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The failure of self-checkout technology

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Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#341

Post by tenebrisalietum »

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…

My neighbor works at a Walmart in the US and observes the following: They won't usually have more than 2 or 3 cashiers signed in at once. The cashiers are either elderly people who can't scan super fast or young people who don't care. So most people go to the self checkout unless they have a cart brimming full of stuff, and even then she sees more than a few go through the self checkout anyway.

Is this Walmart being cheap? Kinda, but I think the recent surge in living costs has made being a Walmart cashier an unattractive job. I think they have trouble keeping and retaining people who want to do the job and do it well. $15/hr. is nothing now, and the young people who are cashiers know that.

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#342

Post by soziawa »

k4rli wrote: post #292
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…

I just scan the barcodes on my phone and place everything in bag as I go along. Before leaving the store a QR on the POS kiosk display is scanned with the store phone app and I just need to select on POS if I will pay through app (pre-added card info) or physical card/cash. As simple as it gets. No one checks the products. Occasional random checks happen but the checking frequency probably depends if past checks have…

In Switzerland it's similar for one of the two major retailers. For the other one you can pay in the app without every going to a POS.

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#343

Post by whynotmaybe »

thinker5555 wrote: post #329
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…

> 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. Agreed. And in some cases the issues almost feel like they're on purpose in order to drive people away from using the self checkouts. For example, when I use self checkout at my local grocery store, I have to hit a button to tell it I want to use my ow…

I never use the "bag" function.

When I've scanned the first item, I put it in the bag that's outside the scale and put the bag with the item on the scale.

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#344

Post by soziawa »

htrp wrote: post #325
k4rli wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just scan the barcodes on my phone and place everything in bag as I go along. Before leaving the store a QR on the POS kiosk display is scanned with the store phone app and I just need to select on POS if I will pay through app (pre-added card info) or physical card/cash. As simple as it gets. No one checks the products. Occasional random checks happen but the checking frequency probably depends if past checks have…

Where are you and which store is this (general terms)? I use the mobile phone checkout for one of the stores I go to. Every time when leaving, they manually inspect every single item in my cart.

In Switzerland the two major grocery stores have this system. You need to establish trust first, for the first few months you'll get more inspections. But I haven't been checked in years now.

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#345

Post by gmcharlt »

bombcar wrote: post #318
didntcheck wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Our library has self checkout and no anti-theft, but it still uses barcodes. No doubt if they were rolling out a system today they’d use RFID instead, but the absolute massive inertia from millions of barcodes books throughout the system must be huge.

That inertia is indeed huge. For example, if your library uses RFID but also shares a catalog and their books with other libraries, they'll still need barcode labels (with the same number that's encoded on the tag) so that the other libraries can deal with the items. Barcode scanners are ubiquitous in libraries; RFID readers, not so much.

Also, one of the promises of RFID for libraries has not panned out very cleanly. When a library does an inventory, not only do they want to verify the existence of the books, but that they are _in order_ on the shelf. RFID vendors for libraries promised that you could do this "shelfreading" accurately just by passing the wand across each shelf, but for various reasons the results are imperfect enough that it's not a clear winner over doing it with a barcode scanner. Given the fact that RFID tags have historically been far more expensive than barcode labels, the economics don't pencil out for many libraries to switch to RFID.

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#346

Post by podgietaru »

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.

That’s not the full story though because there are random spot checks and they’re very very annoying when they happen.

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#347

Post by Mo3 »

podgietaru wrote: post #346
radarsat1 wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That’s not the full story though because there are random spot checks and they’re very very annoying when they happen.

Annoying? A person comes and scans a few of the items on the counter, then leaves again. If that is already annoying to you, you must live a very stressed life

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#348

Post by jen20 »

HPsquared wrote: post #330
alpaca128 wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Traditional checkout takes two peoples' time: one scanning and the other waiting. Self-checkout only takes one person's time. So it'd have to be twice as fast to break even in terms of "time spent".

What makes you think it wouldn’t be twice as fast, assuming the same number of items was being purchased? That certainly seemed to be the case at my local Whole Foods before Amazon ruined it.

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#349

Post by rcbdev »

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…

> Somehow, the self checkouts in Switzerland are mostly free of both problems.

You're experiencing the difference between high- and low-trust societies.

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#350

Post by _fat_santa »

I would not call self-checkout a failure. Yes things like weight checks are annoying but what self checkouts are great at doing is increasing throughput through a store checkout. Often times I can be standing in line to a self checkout with 10-15 people in front of me and only wait 2-3 minutes because there are 6 self-checkout registers, meanwhile the folks waiting at traditional checkout are still waiting as I'm already walking out.
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