Retailers are pulling back from self-checkout after years of theft, errors, and questionable time savings
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497 replies
"things have gotten so bad that it has made many people need to steal, so we can't keep self checkouts open"
They'd rather change their operations than lobby for the poorest to have enough money and not have to steal.
They’d rather change their operations than
lobby for the poorest topay their employees enough money to not have to steal.I thought surely an organization of GROCERS would lobby vociferously for SNAP benefits (food stamps), at a time when onerous work requirements throw people off SNAP and overwhelm local food pantries.
Instead we get a bit of the pearlescent extraction of the meat cylinder via suction:
https://www.nationalgrocers.org/news/nga-statement-on-senate-agriculture-committee-action-on-farm-bill/
Although I fully agree with you, there is no gotcha here. They are greedy and want the most for themselves, that’s it.
Paying people a fair salary is other companies problem
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.
I wanted to buy some razor blades and the poor teenager at the Walmart just couldn't get his magnet key thingie to unlock the plastic lock on the hanger holding the packages. I waited patiently for like 5 minutes and was like look I'll fix it. I pulled down on the packaging, tore the little cardboard piece and freed the blades in like one try.
I then still paid $40 for them like a good citizen and ignored how much I was getting ripped off.
All while being watched by a million store cameras, three people at the self checkout, the camera reflecting my own image in the self checkout machine, the greeter giving me a dirty look and the detectors at the door.
Its more absurd than airport security how pointless it all is.
Which is basically what they are doing with grocery pickup.
Never thought of it that way... But yes.
I'm here with your regular reminder that is you see someone stealing food, no you didn't.
I don't understand. I've never seen someone steal food in a grocery store. I've helped plenty of people get more food from a grocery store than what they thought they had in their cart though.
Also you didn't see me at the grocery store and if you did it wasn't me
Good news, new jobs opening to fill the cashier roles. But watch they will just implement a ticket system and checkout will take 3 hours.
Yeah but tickets cost money so they will make you sign in virtually on their app
Shhhhh don't give them any ideas
Ticketmaster execs just perked up
You have to do 2 shots of crude oil to enter a lottery for a ticket to be able to pay for a ticket so you can checkout for groceries.
How do I do that on my Linux phone?
Hopefully everyone in the place at any given time will start stealing then. Not one person is going to wait 3 hours to pay for their groceries while cold shit thaws or only for a few items because they want to keep raising prices and enshittifying every damn thing.
Pretty sure the self checkout isn’t where most people steal, why not just walk out the door with whatever you want?
You don't steal all of it, you just miss the barcode on a couple items for the camera, so it looks innocent if somebody stops you.
Or you weigh more expensive fresh fruits & veggies as cheaper ones.
Well, it's just a simple fact When I want something, I don't want to pay for it I walk right through the door
Jane, were you caught stealing again?
As someone who finds interacting with register attendants painful, and doesn't steal, this is unfortunate news.
As someone who also doesn't enjoy interacting with register attendants, but does steal, I too find this to be unfortunate news.
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.
I'm sure you know the old joke:
::: spoiler How do you spot an extrovert Finn? When he talks to you, he looks at your shoes instead of his own. :::
Indeed I do :)
Cool :)
A Swede is visiting his Finnish cousin. They are sitting in a boat, drinking beers and fishing. After the 8th beer, the Swede asks "so, hows the family?" And the Finn replies "did we come here to drink or to talk?"
Haha, thanks, I didn't know that one. I would honestly love to visit Finland someday.
I can recommend it :P
Just skip Helsinki, 'tis a pointless place to spend any more time than necessary.
That's pretty much the interaction I expect in New England.
And, it's better than waiting around for the self-checkout attendant to fix the error when the self-checkout kiosk doesn't detect the reusable bag I brought correctly.
I know I'm lucky that I live in a country that has 17 people living in it, I don't remember the last time I was in the checkout line for more than 5 minutes. Also, we have shops that are open until late at night and most of the hyper-markets are 24h. So I just go shopping at around 23:00 or later, when there is 2 people in the shop.
As it should be! The exaggerated fake politeness I've encountered in the US is fucking horrible and makes everything worse.
Agreed. Devastating.
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.
We introverts pay the price 😭
Or those who shop while stoned...
They don't interact bro
That's sometimes part of the awkwardness. My additional gripes are completely pedantic, but hear me out:
None of the grocery chains in my area offer bagging services, so I have to wait for the attendant to scan my items, bag them myself, and then shuffle back to the register to pay. None of this is a problem, except that the human attendant rarely ever scans the items in the order that makes sense to bag them. So there's the weird dance of waiting, pushing items aside, etc.
If I'm doing self-check, I can scan and bag using my own patented autistic process ™ that is quick, makes sense, and doesn't crush things, and I can do it in one shot.
This is why I unload them onto the belt in the order they must be bagged
I suppose that's a solution, but you're also doubling your responsibilities, and the price of the groceries still stays too damn high.
It doesn’t really feel like work, I just sort by weight+size in descending order
I go by uncrushable first, fragile last.
Today I learnt doing what most of the world has been doing is "doubling my responsibilities"
I use this method, mostly works, cashier sometimes reaches past items when scanning. 🤷 I have observed others just reloading the cart and bagging once at their vehicle in the parking lot. Only downside i see is when having weather.
You can pay after they scan the first item. It won’t go through until they finish the transaction. So put stuff on conveyor. Wait for them to scan first item. Tap your card. Go pack up your bags while they’re scanning. When they’re done you’re done.
This seems highly location/payment system dependent. You can't do it where I live, the CC terminals require the final amount to be sent to them before it will accept a card, if you scan your CC before the final amount is sent to the terminal it just gets ignored and a CC will still be requested once the cashier has sent the final amount to the terminal.
Agreed. I am sad.
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.
I swear every time I pull into a manned checkout lane at one specific store I get the nastiest look from the cashiers. There are 3 functional self checkout kiosks and the scale on all of them is slightly under a single square foot. I'm not buying a thanksgiving feast, but forgive me if my regular shopping trip is more than a single cup of yoghurt and a TV dinner, and consequently cannot all fit on the self checkout scale. It's not like I'm asking them to open a lane just for me, they're just upset I've interrupted their scrolling session.
