QFC Stores on Broadway in Seattle

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Re: QFC Stores on Broadway in Seattle

Post by storewanderer »

SamSpade wrote: May 14th, 2020, 11:35 am QFC Harvard Market looks quite different in post COVID-19 era. I suppose that Kroger has a few urban stores set up this way.

(this is the self checkout area, which is a majority of the way to check out in this location as it is in an urban "small basket" neighborhood)

This way they can attempt to all of them open instead of like 1 out of every 3.
https://twitter.com/Q13FOXKiggins/statu ... 96/photo/1
This looks awful and how easy is it to avoid brushing up against the plastic sheets?

Safeway in South Lake Tahoe put "boxes" (flattened) up about 10 feet high between each self checkout to serve as a divider. It sure looked a lot cleaner than this... I was really happy to see a Safeway that was having all of its self checkouts open.

The other Safeways like in Reno and Sparks now only operate two self checkouts at once to promote distancing. So you get to stand around in line longer. Great decision. Clearly does not value the customer's time or reducing the customer's exposure to others within the store at all by making you wait in line longer.
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Re: QFC Stores on Broadway in Seattle

Post by Super S »

SamSpade wrote: May 14th, 2020, 11:35 am QFC Harvard Market looks quite different in post COVID-19 era. I suppose that Kroger has a few urban stores set up this way.

(this is the self checkout area, which is a majority of the way to check out in this location as it is in an urban "small basket" neighborhood)

This way they can attempt to all of them open instead of like 1 out of every 3.
https://twitter.com/Q13FOXKiggins/statu ... 96/photo/1
Those look like a bunch of CHEAP shower curtains and are out of place in a store like QFC. Wow. The Fred Meyer near me has installed the plexiglass shields at the regular registers. At Self checkout, they have simply closed the center ones on each side, leaving a total of 4 in each group open.

I am wondering if there is now a Plexiglass shortage, as I have seen instances of using clear plastic wrap in some areas near me, as well as some stores using cardboard as what I assume is a temporary shield.
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Re: QFC Stores on Broadway in Seattle

Post by storewanderer »

Super S wrote: May 15th, 2020, 9:16 am

Those look like a bunch of CHEAP shower curtains and are out of place in a store like QFC. Wow. The Fred Meyer near me has installed the plexiglass shields at the regular registers. At Self checkout, they have simply closed the center ones on each side, leaving a total of 4 in each group open.

I am wondering if there is now a Plexiglass shortage, as I have seen instances of using clear plastic wrap in some areas near me, as well as some stores using cardboard as what I assume is a temporary shield.
Looking at that photo paints the sad reality that QFC has been worn down into a third rate operation under Kroger. Between this low end shower curtain set up (as seen at Kmart and Dollar General), the person in the middle of the photo who I assume is an employee but has no uniform or name badge and maybe isn't an employee but is positioned like one, this is really bad.

It also appears the middle two self checkouts in the QFC photo are closed (there look to be plastic signs on the scanners).

How long before the security/loss prevention department puts a stop to being unable to "monitor" what is going on at the self checkouts? Camera doesn't go through these shower curtains.
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Re: QFC Stores on Broadway in Seattle

Post by BillyGr »

Super S wrote: May 15th, 2020, 9:16 am Those look like a bunch of CHEAP shower curtains and are out of place in a store like QFC. Wow. The Fred Meyer near me has installed the plexiglass shields at the regular registers. At Self checkout, they have simply closed the center ones on each side, leaving a total of 4 in each group open.
That's what a couple of our stores did as well - closing the middle ones (leaving 4 of 6) at one and 4 of 5 at the other (they have 2 larger on one side and 3 smaller on the other, so they didn't close the large side as those are more spaced). Though the 3rd chain left all 6 operating and allows you to choose, so I guess they figure it's up to customers if they want to use all of them or not.
storewanderer wrote: May 15th, 2020, 4:26 pm It also appears the middle two self checkouts in the QFC photo are closed (there look to be plastic signs on the scanners).

How long before the security/loss prevention department puts a stop to being unable to "monitor" what is going on at the self checkouts? Camera doesn't go through these shower curtains.
I was thinking the ones here had cameras on each checkout (looking over the scanner section), so those would still be fine inside of a curtain setup. Perhaps it just depends on the store/checkout model as to where the cameras are?
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Re: QFC Stores on Broadway in Seattle

Post by storewanderer »

BillyGr wrote: May 15th, 2020, 4:49 pm

I was thinking the ones here had cameras on each checkout (looking over the scanner section), so those would still be fine inside of a curtain setup. Perhaps it just depends on the store/checkout model as to where the cameras are?
The camera under the scanner helps give the detail for what you have scanned and bagged. It doesn't show what is going on in/out (or not out of) the cart (the overhead cameras are needed for that). In order to prove theft they have to be able to trace every movement of the product. Put another way, someone pockets product on the sales floor, security sees the whole thing, sees the whole path of the person and then walks to this self checkout. Due to these curtains, view becomes obstructed and the path of the person can no longer be seen 100%. Now there is potential that the person dropped whatever they pocketed somewhere in these curtains. Now they can't be stopped as the video evidence showing the product from "pocket to outside the door" is now obstructed by these shower curtains.
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Re: QFC Stores on Broadway in Seattle

Post by Alpha8472 »

Walmart had workers put up plexiglass at their pharmacies and it only took a few hours. The workers had plexiglass in the truck and cut the plexiglass to fit at the truck in the parking lot.

There are many places to get plexiglass and it can be cut to fit at the warehouse or on site. The plastic shower curtains are only being used because the store is being cheap.
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Re: QFC Stores on Broadway in Seattle

Post by BillyGr »

storewanderer wrote: May 15th, 2020, 5:01 pm
BillyGr wrote: May 15th, 2020, 4:49 pm

I was thinking the ones here had cameras on each checkout (looking over the scanner section), so those would still be fine inside of a curtain setup. Perhaps it just depends on the store/checkout model as to where the cameras are?
The camera under the scanner helps give the detail for what you have scanned and bagged. It doesn't show what is going on in/out (or not out of) the cart (the overhead cameras are needed for that). In order to prove theft they have to be able to trace every movement of the product. Put another way, someone pockets product on the sales floor, security sees the whole thing, sees the whole path of the person and then walks to this self checkout. Due to these curtains, view becomes obstructed and the path of the person can no longer be seen 100%. Now there is potential that the person dropped whatever they pocketed somewhere in these curtains. Now they can't be stopped as the video evidence showing the product from "pocket to outside the door" is now obstructed by these shower curtains.
That makes sense, though looking at the photo again it looks like each checkout has a ceiling camera basically above it, so those would probably still see (since the curtains are not enclosed over the top, just the sides)?

You'd also think that it would be easy enough to send a message to the monitor of the self check to take a quick look as the customer exits the curtain (like they were going in to clean the register) and signal if the item in question was in there. If not, then the customer obviously still has it and it would only take a brief check of their receipt as they exit (which we know stores do at times for anyone) to see if it was scanned. If it was, they are fine, if not you know they didn't pay for it.
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