- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
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I was cool with using them (less social interaction, scan and bag at my own pace), but over time I’m getting lazier and lazier
I never understood the “less social interaction” argument. Cashiers don’t care if you go through the whole interaction with them without making eye contact and only saying what’s absolutely necessary for the transaction. Plus, self checkouts are very picky and if you mess anything up even a little bit they start loudly inviting someone to come help you anyway.
Standing near someone is too much social interaction for me and I can do the self checkout blindfolded.
It’s not about whether they actually care. It’s about whether I’m worried they might care. It’s very stressful for neurodivergent people.
A human at the other end of the exchange forces you to think about that human, to consider that human, and to acknowledge the existence of that human, whether they speak or not. Don’t have to feel that way with a machine.
Yes, some people are that bad that even silent interaction produces anxiety. It’s why I prefer emails and texts instead of live phone calls. I can communicate on my own time after thinking it through and not feel obligated to respond immediately (that’s what Asperger’s does to a MF)
Well, some days I just fell more comfortable not interacting at all with a cashier if possible,
Regarding machine issues, yes, they sometimes ruin the flow, but it’s something occasional.
I love self-checkouts.
But what I love even more is having one single line for all lanes. It’s ridiculous that customers have to guess which lane will move the fastest.
Making a single line is the best thing self-checkouts have introduced around here.
Also, if they won’t bag my stuff for me, then I might as well be at the self-checkout. And since they don’t offer plastic bags at most places around here, most don’t bag your stuff for you.
If there are multiple lines and they won’t bag my stuff, I’ll go somewhere else that has self-checkout.
Over here stores are increasing their prices because people steal at the self-checkout. So they reduce costs by not having cashiers but then increase prices due to theft. Quite some logic.
You’d assume it’s an easy balance to make: if (saving on cashiers - loss due to theft) > 0 implement self-checkout else don’t implement.
Over here they increase their costs because we have no choice but to pay it.
and frankly the amount they lose is nothing to the amount they steal.
Insurance is more likely to pay for shrink than paychecks.
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Having express self-checkoit is great. The Kroger near me went full-self-checkout. They have large kiosks that mimmic the traditional checkout belt kiosks, except the customer scans at the head of the belt and the items move into the bagging area.
If you have a full cart, you scan all the items, checkout, walk to the end of the belt, and bag all of your items. Takes twice as long as bagging while a cashier scans (for solo shoppers), and because of the automatic belt the next customer cannot start scanning until you finish bagging, or their items will join the pile of your items.
It effectively destroys all parallelism is the process (bagging while scanning, customers pre-loading their items with a divider while the prior customer is still being serviced), and with zero human operated checkouts running you get no choice
If you have a full cart, you scan all the items, checkout, walk to the end of the belt, and bag all of your items.
Okay? But there’s no cost savings on my end and I don’t have all the codes memorized, so it takes longer than if a dedicated employee handled it.
with zero human operated checkouts running you get no choice
The humans are still there, though. They’re hovering over your shoulder to make you did the job right and you’re not buying booze under-aged and you didn’t steal anything. All the business has done is off-load the manual labor onto the customer and slowed down the checkout process as a result.
Oh no, did your attempt to labor costs and make shoppers do more of the labor that checkers used to do end up increasing shrink?
Oh no, how awful for you that you aren’t able to properly afford more *checks notes… Stock Buybacks.
This is how I imagine retailers complaining about this.
Not only that, but the reduced shrink during Covid, tucked up to “normal” levels… but this was then presented as a 100pct increase compared to last year… and thus a huuuge increase.
I mean to be fair, everyone pulled that shit.
The jobs numbers tanking during COVID because everyone had to be let go or furloughed apparently has nothing to do with Biden “bringing America more jobs faster than any previous President” bullshit.
Nah dude, the jobs that left just came back, you didn’t do shit to make that happen, Biden.
