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The failure of self-checkout technology

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Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#201

Post by tommek4077 »

jdietrich wrote: post #34
kioleanu wrote: post #17

I’ll leave a comment I’ve made last time this came into discussion: Self-Checkouts have been really problematic in Germany with stores rushing to put them to use and namely: 1) they have very bad interfaces 2) they don’t trust customers at all 3) it’s easy to report cases to the police and 4) stores have people hired to catch thieves and their incentive is that they are paid 50 to 100 euros per report (paid by the pe…

I think that's a Germany problem rather than a self-checkout problem.

Thats more of a thieve problem facing the consequnces of their actions.

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#202

Post by wao0uuno »

Solstinox wrote: post #86

It's nice to interact with people who are strangers. Grocery store employees, baristas, mechanics, service people etc. As you get older, a lot of the people you interact with regularly you have a responsibility for/to. Co-workers, bosses, family, kids. With strangers, even the grumpy interactions are fun. No responsibility.

> With strangers, even the grumpy interactions are fun. No responsibility. So you’re saying that you can be a jerk to these people because they don’t know you? Am I missing something?

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#203

Post by cityofdelusion »

workfromspace wrote: post #152

Obviously this sounds like such a US problem. Self checkout in the UK and Europe (Estonia and Barcelona) IME works perfectly: - No thefts - Many people with card payments - Working self checkout machines Also, recently I have been thinking how come the US is pioneering so many tech but fail to implement any, such as: - Payments: No SWIFT/IBAN, still lots of cash usage, no e-invoices (ie for utility bills), still usin…

You need to stop generalizing.

Plenty of large swathes of the U.S. have plastic cards, e-invoiced bills, and yes, even zero-cost non-drivers ID cards which work across state lines, along with several forms of national ID if one chooses. Hardly anyone writes checks or uses physical mail — a common joke is that you have to buy a pack of 50 envelopes to send 1 letter every few years. Widespread cash is a benefit, not a demerit, as it gives one purchasing power even if out in the countryside with zero internet — indeed the physical dollar is so powerful that I can take it nearly anywhere in the Americas and spend it directly, down to the poorest most remote villages.

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#204

Post by ffgjgf1 »

workfromspace wrote: post #152

Obviously this sounds like such a US problem. Self checkout in the UK and Europe (Estonia and Barcelona) IME works perfectly: - No thefts - Many people with card payments - Working self checkout machines Also, recently I have been thinking how come the US is pioneering so many tech but fail to implement any, such as: - Payments: No SWIFT/IBAN, still lots of cash usage, no e-invoices (ie for utility bills), still usin…

> SWIFT/IBAN

You might be thinking about SEPA. SWIFT is slow, expensive and also available in the US.

One reason is that credit card fees are much higher than in Europe (up to 3% or so) due to lack of regulation (of course a significant proportion of those fees are returned to the card users as cashback, so it’s not like American companies are much more greedy, it’s still not a very efficient system of course..)

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#205

Post by ffgjgf1 »

justsomehnguy wrote: post #185
workfromspace wrote: post #152

Obviously this sounds like such a US problem. Self checkout in the UK and Europe (Estonia and Barcelona) IME works perfectly: - No thefts - Many people with card payments - Working self checkout machines Also, recently I have been thinking how come the US is pioneering so many tech but fail to implement any, such as: - Payments: No SWIFT/IBAN, still lots of cash usage, no e-invoices (ie for utility bills), still usin…

> Also, recently I have been thinking how come the US is pioneering so many tech but fail to implement any > Estonia >> Population • 2024 estimate 1,373,101[2] • 2021 census 1,331,824[3] You can do most of projects in Estonia in a week or two, just because their popcount is low.

You can say the same about individual US states more or less. Rolling out every innovation nation wide is not necessarily the optimal goal..

Of course comparing the entire US with tiny individual European countries is always silly.

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#206

Post by sureglymop »

g-b-r wrote: post #181
currymj wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if you accidentally scan something twice, frequently the machine requires an employee to delete the entry for you.

I've actually never seen one where you can delete stuff yourself

In Switzerland that's possible in all stores who have them. You can also change the amount of a scanned item.

Also, for everything that can't be scanned (like freshly baked bread etc.) there are images and a search function to find these items.

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#207

Post by vjjsejj »

pjmlp wrote: post #41
Faaak wrote: post #30

I really like those that you can find in Switzerland (either in Coop or Migros). The basic assumption is "trust the customer". Thus, the self-checkout devices don't have the annoying "you must weight the article you just scanned". You just scan them one by one, add them to your bag, pay at the end, and that's it. Sometimes (it happens to me around 1/year) you get a random search, which is not that bad as they just ra…

Trust like in Switzerland is a very rare thing in most countries, you will seldom see newspaper stands with money boxes where everyone is expected to take one single paper out and leave the money in the tiny box, anywhere else this would fail.

> Trust like in Switzerland is a very rare thing in most countries

I’m in an Eastern European country and have the same machines in some supermarkets, no scales, no gates just scan the stuff and go.

That would’ve been unimaginable 15-30 years ago. Theft and violent crime rates were sky high. Having your home broken into or even getting mugged in broad daylight wasn’t that special (these days you have a high chance of getting a story in a national newspaper at least if you get mugged).

Of course it’s far from perfect and there are other issues that need to be solved. However under the right circumstances significant change is possible even during relatively short timeframes.

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#208

Post by delta_p_delta_x »

Mochsner wrote: post #177
jareklupinski wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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). something that's been worrying me: how long until grocery stores stop keeping fresh fruit and vegetables because it just isn't worth it anymore? or has produce always been a loss-leader to get people buying other things in the store... maybe ju…

You ever shopped at kroger? Their produce selection is so bad and/or rotten that I don't even want to buy produce when I shop there. They don't even care and I think use it to drive buying more predictable goods (like canned). Their subsidiary Pick N Save in the midwest was similar, but not near as bad as Kroger in the south. We buy produce from the cheaper Aldi instead, or worst case, the overpriced Publix (if Aldi…

> We buy produce from the cheaper Aldi instead

Funnily enough, in the UK, Aldi produce is generally very fresh and still cheap. There's plenty of turnover, precisely because people shop at Aldi so much.

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#209

Post by t8sr »

I was surprised how bad these machines were in the UK and the US. It’s possible to implement the idea better. A big source of friction seems to be the (IMO) unreasonable focus on theft prevention, and the second is that stuff in the store isn’t labeled properly.

Somehow, the self checkouts in Switzerland are mostly free of both problems. I’m guessing they’re more willing to take the theft risk, to increase throughput.

My point is that giving up on this technology seems rash, when it could be tweaked to work well with a software update and a policy adjustment.

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#210

Post by inejge »

kugelblitz wrote: post #117
ourmandave wrote: post #94

I'm so used to self checkout, last time I used a manned checkout I started bagging my stuff by habit. (Only used it because I bought an electronic with a security hockey puck that had to be unlocked.)

In Germany you always bag everything yourself and in the discount stores you have 1.4 seconds per item to pack stuff while the cashier is sliding stuff towards an area of maybe 60cm x 100cm (2 feet by 3 feet) where if you bag it too slow you'll hold up the line and people will look at you.

I usually handle this by dumping the purchases back into the cart and bagging everything someplace to the side after paying.

Lidl is famous (or notorious) for its demon-speed cashiers, and they actually worked hard both to train them and to make packaging easier for the scanner to "see"[1]. I don't see them implementing self-checkout soon.

[1] https://www.behance.net/gallery/114753219/LIDL-Packaging-Gui...

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