nightmare for who? go stand in line with everybody else if self-checkout bothers you so much.
The failure of self-checkout technology
141–150 of 621 posts
Re: The failure of self-checkout technology
#142This article feels like it’s a collection of anecdotes more than a market shift.
My local Walmart recently did a major renovation that doubled the number of self checkouts. My local target usually has as many self-checkout slots open as cashier-operated lanes, and there aren’t caps on number of items.
Several parallel commenters have pointed out that self-checkout can be good or bad (pretty much the same way there’s places where cashier-operated checkout is good or bad). But I also think it’s heavily dependent on things like regional crime rates / customer volume, among other variables.
Re: The failure of self-checkout technology
#143>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
It is, but we don't get to declare a solution a success just because the thing that killed it was environmental. It must work in the target environment, and it seems that, unfortunately, US society has failed the theft test in most places. I live in a somewhat diverse but mostly upper-middle-class suburban area, and even here theft shot up with the machines. They couldn't sustain it. The weight thing is often enabled…
> The weight thing is often enabled because of theft.
I guess the scales might also be there to help confused customers. A little bit. But I believe it was really about theft.
The scales also made the experience terrible. The last Walmart in the area with scales got rid of them. Their SCO is much improved. I can't speak to Walmart's bottom line but I do appreciate being treated better.
FWIW, this whole region has tons of poor areas and massive homeless communities.
Re: The failure of self-checkout technology
#144This article feels like it’s a collection of anecdotes more than a market shift. My local Walmart recently did a major renovation that doubled the number of self checkouts. My local target usually has as many self-checkout slots open as cashier-operated lanes, and there aren’t caps on number of items. Several parallel commenters have pointed out that self-checkout can be good or bad (pretty much the same way there’s…
It also depends on the type of store. Grocery stores seem to experience more loss with the machines than big box stores, even though those often include a grocery section.
Re: The failure of self-checkout technology
#145nightmare for who? go stand in line with everybody else if self-checkout bothers you so much.
> go stand in line with everybody else if self-checkout bothers you so much
The last time I bought something I got through the human-staffed checkout much faster than anyone got through the machine-staffed checkout. I'm starting to see cult mentality that the self-checkout must necessarily be faster or more desirable, and that's causing people to put up with longer waits for them.
Also when Visa went down in the UK, the grocery store I was shopping at only had self-checkout machines. None of which worked because of the Visa outage, and the machines didn't accept cash. So there's a problem when the mentality of "the self-checkout is clearly better" gets too ingrained in the minds of pointy-haired bosses.
Re: The failure of self-checkout technology
#146>employees who get taken away from their other duties to help customers deal with the confusing and error prone kiosks.
I have seen these customers. I do not understand.
What are they doing at the self-checkout that is confusing? I have used dozens of different implementations and they are all simplicity incarnate.
So I just lump them all in with the folks who don't know that cars need oil changes, take more than 45 seconds at an ATM, get flustered by airport self-checkin machines, or sit in the drive-thru line of a fast food restaurant staring at a menu whose items have scarcely changed in 40 years confused about what's for sale.
Re: The failure of self-checkout technology
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I wouldn't mind these machine so much if they always accepted cash. The problem is that more often than not they don't. Ooof. I haven't seen a SCO with no cash capability. I know cash-handling equip costs but if they don't want pay for that, they might need a cashier. Walmart may have a couple SCO that won't do cash temporarily - but there will be 10 more fully working.
I'm seeing mixed responses, so it may be a locality thing as to whether machines generally accept cash. For example I remember almost all machines in Japan accepting cash. The machines at the Whole Foods near my house, for example, only accept cards, phones, or palm prints. Only half the machines at a Safeway near my house accept cash. The machines at another grocery market (Haggen's) are card- or phone-only, and the…
> The last time I tried checking out at one of those machine it flagged me as trying to steal something because the system didn't know that a container of chips I had were free with the sandwich I bought.
I hit that a couple of times but I scan stuff quickly. I also live in a house of 6 adult guys. It's lots of buying & lots of scanning.
Cashiers had it sorted before I figured out something was up.
Re: The failure of self-checkout technology
#148I 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 m…
The fact that a credit card CAN have an outage is ridiculous. They were invented as an eventually-consistent system first! Just save up the credit card info, and charge the bank when the network connection is back up.
Re: The failure of self-checkout technology
#149>employees who get taken away from their other duties to help customers deal with the confusing and error prone kiosks. I have seen these customers. I do not understand. What are they doing at the self-checkout that is confusing? I have used dozens of different implementations and they are all simplicity incarnate. So I just lump them all in with the folks who don't know that cars need oil changes, take more than 45…
Some of those customers are indeed clueless. But the machines themselves aren't that great either. Automation and efficiency almost always come at the cost of decreased resiliency. They work great as long as you're on the happy path.
To give a practical example, fresh produce have that 4-digit code to identify them (e.g., 4011 for bananas). But some fresh produce comes in containers that have barcodes on them, like grapes in plastic bags or clamshells. The machine expects the 4-digit code (printed on the container), but the customer expects to be able to scan the barcode just like everything else that comes packaged. The barcode fails to scan, and the customer will hold up the line to have a worker explain the mismatch in expectations. All because the machine designers built in an assumption (for efficiency's sake) that doesn't match the real world, and the machine can't adapt to it on the fly.
Re: The failure of self-checkout technology
#150I 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…
> 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 just put NFC tags on the milk and butter, and let people walk out with as many oranges as they can carry?