Self-checkout and Shrink

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Super S
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Re: Self-checkout and Shrink

Post by Super S »

There have been times where self-checkout is the ONLY option at the Lowe's near me. Meaning that even the lumber registers were closed. Once they had a single employee at the service desk doing both cashier and service desk duty and the line was long. And it was interesting watching somebody try to drag a piece of plywood across the self checkout scanner once, with no attendant nearby. And Lowe's always seems to ask if I want to buy extended warranties on random items I scan, or asks randomly for a phone number.

Home Depot at least always has the lumber registers open. And their self-checkout setup is far better suited for this type of store.
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Re: Self-checkout and Shrink

Post by mjhale »

cjd wrote: November 25th, 2021, 8:05 am Lowes' self checkout is not really as efficient as Home Depot, there are only two stations vs Home Depots' four. It seems Home Depot checks a lot more customers through its self checkout area and lately seems to have always two employees overseeing that area.
Several of the Home Depot stores near me have registers that consist of a huge (maybe 27-32 inch) touchscreen mounted on a counter similar to a grocery check stand without the belt. In the counter unit is the receipt printer and on some of the units equipment to take cash and give change, The PIN pad and the holder for the wireless scanner are mounted to the right of the huge touchscreen. The touchscreen is made by Dell. What is interesting is that this checkout system can work as a self-checkout but also as a standard manned register. At the Home Depot I frequent the most there are twelve of these setups. The outer four are always self-checkout and signed as such. The others go back and forth based on need. There are plenty of employees in the front end to assist as well. I have seen an employee pull a big cart of stuff out of line and ring the order themselves to keep things moving. Based on my observations of this specific store and Home Depot in general, their front end works much better than Lowes. Unless they are totally slammed things move along well. Heaven help you if you go into a Lowes near me and they don't have a regular register open. You're going to be waiting at self-checkout a long time...
cjd
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Re: Self-checkout and Shrink

Post by cjd »

mjhale wrote: November 27th, 2021, 9:44 pm
cjd wrote: November 25th, 2021, 8:05 am Lowes' self checkout is not really as efficient as Home Depot, there are only two stations vs Home Depots' four. It seems Home Depot checks a lot more customers through its self checkout area and lately seems to have always two employees overseeing that area.
Several of the Home Depot stores near me have registers that consist of a huge (maybe 27-32 inch) touchscreen mounted on a counter similar to a grocery check stand without the belt. In the counter unit is the receipt printer and on some of the units equipment to take cash and give change, The PIN pad and the holder for the wireless scanner are mounted to the right of the huge touchscreen. The touchscreen is made by Dell. What is interesting is that this checkout system can work as a self-checkout but also as a standard manned register. At the Home Depot I frequent the most there are twelve of these setups. The outer four are always self-checkout and signed as such. The others go back and forth based on need. There are plenty of employees in the front end to assist as well. I have seen an employee pull a big cart of stuff out of line and ring the order themselves to keep things moving. Based on my observations of this specific store and Home Depot in general, their front end works much better than Lowes. Unless they are totally slammed things move along well. Heaven help you if you go into a Lowes near me and they don't have a regular register open. You're going to be waiting at self-checkout a long time...
I've noticed that same checkout style you describe at my local Home Depot. I thought it was strange at first, because all items have to be scanned with the handheld scanner. To me this would seem to encourage the customer to leave items in their cart to be scanned, which could (either inadvertently or possibly intentionally) lead to some items not getting scanned.

Most other checkouts I have ever seen have a regular scanner on top, and the handheld scanner is used more for larger items that won't fit on the counter or are too large/heavy.

I suppose with Home Depot's good staffing of that area, it's less likely for things like that to happen. As you say, they do seem to keep their registers well staffed. I have not noticed the self checkouts being used as manned, but there do seem to be some more on the side that I haven't paid any attention to. So that may be the case here too.

And I agree Lowes does seem to be lacking very much in this area.
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Re: Self-checkout and Shrink

Post by BillyGr »

cjd wrote: December 1st, 2021, 7:20 pm I've noticed that same checkout style you describe at my local Home Depot. I thought it was strange at first, because all items have to be scanned with the handheld scanner. To me this would seem to encourage the customer to leave items in their cart to be scanned, which could (either inadvertently or possibly intentionally) lead to some items not getting scanned.

Most other checkouts I have ever seen have a regular scanner on top, and the handheld scanner is used more for larger items that won't fit on the counter or are too large/heavy.

I suppose with Home Depot's good staffing of that area, it's less likely for things like that to happen. As you say, they do seem to keep their registers well staffed. I have not noticed the self checkouts being used as manned, but there do seem to be some more on the side that I haven't paid any attention to. So that may be the case here too.

And I agree Lowes does seem to be lacking very much in this area.
Perhaps also with a store like Home Depot, where people are likely to have more items that fit the larger/harder to pick up and scan category, it makes more sense than it would with other types of stores?
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