self check out

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veteran+
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self check out

Post by veteran+ »

storewanderer
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Re: self check out

Post by storewanderer »

veteran+ wrote: July 9th, 2022, 6:38 am https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/09/business ... index.html


Pretty good article.
This article could have been written 15 years ago. I'm not going to blame inept self checkout software or inept customers but agree things should be better by now. I rarely have any issues with the Safeway or Wal Mart self checkouts- except the slow speed of the Wal Mart self checkout is somewhat of a frustration. The Safeway self checkout- quick, fast, rarely any issues.

The real issue now is the lack of staffing. Or lack of capable staff. Or lack of quality management to train staff. If you are a tight ship like a Stater Bros. or a Trader Joe's with great employees who are quick, efficient, and well trained, maybe you don't need self checkout. But for most retailers who can't seem to get it together, they need self checkout to make up for their poor staffing, poor training, poor management, and poor operation.

Self checkout isn't going anywhere and is only going to become more and more common. I still cringe at retailers (notably Kroger and Wal Mart, especially Kroger) who run stores self checkout only during certain hours and expect full cart customers to use self checkout. Self checkout only makes sense for small transactions.

The Kroger self checkout, it seems like at some point, every time, will lock up once I go above about 10 items. Some of this may be caused by me doing things like shifting items between bags. Some of it is inexplicable. I find the Kroger self checkout requires more "employee intervention" than any other store. This used to be deliberate, to keep the employee actively monitoring the transactions. I think they need to rethink what they are doing.

CVS self checkout, despite being the same self checkout systems as Safeway, can be good if you have the right transaction. The biggest problem this system has is with lightweight items (greeting card, gift bag, various cosmetics items, even some OTC items) the system does not detect that you bagged it. Once you press "skip bagging" once, the system locks up. Multiple CVS in my area have no employee at the front of the store and it is either self checkout or "ring bell for service" at a closed register. A couple locations have closed signs on all of the registers and a sign saying use self checkout, and the only way to get help is to go walk around and find someone to help you. I've even had to ask pharmacy to page someone to the front at one location. It is not unusual to see abandoned transactions on CVS self checkout (items scanned on screen but items are long gone).

Target self checkout, I've never really had a problem with. I find it clunky and not so easy to use, and a bit slow. The screens are not sensitive enough, the buttons on the screen are too small, and there is too much delay between screens.

Raleys self checkout and Save Mart/Food Maxx self checkout (same NCR software as Wal Mart) is easily the worst I've dealt with. These self checkouts have incomplete PLU lists for produce, are slow, lock up frequently, are often broken, and are just terrible units. What is interesting is the Save Mart/Food Maxx one used to be quick and worked okay. They did a software upgrade a couple years ago to a new interface and since then it has been complete garbage.

WinCo self checkout- same NCR stuff as Raleys/Save Mart/Food Maxx- this one seems to actually work fine. I never have any issues with it. I think chains that just implement a basic bare bones version of NCR self checkout that scans items and takes your payment (no loyalty card, no customized pinpad interface, no other weird prompts like rate your visit) can make it work but the second they start screwing around with adding things, it no longer works well.
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Re: self check out

Post by mjhale »

veteran+ wrote: July 9th, 2022, 6:38 am https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/09/business ... index.html


Pretty good article.
I actually like using self-checkout. I think it goes back to the nine years I spent as a cashier at a large, now gone, east coast home improvement store. I also kind of like to make it a game to see how quickly I can get through my order and whether or not I can cause the self-checkout to error out. That comes from my career in IT and the time I spent doing pre-deployment testing of equipment.

What I don't like about self-checkout are like many others will say. The store in question only has self-checkout open. There is no one to help when the machine goes bonkers for no reason. The person assigned to self-checkout isn't familiar with the self-checkout system or cashiering in general. Hey new hire? You are good with computers? You get self-checkout.

A few self-checkouts that I have experienced:

Safeway and Giant-MD: Fast, works well, seems to self-recover well, like when you move things between bags and the employee assigned there knows the system well. Safeway and Giant-MD has at least one regular checkout lane open except very early in the morning or very late at night. Although the Giant-MD store near me has been keeping a regular line open on weekends until closing. I'm told that it is because there were so many beer and wine transactions it was holding up the self-checkout lines (I'm within a few miles of a major university).

Walmart: From a functionality standpoint it works well but oh is it slow. Slow when you go from the scanning screen to look up produce, slow for items to come up on the scanned list. Don't scan to quickly.... The Walmart near me has a bank of 12 self-checkouts. I was in last weekend and the self-checkouts were in meltdown. At least half were in some state of boot failure. The two IT guys there running around had the look of get me out of here on their faces as the line grew for self-checkout. I was curious if these were Walmart internal IT or if they still contract with the maker of the self-checkout for repairs.

