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The failure of self-checkout technology

bbc.com

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Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#101

Post by WarOnPrivacy »

delichon wrote: post #90

> The biggest problem is theft. Not only is it easy to steal from self-checkout machines, it can be hard not to steal from them. This is me. At a Walmart this weekend the machine booped instead of beeped, and I didn't get that meant it didn't scan, and dropped the item into a bag. An employee was watching and swooped right in and fixed it. But paying that much attention meant that she might as well have checked me ou…

> This is me. At a Walmart this weekend the machine booped instead of beeped, and I didn't get that meant it didn't scan,

I routinely forget to scan whatever is on the bottom of the cart. Usually cases of water but a few times it was the box of 32 hamburgers. I never had a cashier catch it - and they're invariably surprised when I come back into pay.

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#102

Post by didntcheck »

hackan wrote: post #92

I love self-checkout, honestly. Machines need to improve, but still. There's a store here where u simply DROP all items in the self-checkout basket, and it automatically computes everything! I suspect it uses NFC or similar, but it works, and its wonderful, simply drop everything in! And wait, there's more: did I say drop everything in? I meant, the bag you are using to hold everything? just put it in that basket, in…

I've used a few libraries that work like that, probably going back 10 or more years now. I was a little incredulous the first time - "You mean I really just plonk down a pile of books and press 'loan'? No individually placing each one spine-first in a tag-deactivator?"

I guess until recently it was only practical to implement with tags that were going to be reused, but is now feasible with disposable ones

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#103

Post by WarOnPrivacy »

genman wrote: post #98

What country they are talking about? UK, US? I'm not sure that it does apply to other countries - looks to work well by my observations.

Just here in the US from what I can tell.

I'm happy with SCO. That is, I am happy now that registers stopped monitoring the bagging area for weight. That was a miserable disaster every trip. Like when I'd buy 50lb bags of cat litter and cases of water.

Grocery stores (I can afford) stopped the weighing and checkout is a good experience. I take packed carts thru SCO because that's usually faster than the cashiers.

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#104

Post by klyrs »

jljljl wrote: post #91

It always seemed like a huge disconnect that retailers were expanding self checkout and cutting hours, at the same time that they were complaining about higher shrink rates. While I often prefer self checkout for small purchases, the counter-shrink measures at make the entire experience worse -- locked up products, weird checkpoints after you finish purchasing, etc.

This has hit me a few times recently, in a store that installed self-checkout, reduced staff and started locking everything up. The result is that I can't find a person to unlock the product I want to buy. So now I drive another few blocks and skip that horrible experience.

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#105

Post by Havoc »

>The biggest problem is theft.

That sounds like a societal failure more than a shopping tech failure.

I personally like them...as long as they aren't the kind that weigh the items. Those always end up needing staff override because the stupid thing is too sensitive

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#106

Post by filcuk »

devilbunny wrote: post #96
hackan wrote: post #92

I love self-checkout, honestly. Machines need to improve, but still. There's a store here where u simply DROP all items in the self-checkout basket, and it automatically computes everything! I suspect it uses NFC or similar, but it works, and its wonderful, simply drop everything in! And wait, there's more: did I say drop everything in? I meant, the bag you are using to hold everything? just put it in that basket, in…

I'm sure that's great, but it's a bit impractical for groceries. Even the relatively small cost of an NFC tag is going to be a real problem given how thin most groceries' margins are (and how cheap small amounts of food can be, even now). But groceries are one of the best examples of where this would be a big time-saver. I will say that I really do prefer self-check in convenience stores, where a big purchase is thre…

For larger shopping, I like to use the scanning gun. I get that it's used to track me, but the fact is I get to track the price, pack items as I go and just pay on the way out.

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#107

Post by WarOnPrivacy »

jljljl wrote: post #91

It always seemed like a huge disconnect that retailers were expanding self checkout and cutting hours, at the same time that they were complaining about higher shrink rates. While I often prefer self checkout for small purchases, the counter-shrink measures at make the entire experience worse -- locked up products, weird checkpoints after you finish purchasing, etc.

> While I often prefer self checkout for small purchases, the counter-shrink measures at make the entire experience worse -- locked up products, weird checkpoints after you finish purchasing, etc.

This would be legit terrible. My shopping trips are almost all groceries and the few locked-down things are behind the service counter or at the Rx. Pseudoephederine is only restricted item I buy.

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#108

Post by matthewdgreen »

devilbunny wrote: post #96
hackan wrote: post #92

I love self-checkout, honestly. Machines need to improve, but still. There's a store here where u simply DROP all items in the self-checkout basket, and it automatically computes everything! I suspect it uses NFC or similar, but it works, and its wonderful, simply drop everything in! And wait, there's more: did I say drop everything in? I meant, the bag you are using to hold everything? just put it in that basket, in…

I'm sure that's great, but it's a bit impractical for groceries. Even the relatively small cost of an NFC tag is going to be a real problem given how thin most groceries' margins are (and how cheap small amounts of food can be, even now). But groceries are one of the best examples of where this would be a big time-saver. I will say that I really do prefer self-check in convenience stores, where a big purchase is thre…

When I started looking at RFID tech in 2004, the disposable tags cost maybe $.50-$1 but general consensus was the costs would follow a Moore’s law like trajectory, halving every 2-3 years until they were on even the cheapest items. And yet here we are 20 years later and I don’t see RFID checkout systems very often at all. Are the tags still really expensive? Or is it the extra cost of attaching them to packaging?

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#109

Post by steelframe »

I wouldn't mind these machine so much if they always accepted cash. The problem is that more often than not they don't.

When I was on vacation in London about 5 years ago when Visa had an outage: https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2018/jun/01/visa-outa...

I was trying to pick up some food at the only grocery market that was within walking distance of where I was staying. The grocery store only had self-checkout machines. As the checkout line piled up, the payment system failed to process my card. I gave it another try with another card, and after a long wait that one went through. By that time as I was looking around, I noticed that pretty much everyone else around me was stuck at the machines and weren't moving on. I assumed there was some sort of outage going on.

I guess I came within a few seconds of needing to scramble to try to find a way not to go hungry that night. I had plenty of cash on me, but that wouldn't have helped me complete the purchase because the machines simply didn't accept cash. There was no obvious way to get an employee's attention so I could give them my money. They were probably stuck with some of the other customers scratching their heads as to why the magic card charging system, which appeared to have been the only possible way to pay for food at that grocery store, wasn't working.

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