I try not to go there often, but sometimes my goto location is closed or doesn't have something I know I'm going to need. I know it's not all stores or employees because my normal one is pretty good and I can generally use the kiosk without issue, but it's so frustrating that the culture has shifted to expect all people to use the self checkout regardless of their situation. And I say this as someone who uses them regularly.
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.
Yeah, checkers are so slow. Self checkout lets you slam everything across in like 5 seconds, swipe, leave.
Easy.
Shitty thing is they won't hire more cashiers when they shut these off.
Guessing they'll also raise prices when they simply return to previously normal operations.
Thur raised prices when they put them in, they will raise prices when they remove them.
All actions lead to raising prices.
I really wonder who these retailers are. Like, my grocer typically has 2 human and 12 self checkout open, and it's no question which of those is going to be faster for someone pushing less than a full cart. They don't even have the floor space to build twelve more full service checkouts. Reminds me of the bad old days when I'd go to the store and they'd have every human checkout line open, every one of them with 5+ people in line, and it'd take 30 minutes just to check out. If you're a retailer that only processes a couple dozen patrons an hour, then yeah, I can see where a few self-checks wouldn't be any benefit.
Feels like we've reached the enshittification phase of self-checks: big stores are now so beholden to the technology that the vendors can jack up their prices to where self checks cost the store more than a full-service checkout, but they can't go back because there's no staff and no space.
My local grocery had self checkout for about a year before ripping them out and putting normal ones back in. They don’t seem to be understaffed.
Not all stores are awful on all fronts. They don’t have chairs for their checkout people yet though.
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.
I'll do a big shop, look shocked at the line up and just walk out. Have fun dealing with my cart.
There's no way I'll get an app. I get they'll have methods to entice people but I held off getting Facebook when it was the big thing, I'll be ready for when corpos want to fuck around.
In fact I welcome it to see how I do.
Trouble is, all you're doing by dumping a full trolley is inconveniencing someone who's paid minimum wage.
I agree that's not good. What else would I do if I had todownload an app to checkout or have to navigate their self checking that's just a shit show all the time. If the store is being cheap, not properly hiring people and paying a good wage, that is not my responsibility and I'm not going to have to get some app so I can do my purchase and I'm absolutely not going to take my time to put the items back, and nor would the employees want that either.
I have no responsibility to do free labor for profit hungry criminals.
I'm pretty good at not buying from Safeway when they have an item I want on app-coupon sale.
But since tje new Trump order I've gone completely anti-consumerist, only getting stuff I immediately need.
I have done that a few times.
You're just silly.
Your car itself will sniff you for drugs and explosives every time you start it and every 30 seconds thereafter, not the Walmart robot.
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.
I think this weird anti-self-checkout crowd is just young people who don’t remember the times before self-checkouts. Even if every checkout was manned it was still completely normal to wait upwards of ten minutes, even when it wasn’t that busy. I remember my Mum excitedly running to a checkout because there was only one person queueing there. Nowadays I totally expect there to be no queue at all and I feel hard done by if I have to queue for more than one minute.
Um, no. There are many other categories of people who have issues with self-checkouts. Like anyone who's legally or by the store's rules due a discount or tax waiver (people with Indigenous status aren't required to pay sales taxes in some jurisdictions, for instance), since the software often fails to account for these. Anyone paying cash. Anyone who knows anything at all about UI design or has wrestled with a self-checkout that just doesn't function properly.
I'll wait in line rather than deal with a machine that's broken by design, thanks. Fortunately, the stores around here mostly have reasonable staffing practices, so the wait isn't long unless some idiot tries to price-match against a flyer or something else weird and unusual.
Jusy FYI - I think self-checkouts can accept cash, but sometimes and sporadically do not, because I often see signs, permanent as well as improvisory, that they don't.
My problem with the self checkouts is they do require quite a bit of wrangling from the person on staff and that sometimes, depending on the time of day, that person has entirely fucked off to another corner of the store. I've abandoned a near-completed self-checkout for the safe harbor of a human-staffed register on more than one occassion.
My experience is that maybe a third of them are set up to accept cash. The others tend to have permanent "Credit or debit only" signage. (I pay in cash quite often, although I'll grant you that I'm an outlier.)
Yes, and sometimes they count drawers before close, so those registers are closed or card-only.
They can accept cash but those that do work like ass, and also attract less tech-savvy customers. So they need to keep them separated from card-only self-checkouts, otherwise it bogs down everybody. And yes, at that point they might as well convert them back to manned checkouts, because more often than not they require a person to stand by and help the customers with the cash.
Weird brag to admit you can't figure out the self-checkout and Fisher Price level UI that audibly shouts at you what to do next.
You mean you've never run into one that's got buggy software or non-obvious broken hardware? Lucky.
My only complaint were the ones I experienced in Japanese konbini, which has you scan your purchases, but you had to wait until after payment to bag them. Once this really patient, wonderful local couple showed me what I was doing wrong, it was okay. But still an unfortunate hiccup in their process.
The worst one I've run into appeared to be cobbled together from two different systems that barely talked to each other. At some point the main unit passed control to the other without any indication it was doing so, or that different instructions would be appearing on the smaller, monochrome screen that never showed up on the main one and had to be followed before following the next step on the main screen (no audio cues for anything on the secondary screen either, as far as I could tell, so anyone with vision issues was SOL). I don't know what the hell the designer of this monstrosity was thinking, and I don't care to know, but my cat could have done better. It wasn't impossible to figure out, but it required time and brain cells that I wouldn't have needed at a manned checkout. (Name of the store withheld to protect the guilty, but it was a major North American chain.)
That's only relevant to... I think just one country where self check outs exist. Namely America.
The thing about Indigenous tax breaks? Also relevant in Canada, and I wouldn't be surprised to discover there was something similar in Australia or New Zealand. It's only one possible issue of several in that category, anyway. For instance, there's a drugstore chain in my neck of the woods that provides discounts for seniors on one day of the week . . . but their self-checkouts can't handle it and anyone who's due a discount has to go to a cashier. Stuff like that.
I’m over 50 but the queue has to be huge for me to go to self-checkout.
I do not enjoy waiting for someone to come and check if im stealing. I do not enjoy waiting for a go-ahead for goods that are age restricted. I do not enjoy doing unpaid work (wheres my rebate??)