Home Depot: They have really cool 32 inch touch screen units from Dell that can be converted between regular checkout lines and self-checkouts. Home Depot always seems to two or more regular cashiers set up. They also have plenty of help to get you through the self-checkout. The wireless scanners also help out a lot. I'm not sure if all Home Depot stores are set up like this but it works really well. The store I shop at most often is very high volume.

Lowe's: Fail. Last time I was there they had old self-checkouts with wired scanners. They constantly errored, locked up or just quit working. Good luck scanning your flatbed of stuff because the scanner doesn't reach. Lowes seems to never have any regular cashiers open either. And the person assigned to self-checkout either doesn't know or doesn't care. The self-checkout fail on a regular basis is one of the reasons I don't shop at Lowes. The self-checkout experience at Lowes, I think, is an example of why people hate self-checkout so much.
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Re: self check out

Post by storewanderer »

mjhale wrote: July 9th, 2022, 11:59 am

Lowe's: Fail. Last time I was there they had old self-checkouts with wired scanners. They constantly errored, locked up or just quit working. Good luck scanning your flatbed of stuff because the scanner doesn't reach. Lowes seems to never have any regular cashiers open either. And the person assigned to self-checkout either doesn't know or doesn't care. The self-checkout fail on a regular basis is one of the reasons I don't shop at Lowes. The self-checkout experience at Lowes, I think, is an example of why people hate self-checkout so much.
I forgot about the awful NCR self checkout at Lowe's. I went to Lowe's early afternoon on a weekday last month and the only checkouts open were the self checkouts. They have 4 units but only 3 were working. One was duct taped so you couldn't use it. Then two others had duct tape over the cash acceptors so only one unit accepted cash. The appearance of these self checkouts looked like someone took them on a flat bed, they fell off the flatbed and rolled around on the asphalt a while, then someone heavily vandalized them further, then installed them in the store. I've never seen such beat up self checkout units. I think these may be old Kmart units they look so beat up.

The employee was also ringing customers up at the register in front of self checkout so it had a line of its own. If anything happened on the self checkout, good luck, you were not going to get any help. This Lowe's is a former Eagle so if you walked over to garden there was a cashier, or if you walked back to lumber checkout (back corner of the store) there was a cashier there too. So on paper to the inept Lowe's corporate office this store did have two cashiers on duty, it is just those two cashiers are a 3-4 minute walk from the front of the store. Lowe's is a horribly run store. I hate shopping there.
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Re: self check out

Post by Alpha8472 »

The problem with self checkout is theft and people accidentally not ringing things up. There are plenty of people who forget to ring up items or the they disagree with the price and just substitute something cheaper. The stores are definitely losing money. In some low-income areas such as the San Francisco Bay Area there are so many dishonest people that they have to station employees at every single self checkout station or else the store would be robbed blind.

Costco in San Leandro, California gave up on self checkout a long time ago. I do not know if they removed the machines by now.

Then there is the issue of people who refuse to pay for plastic bags. They think that it is only 10 cents, but those super thick plastic bags in California are incredibly expensive and in short supply. Walmart cannot keep them in stock due to supply issues. I have seen enraged customers at Walmart in the hundreds as the entire store was out of plastic bags for days.

If cashiers are properly trained they can be more efficient and faster than self checkout. They also keep customers from not paying for items.

Employees are worth their wages. Employees are also customers and spend their money at the store and increase sales. We need more people employed. When you have people out of work they are a burden on welfare.
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Re: self check out

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: July 9th, 2022, 7:26 pm The problem with self checkout is theft and people accidentally not ringing things up. There are plenty of people who forget to ring up items or the they disagree with the price and just substitute something cheaper. The stores are definitely losing money. In some low-income areas such as the San Francisco Bay Area there are so many dishonest people that they have to station employees at every single self checkout station or else the store would be robbed blind.

Costco in San Leandro, California gave up on self checkout a long time ago. I do not know if they removed the machines by now.

Then there is the issue of people who refuse to pay for plastic bags. They think that it is only 10 cents, but those super thick plastic bags in California are incredibly expensive and in short supply. Walmart cannot keep them in stock due to supply issues. I have seen enraged customers at Walmart in the hundreds as the entire store was out of plastic bags for days.

If cashiers are properly trained they can be more efficient and faster than self checkout. They also keep customers from not paying for items.

Employees are worth their wages. Employees are also customers and spend their money at the store and increase sales. We need more people employed. When you have people out of work they are a burden on welfare.
I find I am undercharged when I go to regular cashiers. Between them not scanning all items, using incorrect PLU codes, in the case of CA not assessing the bag fee, I often find myself undercharged. Conversely when I am using self checkout, I scan all items, I use the correct PLU codes, and I charge myself the bag fee.

