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The failure of self-checkout technology

bbc.com

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Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#241

Post by guappa »

hackan wrote: post #92

I 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…

Want to buy this vegetable? Now try to find it among these 300 icons of vegetables! Enjoy!

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#242

Post by notTooFarGone »

seszett wrote: post #69
pjmlp wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone living here, besides all those points, I have seen what these machines have made to employment in supermarket chains in Portugal, hence I tend not to be yet another statistic of people adopting them. Rather have my actions support the employees.

Cashiers in the age of self-checkout machines are IMO a good example of a useless job, I'd rather prefer these people do something else with their time. I would even feel guilty to make them work when they aren't actually needed. Indeed, in the current system if they don't work they don't get money, but to me it's a wealth distribution problem. I'd rather have them get the same money and do whatever they like. It wou…

Cashiers in the age of self-checkout are attracting old-fashioned customers. Without those cashiers you would lose a large customer base >60. So in itself it's not useless as people can't cope with technology and need human interaction.

I've seen whole development teams that were more useless then that.

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#243

Post by krastanov »

guappa wrote: post #241
hackan wrote: post #92

I 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…

Want to buy this vegetable? Now try to find it among these 300 icons of vegetables! Enjoy!

Or just type the name of the vegetable or just copy the 4-digit code on the sticker attached to the vegetable. At least in the US there is no problem with buying vegetables in self-checkout.

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#244

Post by guappa »

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 will to do anything practical.

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#245

Post by anonzzzies »

WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #120
steelframe wrote: post #109

I 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…

> 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.

Here a lot of places have these auto-cash-counting machines you just throw the money in and it counts it and feeds back to the PoS; MASSIVE noisy machines that are stuck half of the time. So while stores must accept cash & cards, cash is often simply broken and the employee cannot really help anything as they are not allowed to process manually, so they can only throw their hands up.

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#246

Post by h1fra »

I don't know if this story is universal (but I have nothing to prove it just a feeling). In Paris, self checkout has taken over most mid/large stores, even some clothing and sportswear shops.

If I had to complain about things (except that it increases unemployment): People are bad at it and it's probably because of the slow, buggy, difficult UI.

I don't get that in 2023 we still have UI that bad, probably created by some agencies that payed some poor coder in an developed country to code this. You don't cherish your product, you get bad product.

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#247

Post by civilized »

watwut wrote: post #195
Gigachad wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly this feels a lot like pumping your own petrol, having someone operate the elevator for you, or going in to a physical bank. Eventually no one will care and it frees up people to do more useful jobs.

It is not freeing people to do more useful jobs. It is just making them unemployed. I like self checking, sure, but the employment result of it is not better jobs.

Your theory predicts ever-climbing unemployment rates, but the prime-age labor force participation rate is near its all time high [1] and unemployment is at an all-time low [2].

[1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS11300060

[2] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UNRATE

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#248

Post by CM30 »

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 times if you were buying multiple copies of it.

The problem is that companies don't want that, because they're worried they'd get robbed blind if they did. In a sense it reminds me of the problems with our travel systems; if there were no gates, no security checks, etc, then they'd probably be a joy to use. But people suck so they're not.

Re: The failure of self-checkout technology

#249

Post by foobarbecue »

krastanov wrote: post #243
guappa wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Want to buy this vegetable? Now try to find it among these 300 icons of vegetables! Enjoy!

Or just type the name of the vegetable or just copy the 4-digit code on the sticker attached to the vegetable. At least in the US there is no problem with buying vegetables in self-checkout.

The tiny stickers on all the veggies at my grocery store all scan just fine.
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