Also - I think cashiers deserve a job.
Same, and exactly all of this. If they want me to do the work that they usually pay someone for, they better offer me a significant discount.
I worked in grocery stores as a teen and I just want that to remain available.
I also do not like the self checkout machine. They have an unacceptable number of steps to pay. They’re horribly programmed. I don’t like the small baggage areas.
What crowd? As far as I can see, the article is talking about retailers who want to do this, not customers.
The Aldi by me went self checkout. They lost enough business because of it they brought back cashiers. I definitely stopped going because of how clunky it was. The couple times I went I used the single cashier that had a line instead of self checkout which did not.
Boomers still line up at the cashier and will wait 15 minutes when self checkout is empty. But they also buy loto tickets and cigs.
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.
.
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.
Have they tried adding AI? 3D printing? Quantum computing? Space based solar power?
They could have saved so much time and money by just paying the cashiers a living wage.
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.
It certainly always saves me time. Especially when I cut out doing the part where I pay.
I like it because I don’t have to talk to people. It is otherwise an inferior experience.
Agree. But what is the "otherwise" part you're taking about?
What other commenters have said: you're not as good as the professional.
As good as in what? Lifting items over the scanner fast? Because yeah, I am. I go shopping there 2-3 times a week, I know where the bar-code is on all the items I regularly buy, I can scan them just as fast as any professional, probably faster. Some of them are old ladies .... And not sure what other quality other than speed there is to scanning your items.
You and some other commenters are super special. Better than the average.
I really don't see what's so special about it.
There is nothing special about it, that's the point. But for some people, it can be important. What if you have a visual or physical disability? An intellectual issue? Etc.
I'm in no way suggesting that traditional checkout should be abolished.
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.
The supermarket I went to in the 90s boasted in their adverts about how if there were more than 3 people waiting in a lane they'd open another till. That's how bad the general standard was.
It's only faster because they took space and staff from actual checkouts.
Yeah .. so win win?
The time saving is hugely illusory. You really should take your watch and measure. What costs most time at a staffed register checkout is mostly the payment. The staff scans much faster than you.
I don't get why people think they will be more efficient and faster than someone who's used to pass products all day. Cashiers already know where to look for the barcodes and remember the codes for vegetables without having to look anywhere. Self-checkout is only faster in the beginning because few people use it. When it becomes the only option, prepare for even longer queues with people passing the products in such calmness as if they're doing it in purpose
It wasn't about speed, it was about reducing spending on wages
That’s right. 4-6 registers with one employee.
In my experience, stores with that kind of ratio are miserable to shop at. At high demand hour the most you can get away it is 2 register with 1 employee, maybe 3 if the self-checkouts are very good (good UI, not error-prone).
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.
I only use self checkout if I can carry what I'm buying in my hands. Anymore than that and I'll go through a lane. Seems like half the time I get flagged for the dude to come check anyway though so WTF is the point?
I refuse to use them because of liability. Too many cases of people being falsely accused of stealing.
When the employees try to shoo me to the self checkout I just stare at them awkwardly.
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.
At the very least, I am definitely faster at scanning and bagging my items in the order I want, though. I'm also WAY better at catching when the price doesn't match what I saw on the shelf tag.
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.
You don't think machines can up sell you? Ok.
When has a self check out given you purchase suggestions? I mean I can see them doing it, but I haven’t seen it
McDonald's kiosk? Wouldn't you like hash browns with your order?
Would you like to round up for the Boys and Girls club?
What upsell is the grocery store cashier doing? Stamps and ice?
To suggest a machine is incapable of up selling even more obtrusively than a cashier is dishonest.
It has literally never happened to me over the past decade short of rounding up for charity. Can they? Yes, it could be programmed in, but I've never experienced it.
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.
For most people that is definitely true. I however was a cashier for six years before graduating college and am at the very least just as fast. My problem is usually the scanner won't keep up with me since there always seems to be a delay for the system to verify I have put the item in the bag before it lets me scan another.
Same. I worked in retail for years, I can use a cash register just fine. These things are infuriating though no matter what you do. Terrible cashier-user experience compared to just like a regular grocery store checkout line
The idea of the self-checkout was that you literally just pass by some scanner with a full cart and it instantly displays the list of items with prices and sum. You just need to tap your card or phone on the reader and are done with it.
The implemented reality was very far away from that idea though. That's why it failed.
Customers are pissed because they have to do the cashier's job. And they do compensate themselves with some extra price reduction as a system requiring cooperation obviously can't reliably detect theft. And if you had a detective watching the cams, you could as well just go back to cashiers - which they seem to now do.
In the end this is yet another failed "fake it till you make it" bet on future tech which just didn't materialize in time. Shops can tank some customer dissatisfaction for a time and then profit a lot from being the first to do the new thing when it becomes actually possible a few months later. But pissing off the shoppers isn't a good long-term strategy.
It wasn't about the cashier, it was about the line.
Before self checkout, the wal mart near me would on a typical day have 3 or 4 cashiers working. At the height of their adoption, they had 28 self checkouts typically up.
But now, they have 2-3 self checkouts open and a big line, while you can generally find one of the handful of cashiers with no one waiting. It baffles me that people would wait to self-checkout when there's a cashier open with no line, unless people have just that much social anxiety (a wal mart seems a tricky proposition) or else people are liking their chances for skipping scan of an item here or there.
Sometimes I think that people must have some psychological tendency to just go where others are without any thinking about it. There's no other explanation fur such behavior
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.
Yeah, but while you are queued they can feed you ads.
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.
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'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.
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.
Ok, now will they actually staff the registers? Because every time I’m in the store there’s only one checkout lane open, and before 10am or so, the self-checkout is closed.
Considering its because all the would be cashiers are no longer watching people like a hawk to make sure they aren't stealing anything, probably. Unless they just straight up lay them off
Self checkout in theory is better for both sides - business and consumer.
That said most self checkout as implemented is insufferable. The modern experience is waiting 5 minutes for someone to clear out your order because you accidentally clicked the version of Limes that this store doesn't sell, despite it being an option on the POS, or to tap no / decline on the 5 different "Donate? Round up? Bag? Survey? Phone number?" prompts, or for the POS to lock up because you scanned a single can 3 times rather than 3 cans once, or for the cart to lock up so you slam your shin into it because the camera determined you were a thief.
