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Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free

#241

Post by blfr »

tpmx wrote: post #233
cambaceres wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is growing awareness that this service should not be run by private companies/banks. I don't agree. I'm a Swede too (as I assume you are), and I have basically never heard anyone complain of BankID being owned by the banks. I am really happy that our government does not own BankID, since they suck badly at developing software.

My understanding: After the recent money laundering revelations the banks have become relatively strict in accepting/keeping certain customers. I think that most of all the banks are afraid of being blacklisted/sanctioned by the US. This leads to friction and situations where some people are essentially excluded from large parts of society. The banks also don't seem to be all that interested in interacting with their…

The banks also don't seem to be all that interested in interacting with their invidual customers in the flesh.

The feeling's mutual! I have been using the same bank for over 15 years and only visited once and by accident.

Re: Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free

#242

Post by norenh »

aivisol wrote: post #180
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love the quick self service checkouts and will line up for them even when a regular staffed checkout is free. I’m just the opposite and instead dislike interaction I guess.

Whenever I use self service checkout, it always takes much longer time for me to get through. I guess I am not so good at quickly juggling and locating bar codes at each item as the staff working at checkout are. So I leave it to professionals.

Resident in Sweden here and heavy user of the self-checkout. My experience is that self-checkout is slightly slower than the serviced one. For a serviced checkout I try to put all bar-codes towards the cashiers scanner (it is a nice thing to do, the cashiers do not like juggling either) when putting stuff on the belt and I will need to unpack from my basket, pay and pack it to my bag. The same is operations needs to be done for the self-checkout but even the best setups needs some managing of the machine that the cashier would have parallelized in a serviced one. Usually it is slightly more fiddly to do packaging and scanning on a self-checkout system than on a serviced larger belt.

However, considering that there are usually many more self-checkout terminals available with much less queue it means that the total time spent is less than on a service one. My local store, open until 23, usually closes down the self-checkout terminals the last hour since there are too few people to make it worthwhile and you rarely have a queue to the serviced station.

So I totally agree that the serf service checkout is slower for that actual station but considering that the store can cram in much more of those in the same space and they need much less personnel to manage it saves everyone time and money to use them, unless there is no queue to the serviced checkout (and personnel is manning it at the moment).

Re: Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free

#243

Post by JustSomeNobody »

delecti wrote: post #208
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m slower also, but I still think it’s worth doing myself to avoid interaction.

In addition to avoiding interaction, I also prefer not standing there awkwardly while people work for me. I can't help the checkout clerk scan my groceries faster, and (if there is one in that lane) I'd just get in the way of the baggers, so I just have to stand there letting them serve me. I don't like that feeling of power/superiority/(not quite sure how to phrase it). It's the same reason I don't like mani pedis.

Alternative viewpoint:

They'd really rather you not get in their way, anyway. It isn't awkward for them until you try to help. They enjoy the feeling of power/superiority they have over you. That's why they smile while you stand there naval gazing.

Re: Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free

#244

Post by TravelPiglet »

bellyfullofbac wrote: post #67
el-salvador wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A Swedish bank account with Swedish Bank ID. Do they have a work around for non Swedish users?

I'm reminded of a redditor commenting how he visited a music festival in Sweden as a foreigner, and how annoying it was for him, because all the food stands were expecting the Swedish payment system. And he couldn't even ask other visitors to buy stuff for him and take his cash, because the Swedes were very cash-averse.

Except for supermarkets, I don't expect any stores to actually accept cash anymore. This have lead to a growing bag of small change that is not leaving my home, so I can understand people not wanting cash :)

Re: Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free

#245

Post by JasonFruit »

tpmx wrote: post #202

The BankID service seems to trip up many people here. Swedish residents have a personal identity number issued at birth or immigration. Format: YYYYMMDD-NNNN. More details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_identity_number_(Swed... BankID is a service run by the Swedish banks that interfaces with the banks, individuals and third parties (like this chain of unmanned stores). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BankID T…

> There is growing awareness that this service should not be run by private companies/banks.

At risk of sounding snarky, I'm growing in awareness that the anonymous nature of paper money and coin had a lot of advantages. I would be unhappy if the only option for groceries in my area required me to strongly identify myself to shop there.

Re: Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free

#247

Post by JustSomeNobody »

chrisseaton wrote: post #80
the-dude wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favorite supermarket has regular and 'quick' checkouts. I enjoy the interaction with the employees.

> I enjoy the interaction with the employees. If you want to pay for someone to be social with you why not do that separately to shopping? Seems funny to try to mix the two.

I don't recall getting a discount for self-checkout.

Re: Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free

#248

Post by falcolas »

chrisseaton wrote: post #160
falcolas wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More efficient for the company, perhaps (though self checkouts are typically still manned, though at a reduced rate). But much less efficient for the customers. Who do you optimize for? IMO, ideally not the company.

> But much less efficient for the customers. I don't know what your experience is, but I always find self-checkout massively more efficient for me and I'd always prefer it and would choose shops that offer it over those that don't. I can just breeze through with my AirPods still in listening to my podcast, not having to wait for anyone else or have anyone else wait for me, not having to say anything, and just get on…

Is it really more efficient (faster, lower effort, etc), or are you just busy (as opposed to idle)?

Re: Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free

#249

Post by inter_netuser »

CivBase wrote: post #197
lawxls wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't people work at these jobs because there's no other options available for them?

Where I'm at, the vast majority of employees working "grunt" positions in supermarkets are high schoolers along with some elderly and disabled folks. Given those demographics, I strongly suspect most of them are not working there to make a living.

Disabled people work for fun in grunt, manual labour, positions?

Seems hard to believe.

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