Michaels has moved to the same dumb model, racks and racks of customer orders right next to the exit door unsupervised.Super S wrote: ↑November 10th, 2023, 4:02 pm I needed something in a hard to find size and found a Kohl's store that had what I needed, so I decided to try the store pick-up, which was actually this Self Pick-up option.
I don't like how a phone is basically REQUIRED for this (Other stores allow you to use a copy of an email with ID for pick-up)
The process was straightforward and easy, and I got what I needed, but I had two concerns.
First, nothing is locked up, and, because I am in the land of bag fees, nothing is bagged. It's just stuck in the bins. Not even any paperwork. Everything is out in the open, so anybody can look in and see what's in the bins. And somebody could easily stick something into their own bag.
Second, there is no employee in the area of the store monitoring this. (Is the person doing Amazon returns a Kohl's or Amazon employee?) So no way to verify if an inventory tag was deactivated, no bag, and no receipt, and one set of unlocked doors where they have removed registers. I see a potential for theft if they aren't careful. Maybe they have loss prevention watching, but I don't know.
This was at a store in the Portland area, which has seen a few recent store closures where theft was a factor. I don't see anything preventing a random person from walking up, snooping through the bins, grabbing something, and walking out the door. They need to step up the security a little bit.
I don't understand why they can't do bags though. Everyone else still has bags, they just absorb the fee to comply with the law (or automatically charge it like Target does).
Lockers are very expensive, I was told they're roughly $10K for a large automated bank of them and more if they require a complicated installation, some stores embed them into a wall and such. Curbside pickup is extremely expensive and labor intensive, in the time a cashier could service 20-25 customers they get one average order processed. Stores are having to move labor from staffed cash registers to order pullers replaced by self checkouts, but the added shrink losses from the self checkouts are rendering what should have been a pretty even trade into a money losing exercise. The Wall Street people are noticeably not as critical of retailers who are reporting that these "free" online order services are anything but "free" and need to be curtailed. We will never be able to close Pandora's box though.
Of course the other flaw with this in the department store model is that they depend on impulse buys and add-on sales. The chances of either with curbside pickup is zero, so now Kohl's is hoping if they put these racks at the back or side of the store you'll see something else to buy and get it on your way out. Michaels placement at the exit door past the register seems pointless but maybe the one cashier that has to do returns and otherwise babysit self checkout stands can also watch for potential thieves looting that rack?
This labor conundrum of online ordering, coupled with the unreasonable expectations of the customer that someone should shop for them, set aside and stage their item for them, and load it into their car at absolutely no cost, is not sustainable. Seeing that we are going into peak season and Kohl's and Michaels have already slashed the service levels for it, while Sam's Club has begun adding a $4 service fee (unless they are a plus member), I expect this will be the last year of these retailers wasting their money on this unsustainable practice which is assuredly another reason for the non stop inflation price increases we keep seeing everywhere. Changes like the Kohl's and Michaels self service racks, or order fees, or minimum order amounts are going to keep expanding to cover all the money retailers are losing.