Personally I avoid all self checkouts.
Is this how it works in the US? Because everywhere I use them in Europe they are pretty smooth if you're not buying alcohol.
What you describe is not at all my experience in Europe (mainly UK and Portugal, plus a bit Germany).
Small tills with not enough room for a big shopping, pushy and badly designed software, the whole "check your age" for alcohol with a single employee handling 20+ self-checkout tills, the thing bitching and moaning if you bring your own bag, different quirks for self-checkout tills in different stores, not taking cash payments and so on, are incredibly common and what's rare is the ones which work smoothly.
I mean, I would love those schemes some people describe (in Scandinavia?) were you basically check things in as you pick them up, but I have yet to see anything like that myself in the countries I lived in during the self-checkout era.
So far all I've seen in Europe are shit cheap implementations which only ever beat the manual checkout in speed if all you have is a handful of things (so, not a weekly shopping) or the store itself purposefully closed pretty much all manual tills and caused huge queues in order to push people to use self-checkout.
PS: By the way, in my experience in Europe, it's always you that pack your own bags, which actually makes the manual checkout even faster since at the same time the cashier is doing the checkout you're doing the bagging, so the whole thing can go twice as fast whilst in a self-checkout it's only one person doing both.
It's pretty seamless in the States too.
At least in the major retailers in my area - yes.
They are annoying AF and that's coming from a pretty antisocial person.
Even when buying alcohol you just have an employee walk 3 meters to you, you show your ID and the employee clears it. Thats how it is in some stores, others just prohibit alcohol completely.
Canada is halfway between the two. The best part of self checkouts is one queue feeding into many stations. Traditional tills drive me fucking mad i hate them so so much!
Give me a canadian tire, winners, or dollarama style checkout with one big ass queue feeding into all tills. Then grandma can pay in 19th century haypennies and coupons as an excuse to get her socializing fix outside the nursing home, and i can get my fucking groceries in a timely and non-infuriating manner.
I’m an Anerican and I’ve not really had any of these issues. The bagging area one yes, but otherwise no real problems and I’ve never in my life had a cart lock up. I try to avoid self check out, it’s not my job so why am I doing it?
I never get this take. Like, back in the day it also wasn't my job to pack the groceries into a cart and haul them to the cashier. You entered a store, like a lot of pharmacies still work today, there was a clerk behind a desk and you told them "I'd like three ounces of flour, 4 eggs and a litre of milk", they fetched it for you. So, where are the complaints that walking through a big store "is not my job"?
Everybody is like "no, a store is juuust right, when it works like in my childhood. Everything else is against the order of the world!"
I completely understand all the other, technical, cultural, issues one can have with a self-checkout, but this "not my job" attitude weirds me out, somehow.
I don't get that "it's not my job" approach a lot of people have towards self check out. I know its different in the US but I hear this also in Europe. In a proper self check out I take a item from my basket, put it straight into my bag and have all the time I want to organise it properly. While at the usual check out I need to unpack everything on the belt, pray that the person before me was fast enough so I can start packing my shit when the cashier starts pushing 3 items/second towards me. While trying to keep up with the cashier you are either a master of packing or you're screwed. Alternative would be just dumping everything back into the shopping cart and organising after you paid but that means handling every item three Times (put it on the belt, back in the cart, Pack into bags).
Hot Take: Self checkout (in Europe) is less work than conventional checkout.
No its not us based, I've never had a self check here that has that issue. They lock down for if they think you are stealing (I've never had repeated scans trigger that its usually if you try to hide a barcode or something) or age restrict but other than that as long as it isn't an operator issue its pretty streamlined.
It's pretty seamless in the US as well. People see the lack of workers and fear for their jobs. Turns out you really don't need to pay someone to shove stuff in a bag for you anymore.
Even while buying hard liquor, I just get a "are you +18" prompt and I just press yes. lol
Although they have a little magnetic cap on them.
Some of them are great. Lidl comes to mind.
Lidl just simply doesn't let you leave
Self Checkout hat serious drawbacks:
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.
This feels surreal, self checkout is insanely normal here and theres no scales and or other sensors besides normal cctv. Switzerland, for context.
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 checkouts facilitate logging your purchase data, imcluding your biometrics and facial data.
The shop is not paying me enough to do their job. Plus I never agreed to do any of it.
I use cash, go to cashier or kiosk every time or leave shopping items behind if closed as matter of principle..
Vote everyday with:
. your choice
. your feet
. your wallet
As if the same cameras aren't pointed at everyone standing in a checkout line, let's be honest, it makes no difference. You still swipe your card at the end, walk around with your phone radio, the face is just a cherry on top.
Cameras are equipped with face recognition. Habits and behaviours are analysed and monetised. Every company out there wants your data, not your money. Being able to target you directly is more valuable. Besides, each time you buy anything with your card or install an app your real identity gets leaked and there is a record [ metadata ] tied to your Digital Twin profiles via device identifiers. This makes you predictable, traceable and easily black mailable. Especially if you also have social media and big tech apps. There is a reason why the military calls them DEWs [ Direct Energy Weapons ].
In contrast you may:
. Opt-out from contactless cards by requesting chip & Pin only 😁
. Pay cash, monero or zano
. Opt-out of Mass Surveillance & Mass Data collection by de-googling your devices and using privacy respecting apps and solutions. This also makes it easier to control which radios and bands your device is allowed to use.
. Deacentralise your activities and learn basic opsec such as: Never give phone numbers and use email alias
. Avoid Self-Checkout! go to Quiosk! Its usually clear..
. Ask establishments about your facial recognition data and retention policies
Good luck!
Convenience Kills! 😎
Pretty funny coincidence here
I always, within reason, try to check out with a person and use cash.
It's always a clumsy experience for me. In some stores I just walk in, get a drink, scan, pay, and be out in less than a minute. But for my actual shopping? Way too much stuff on that little terminal thing.
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.
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.
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.
I'm waiting for them to close the stores to customers entirely and go to pick up or delivery only.
I know that would kill impulse buying, but I think they might make it up by not needing to police the isles, and no theft.