At this point the ship has sailed as far as properly trained, efficient cashiers goes. Other than at some of the grocery stores with longer term employees who work efficiently... look at the cashiers at Wal Mart and Target- they are so, so slow. At stores with smaller transactions like drug stores or convenience stores I'm not sure how much time self checkout really saves... but it does shorten lines...

Every store I visit is severely understaffed. They are really hurting for employees. The corporate offices have money in the budget to hire but they cannot get staff. I am seeing service delis close at 5 PM due to lack of staff, at multiple chains. Near empty meat and produce departments due to lack of staff again seeing this at multiple chains. At this point they can't even get people to put products out let alone run checkstands.
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Re: self check out

Post by Alpha8472 »

There is a shortage of employees. People know they can find higher paying jobs. The cashiers that you find at places such as Walmart are paid so low that you often get people who cannot get jobs anywhere else. The quality of the people goes down as the pay gets lower.

Walmart is so desperate to keep employees that they retain employees who are slow or who otherwise would not have met their standards years ago. It takes a lot to be fired from Walmart now. In the past, if an employee made too many mistakes or under-charged too many times, they would be eliminated in a few days. Now they are just told to improve and are still kept on the payroll.

The only way to get fired is outright stealing or pocketing cash from the register.

If the store were to pay higher wages, you would get employees that are faster and mentally sharper. Now you often end up with people who can barely speak English and are very slow.

There are some high theft areas where self checkout really increases the incidences of theft. It is a trade off.
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Re: self check out

Post by arizonaguy »

I prefer self checkout to employees trying to hawk me a credit card, membership plan or rewards program.

The only place where regular checkout is significantly better is Costco (except for the pitch of the rewards program)(and not really as 80% of the time I go to Costco an employee approaches me and scans all of my items for me at self-checkout).
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Re: self check out

Post by ClownLoach »

storewanderer wrote: July 9th, 2022, 12:14 pm
mjhale wrote: July 9th, 2022, 11:59 am

Lowe's: Fail. Last time I was there they had old self-checkouts with wired scanners. They constantly errored, locked up or just quit working. Good luck scanning your flatbed of stuff because the scanner doesn't reach. Lowes seems to never have any regular cashiers open either. And the person assigned to self-checkout either doesn't know or doesn't care. The self-checkout fail on a regular basis is one of the reasons I don't shop at Lowes. The self-checkout experience at Lowes, I think, is an example of why people hate self-checkout so much.
I forgot about the awful NCR self checkout at Lowe's. I went to Lowe's early afternoon on a weekday last month and the only checkouts open were the self checkouts. They have 4 units but only 3 were working. One was duct taped so you couldn't use it. Then two others had duct tape over the cash acceptors so only one unit accepted cash. The appearance of these self checkouts looked like someone took them on a flat bed, they fell off the flatbed and rolled around on the asphalt a while, then someone heavily vandalized them further, then installed them in the store. I've never seen such beat up self checkout units. I think these may be old Kmart units they look so beat up.

The employee was also ringing customers up at the register in front of self checkout so it had a line of its own. If anything happened on the self checkout, good luck, you were not going to get any help. This Lowe's is a former Eagle so if you walked over to garden there was a cashier, or if you walked back to lumber checkout (back corner of the store) there was a cashier there too. So on paper to the inept Lowe's corporate office this store did have two cashiers on duty, it is just those two cashiers are a 3-4 minute walk from the front of the store. Lowe's is a horribly run store. I hate shopping there.
Lowe's has installed brand new self checkout at a couple of local stores and it is fantastic. It looks like it uses their exact same POS as their new touch screen registers. Fast as can be, doesn't freeze, and reminds me a lot of Home Depot's system. Usually I find home depot is self checkout only while Lowe's is staffed here.
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Re: self check out

Post by storewanderer »

ClownLoach wrote: July 10th, 2022, 9:01 am
Lowe's has installed brand new self checkout at a couple of local stores and it is fantastic. It looks like it uses their exact same POS as their new touch screen registers. Fast as can be, doesn't freeze, and reminds me a lot of Home Depot's system. Usually I find home depot is self checkout only while Lowe's is staffed here.
I don't understand what Lowe's is doing with these older stores with the 4 self checkout set up. They seem to push this configuration of a store as self checkout only (the other store here with this set up closed). Lowe's opened a replacement store for the closed store (more than 5 miles from it...) and that store only has 2 self checkouts and is never self checkout only. Sometimes the 2 self checkouts are closed in the evening.

Lowe's has no touchscreen registers in my area. They have an extremely old system that looks DOS based. It seems to work well enough at the regular cashier though.
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