Self-checkouts? I will come right out and say it - I am not a big fan of them.
Like others, I strongly suspect that self-checkouts were brought in to cut staff costs. If customers are scanning, bagging and paying for their items then supermarket staff don't have to do that.
The only time I feel happy about self-checkouts is when I have no more than a handful of items to process. This allows me to avoid joining queues at the manned checkouts. In contrast, the worst time to use a self-checkout is when you have a full trolley of items and the manned checkouts are all closed.
It can take ages. Often I cannot easily locate the barcodes and the machines with their sensitive scales frequently react belligerently with "Unexpected item in bagging area" announcements etc or flashing red lights to alert supervisors.
I much prefer to load my trolley items onto the conveyor belt and then let somebody else do the scanning work.
It seems that self-checkouts are associated with higher levels of theft. Some of that may be accidental or unintentional but most of it is certainly deliberate. It is as if being given responsibility for processing your own shopping tempts a minority of people to bag items they have not paid for.
When self-checkouts were being introduced, I do not remember any shop or supermarket asking me what I thought of them. If I had been asked, I would have said - Yes, okay for a few items and the customer is in a rush but do not let them take over. There should always be manned checkouts available.
What is your opinion of self-checkouts? Love them or loathe them or somewhere in between?
I neither love nor loathe them. I just take them as an example of the heartlessness of modern day commerce and, like the handmaids of Atwood or the proles of 1984, I just march in line and do my duty.
ReplyDeleteYeah, sometimes protest is futile. Just march in line.
DeleteI can take them or leave them though i wonder how much money the stores save and do they pass that along in higher wages to their employees?
ReplyDeleteYou must be joking about the higher wages Bob.
DeleteI prefer a checker, one who is pleasant but doesn't dawdle with conversation. I feel like putting my items in the cart and taking them out to be scanned then putting them into my car and taking them out at home and putting them away is enough handling by me. Someone else please ring them up for me!!
ReplyDeleteWe are like minded Deb. I don't want the hassle of self-checkout.
DeleteI have all the same thoughts as you. In fact, if I have a choice, I will stand in line to get a human checker just so they have some sort of job security if the numbers are being looked at.
ReplyDeleteI only shop two places with any regularity these days that have self checking stations. In both places, they have been shut down and the screens covered with paper pointing towards the human checkers. They used to work but around the first of this year both were shut off and have gathered dust since. I am hopeful this is a sign of times to come and they will get rid of those blasted things.
I both love them and hate them. Sometimes they are faster, a plus. But sometimes they make things complicated, are green onions listed under onions or under green onions? A negative. But sometimes it's nice not to have to make small talk with a cashier, a plus. I wonder when we will be enlisted to start stocking the shelves.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure there is a lot of theft through these checkouts, hard to feel sorry for huge corporations but it does raise the cost of products for those of us who don't steal. So, should we start stealing? So many questions.
If you select onions from the menu a choice should appear where you can enter the correct type.
DeleteI love self-check and always opt for that unless I'm buying beer, when I know a real person is going to need to see my ID. (rules are rules) One of the main reasons I prefer it is because I like to bag my own groceries. Even when I use a manned checkout, I ask them to let me bag them myself.
ReplyDeleteI hate self-checkouts (no good at scanning and easily flustered) and also despise drive thrus. I used them during the height of the pandemic when I was doing car coffee dates. (go through drive thru masked to get the coffee, park next to each other and chat through our open windows but far enough away to be safe) If I'm going to pay for a coffee, I want to sit in a comfy chair across from someone and converse about books, life, politics or whatever...with a bathroom nearby.
ReplyDeleteI don't like self check outs. I'm not confident in my usage to be sure that I'm correct. It takes me much more time. It irks me that there is more theft and I have to pay for those losses.
ReplyDeleteI actually like them, at least at the grocery store. The reason? I'm picky about how my food is bagged. Cold stuff should be together, bags shouldn't be over or under full, etc. And like items with like. Careless bagging drives me crazy!
ReplyDeleteI neither love nor hate them. They are less common in German supermarkets (at least the ones where I go), but I am familiar with a few in Ripon. As you say, they are alright when one only has a few items - and that's actually what they are meant for, not for the fully laden trolleys. So far, I have never been at a supermarket where no staff was at the tills and only self-checkout was available. When one time my sister and I were trying to process a bottle of wine at self-checkout, the machine even actively called someone for us because they needed prove of age.
ReplyDeleteAt the large IKEA outside Ludwigsburg, self-checkout has been going on for many years (along with manned tills) and it has never been a problem for me.
It's like mobile phones - you don't like them (and therefore you don't use one), but they are there and won't go away anytime soon.
As for cutting costs, supermarkets have never made a secret of wanting to do just that, and wanting to make more profit. That's why they exist. And with us buying there (instead of on farmer's markets and other small businesses), we all contribute.
I don't like it. They'll have us stocki g the shelves next!
ReplyDeleteI will always choose a checkout with a person if one is available.
ReplyDeleteAnd if one wasn't available, I would just walk out and go elsewhere.
DeleteI had to use one in W H Smiths at Luton Airport yesterday and got a young lady assistant to do it for me. I always opt for humans over machines. Ticket turnstiles at railway stations also annoy me.
