Albertsons to bring self-checkout to all stores

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klkla
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Re: Albertsons to bring self-checkout to all stores

Post by klkla »

Super S wrote: June 26th, 2019, 7:50 amThe Costco locations here tend to have very well staffed front ends and I usually get out of there quickly even when its busy.
You're lucky. The Costco's here are clusterfxxxs. They are well staffed but always very crowded. I could see how self-checkout for small orders might work for them.
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Re: Albertsons to bring self-checkout to all stores

Post by storewanderer »

Super S wrote: June 26th, 2019, 7:50 am
Brian Lutz wrote: June 25th, 2019, 1:23 pm I actually think that makes sense at Costco. I'm not sure if self-checkout is really practical in cases where someone's buying $400 worth of household groceries, but most of my Costco trips end up purchasing only 2 or 3 items in which case a self checkout line for small quantity purchases (or for people buying a single big-ticket item) should speed things up considerably. It's always a bit inconvenient going to Costco for 2 or 3 items and having to wait behind three full cartloads of groceries in the checkout line.

In a similar vein I've recently seen some of the Home Depot stores around here start to replace both their regular and self checkouts with a new system that eliminates the fixed scanners in favor of handheld scanners which makes it unnecessary to remove anything from the cart. Something like that might work well in a Costco.
I only saw self-checkout in a Costco once, at a store in Kalispell, Montana. That was 9 years ago. I am not so sure this is really needed though. The Costco locations here tend to have very well staffed front ends and I usually get out of there quickly even when its busy.

Home Depot and Lowe's both are stores that rely heavily on self-checkouts....in some instances using them instead of properly staffing cashiers. I still remember an instance where somebody was trying to drag a sheet of plywood across a self checkout scanner at Lowe's when there was no attendant in sight and the lumber registers were closed.

Safeway/Albertsons does not do the sales volume of some of the larger stores due to their price point, and because of this self-checkouts make some sense as the stores have more smaller transactions.

But with that said, I am glad that WinCo has self-checkouts, as staffing has always been hit or miss and I find their cashiers to be consistently rude. WinCo oddly never had express lanes in the past, and honestly, I probably would shop elsewhere if WInCo removed self checkouts.
My visits to WinCo have been very pleasant ever since they added self checkout. I never wait in line. The self checkouts work well. I shop there much more now that they have self checkout. It is much easier to get in and out of the store.

Their self checkout is also very high security. There are a few wrapped bulk food items I buy often and have the codes memorized so I do not use bags or write down codes for these specific pre-wrapped items. While I was paying once not long after they got self checkout, their security called the self checkout person to come over and verify that my items were correct (I was using the unit right in front of the employee station and heard that employee's side of the conversation). Such a warm and friendly store.

I have also watched them kick people out of self checkout who try to come up with full cartfulls. I've seen them kick them out mid-transaction even.
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Re: Albertsons to bring self-checkout to all stores

Post by Alpha8472 »

If cashiers are that rude, I can see why customers want to use the self checkout. They want to avoid those hostile employees. It makes me wonder why I even give business to Winco when the employees have such attitude... employee owned company...
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Re: Albertsons to bring self-checkout to all stores

Post by Brian Lutz »

I've never had a problem with any of the checkers at Winco here. That said, it seems like most of the time when I'm there they have 7-8 open checkstands and every one has a line at least 2-3 full carts deep. The self checkout is basically mandatory for any purchase that fits into the "About 15 items" limit. Those stores have to be doing a ton of volume.
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Re: Albertsons to bring self-checkout to all stores

Post by Super S »

storewanderer wrote: June 26th, 2019, 7:58 pm

My visits to WinCo have been very pleasant ever since they added self checkout. I never wait in line. The self checkouts work well. I shop there much more now that they have self checkout. It is much easier to get in and out of the store.

Their self checkout is also very high security. There are a few wrapped bulk food items I buy often and have the codes memorized so I do not use bags or write down codes for these specific pre-wrapped items. While I was paying once not long after they got self checkout, their security called the self checkout person to come over and verify that my items were correct (I was using the unit right in front of the employee station and heard that employee's side of the conversation). Such a warm and friendly store.

I have also watched them kick people out of self checkout who try to come up with full cartfulls. I've seen them kick them out mid-transaction even.
I have never had an issue at self checkout with a full cart at WinCo. Of course, I tend to go later in the day, around 9PM, to avoid crowds. One annoyance there though is that the machine automatically calls for assistance every time I set another paper bag out. (I prefer paper because plastic slides around in the trunk too easily.)

When using regular checkouts, the cashiers will turn on the conveyor belts and shove other people's groceries into yours as you are still bagging. It takes a little longer when shopping by yourself and the debit reader is not at the bagging end.

