person who has to deal with humans all day. But often I see people not even look at the checkout person, just stare at the register until it gives out a number, pay and bugger off.