Service Merchandise did tag pulls and pick up at the register for everything back in the 70s and 80s. That might come back.
Clearly you don't work in digital advertising
Holy shit, Service Merchandise, that's a name I haven't heard in a very long time. You just reminded me of taking the tag to the counter. Didn't circuit city also do tag pulls?
Toys R Us for video games as well.
Canadian Tire isn't far off from this. They've put so much effort into making their stores as unpleasant and time wasting of an experience as they can. I pretty much only go there when I need something I can only get there, now.
Go back to the old General Store model where you’d bring your list and have them pick it out?
I would pick up 60 2-liter sodas at a time from my Wal-Mart, if they would let me place an order and let me pick it up. Sadly, only delivery is allowed to have the variety of drinks that I want.
Nah, it would be more expensive since they would need to hire more pickers. also would probably loose customers who wouldn't want someone else picking out their groceries.
Nah, Amazon and the like already do it. Robot pickers are far cheaper than worrying about theft prevention.
Ok, but robot pickers are expensive capital costs, and are set up to work in a warehouse environment with boxes, not a retail store full of soft goods and shelves. Unless you’re talking about recapitalizing the entire store to be a wearhouse, in which case there is a huge opportunity cost in regards to using good retail realestate for a warehouse.
Gonna have to use human pickers unless the grocery store is willing to completely recapitalize and the margins might not justify the high cost of retail real estate.
Thats the model Walmart is already moving to. It works well for Amazon, more and more retailers are going to consider it.
Also, B&H in Manhattan has an insane set-up for shuttling inventory from the back to the sales register for check up.
I don't think it is a pullout, it is saturation. You can only have so many self-checkout stations before the effectiveness of adding more diminishes.
I think you may be right, but anecdote in favor of a pull out:
At my area wal mart, it got to a pretty nice point, about 28 operating self checkout lines. Never had a line, they had disabled the bagging scales and disabled the voice.
Now, they usually have 5 reserved for Walmart plus people, and 2 to 3 running with a longer line than a human cashier. Then a line att the door as they want to audit everyone's receipts. It's an obnoxious experience, and reportedly they still have more theft than they would like.
However, they are pushing than I can get my orders delivered within 22 minutes, or pickup. Think they are pushing people to the theft proof options where you don't get anywhere near the merchandise that you haven't already paid for.
Good. Fuck self check out.
But at least they harvested tons of biometric, personal, behavioral and health data connected to account names and numbers to sell to data harvesters, merchants, hackers, governments and other ill intentioned groups, right?? So not all a loss.
They were doing that before self-checkout. Can I scan your {store loyalty} card so you get the lower price?
What self checkout are you using? The ones I've used have the exact same data collection ability as the manned checkouts.
What data are self checkouts collecting that regular checkouts aren't?
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.
The store I worked at in high school got rid of all of its self checkout right after I stopped working there. Let me tell ya, I've never gone in there since then. I don't want to have to talk to someone who may recognize me. Although it's been like 12 years now so I'm prooooobably okay lol
I've been doing my part, you're welcome everyone.
Ohhhh noooo, I only scanned 7 of these 8 tape rolls.
Exactly
Thank you for your service!
I like it because I can get organic vegetables for cheaper.
Just a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, on account of how sticky my fingers get in corporate mega stores.
Ah so the genius executives behind these will be held accountable by shareholders and fired right? Right?
This probably has a wide latitude of success depending on whether it's a high trust or low trust society.
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.
Well other technologies like accounting software are "at least 40%" and self checkout is at 36%, according to the article, so I don't think this is as devastating as one might think at first glance:
And of course less retailers are investing in the tech than in previous years: they've all already got it.
They are slower than regular checkout lines and only benefit the stores. When things go wrong at a self checkout you inevitably sit there for a long time waiting for someone from the store to get around to helping. If theres a problem checking out, the blame for it falls on you. I despise all of them.
Nah, if the self checkout pos freaks out and needs someone, just move your stuff to the next one over. Someone will come fix that one eventually; no harm in leaving it to sing the song of "an item has been removed from the bagging area" to its people, you and your stuff just shifted 3 feet to try a different checkout lane. If anyone complains just tell them the cashier waved you over, it's all good.
There are actual GOOD ways to implement self checkout though....
BAD: Me scanning individual items at a grocery store, LARP'ing as a cashier... terrible experience for all... i'm literally doing someone else's job for free...
GOOD: me throwing my entire basket of purchases into some kind of RFID scanning bin (not sure the exact technology behind it), the screen instantly shows me the list of items and total, and i tap and pay and leave. Actual time saver, and i dont feel like i'm doing a cashier job.
In both cases, it results in a loss of jobs, which sucks... but at least #2 isnt infuriating from a customer POV
You missed a third option that already exists. At the supermarket I go to, I pick up a scanning gun with a screen on it when I walk in. As I shop, I scan things and place them in my bags. At the end, I press a checkout button on the scan gun, and it makes a little bar code on the screen. I head to tge self checkout, scan my barcode, pay, and walkout. It's fucking seamless and amazing and should be the standard in every supermarket.
The only thing that sometimes ruins it is when there is a line of idiots at the self checkouts with full carts of groceries and I have to wait for them. There needs to be a dedicated lane for scan gun only people. Self checkout is for people with like 10 or less items, not a week's worth of groceries.
I saw one of those with I visited my wife's family in the south of England in 2014 and I thought "oh cool, what a great idea!"
12 years later (sorry) and I've never seen that in Canada or any place I've traveled to. But it seemed like the future at the time, and probably still would!
Except that allows shoplifting. Like, what, you expect people full authority to use the “honor system” with a scanning gun.
Except for if you buy multiples of one item, e.g. a box full of 12 milk kartons, and then have to manually input the amount by pressing the plus icon on screen 12 times...
And except for when the hand scanner shows you the correct item number and amount to be paid when you press "Pay now", but then the self-checkout inexplicably "loses" some items, shows you a different amount, asks an employee to check your cart, and you get accused of trying to steal...
I only ever seen #2 once in my life, and that's in Decathlon. Just have to put stuff in the bin and they will show all the item and ready to pay, you just have to make sure all the item are accurate. It's great shopping experience, but very expensive to implement for item that is very low value.
