Self Check Outs

[veteran+]

The Ralphs I suspect was a store program that was not corporate authorized as signs were store made.

But the Albertsons was definitely a corporate sign package for the self checkout. It was the pair type back to back, and the back units facing the Starbucks were closed. The two open ones faced the next checkout lane. The sign is blue and white printing and resembles the classic "3s a Crowd" style with a very large 15. It was that remodeled store.

I would not use self checkout or shop at a store with obnoxious signage about legal proceedings. They can go straight to hell. I understand the financial issue of stores being forced to adopt costly and labor intensive e-commerce services under the same payroll model so they need to leverage self checkout. I doubt the store described is doing full e-commerce with their own delivery, curbside pickup etc. If you're going to post signage of a harassing nature like that then you can spend your labor ringing up my purchases.

Actually that Marketon has 8 parking spaces out front for curbside pick up. I rarely see anyone using the parking spaces and I am annoyed they are not available for walk in customers. The parking lot isn't very big and sometimes it fills up. They have plenty of labor on checkstands, and baggers... they're not afraid to use labor... that store has been fully staffed constantly over the years. They own the building in Reno, not sure about Las Vegas. I think the place is a literal cash printing machine. They never had merchandise or staff shortages in their store even back in 2020-2021. They order from Associated Utah, Unified, and have a small warehouse in SoCal with their own fleet of used old 90's Lucky trucks to transport items around. They do some strange things- have Associated drop pallet deals in Reno, leave part of the items in Reno, then pick the rest up and drive them back down to the warehouse in SoCal and distribute them over to Las Vegas. They work with various small SoCal suppliers as well. For a while they were doing something where they would bring stuff up from those small SoCal distributors they deal with to Reno and Associated would pick it up and take it back to Utah warehouse to distribute out to some smaller hispanic operators out there. The store is basically overflowing with items.

Safeway now has 1 clerk running 8 self checkouts in Reno and it is a disaster. If you need help, good luck. No item limit. The store doesn't have hand baskets so there are a bunch of carts in a small area and it is awful to walk around the self checkout area.

I don't see item limits on self checkout working. I'd rather see physical barriers that prevent entry of a cart into the self checkout area at all. That would be a de facto item limit. There is a difference between someone rolling into self checkout with 6 cans of vegetables, 2 boxes of Rice a Roni, 5 Yogurt, and a bag that has 4 lemons in it (and has now exceeded 15 items if the computer is counting), than someone who rolls in with 15 value packs of steaks. 15 item limit isn't the answer.

I say pull them all out (take the investment loss). Invest in trained labor and many related and unrealted issues could be resolved.

We keep evaluating this mess through our collective viewpoints and a platform that specializes in Retail Issues. WE are not the norm.

The overwhelming majority of shoppers are NOT us. Excuse my bluntness but they are stupid, distracted and selfish. They mess the whole thing up, excluding technical issues.

I am certain I will get push back for this but it is the elephant in the room that we are ignoring.

[ClownLoach]

The Ralphs I suspect was a store program that was not corporate authorized as signs were store made.

But the Albertsons was definitely a corporate sign package for the self checkout. It was the pair type back to back, and the back units facing the Starbucks were closed. The two open ones faced the next checkout lane. The sign is blue and white printing and resembles the classic "3s a Crowd" style with a very large 15. It was that remodeled store.

I would not use self checkout or shop at a store with obnoxious signage about legal proceedings. They can go straight to hell. I understand the financial issue of stores being forced to adopt costly and labor intensive e-commerce services under the same payroll model so they need to leverage self checkout. I doubt the store described is doing full e-commerce with their own delivery, curbside pickup etc. If you're going to post signage of a harassing nature like that then you can spend your labor ringing up my purchases.

Actually that Marketon has 8 parking spaces out front for curbside pick up. I rarely see anyone using the parking spaces and I am annoyed they are not available for walk in customers. The parking lot isn't very big and sometimes it fills up. They have plenty of labor on checkstands, and baggers... they're not afraid to use labor... that store has been fully staffed constantly over the years. They own the building in Reno, not sure about Las Vegas. I think the place is a literal cash printing machine. They never had merchandise or staff shortages in their store even back in 2020-2021. They order from Associated Utah, Unified, and have a small warehouse in SoCal with their own fleet of used old 90's Lucky trucks to transport items around. They do some strange things- have Associated drop pallet deals in Reno, leave part of the items in Reno, then pick the rest up and drive them back down to the warehouse in SoCal and distribute them over to Las Vegas. They work with various small SoCal suppliers as well. For a while they were doing something where they would bring stuff up from those small SoCal distributors they deal with to Reno and Associated would pick it up and take it back to Utah warehouse to distribute out to some smaller hispanic operators out there. The store is basically overflowing with items.

