self check out
Posted: July 9th, 2022, 6:38 am
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.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.veteran+ wrote: ↑July 9th, 2022, 6:38 am https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/09/business ... index.html
Pretty good article.
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.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 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.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.
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.storewanderer wrote: ↑July 9th, 2022, 12:14 pmI 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.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.
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.
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.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.