Muji And Uniqlo shops has #2, very convenient
Over here they've been present for at least 15 years and none are going away. But we have to bag our own stuff anyway.
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.
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.
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)
Such a weird hatred against a fundamentally useful tool that means fewer people need to do an objectively shitty, monotonous job (=cashiers).
Here in Europe, we have enough people manning the registers that you can always opt to go to a human if you have a huge cart (and potentially wait a few minutes, or more during rush hour), or if you have less than ten items (quite often really, I buy dinner bread practically daily), you go to a self-checkout, and you're out in less than a minute.
It helps queue times when you need speed and are buying a few things only, and is literally irrelevant when you have a full cart, as you're better off going through a proper cash register anyway.
Note that the fact that hypercapitalist american supermarkets take this as an invitation to permanently understaff manned registers is not a fault of the machines themselves
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.
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
This is the reason it’s worth it. No other industry, except delivery, allows nosy people to judge so many others, safety, and without comment
Most of the time it was boring food, but occasionally it would be condoms or lube
I went to the store today and felt bad for the girl standing at attention overlooking the self checkout. Probably counting down the seconds until some sort of interaction. And people wonder why society went down hill with socializing. I'd probably go Postal if I had to stand there for hours. It's one thing if you enlist, but this is a grocery store.
Thank her for her service
lol
At supermarkets in my country they have a system where they will semi-randomly check what you have in your bags the moment before you'd pay.
There's random things that make it more likely like buying meat but there's definitely a random element to it.
What i have noticed, however is that at times of financial strife (or just before them), the regularity of me getting checked can go through the roof (25% baseline chance up to 70-80% at peak).
And so I'm beginning to see these signs as a recession indicator. Especially as it's a massive supermarket chain with access to a lot of customer and market data.
Probably someone smarter than me could use this to make money.
Now if they could just get people to put refrigerated/frozen food back where they found it instead of leaving it wherever they happen to be standing. I love finding some meat sitting on the cereal shelf. Lazy f'ers.
Reads like a misleading statistic. Why would you invest in self-checkout if you already have it in place?
Good. Just pay people, society is for people. All of these cost saving schemes from capitalists in service of infinite greed end up failing and wasting even more money than they would have made or saved simply by paying people for their labour. Also, wealth tax immediately, I mean now.
I tried it twice at IKEA and it's so fucking shit and they still need to have people there to assist when you have a problem, IT'S THE SAME FUCKING THING JUST SLOWER.
They're not there to assist you. They are there to monitor you so you wouldn't steal more € than the self-checkout is cheaper than the staff it replaces.
In one of my local supermarkets there were 4 normal checkouts but never more than 2 of them were open because they're understaffed. They recently replaced 1 of them by 4 self checkout machines, it's soooo much faster now and lines are a lot shorter when it's shopping rush hour!
No shit. Those people with almost full shopping carts that go to the self checkout, check their items, put them on the loading shelf, pay and then, and only then, put the items in bags one-at-a-time.
Like, jesus christ, you can put the bags down FIRST and then put the items INSIDE THE BAG as ONE step.
How did humanity get to this point.
Some places make this stupidly difficult. Probably not an issue with plastic bags (but it might be, because of the stupid AI monitoring they all use now), but definitely an issue with boxes.
Aldi, at least when mine had them, you could put the empty boxes in the checkout area before starting and it would tare the scale. But only if you did it before starting the order. And they couldn't even accept their own gift cards at self checkout.
Costco, of all places, has no way of meaningfully using self checkout with more than a few items. You can't tare the scale at all.
Plastic bags cause problems, too. I've had this problem in several shops, I just don't bother anymore.
People have been conditioned. Literally Pavlovian conditioned. We have been made to feel pain in a response to a behavior. That pain?
UNEXPECTED ITEM IN BAGGING AREA
When you've been yelled at enough by a machine just for putting your own bags in the "bagging area", eventually it just becomes natural to bag your groceries after you've paid for them. Once the store has your money, they don't care what happens to your items. But up until you've paid the bill, the items may be watched like a hawk. And anything their automated vision system thinks looks a bit funny can get flagged. Sometimes machines are poorly designed or calibrated, and it flags your bags as something suspicious in the bagging area. Then not only do you get yelled at, but the whole system may be locked up for however many minutes it takes to get the self-checkout attendant over there.
There's a button called "USE MY OWN BAG". Press that button and the system will prompt you to put your bags on and will retare appropriately.
Though sometimes I've noticed you don't need to do that, which is maybe why you've never gone looking for that button (?), interpreting it as just a buggy POS POS.
Good. I fucking hate them.
Do the work yourself and then wait ages while the one checkout assistant deals with everyone else's issues because your checkout is happily accusing you of theft. Bullshit cost saving at the expense of the customer experience.
Don't even get me started on Asda's dystopian AI security gates. Want to take your young child for a piss? ACCESS DENIED! Try to open the gate manually? ALARM! ALARM! SOMEONE IS TRYING TO ASSERT THEIR HUMANITY!
Also, the last time I went to a cashier, because it was the one time I saw a long line at the self-check lane, I stood in the short line, I was third, while the cashier chatted up the customers, left the line to help another cashier with something and was generally very slow. I suspect they're not required to be efficient anymore, and perhaps even encouraged not to be. I watched as the guy I would have been behind in the self-check line left the store while I was still second in line at the cashier.
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.
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.
Conversely, my local Sam's club is doubling down, but...weirdly. They changed the layout of the self checkouts, and then removed several normal lanes so there's only 2 normal lanes at all. Here, Sam's is frequented most by older folks who hate self checkout. It was an incredibly stupid move.
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.
We have it but I'm on my partner's parents membership so I just gotta carry the barcode around instead.
I don't think this means they are actually pulling out.
Its unclear to me if the 36% is bc they already have the tech so they don't plan to invest further and new adoption don't happen bc everyone who "needs" it already has it or if the ones who have it are planning to get rid of it.
To me it just sounds like the people at the top didn't foresee the problems that actually arise in a real world setting and their overconfidence gets adjusted to a more reasonable outlook but the self checkout will not go anywhere, 36% is still a pretty big number, self checkout might just not be feasible for a lot of places in the first place.
I see it being implemented in more places not less, they are just finetuning it now.
