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The failure of self-checkout technology

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Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#281

Post by cameronh90 »

jefftk wrote: post #261
cameronh90 wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Waitrose (UK), they often don't have any scales, and as a result, there can just be one staff member watching over 20+ machines. By comparison, the other day I was at Tesco and they had introduced these new large self-checkouts for trolleys (aka carts in US), but about halfway through my trolley, I started getting an error for every item I scanned. Turns out, the max weight for the scale was 20kg.

At the machines I've used in the US the way they deal with this is having you move your items off the scale into a bagging area (which is actually also a scale internally, though not one that needs to be officially calibrated).

When I say scale, I did mean the one in the bagging area, not the produce scale. Turns out they'd increased the size of the bagging area but not the scale underneath it, so every item was giving me "please place the item in the bagging area".

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#282

Post by odiroot »

curiousgal wrote: post #11
noneeeed wrote: post #9

Curious. Obviously this is just just anecdote, but all the shops I use regularly (in the UK) have been increasing the number of self-checkouts and upgrading the systems. My local Waitrose has stripped out a whole load of basket tills and replaced them with a larger self-checkout area with upgraded hardware that is noticably better/more reliable. Perhaps this is a location or shop specific effect?

For UKer, is it just me or is the M&S self-checkout system by far the worst one ?

I find ASDA's to be the worst. Visibly very old computers, lagging and failing to react to touches.

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#283

Post by cameronh90 »

curiousgal wrote: post #11
noneeeed wrote: post #9

Curious. Obviously this is just just anecdote, but all the shops I use regularly (in the UK) have been increasing the number of self-checkouts and upgrading the systems. My local Waitrose has stripped out a whole load of basket tills and replaced them with a larger self-checkout area with upgraded hardware that is noticably better/more reliable. Perhaps this is a location or shop specific effect?

For UKer, is it just me or is the M&S self-checkout system by far the worst one ?

It varies between shops. Some M&S seemingly have the slow old ones with the tiny bagging areas, but some of the recently renovated shops have the Waitrose-style faster machines with no bagging scale at all.

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#284

Post by fy20 »

t8sr wrote: post #209

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…

I think part of the problem is the technology hasn't changed in the last 20 years. During college I worked at a large UK retail store when they had the self checkouts installed, and other than a slightly nicer design, today it is effectively the same as it was then.

For example today I still struggle to scan things with the laser barcode scanner, where as cameras are much more reliable for scanning barcodes today.

The system could collect data when an item does not match the weight in the database and 'learn' that it should be different, but this is impossible as behind the scenes it's still using a POS system that was designed 30 years ago.

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#285

Post by mayniac »

guappa wrote: post #244
Aeolun wrote: post #217

My problem with self-checkout (in the Netherlands) is not the interface or the system itself. I can navigate that. But then when I've finished checking out and bagging everything myself, the guy from the store came to do the whole thing again! I just stood there in utter disbelief as they rummaged through my neatly packed bag to mess everything up, scan only a handful of items, and then present me a bill that's sever…

I've had the checkout machine reject my backpack as an approved container. So I had to balance everything on the tray, pay, THEN bag everything. Another thing I really hate is that I've seen locked exit barriers that open when scanning the receipt. In sweden there is a real disregard for workplace safety :( I guess other than "honoring the people who died in the disco fire in the 90s in the local museum", there is no…

Supermarkets here usually require an employee to approve backpacks. You put your bag on the scales, hit a button saying it's a bag, then an employee comes round to confirm.

In practice, it usually takes longer to get an employee's attention and have them come press the button. So I don't bother. It's usually quicker to bag everything at the end, and I tend to get fewer "unexpected item in the bagging area" issues when balacing everything on the scales.

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#286

Post by thedougd »

I remember in the 2000s Walmart was pushing all their suppliers to adopt RFID. It was expensive and never happened.

The dream was that we could just take a cart full of items through a gateway and all the items would be instantly tallied and ready to take home. I could actually see this happening, but perhaps at Costco instead. Costco doesn’t weigh or bag items.

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#287

Post by Tor3 »

radarsat1 wrote: post #251
CM30 wrote: post #248

It feels like almost all the issues with self-checkout technology come from the attempts to minimise shoplifting, which don't even seem that effective at doing that. In theory, a system that let you scan products the same way checkout staff do without any weight checks or bagging area rules or other interruptions would be incredibly efficient. Especially if you could do things like scan the same product multiple time…

That's exactly how it works in the Netherlands, you just scan your items and go. There are no weight checks and you can scan items more than once and edit and remove things from the list. Apart from getting a poorly executed random check sometimes (which is far from effective for the purpose of avoiding theft imho) it actually works really well.

Same around here. Self-checkouts is hugely successful. I'm much slower going through the scan procedure than the person working at the conveyor belt is.. but that's more than offset by the fact that there are a large number of self-checkout counters and I don't have to queue up (for the most part). The only time I use the old non-self-checkout counter is when there are no customers and the person at the checkout looks bored. Then I go there.

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#288

Post by resolutebat »

thedougd wrote: post #286

I remember in the 2000s Walmart was pushing all their suppliers to adopt RFID. It was expensive and never happened. The dream was that we could just take a cart full of items through a gateway and all the items would be instantly tallied and ready to take home. I could actually see this happening, but perhaps at Costco instead. Costco doesn’t weigh or bag items.

Decathlon and Uniqlo are two retailers that do use this tech today. However, they also have the huge advantage of retailing only their own-brand products, so they have full control of the supply chain.

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#289

Post by nmeofthestate »

The article is way out of sync with my experience - I've seen no reduction in the number of self-checkouts compared to the number of traditional checkouts.

Sure, self-checkout is annoying. Mostly because of measures to combat thievery, which I notice have got more hair-trigger recently. The level of anti-theft paranoia that's dialed-in varies depending on the supermarket - the more downmarket the place, the more the self-checkout is calibrated to not trust you.

I'd be really surprised if they end up being phased out.

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#290

Post by Tor3 »

alpaca128 wrote: post #260
CM30 wrote: post #248

It feels like almost all the issues with self-checkout technology come from the attempts to minimise shoplifting, which don't even seem that effective at doing that. In theory, a system that let you scan products the same way checkout staff do without any weight checks or bagging area rules or other interruptions would be incredibly efficient. Especially if you could do things like scan the same product multiple time…

> In theory, a system that let you scan products the same way checkout staff do without any weight checks or bagging area rules or other interruptions would be incredibly efficient How would it be more efficient than a traditional checkout? There's no way the average person can match the speed of a cashier who does that every day, and at least the supermarkets I've visited don't have enough self checkout machines to…

> "There's no way the average person can match the speed of a cashier who does that every day,"

Absolutely true, and not only that - the cashier has a conveyor belt while the self-checkout counter has a slightly inconvenient and much slower system.

But that's totally offset by the fact that there's typically only one or two cashiers while there may be ten or twenty self-service counters. I don't have to stand in line.

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