Self checkouts actually seem to make the most sense at stores such as WinCo where you already have to bag your stuff anyway. In other stores, such as Albertsons and Safeway (both of which sometimes rely on these instead of staffing the front ends), it somewhat diminishes the "service" image the chains once were known for, and it's harder to justify why prices remain high when the service is lacking.
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Re: Albertsons to bring self-checkout to all stores

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: June 26th, 2019, 10:23 pm If cashiers are that rude, I can see why customers want to use the self checkout. They want to avoid those hostile employees. It makes me wonder why I even give business to Winco when the employees have such attitude... employee owned company...
I give my business to WinCo because they are always in stock, almost always a great price, and overall just a reliable place to go shop. I also like their product mix and reliable selection of NW brands like Tillamook and Franz. The store near me is clean and orderly and not overly crowded in the evenings. I have zero expectation of customer service when I go in there. I have zero expectation of product quality when I go in there (however sometimes I find good produce).
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Re: Albertsons to bring self-checkout to all stores

Post by CalItalian »

Hard to believe they took out self checkout at high volume stores such as Pavilions Culver City but left them at extremely low volume stores such as Albertsons Lake Elsinore (where the floors from the Lucky era badly need to be replaced and the pharmacy being closed during lunch is a joke).
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Re: Albertsons to bring self-checkout to all stores

Post by storewanderer »

CalItalian wrote: June 29th, 2019, 11:35 pm Hard to believe they took out self checkout at high volume stores such as Pavilions Culver City but left them at extremely low volume stores such as Albertsons Lake Elsinore (where the floors from the Lucky era badly need to be replaced and the pharmacy being closed during lunch is a joke).
They made a mistake taking out self checkout driven by management that had an inherent dislike for the machines so the division people in an attempt to make their leadership happy made these types of decisions. I really think it came down to shrink. Someone decided, whether correct or incorrect, that there is a lot more shrink in Culver City than in Lake Elsinore. So the self checkouts go in the perceived high shrink location but stay in the sleepy low shrink location.

Vons Bishop also lost self checkout. I highly doubt there is much shrink there (unless people are fed up with the absurd pricing) and that was a really stupid place to remove them.

I was in a NorCal Safeway the other night that has no self checkout. I was watching the cashier under-ring various PLU code items of the customer in front of me. Entering in red apples instead of honeycrisp apples, entering in key limes instead of limes, entering in bolillo rolls instead of standard rolls. I think in some cases the customer will do a better job ensuring the charges are correct than the clerk.
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Re: Albertsons to bring self-checkout to all stores

Post by Alpha8472 »

I can say that even upper class people are dishonest and feel entitled. I have worked at many retail chains and even in wealthy areas people will try to scam a store or ring things up for less at self checkout. You have doctors that are dishonest and try to scam every dollar. The entitlement issues are out of control.

Show me a retail worker and I will show you a person with a deep loathing for the human race.
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Re: Albertsons to bring self-checkout to all stores

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: June 30th, 2019, 5:26 am I can say that even upper class people are dishonest and feel entitled. I have worked at many retail chains and even in wealthy areas people will try to scam a store or ring things up for less at self checkout. You have doctors that are dishonest and try to scam every dollar. The entitlement issues are out of control.

Show me a retail worker and I will show you a person with a deep loathing for the human race.
Yes, I have stood waiting for self checkouts quite a few times and watched a lot of interesting things happen. The most common I see is items scanning then being bagged without registering on the system. Sometimes the scanner will beep even when the system is locked up (Safeway...) and the customer does not know what is going on (or maybe they do), hears the beep and bags the item. The attendant comes and clears the bagging alert and nothing is checked.

Kroger has really pushed on PLU code items to be scanned instead of keyed, at full service checkout lanes the cashiers have a % quota and get in trouble if it is not met. It is high like 75%+. Not sure how this works with things like potatoes or broccoli that have no bar code but I guess that is why the quota is as low as it is. But at self checkout the use of keyed PLU codes continues to be wide open and not monitored. It is actually easier to scan produce to me (but you usually have to take it out of the bag to scan...) than enter the code, but most customers using self checkout don't seem to know about it. I have also had issues with price accuracy where scanning sale produce produces the regular price but entering the PLU gets the sale price. If you scan a honeycrisp apple the system pulls it up as a different UPC code than the 3283, one tied to whoever the vendor of that specific apple is.

I don't think Safeway's self checkout can even scan produce items.

The industry has a lot of ways to fight pervasive theft. With all of the cameras, facial recognition software, easy data recording and retrieval, remote monitoring, loyalty card usage, payment card usage tied to specific individuals, the retailer can monitor someone who they find a pattern of suspicious activity quite easily and take necessary steps if they want to. But with thousands of customers every day, tight budgets, and focuses on internal theft I think a lot of this takes the back burner.
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