Is it? Not where I live.
In 2016 I used self checkout if I wanted to get through quickly.
In 2026 I look for a cashier.
Self-checkout was a boon because reduced wages to process customers (in theory).
Now they have an even better mechanism to push: delivery and pickup. Keep the customers away from the merchandise except what they have already paid for. Wal-Mart pushing the promise of free delivery under 22 minutes when I go to check if they have something in-store.
The problem with self checkout is when things gone wrong, either the customer will cancel their transaction, ignore the problem and deny accountability , brute forcing which breaking the rules , or search for the staff for solution. It just make the failure more prominent thus defeating the very solution that self checkout offer.
s/pulling back/slowing expansion of installations/g
These are not the same thing, and if you look at any S curve you can see why.
I noticed that with self-checkout terminals, fruit varieties are still mis-labeled and missing. I noted that because I write down the price for such items, to be sure I enter the correct variety and price. It wasn't there. Not only you'd pay more than is on the label - you also risk to be accused of theft if there is a bag ceck. And if you call somebody to correct it, you waste several minutes since the missing variety might not even be in the system.
Looks like the "Voice of Retail Industry" survey the article cites only surveyed US-american stores.
I was a big fan of self checkouts when they were new.
Past year or so, I've completely changed course. I go out of my way now to go through the regular checkout lines.
Fuck the fucking idiots who ruined this
I definitely prefer self checkout, I'm already shopping for myself why not just checkout myself.
Think about it, were already doing the Labour the shopkeeper used to do by picking our own grocery, so is self checkout not just the logical next step.
Outside of wages and the evilness of Walmart and shit I'm just talking about pure tech and grocery stores that actually pay a living wage.
But I love my self-checkout discounts. It would suck if I had to start paying for everything in my cart again.
So is this a US specific thing or not? The article doesn't really make that clear.
I like the Inflation Compensation Checkout, because I don't have to talk to people.
Interesting to hear all these opinions. These have been around for so many years - there has been plenty of data. Surprising this is just now being turned back. For small orders I've always loved the self checkout and found it way more efficient. Part of that is likely because I want out of the store much more than any clerk wants me out of the store.
Same.
That's a legitimate use case. I'd like them more if they capped the number of items one could scan in one transaction, maybe at ten. I've always hated out someone with three carts of stuff could tie up fast checkout line or a self checkout.
I don't like self checkout. Every time I feel I'm doing their cashier job for free.
The thing I hate the most about supermarket self-checkout is they put the bag dispensers right against the scale where you need to put your bagged stuff. This leaves so little room the bag will fall over, etc so I have to put it on the floor. Then the register complains that I have removed it without paying, etc. FFS.
Retailers within the same chain seem to have different policies on how many check outs are staffed.
I'm in Australia and buy our groceries from woolworths.
There's one I go past on my way home and there's very rarely any proper checkouts manned. There's usually one "express" at which you can only buy 12 items or something, but there's usually several people queued there.
The other one where we go to do our weekly shop always has several proper checkouts manned. Usually when there's more than 1 person being scanned and 1 waiting they will call over the PA to get another staff member to open another lane.
IDK who's decision it is or what strategy they follow to decide which stores will do check outs what way.
Grocieres...from Woolworth? Funny. Here (Germany) it's just a horribly shitty dollar-store without any food.
The Australian Woolworth is a totally unrelated company.
In Germany the Woolworth GmbH was originally founded by the American Woolworth, but then sold off. The American one essentially died later.
I had no idea. Although I fondly remember it being cool and then suddenly becoming absolute dogshit.
Thanks for educating me.
I also remember my mom driving over the boarder to shop there when I was a child, so that checks out for me
At least you have the good kind of Woolworth it seems 😁
We have two chains which form an oligopoly in the grocery market here. Coles and Woolworths (Colesworth). Like tesco or something. Better presented than Aldi.
So, like everywhere else I guess. 1-3 chains taking over everything. When I was young we had a Mon&pop near our house. Now it's like 3-5 supermarket brands, of which most are from the same group and only virtually competing.
Yes, we recently had a formal govt enquiry into the lack of competition. Not very effective.
Until a few years ago there was an independent supermarket just down the road. They did very well, but sold to a foreign group that owned a few dozen stores and they just didn't understand the market here - it collapsed within months.
Our left wing party just announced a policy for govt owned grocers like mamdani has implemented. However, they have no chance of applying any pressure to govt to implement that.
Sounds like a great solution to being overrun by de-facto-monopolies. But I know nothing about Australia's politics to make an educated comment.
Here it seems like a faint smell of diversity, but often 3 chains are owned by the same group. But at least there still is some competition.
As someone that absolutely despises self-checkout I'd be happy if this was the case, but I don't believe this. I've had stores open up near me this year that only have self-checkout options.
I'm not doing labour for a company where I'm not getting a discount for it. I'd rather wait longer in line for a person to do it than to go through self-checkout out of principle. Plus all self-checkouts I've ever used are designed end up pissing me off because they are designed to be user hostile.
I like how they do it at Sam’s Club. You use your phone camera as a barcode reader, use the same saved payment as online, then walk through a scanner at the exit. They still have a person who can check your receipt but usually they wave you through as the door scanner got it.
I'm pretty sure I stolen bottle of wine because of the self checkout.
I'm bought a bunch of stuff and some wine, I scan to the bottle and it beeped and I put it in the bag but then no one came to ID me when it came time to paying, presumably it somehow didn't register.
It's not my fault if the chocolate milk lid is loose.
I never use self-checkouts but I observe them while walking by. I wait in line for a clerk at a cash register while all those in the self-checkout line seem to have a personal assistant.
I prefer the mobile checkout, but Walmart paywalled that.
Self check-out should be for maximum 5-5 products, no more. They should be Fast lane only.
Luckily, self checkouts are expanding in Copenhagen. Seriously beats standing in a line for the next 10 minutes. Such a depressing waste of time.
Anyway, haven't even had half the issues most people seem to complain about with self check out. I'm guessing it's because Danish supermarkets don't half-ass it. Or maybe people are genuinely stupid around even simple technology.
I forgot self-checkouts don't get queues /s
@BillionaireStew
Mayor Mamdani said self checkout should, by law, provide a ten percent discount. That might have helped.