Safeway now has 1 clerk running 8 self checkouts in Reno and it is a disaster. If you need help, good luck. No item limit. The store doesn't have hand baskets so there are a bunch of carts in a small area and it is awful to walk around the self checkout area.

I don't see item limits on self checkout working. I'd rather see physical barriers that prevent entry of a cart into the self checkout area at all. That would be a de facto item limit. There is a difference between someone rolling into self checkout with 6 cans of vegetables, 2 boxes of Rice a Roni, 5 Yogurt, and a bag that has 4 lemons in it (and has now exceeded 15 items if the computer is counting), than someone who rolls in with 15 value packs of steaks. 15 item limit isn't the answer.

I say pull them all out (take the investment loss). Invest in trained labor and many related and unrealted issues could be resolved.

We keep evaluating this mess through our collective viewpoints and a platform that specializes in Retail Issues. WE are not the norm.

The overwhelming majority of shoppers are NOT us. Excuse my bluntness but they are stupid, distracted and selfish. They mess the whole thing up, excluding technical issues.

I am certain I will get push back for this but it is the elephant in the room that we are ignoring.

So I would agree, but the next issue is all these services that suck up the labor that Wall Street continues to force feed to the boards and executives of these companies. That they will go out of business tomorrow after being eaten alive by some army of Amazon zombies that is coming to destroy them with, well, something (obviously ain't going to be bookstores, 4 star stores, Fashion stores, Fresh stores, or Whole Foods stores, so maybe there is another dumb Amazon retail concept these people think is on the way). All of these free services like curbside pickup are absolutely driving up labor, creating the need for self checkout and I guarantee that a sizable part of the inflation issue is the costs of increased payroll to give away all this labor to the select few who choose this first class service. Taking it further, not only does the current technology still allow for shrink but these services remove employees from doing their jobs of helping customers and engaging shoplifters with service to deter at least the amateur ones.

So the entire model has to be reworked. Just yanking out the machines is not enough to fix all the damage that has been caused.

And the technology that has just landed recently and is ramping up, "Dash carts" and related clones plus RFID tunnels, will address many of these problems and potentially revolutionize both the customer experience and every job in the store.

If you go visit a clothing store with RFID self checkout you'll see exactly why it is self checkout only now. You literally drop all your selected items into a basket and the RFID antenna scans them all simultaneously. Your itemized order and total is on the register in one second. This is actually ready for prime time although produce is going to be a challenge, not impossible to overcome when combined with AI camera vision. There are going to be stores somewhere by the end of the year where you literally push your cart into a tunnel, just like those "future videos" going back to the 80s, and the entire thing is scanned and totaled in a second. Or the dash carts as mentioned. Both technologies will completely negate the use of current self checkout and traditional checkout simultaneously. There are also many clothing stores where you may not even notice but nobody is scanning any bar codes today even at full service counters, they're 100% RFID and the counter is the scanner. Adidas for example.

So there is a lot to think about because these technologies are here and now and ready to change everything again.

[storewanderer]

I'd love to see this RFID checkout.

I think the consumer has stopped tolerating lines for checkout. COVID did it to people. I don't think we are going back. The amount of abandoned carts and left behind items I see in stores that have checkout line issues is significant. The number of people who complain to each other while in said lines is increasing and some of them are really angry- like red faced angry.

The consumers are either going to demand efficient, properly staffed front ends, or this RFID thing.

The only benefit to the current self checkout technology is you can throw dozens of them on a front end and eliminate your checkout lines.

[veteran+]

Actually that Marketon has 8 parking spaces out front for curbside pick up. I rarely see anyone using the parking spaces and I am annoyed they are not available for walk in customers. The parking lot isn't very big and sometimes it fills up. They have plenty of labor on checkstands, and baggers... they're not afraid to use labor... that store has been fully staffed constantly over the years. They own the building in Reno, not sure about Las Vegas. I think the place is a literal cash printing machine. They never had merchandise or staff shortages in their store even back in 2020-2021. They order from Associated Utah, Unified, and have a small warehouse in SoCal with their own fleet of used old 90's Lucky trucks to transport items around. They do some strange things- have Associated drop pallet deals in Reno, leave part of the items in Reno, then pick the rest up and drive them back down to the warehouse in SoCal and distribute them over to Las Vegas. They work with various small SoCal suppliers as well. For a while they were doing something where they would bring stuff up from those small SoCal distributors they deal with to Reno and Associated would pick it up and take it back to Utah warehouse to distribute out to some smaller hispanic operators out there. The store is basically overflowing with items.

Safeway now has 1 clerk running 8 self checkouts in Reno and it is a disaster. If you need help, good luck. No item limit. The store doesn't have hand baskets so there are a bunch of carts in a small area and it is awful to walk around the self checkout area.