As a Democrat voter, makes me sick how hard they are back to pushing “The economy is doing great, you whiners need to just fucking vote for us already, all right!” while holding Trump and Fascism over our heads like a veritable Sword of Damocles. They don’t feel the need to do more because it’s easier to sit on their haunches and yell “But if you don’t vote for us, Trump will turn the US into a fascist state” as if that isn’t an implicit admission that they won’t do anything to stop Trump if he wins (even illegitimately!!!) and will let him run roughshod over US citizens as punishment for not voting Democrat sufficiently enough.
Fuck this bullshit article.
I fucking love self service. I don’t want to deal with people.
Just let me buy my stuff and get out. I don’t want or need small talk.
I want the disgusting supermarket shop to be as cold and sterile as possible.
I bring my own bag. I’d Honestly rather just scan everything as I go. And just pay as I walk out.
Current system is stupid. Walk around shop picking things up. Then take everything out and rebag
small talk? If you start small talk in Germany, the cashier will probably be confused…
Got a dozen cans of soup. Scanned ten cans of soup. Got two pounds of bulk pine nuts ($34.99/lb). Paid for two pounds of bulk barley ($2.49/lb). Etc.
“One thing that we have learned is that piracy is not a pricing issue. It’s a service issue" – Gabe Newell
Oh come on, really?
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t care about some big chain losing some money, for me it’s a matter of principle to not fuck with the system unless really needed.
Two cans of soup, I don’t care. But pine nuts? Cheating the system for some “luxury” goods and not some essentials is pretty low.It depends on the country, but in the US I see nothing wrong with this. Wage disparity is so high here that taking items from a store owned by billionaires doesn’t feel like much of a crime. I wouldnt do it, personally, unless I was less well off financially, but I am most definitely not going to judge someone else for doing it.
I mean I could understand (but not necessarily approve) if it would be a few everyday groceries here and there. But pine nuts? 2 lbs? Sorry, but that’s just ridiculous.
I can completely understand if people have to steal food to make ends meet. It’s a tragedy that they have to do it, but it’s the system’s fault and not theirs.
But OP doesn’t seem to fit into that category.To be honest, my uncivilized self doesn’t even know what a pine nut is, so if you say it’s a luxury item, I’ll take your word for it. In that case, I can agree that it’s a bit ridiculous and selfish. Still I wouldn’t call the cops or anything. If it was my friends or family I’d most definitely give them a hard time about it, though.
Corporate is cheating the system just to save a few bucks in wages. I see it as OP balancing the books.
I would have been more understanding if it was always on the level of two extra cans of soup or comparable.
But 2 lbs of pine nuts is not balancing the scales, that’s abusing the system.
I’m not using it only because the two retailers in the country don’t need to have my credit card info and/or phone number.
I don’t recognize these pain points. I always use the self checkout and it’s usually quick and painless. My experience is.
- Collect your wares, placing them directly into the bags along the way.
- Blip your id (card or qr code on phone)
- Blip your payment card.
- Walk out
Every once in a while I get caught in a random check, which is kind of a pain, but it’s so infrequent that it is acceptable.
Is this not how it usually works?
It works like that for me too. Even better if your list is short enough to avoid getting a cart.
My local shop around the corner doesn’t even require scanning a card or anything like that. Just get the handscanner at the entrance by pressing the button on the screen. Scan your shit and put it in the bag, go to the self checkout, put the scanner in the machine, touch your phone to pay and it’s done. I love it, I can be in and out in about 1 minute if I only need a couple of things. They’ve put in about 10 self checkout machines in the place of 3 old fashioned checkouts. Usually there is only one oldskool checkout open with a large line of old people.
Only irritating thing is people with like 100 items scanning all their shit at the checkout (if you don’t want to use the handscanner), it takes forever. I don’t get why people do that, but luckily there are enough self checkouts there is always one free.
Not for me. Take in consideration that I don’t do a lot of shopping. Two of the maybe four times times I used a self check-out last year;
- So I go to the self check-out. One of my items is on clearance. I scan it. It shows full price. turns out I needed to scan a different bar-code for the clearance. However, I can’t remove the already scanned bar-code from the list, so now I need to call assistance.
