The Case Against Self-Checkouts • Hacker News Board

Re: The Case Against Self-Checkouts

#11

Post by DangitBobby » Tue, Aug 24, 2021, 5:08 AM UTC

wahern wrote: post #8

hammyhavoc wrote: post #6

Given how often self-checkouts shit themselves and I'm left waiting for 10-15 minutes to actually get some help from a real human being, I now choose to shop only at stores that have real human beings on the checkout. I would frankly rather pay slightly more per item and not spend any more time than I need to in a store. I have Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, expecting me to screw around with moving shopping from a cart to a…

Not once have I ever been able to use self-checkout at a major grocery chain like Safeway without violating whatever weight constraints the machine has. Not once . It's absurd. It's been over 10 years, though for most of that time I only ever try about once or less a year and never by choice. By contrast, I can't remember the last time violating the constraints at a CVS, and I've used it at many. I want to say that i…

I have the same problem at Kroger. I'm slow because the machine forces me to place an item fully on the scale (and wait a second or so) before it will accept the scanning of another. I'm usually waving an item in frustration across the laser multiple times while it figures out what happened to the last item I scanned. Customers are not the problem, IMO. It's dead simple to use these machines, usability issues aside.

Re: The Case Against Self-Checkouts

#12

Post by bradknowles » Tue, Aug 24, 2021, 8:42 AM UTC

For me, if it’s a few things, like a single hand basket, self checkout is fine and I’m happy to go that route in most cases.

Anything beyond a hand basket, or where I know one or more items in the list will require human intervention regardless, and then I think it’s better to go through the regular line.

Re: The Case Against Self-Checkouts

#13

Post by gadallon » Tue, Aug 24, 2021, 12:47 PM UTC

jeffrallen wrote: post #5

The case against self checkout is simply this: it is better for humans to do complex things like customer service. Automation should be used for non customer facing jobs like restocking. I wouldn't mind shopping around a robot as much as I dislike having my shopping experience dinner by self checkout.

You are raising an excellent point, which is not only the question of operations, but also how it is to be a customer among robots. We know, for example, that one of the most common accidents of self driving cars is being rear-ended.

Re: The Case Against Self-Checkouts

#14

Post by yencabulator » Tue, Aug 24, 2021, 3:38 PM UTC

bradknowles wrote: post #12

For me, if it’s a few things, like a single hand basket, self checkout is fine and I’m happy to go that route in most cases. Anything beyond a hand basket, or where I know one or more items in the list will require human intervention regardless, and then I think it’s better to go through the regular line.

What requires human intervention depends on how good the self-checkout is, and how much the store is oriented toward "weird items".

Buying similar carts full of groceries from one of the nicer Walmarts I've ever seen, I never had a single issue with the self-checkout. Going to a Safeway self-checkout with more than 3 items, I am sure to get the thing complaining about the bag weighing mechanism and needing an assistant to unlock it.

I regularly buy $300-500 dollar carts full of stuff from Sam's Club, and scan everything on my phone at the moment I put it in the cart. No need to remove the items from the cart again at the checkout, just pay on your phone and push the cart as-is to your car. (Of course, Sam's is like Costco, and everything is pre-bundled, no weighing of produce required.)