I don't see item limits on self checkout working. I'd rather see physical barriers that prevent entry of a cart into the self checkout area at all. That would be a de facto item limit. There is a difference between someone rolling into self checkout with 6 cans of vegetables, 2 boxes of Rice a Roni, 5 Yogurt, and a bag that has 4 lemons in it (and has now exceeded 15 items if the computer is counting), than someone who rolls in with 15 value packs of steaks. 15 item limit isn't the answer.

I say pull them all out (take the investment loss). Invest in trained labor and many related and unrealted issues could be resolved.

We keep evaluating this mess through our collective viewpoints and a platform that specializes in Retail Issues. WE are not the norm.

The overwhelming majority of shoppers are NOT us. Excuse my bluntness but they are stupid, distracted and selfish. They mess the whole thing up, excluding technical issues.

I am certain I will get push back for this but it is the elephant in the room that we are ignoring.

So I would agree, but the next issue is all these services that suck up the labor that Wall Street continues to force feed to the boards and executives of these companies. That they will go out of business tomorrow after being eaten alive by some army of Amazon zombies that is coming to destroy them with, well, something (obviously ain't going to be bookstores, 4 star stores, Fashion stores, Fresh stores, or Whole Foods stores, so maybe there is another dumb Amazon retail concept these people think is on the way). All of these free services like curbside pickup are absolutely driving up labor, creating the need for self checkout and I guarantee that a sizable part of the inflation issue is the costs of increased payroll to give away all this labor to the select few who choose this first class service. Taking it further, not only does the current technology still allow for shrink but these services remove employees from doing their jobs of helping customers and engaging shoplifters with service to deter at least the amateur ones.

So the entire model has to be reworked. Just yanking out the machines is not enough to fix all the damage that has been caused.

And the technology that has just landed recently and is ramping up, "Dash carts" and related clones plus RFID tunnels, will address many of these problems and potentially revolutionize both the customer experience and every job in the store.

If you go visit a clothing store with RFID self checkout you'll see exactly why it is self checkout only now. You literally drop all your selected items into a basket and the RFID antenna scans them all simultaneously. Your itemized order and total is on the register in one second. This is actually ready for prime time although produce is going to be a challenge, not impossible to overcome when combined with AI camera vision. There are going to be stores somewhere by the end of the year where you literally push your cart into a tunnel, just like those "future videos" going back to the 80s, and the entire thing is scanned and totaled in a second. Or the dash carts as mentioned. Both technologies will completely negate the use of current self checkout and traditional checkout simultaneously. There are also many clothing stores where you may not even notice but nobody is scanning any bar codes today even at full service counters, they're 100% RFID and the counter is the scanner. Adidas for example.

So there is a lot to think about because these technologies are here and now and ready to change everything again.

Great points!!!

[CalItalian]

Murrieta Ralphs will be getting a second self-checkout area by fall - doubling their self-checkout stations. This is the third Ralphs in the area, following Menifee which has 12 self-checkout stations and Temecula which has 11 including two with conveyer belts, to get additional ones.
So Kroger is certainly still all-in on self-checkout.

[ClownLoach]

Murrieta Ralphs will be getting a second self-checkout area by fall - doubling their self-checkout stations. This is the third Ralphs in the area, following Menifee which has 12 self-checkout stations and Temecula which has 11 including two with conveyer belts, to get additional ones.
So Kroger is certainly still all-in on self-checkout.

They need it as most of the full service lanes aren't used anyway. Any chance they're going to get some remodel work to at least fix the floor they've cobbled together with mismatched linoleum and red duct tape? It should be an ideal candidate for polished concrete conversion.

[Romr123]

re seeing RFID checkouts...check your local library....some of the more modern ones have it.

[Alpha8472]

I see lots boxes on the salesfloor at Walmart that say RFID. Even towels and other strange items all have RFID. If they could just put RFID tags onto produce, then RFID checkout could work out.

[storewanderer]

I see lots boxes on the salesfloor at Walmart that say RFID. Even towels and other strange items all have RFID. If they could just put RFID tags onto produce, then RFID checkout could work out.

A number of their tags on certain soft goods have RFID already I believe. At some point the RFID signal is killed before it leaves the store, I assume. Not sure what point that is. I don't think the scanners can kill RFID?

Also lots of RFID at Macys. This is part of how Macys can fulfill online orders very quickly- their system literally tells the employee exactly where to go to find that specific ordered item in that specific size/color- based on where that item actually physically is (not where it "should be" according to a planogram).

[ClownLoach]

Side note:

Target across the street from The Beverly Center Mall had all their Self Checkouts closed. There were 4 regular lanes open an flowing nicely.

Their older units are in bad shape and I see many inoperative even when they are not supervising at all. I am seeing stores with only 2 or 3 working and visible problems like broken scanner, printer, or screen. I think they are due to replace chain wide so it's hard to even determine sometimes if you're seeing a strategy change or they're just all broken.