Savers - Self Checkout?

Predicting the demise of Sears & Kmart since 2017!
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storewanderer
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Savers - Self Checkout?

Post by storewanderer »

Is Self Checkout now a thing at all Savers locations or only some?

Noticed today in Reno the Savers is now fully self checkout, can't quite tell what units they use.

This chain hasn't even been scanning for long, so this is quite a leap for them. It also appears they charge a fee for bags but I am not sure what the exact deal there is. There were no bags on the self checkouts. Maybe that is just so they can monitor the area more closely without clutter.

Noticed most of their ... used clothing... is like $5-$10 too. Not sure why anyone shops there when they can just go find brand new clothing at Wal Mart for $1 pretty easily.
Alpha8472
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Re: Savers - Self Checkout?

Post by Alpha8472 »

I would think there would be quite a bit of shrink at Savers due to self checkout. People could just scan a $1 item instead of a more expensive item and run out with a cart filled with stuff.

The types of people at Savers seem to be the low income or extreme cheapskate kind of people. When I worked for Ross in a very rich suburb in the San Francisco Bay Area, people did all sorts of scams switching price tags. With self checkout, they will simply scan something else to get a cheaper price.
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Re: Savers - Self Checkout?

Post by storewanderer »

Maybe given Savers cost of goods sold is effectively zero (they basically take in donations that people give them for free, weigh them, then give some charity a small portion of the per pound salvage value), they don't really care about the tag switching issues that will absolutely take place on clothing at self checkouts.

Savers needs to do something about the labor intensive donation collection process. The Savers in Reno has a sign at the donation area that says it is illegal to leave stuff there unless you give it to a staff member. Supposedly a state law. Who knows. They opened up the old Kmart auto center and created a drive through donation center. It really smells bad in there, I certainly don't want to drive my vehicle into that space. There are usually 2 employees there so I will park outside and walk a bag of stuff in and leave it in a plastic tub and that seems to be okay.
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Re: Savers - Self Checkout?

Post by Super S »

How do they track inventory of used merchandise that doesn't arrive with bar codes? Do they have specific ones used for, say, Levi's jeans and Lee jeans? Or are these more generalized by clothing type etc.? It seems like it would be very labor intensive to come up with a reliable bar code system and inventory stuff if it is more generalized in the computer.

I could see potential for somebody to be falsely accused of stealing clothing if it isn't tracked by brand and somebody uses the fitting room.

I guess the argument could be made that this frees up employees to work the floors, but more likely they just don't want to pay cashiers, particularly in states like Oregon and Washington where minimum wages are higher. Savers operates as Value Village in this area and has closed many locations, with only one left in the Portland area.

I am kinda surprised Goodwill hasn't shifted to this, when you consider that (at least in the Portland area) they almost always insist on new builds for their stores...
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Re: Savers - Self Checkout?

Post by mbz321 »

The 2nd Ave thrift store chain in my area of Southeastern PA (which quietly was purchased by Savers last year--kind of funny as Savers had its namesake stores in the same region very briefly in the mid 2010's, but closed them all after maybe two years) has Self-Checkouts now. It is a vast improvement vs. standing in a long line of people with cartloads of crap, and the machines themselves work very well. I am guessing the QR codes on the tags are 'one time use', so someone couldn't bring in an old price tag and rescan it.

They have paper bags available for a 10 cent fee (and this isn't an area with any kind of bag ban, although they have a few locations in NJ which does ban plastic). The previous owner of the chain stopped providing plastic bags before they sold off the company. On my last visit, a cashier/monitor had to stop a customer that was taking bags without paying for them.
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