- My kids drink a lot of coke zero, so when it goes on sale I usually buy a lot of it. In this case, I took all that’s left in the store. I scan one bottle, do a quick count and adjust the number of bottles accordingly. I place the bottle in my cart and realize I’ve counted one too many. I can’t take it off, and now need to call assistance.
This sounds like a terrible user experience. Is this a case of “we have implemented a terrible self checkout system and now no one likes to use it”?
Ok now I am curious where you live that you have to provide ID to shop. Here in the US we scan the items and then swipe our payment card, the ID is only used to check your age for tobacco and alcohol purchases which can’t be sold to minors. An employee has to come look at the ID to make sure a minor hasn’t borrowed someone else’s, so it doesn’t even get scanned. Employees just swipe their work badge and confirm that they checked your age.
As for the pain, a lot of self checkout systems have very limited space and can be awkward to run all your items through. Manned stations have the conveyor so you can unload multiple items from your cart at a time to be scanned. They also have more end space so you can have room to bag everything if you are doing a big shopping trip.
I would assume they meant something like a CostCo proof of membership ID.
This is how self checkouts at CostCo work in the US, however they are pretty good about having plenty of regular cashiers available as well.
I think they mean ID as store loyalty card and/or membership card. Not actual government issued ID.
I think they may be talking about the “discount” tracker cards. The ones which you fill out an application to get, so you can get the special “discount” (really what the price used to be).
Are you Dutch? I recall an old NJB video describing how Dutch supermarkets worked like this. (Plus, Martin is a name I associate with the Netherlands…)
But no. Most often, you put stuff in your trolley or basket, then when you get to the checkout, you scan the things and bag them yourself one-by-one, then pay.
Here in Australia, one of our two main supermarket chains in the last 2 years rolled out something similar to what the Netherlands has had for at least half a decade. You use their app on your phone and scan things with the app as you go, before paying through the app and scanning a QR code at the exit.
The other main chain, and the two main smaller chains, have made no moves to follow, so you’re stuck with a long line for a small number of open checkouts, or the self-checkout where you have to scan everything after you get to the checkout.
I live in Sweden. The system in the Netherlands sounds similar to what we have. There are also wireless scanners you can use throughout the store if you don’t want to use your phone.
In 🇫🇮 these mostly are hybrids: conventional checkouts plus a variable nr. of self-checkout points. Some chains have also portable scanners but only recently (I recall that in 🇸🇪 they have existed for years).
Based on my own N of 1 -experience I use the “human check out” slightly more often than machine. Why? Hmmm. The conveyor belt makes everything roll a bit smoother ;D
The BBC article, I understood, was maybe more about the totally or almost totally cashier-less stores.
Wait, you don’t have to scan every item at the checkout?
No, we (most supermarkets in Sweden) get a wireless scanner handle that we have with us in the store. So we scan each item when we take it from the shelf and put it in the bag/cart. When we get to the self checkout we just put the handle back and pay.
At least here in the UK a lot of larger supermarkets give you the option of taking a little handheld scanner with you and doing it as you shop. When you go to the till you just scan a barcode that’s on the till and it connects the till to the scanner so you can pay for everything. I don’t personally use it because I’m too disorganised a person to pack as I go and also remember to scan everything, but it’s fairly popular. It typically exists as an alternative way of using the self checkouts, the option to scan everything at the checkout itself is still there
Some places near me trialed that. It got dropped post covid because “forgetting” to scan things was an even bigger problem than with regular self checkout.
Is this not how it usually works?
I want to shop without them generating a profile of me. I want to pay with cash. I don’t even want them to know who I am. And I don’t want random checks…
Fortunately, I have never seen your scenario in Germany where I’m living…
Usually I quite like self check
Except at ALDI.
Before they put in self check the cashiers sped through transactions at lightning speed. Now they’ve cut the number of cashiers and people sit at SCO slowly scanning and bagging everything…
It’s ALDI bruh scan that shit and go to the bagging counter.
Oh shit, I just started going to Aldi and sounds like I am one of the idiots doing it wrong. The store I am going to seems to be setup same as a typical SCO though. I don’t know that I have noticed a bagging counter. Will be looking next trip I guess.
