Costco Food Court - no more cashiers?

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Costco Food Court - no more cashiers?

Post by Brian Lutz »

Today I went to the Woodinville Costco to get lunch at the food court since I was in the neighborhood, and I saw that at some point recently they had removed of their cash registers from the food court, and now the kiosks appear to be the only way to order. Granted, Costco's implementation of a kiosk is far more efficient than most (owing largely to the limited menu) but one side effect of this is that it appears to be no longer possible to pay in cash at the food court.

It's been a while since I've been to any other Costco locations in the area, so I don't know how widespread this change would be. I do know the Everett Costco had both kiosks and cashiers the last time I was there and it appeared that the vast majority of orders were being made through the kiosks, but this was the first time I had seen one with no cashiers.
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Re: Costco Food Court - no more cashiers?

Post by Alpha8472 »

The Food Court uses self checkout because there is less risk of theft than if you were checking out merchandise. You have to have an employee check your order before you get the food.

At my local California Costco stores, someone stands there and dispenses sodas. You cannot do self serve drinks. There is too much theft.

The Food Court is one place where I would rather not talk to a person. People will order more junk food if they are using self checkout. If you order with a person, you would be embarrassed to say out loud your jumbo order.
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Re: Costco Food Court - no more cashiers?

Post by storewanderer »

Costco Food Court is very efficiency driven. Unless they install 20 kiosks this is not going to be very efficient.

Customers seem to be very inefficient when using kiosks to order food. Or the kiosks have a poor cumbersome interface.
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Re: Costco Food Court - no more cashiers?

Post by HCal »

Alpha8472 wrote: June 25th, 2021, 3:41 pm The Food Court uses self checkout because there is less risk of theft than if you were checking out merchandise. You have to have an employee check your order before you get the food.

At my local California Costco stores, someone stands there and dispenses sodas. You cannot do self serve drinks. There is too much theft.

The Food Court is one place where I would rather not talk to a person. People will order more junk food if they are using self checkout. If you order with a person, you would be embarrassed to say out loud your jumbo order.
I don't follow this... why would self-checkout at the food court impact theft of merchandise?

Some locations in California are/were having an employee dispense soda due to COVID-related regulations banning buffet-style food service. I doubt Costco would care about theft of fountain soda, which probably costs them a few cents a glass.
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Re: Costco Food Court - no more cashiers?

Post by bryceleinan »

I was just at the Carson City Costco and they removed their register inside the shop - they only have kiosks now. I did notice that they have a cash register for the supervisors to use now - I would hazard a guess they use it for cash sales.
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Re: Costco Food Court - no more cashiers?

Post by Alpha8472 »

I was just saying that food court is perfect for self checkout. Some Costco stores do not want to have self checkout machines due to theft. It is hard to steal from the food court.
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Re: Costco Food Court - no more cashiers?

Post by Super S »

I have noticed the kiosks popping up. I won't use them because I do not like using debit/credit for very small transactions. Unlike some people who carry no cash and use debit for everything, I always carry a small amount of cash as I find it easier to manage my accounts when I don't make a bunch of small transactions.

I used to occasionally get a hot dog and pop on my way out, but when Costco made the switch to paper straws which disintegrate before I get home, I stopped buying things in the food court. (I live an hour's drive from the nearest Costco) If I am hungry I will stop by any number of other fast food places.

I have noticed self checkout popping up at some, but not all, Costco locations. If Costco moves toward a format where they heavily rely on self checkouts and minimally staff the checkstands then I will end my membership. Self checkout is great for small purchases, but the majority of Costco purchases tend to be large orders. To Costco's credit, they do process orders very quickly.
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Re: Costco Food Court - no more cashiers?

Post by BillyGr »

Super S wrote: June 26th, 2021, 7:32 am Self checkout is great for small purchases, but the majority of Costco purchases tend to be large orders. To Costco's credit, they do process orders very quickly.
It all depends on how they would set up a self checkout. For instance, Home Depot has them where there is just a hand held cordless scanner you use to scan each item - you can leave them all in the cart while doing so, as long as you can access the codes on each.

Something like that would work well for a club setup, as often times the cashiers do basically that to ring up items anyway, not requiring everything be taken out (or at least they were in BJ's, as we don't have Costco in this area). So not much difference between the cashier doing it or the customer doing it.

Most of the ones in supermarkets are a different story, with the need to bag and weigh items making it more difficult than the above setup.
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Re: Costco Food Court - no more cashiers?

Post by storewanderer »

Super S wrote: June 26th, 2021, 7:32 am I have noticed the kiosks popping up. I won't use them because I do not like using debit/credit for very small transactions. Unlike some people who carry no cash and use debit for everything, I always carry a small amount of cash as I find it easier to manage my accounts when I don't make a bunch of small transactions.

I used to occasionally get a hot dog and pop on my way out, but when Costco made the switch to paper straws which disintegrate before I get home, I stopped buying things in the food court. (I live an hour's drive from the nearest Costco) If I am hungry I will stop by any number of other fast food places.

I have noticed self checkout popping up at some, but not all, Costco locations. If Costco moves toward a format where they heavily rely on self checkouts and minimally staff the checkstands then I will end my membership. Self checkout is great for small purchases, but the majority of Costco purchases tend to be large orders. To Costco's credit, they do process orders very quickly.
I was seeing more paper straws back in 2019. I guess the past 15 months I haven't purchased many drinks out but I have purchased some and I haven't seen any paper straws. Paper straws are a disaster for carbonated beverages but even for iced tea they don't work too well. Can only imagine how they would work for a milk shake, boba, milk tea, etc. I did notice Starbucks transitioned to some kind of a children's looking cup/lid for the iced tea and no straw. I asked for a normal lid and straw because I was walking, and the open children's lid was not practical, and got attitude. I also did not like when the Starbucks employee put the children's lid onto the cup she had to use the palm of her hand to make it latch to the cup touching directly the area where the drink comes out (same employee who handled the cash register). I also noticed the normal Starbucks straw I received was shorter and more narrow than before.

Costco had noted it was going to compostable plastic straws or paper straws a while back in the food courts. In NV I have not seen paper straws at Costco. Also I think the Costco cup still has a plastic lid...?
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Re: Costco Food Court - no more cashiers?

Post by Brian Lutz »

A lot of places around here have moved to using PLA (plant-based plastic) compostable straws, lids, and in some places even cups. PLA is a much more rigid plastic than the typical Polypropylene used for lids and straws which can make the straws and lids rather stiff, but it's still much more usable than paper straws. The relatively low melting point of PLA also makes it generally unsuitable for hot beverages (but also makes it by far the easiest and most common material to use in 3D printers.) I have also seen some places (most notably Taco Time Northwest around here) that have attempted to make every consumable they use in their restaurants compostable, to the point that the trash bins were turned into compost bins, and the actual trash bin was a small container on top of them with a relatively short list of non-compostable items (things like mint wrappers, ketchup packets and juice boxes from kids meals.)

That said, even with compostable straws there are still some places that use paper straws for safety reasons. A lot of zoos use them because plastic straws can be a risk to the animals. Also, when I went on a cruise on a Princess ship last year just before COVID they had moved to using paper straws on the ship to avoid creating floating plastic waste if they go overboard.

Another thing I have observed lately is that Qdoba seems to be phasing out straws entirely in their beverages, instead providing drink cups with compostable sipping lids similar to what hot beverages are generally served with. It takes a little getting used to, but seems to work out reasonably well. I'm a little surprised this hasn't become more common.
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