arizonaguy wrote: ↑March 30th, 2024, 3:25 pm
ClownLoach wrote: ↑March 30th, 2024, 2:38 pm
Alpha8472 wrote: ↑March 30th, 2024, 2:02 pm
Perhaps Costco should have express lanes with a 10 item limit and use a cash register without the bulky conveyor belt. This would fit more registers and eliminate the issue with the self checkout not being able to handle more than 5 items.
Costco was founded with no conveyor belts, and switched to them once they acquired Price Club. They used to do a straight cart swap. Actually, they also used to just have the helper read the SKU out loud to the cashier who used ten key to input it prior to the Price Club merger. So they must have learned belts are more efficient. Despite their large basket size, some of the cashier recognition boards at Costco are publicly visible and top gun cashiers exceed 60 transactions per minute, 40+ units scanned per minute. I've worked for retailers with much smaller basket size that can't get below two minutes a transaction.
The self checkout is a de facto express lane, but the real incentive for installation was to put 3 registers in the space of one. Thus the top volume stores removed one regular and added three self checkout which can double up as full serve which they do during peak weekend hours. Some stores gained 9 registers where no space existed for them and drastically reduced their lines.
I recall prior to the installation of self checkouts (and potentially after, but I haven't witnessed it for a while) Costco frequently had a staff member with a hand scanner scanning my cart while I was in line for the cash register. By the time I got to the register I simply would show my Costco card and membership card, paid for my transaction, and was on my way. I don't know the limitations to this system but it seemed to work great. Then for about a year after the self checkouts were installed the employees were using those same hand scanners to hand scan baskets at the self checkout location. More recently, I've noticed that I need to do most of the scanning at those self checkouts.
I don't know why Costco opted for the supermarket style self checkouts without the scan gun. Even most supermarkets (Fry's, Safeway, Target, Walmart) have scan guns now but Costco doesn't. When employees are not scanning items self checkout is a royal pain taking bulky items out of the cart to put them on the scale / scanner.
Allegedly there was some sort of agreement made with the Union at the represented stores where only an employee can work a hand scanner. This was to prevent self checkouts from removing jobs. Since Costco likes to operate consistently they maintain the same rule at all stores.
Costco maintained they needed these self checks as additional registers but the Union did not trust them. (Note: despite popular belief, Costco is a fervently anti union employer and there are only a handful of Union represented employees, mostly converted Price Club stores. Less than 5% of Costco employees are in a Union, public perception is 100%)
The in-line scanning is with an industry standard RF unit that would never be used by customers as it's the touchscreen device that retailers maintain inventory counts and order with among other functions. They have usernames and login passwords. This "line busting" software is available for all retailers but I very seldom see it in use in the age of self checkout. Now these devices are primarily used to up sell executive membership as they can calculate how much the membership reward would be if the member upgraded.
The self checkout is a regular cordless scanner, they're just hidden behind the screen which acts as a cover instead of being available to a customer. Technically if a customer got their hands on it they could scan the barcode on top of the screen that pairs it with that register and use it for their transaction.
Another issue is theft, self checkout flatbed scanners tell the customer to move the item to the scale platform but the Costco software does not check the weight for anything scanned with the hand scanner. Therefore in theory it would be easier for a customer to scam the system with the hand scanner (ticket switching, fake UPC etc.) because the register would not weigh to verify the right item. So no hand scanners reduces theft at self checkout.