Ah I’m mostly grumbling anyways. The SCOs look the same as anywhere else had I begun shopping at Aldi after SCOs got there I probably wouldn’t do anything different either.
But famously the cashiers at Aldi were super fast. They don’t bag anything. They just toss it into your cart. They’d often have a spare cart or two and if you had a lot of groceries they’d put it into a new cart for you instead of waiting for yours to be empty. (And also is one of very few places in the US where they let cashiers sit down).
People who would attempt to bag their groceries while at the cashier (unless they only had a few things and got it done very quick) would attract ire from both the cashier and other customers for holding things up since they’d usually be done scanning before you’d get done bagging. Check this meme: https://x.com/ladbible/status/1270736248546758656 and the replies to it calling them out for bagging at checkout.
After you checkout, you were meant to go to the bagging counter and bag your stuff (in your own bags or some people use empty display boxes.) The bagging counter is on the front wall of the store right by the exit (see picture)
But if you notice next time, all the store brand stuff (90% of the stuff there) has unusually large and tall barcodes usually on multiple sides to help the cashiers be as fast as they are.
Also the SCOs at ALDI are some of the quickest I’ve EVER used in terms of scanning items. It doesn’t need any delay between scans. If I only have one layer of stuff in my cart I usually just scan it while it’s still in the cart using the hand scanner and can be gone in under two minutes.
Well, I work in retail exactly in this field for chain of roughly 100 small grocery stores mostly in rural villages in central/eastern Europe. We do have couple larger stores, where larger doesn’t mean big in global scale, for us it means they need 2 cash registers most of the day.
We do have few stores equipped with self check out registers too. There are 3 types for us and all of them with different pros and cons.
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Bigger stores. We have 2 stores where we installed SCOs as an addition to regular check outs. It works great if you have just a couple items and don’t want to wait for those 3 people standing in line. I prefer to use them with most of my shopping there, because they are often empty/instantly available unlike regular check outs.
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We have 3 small village stores with one regular check out that we expanded with one SCO. These shops are open 24/7, while cashiers are there for roughly 8 hours a day and the rest is full automatic. You get in through ID, pick your stuff, check out and leave. It is great idea, but prety novel in this region and people are not used to it yet. Remember we’re talking about villages with less than 1000 people.
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We also have 2 completely self check out stores. Meaning there’s no live personnel tobinteract with, only one person to go in, refill shelves and leavd. There’s only one SCO and it also works 24/7 as number 2. This is in the smallest villages, with under 500 people and it’s pretty successful so far. People are happy they have place to shop locally, because if it wasn’t for this they’d be left without shop whatsoever.
Just my 2 cents. Also bear in mind this is Europe, where people are definitely not used to take long drives very often. Especially not because your everyday shopping needs. Be happy to answer if you had some questions.
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Sounds like low trust society issues to be honest. I only see those systems expanding in Switzerland, and they never use annoying scales or complain about unexpected items, because there aren’t even any sensors for that.
I avoid places where self checkout isn’t available. And, it’s not just me. I stopped counting how many time the cashier is jobless and the self checkout area is full.
For sure, I use self checkout at at least 5 different places in China and they all work fantastically, including a Walmart.
Can confirm. The only deterrent is the potential for an random bag check by an employee but that never happened to me in years of using self checkout. Some shops have a worker over watching a dozen of stations to help out or just identify suspicious behavior but it’s very unintrusive.
I’ve been a checker and have monitored self-checkouts. We get no training or instructions to watch for suspicious behavior. It’s not the job of a checker / cashier to confront people for suspicious behavior, we don’t get paid enough to do so, or to even care.
Thanks for the clarification! My assumptions were wrong ^^ although I saw once a lady who tried to leave without paying, but the worker noticed and they spent a good 5 minutes convincing her to put in cash into the machine, which apparently she had but had to look for in her bag for a looong time.
Over here it’s a mix, some chains use the scales + sensors, some use simple scan machines. I absolutely hate the scale + sensors, some of them are almost completely unusable and the attendants have to keep running around fixing errors or resetting the ones where people just give up mid-cart and go to a manned checkout.
