Why several big-box stores have ditched their self-checkouts | CBC News::undefined
Good, those things are garbage
I (and other people) take a full cart through when the self checkouts are the only ones open. Asking at the service counter for a checkout to be opened, they just say “use the self checkout”. They don’t care if there’s a long line, or if people have to wait, so long as they can get away without paying people to run a checkout. I suspect that most supermarkets would completely do away with people at checkouts if they could.
The whole idea of a large store that you walk through and gather your own things for is strange, unless we’re talking farmers markets. You should just tell someone what you need and they give it to you or deliver. We’ve created a world dependent on cars but not using them intelligently.
That’s how it was in the early 1920s.
But I mean, you can do this today. Home delivery or pickup.
That last part is a HUGE part of why they generate revenue. There’s an entire industry based around what goes where in a grocery store. Companies fight over getting their stuff at eye level or on end caps to make their products more appealing and likely to get bought. The entire point of sales is to get you to come in and buy more things you didn’t have on your list. (Even online sales)
I hate using the delivery services though, they can be useless for fresh veg/meat as you can’t properly pick a good cut or the right amount.
The substitutions can be awful too.
Self checkout has only been convenient for handful of items. People that go through with a cart full and a half deserve the frustration.
Go to a real person if you have big order. However companies should treat their employees better so they don’t leave.
There’s no way to send feedback, or to log a fault with the machine, so the store operators have to deal with every single exception manually, over and over, instead of getting the thing fixed.
- “Place your bags in bagging area” (ok, done)
- “Unexpected item in bagging area” (How can it be unexpected, you just told me to put my bags there. Operator logs in and clears fault)
- (remove bags) “item removed from bagging area” (so you want me to put my bags there, but you don’t, but you do. Operator logs in and clears fault)
- “We couldn’t scan the last item” (yes you could, it’s on the screen there. But if I take it back and scan it again, I get “item removed” and then it won’t scan it again. Operator logs in and clears fault)
- “unexpected item in bagging area (again)”. (So I successfully scanned the thing, but you didn’t expect me to put it in the bagging area? Where should it put it instead? Operator logged in and clears fault)
- “have you forgotten to scan something?” (No, that’s my walking stick and the extra bags I brought that I didn’t actually need after all. Operator logs in and clears fault)
Does anyone actually test these things before installing them at the stores? Does anyone review the faults to see how to improve the scanning and item recognition? Are you really creating a better customer experience by having half a dozen customers holding up the line while waiting for the operator to come and clear a fault?
The truth is they largely dont care. It’s easier for them to have an overactivity cautious robot that’s dog gone triple checks that you aren’t robbing them as long as they can close all normal lanes but one. They dont care that it’s a 10x worse job than cashiering the normal register, or that you’re annoyed to shop there. In most cases, your choice of stores is either limited, or the other ones are doing the same damn thing.
All that said, i have seen self checkout done well and sanely. Instead of jamming tiny stations next to each other to fit 10 in what used to be 2 normal lanes, it was more like 10 in 4 old lanes. Each station was huge, with plenty of room to set things. It had actually calibrated sensors that let you put bags down first, and get this, the clerk was able to remotely clear errors from a nearby station that wasent crowding anyone.
The above was in an overpriced, boutique store so i dont expect it to ever become the norm, but ill be damned if it wasent actually nice to use.
I stopped shopping at Cub specifically because the self-checkout registers were just like the ones described above. The cashier lanes weren’t any better because I still had to do all the work except scanning anyway.
Cub is the most convenient location for me by about 5 miles, but I refuse to go there because the service is so very bad.
The self check at my local Cub is awful, the paranoid self check is so frustrating, especially because I bring my own bags and it never works right. And it’s so expensive compared to every other grocery store in the area.
I want to like Cub because they’re the only union grocery store that’s convenient, but allegedly they allow lower management in the union and that’s caused problems, and the rumor I’ve heard is that the company that owns Cub is intentionally running it into the ground in order to kill the union. But given how shitty all retail has become, I’m not sure how true that rumor is.
I’d add one more- I set my purse down on the scan area (the only flat surface) to get my credit card out and get the “unable to scan item, please try again”. I try to set it with the bags and get the “unexpected item in bagging area, please remove from bagging area”. If I dont want to hold it while scanning and bagging I end up having to keep switching purse between shoulders or set it on the floor (which feels insecure).
They had to know that women carry purses and don’t always have a cart to set them down in, but they gave us nowhere to set them while scanning or bagging things and it just creates a mess.
I hate those things so much, buying a red bull, red light and wait for someone to arrive to check that I’m over 16. It happened to me so many times and normally I like technology, but those things, no thank you.
It’s not the tech, it’s the implementation. I absolutely hate most of them, one in particular needs you to scan the item then place it in an area to check weight otherwise it barks at you and freezes you out until they come to check. The amount of times it doesn’t work right makes it the most frustrating system I ever used and actively avoid it but normally can’t since they almost never have a cashier.
I hate the place even more than i did and now try to plan to do the 20 minute drive to a place that doesn’t do this. Good job!