Because self checkout should provide a discount. And grocery store workers should be unionized.
Hell yeah brother!
I hope they keep them at least in parallel. I'm so much faster usually when doing self-checkout, because I often only buy a few items and can just skip the line.
Fucking finally.
I don't get the hate? I go out of my way to use self-checkouts if I can.
They replace actual jobs and are not taxed the same as a person doing the same job. Also if I am now doing the job of a person you replaced I should be compensated with a discount.
I get where you're coming from but I look at it a bit differently.
Offloading mundane labor to machines is net positive; it's our "adapt or starve" economic setup that's broken.
Honestly, I just like packing my bags correctly without feeling rushed by a cashier or dealing with human interaction, for me that's a big plus.
I do enjoy self checkout, but yesterday one demanded that I put my bag of rice back in my cart before I could continue. Something about heavy or fragile items. The problem was that I didn’t have a cart, but I did have several more items.
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.
Most of those who have one don't plan to have an other one? Ok, but is that supposed to be weird?
I’m pretty sure delivery made it obsolete?
Curbside delivery is awesome, in many situations.
And they can afford to leave a few checkers in there for the situations that call for in-store shopping. That’s where self checkout would fail anyway.
I like self check because there's never a line when I go. With cashiers, the policy was to only open a new register if the lines got over three deep. So, there was always at least three people in line, no matter what time of day, on average.
I've never waited in line since I started using the self check lanes.
I'd rather do self-checkout because these people have no joy in life and they will sit there and drag their asses for minutes chatting with Sally Sue about nothing and then to this one poster's point they'll leave the line to help somebody else and you're left just standing there holding your crap when you could have gone to the self-checkout and been out and and on your way. So that would really piss me off if they killed the self-checkout because the inefficiency is unbelievable. I think maybe in more urban areas with nefarious locals sure kill them or at least heavily monitor them because people be trying to be scumbags and it's not right to steal from a grocery store regardless if the prices are insane or not
Immagine how much they wanted it to work...
That sucks, I DIY if the store has baggers since they don't do it well 8/10 times and I check the prices as I scan to see if the discounts applied. I'm pretty fast, and now if they remove them, I could do the job really well and bagger, I gained skills from the experience for possible future use.
in our area, people are just smashing in grab at a grocery store, because they arent even allowed to give them "customer" service anymore. these people are not hurting for money, but to fuel thier addiction(very high area of people doing various drugs. not even allowed to lock up the expensive stuff, because idiot regionals think the store needs to have all items available for customers.
Grocery store? So are the drug dealers in your area only accepting hotdog buns? Or are they fencing them first?
Eitherway, as long as somebody is eating the stolen food then I like that outcome better than the stores just dumping them in a locked dumpster when the date runs out. That's what happens to an obscene amount of food anyway.
nah they were selling them for money for drugs. its expensive coffee, icecream, tp, SUPPLEMNTS, collagen powder. because im hearing from other people in the area they all hit other stores at once, and gather in one nearby place and selling them. its also organized crime. many of them have thier coke torches on them. they were not eating them.
the ones that steal to eat dont take 10+bags of coffee 15-20$ each, or the 50$+ of supplements and powders and bottles of expensive olive oils. i dont think these people are brewing coffee or making supplement drinks. yes they sell it for drugs.
I kinda enjoy self checkout. Admittedly I'm one of those people that has a bag of 6 apples but rings up only 4, or inputs the cheaper sku on grapes.
If I can't check out a clerk or cashier when checking out at a food/grocery outlet, that business is shit and deserves to die.
Self checkout is amazing. Much faster and more convenient than going to a cashier. Also much lower odds of some retard holding up the entire line.
"some retard" was an elder lady for me the other day. I didnt mind the wait, she had to use three forms of payment for her order, she had a helper, and was probably struggling. I didnt mind.
There also was a woman behind me. We exchanged that polite smile when our eyes met, normal stuff. We were waiting a few mins, and I think she thought she was rude. She said to me, "I dont smile big because I dont like my teeth". I didnt even question it tbh, but felt a little sad this woman was shy about her teeth, so much so she didnt smile fully.
I got to tell this woman, we are all humans, I myself bad hair, and her smile was beautiful. And, she did smile fully then :)
The elder lady in front finished up, and I checked out.
I hope I made that lady's day.
Sometimes, if you slow down, you can see beauty in the world around you.
"Sometimes, if you slow down, you can see beauty in the world around you."
Well put. And you know it's funny people are have gotten so conditioned to the Amazon experience that it bled into all aspects of life. My friend told me a funny story about the place we would get breakfast at in Ireland. He comes in, and the girls at the counter are chatting about something, the owner comes out and has a chat with him, they catch up and he mentions yeah I'm getting some breakfast. The funny part is the owner say oh wait a few minutes the girls are having a chat. Completely different lifestyle. I enjoyed my time there, should probably go visit next year.
I love me a Irish breakfast and the best fish and chips any day, but ... I also miss Abrakebabra and Teo's lol
Komorebi. To define in my own words, it is the way light filters through trees.
I learned about komorebi in a Thomas Flight video in the context of film (video essayist). He brings it about when discussing a film titled "Perfect Days", and rather than butcher explaining it, I will recommend to watch. He explains the context and value much better than I could.
https://youtu.be/BucSbzYXqKM
There can be good in the world if you slow down and look. Thats really it. But of course, its because everyone is stressed and working to the bone, the american culture... it makes it more difficult to practice.. being still. To be still, long enough to enjoy small moments like youve desscribed.
One day I took a lunch, looked up and enjoyed the blossom season begin.
And I really liked this spot, as you can see others enjoying it as well. Sometimes I would sit there and enjoy the sound of water and watch the birds. And well other times I would enjoy lunch and a beer or sake. I would say it helped change the way I see things in life.
No fuck that shit. I’m not waiting around for other people to get their shit figured out. Self checkout is the best thing to happen to grocery shopping.
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.
I’ve only been using self checkouts since I started grocery shopping by myself and I’m nearly 30 so that’s quite a few different stores at this point.
Yes you do get some retards but that is usually countered by the increased number of self checkout stations. Compare this to a traditional cashier where one retard will slow down the process for everyone.