Here in Finland handheld scanners have been getting added to more shops, you grab one, scan and bag as you go, and at the end you return the scanner and pay it all at once.
We have both happen, sometimes combined or scan with phone. I’ve seen some of the American systems, with sensors and weights and speakers (with some voice lines), those are creepy to me.
One of the regional grocery stores in my part of the US has these (if you have an account). Before I did online ordering with curbside pickup, this was how I shopped. I didn’t understand why it wasn’t more popular. It made checking out so quick. Every twenty or so trips I’d be randomly “audited,” where some poor employee had to rifle through my bags to double check I wasn’t stealing anything.
The chance to be randomly audited would put me off from ever using it again. Specially when you know that randomly = you look brown or immigrant most of times.
At Giant, I’m pretty sure it’s decided by the system based on some algorithm, not the employee. The one time I was audited, we were in the store for a long time and had removed a few items from the cart after adding them.
The audit consisted of the employee scanning ten random items and confirming we had scanned them too.
All these things are just designed to make the shop do less work, and for you to do their job for them for free.
I’m sure in the future we won’t interact with people at all, because that’s whats cheapest for the company. We will be true “consumers”, like animals being fed by machines.
Well, at least if capitalism continues.
I’m sure in the future we won’t interact with people at all
Oh god I wish.
As someone who has shoped in the us but lives in europe, that only applies to the us. Self checkout is objectively bad in the us. Here, it is actually pretty good. The only anti theft mechanism is a random check wich happens like once a year to me, no weighing bs. Especially, if you use the option to scan while shopping with your phone or scanner device. Then you just pay in the app and leave, no hastle at the cash register.
This seems to be an implementation issue. In my neighbourhood discounter, in Germany, there’s three self-checkouts and while they’re a bit small they also don’t do any of that weighing and whatnot bullshit: You scan your stuff, pay, done. The only thing they can’t do is apply best-before rebates.
There’s also always a manned till open (or at the very least, when things are slow, a worker hanging out in the vicinity). In practice if the queue is empty you go there, if you have lots of stuff you go there (because it’s bound to be faster as you can focus on packing while things get scanned), otherwise you have the choice to use self-checkout. Never had to stand in line for self-checkout, before that happens they open another manned till. What the self-checkouts do is keep small purchases away from the manned tills when they’re busy which is exactly what they’re good for. I
It is 100% implementation. In other countries there’s either a staff member watching over all the self checkouts to make everything go smoothly, or a kind of electronic gate that only let’s you leave after scanning a receipt. Usually the scanners are much more reliable and theres a usable UI. Plus a modicum of trust. Also thise hand scanners you can carry around the shop so you don’t have to do it at the end (although I think if seen some of them around now).
In the UK there’s usually the weight detection mechanic that slows things down 10x and no interactivity with the machine other than it loudly telling you you’re doing it wrong. You often need to ask for help anyway.
If it was a quick and easy experience the scheme wouldn’t fail.
There’s no extra gate or dedicated staff member in my store only whoever’s at the till and if the self-checkout is busy they’re too busy to watch them.
What I did notice though is that they now put anti-theft tags on more stuff, e.g. the ones on big packages of sausages are new. But it’s still the same open beep gate at the end, which I actually triggered exactly once and that was when using the manned checkout, they’re older and cashiers need to deactivate the tags manually (and they missed my coffee), the self-checkout ones apparently do it reliably when you’re scanning the item.
Over time I think that’s probably where this is heading. The store still uses those very old EM fuses/amplifiers as anti-theft tags and of course ordinary barcodes, at some point the larger industry is going to switch to RFID for everything and every item will know whether it’s been paid for.
My grocery store recently added these locks on the cart wheels, I’m not really sure how they work since i’ve only ran into them once so far but it went off as I was going through the detectors at the door and locked up the wheels so it wouldn’t roll. Idk what triggered it because I went through the manned checkout and they scanned everything. The girl at the self checkouts just ran over and unlocked it without even checking anything. It was pretty embarrassing though because it was busy and I was blocking the exit door with a bunch of people behind me for like 30 seconds because of that.