ReplyDeleteLike you I use them when I only have a few items but invariably they will tell me off for 'unexpected item in the bagging area' when I've just put an empty plastic bag there or it will throw a tantrum about something else. I saw a funny meme on Instagram the other day which I cannot copy onto here but was quite funny
ReplyDeleteI don't mind the self check out at Poundland as I only have a few items ( there is no choice as the actual tills never have anyone on them!)
ReplyDeleteIn Aldi ( Thursday ) I use the real person as I have lots of things, but there is hardly any waiting time as they are so fast!
In Waitrose( Monday ) I use the hand held " zapper" and pack as I go, just have to pay at the pay station....much prefer that method.
The only experience I have had of self check-out was in the U.S. many years ago - in the late 80's I think! We left the UK before they became available and they have never made it this far south, except possibly in the very big cities. Local supermarkets are strictly cash or card, though I notice recently more people opting to pay by smart phone.We have never had the convenience of cash back, though it was available everywhere in the UK by the time we left.
ReplyDeleteSo no recent experience to offer an opinion for or against.
When I grocery shop it's rare that I'm buying more than a few items, so in my case they work fine. We don't do big weekly shops but I can see how they'd be a pain in that case. I suppose on a moral level they're pretty dubious, replacing human jobs with mindless robots, but such is the way of the world in many industries.
ReplyDeleteI like them because I can get through quickly and don't have to talk to people. You are correct though in saying they were introduced to cut staff costs so the bigwigs can rake in more profits. Yet "they" continue to build supermarkets with as many as a dozen or more checkouts all lined up to look impressive and never opened until the Christmas/New Year rush.
ReplyDeleteIn the next stage of automation and to try to reduce the level of theft, our local supermarket has now introduced an exit barrier from the self-checkout area, prohibiting you from leaving until you scan your till receipt. Just when you think you’ve negotiated the barcodes at the tills, you find yourself scrabbling for a receipt that in my case can inadvertently get misplaced in the space of only 10 feet!
ReplyDeleteScanning your receipt to get through a gate is extreme. We have some gates in Australia, and I couldn't get out once as I had not bought anything.
DeleteI dislike using them as some sort of error always seems to occur then I get frustrated. But then I am just a feeble minded old woman.
ReplyDeleteMy supermarket has the kind of system where you scan and pack your groceries as you go along and at the checkout just pay. I like it. But since 10 years now I do the bulk of my grocery shopping online with home delivery twice a month (from the same place), so when I visit the supermarket myself in between that's only for a few items anyway. (I don't have a car and can't carry much.) There are manual check-outs as well for those who prefer that. I don't think I've used self-checkout in any other kind of store. I was introduced to it once in a clothes shop but immediately rant into technical trouble and the shop assistant had to take over (and had trouble as well), so that did not impress...
ReplyDeleteI don't mind the actual checking out myself (and I always bag my own things, regardless). I do mind that the goal is to eliminate staffing or to cut hours of workers. Our market redid their checkout lanes; half are now self-service. I commented on it to the woman checking me out; she said she was just grateful she had kept her job. Several others had lost theirs.
ReplyDeleteWhen they first came out I absolutely hated them. These days I have become better at using them but if I have more than about 5 items, I'd prefer to have somebody else do it.
ReplyDeleteI suppose Red is right that theft via self serve is something we all pay for but I also think our big 2 supermarkets here are so grasping, such awful employers and dreadful to suppliers that I am happy for the public to extract what value they can
I really don't like them at all, and I share the same sentiments that you mentioned in your post. I don't mind them for a few things, but when I have a lot of items, or a lot of produce, I avoid them if I can.
ReplyDeleteI am in between on them. At times they are quick and easy, at times they are simply impossible. I agree the self-checks are only there to lower staff costs.
ReplyDeleteLoath them - cutting staff costs didn't lower prices. It put folks out of basic jobs, and did not reward me for becoming a check-out operator part time. It also robbed me and others of the conversations we had with the people providing us with that service.
ReplyDeleteI like it at Costco which is a huge warehouse sort of place. Everything there is packaged and labeled as to price- no weighing. So that's never an issue. And if there is a problem, an attendant will be right there to help you deal with it in an instant.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, no. I am not a big fan. For many people, the one human exchange they can count on in their day is with a cashier.
I never pay for a bag in self service ( what a rebel)
ReplyDeleteNow that I am retired, I try to be flexible about the checkout. I usually go to the manned stations but if I have a little load, I sometimes try the self-checkout just so I know how to use it. Don't want to be left behind technology-wise. ;)
ReplyDeleteI see pros and cons to self-checkouts, which I use whenever possible so I guess the pros outweigh the cons for me. Pros - there is always less of a wait to use them, I control the bagging, I don't have to make small talk, I don't have to be stuck in line with someone who is coughing or otherwise ill or obnoxious. Cons - people have lost their jobs over these, you can't use cash if you're buying something small, sometimes it's good to have to make small talk, feeling watched by the folks waiting their turn. As others have said, the theft has led to some stores making their exit areas more secure - which means they've had to re-hire some people to oversee that part at least. One thing that used to bother me was the attendants coming over to "help" me. I have been known to say "thanks, but I want to learn to do it myself" but I've also been grateful for the help sometimes. Just call me wishy-washy :)
ReplyDeleteIt used to be a pleasure to go to the grocer's, the butcher's, the newspaper shop, the hardware shop, and so on, and ask for what you wanted to buy and be served. Families don't have time for that now because they have inflated housing costs. The wealth benefits of all these advances concentrates in the hands of big business and finance.
ReplyDelete