A grocery chain in England is removing self-checkout after realizing executives hate it as much as customers do: ‘We like to talk to people’
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After reveiwing this thread, I realized I never directly address the main topic.
Given a choice, I head for self-checkout. Minimum human interaction being a good thing in this circumstance. I may forget a coupon, but I don’t manage to skip scanning them if I have them at the ready. Human cashiers have done that to me. Now if Meijer could just fix the cashier check problem with shop-and-scan…
Agreed with this. The only caveat, we eat lots of fresh produce. Searching for each one on the checkout machine as I am weighing each one takes time. That said, explaining to the cashier what each vegetable actually is, the difference between cilantro and parsley, and patiently waiting for each to be searched, coded and entered takes more time. The solution to all this is to not have a camera on me for facial recognition, and instead on the produce for produce recognition!
Amazon Just Walk-out looks like what you would like … have an IT friend who is in the planning stage of an implementation (outside of an Amazon Store)
Link to a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAFHRwiQMPQ
Full read: An inside look at the AI tech behind Just Walk Out
That’s the public-facing spin. I wonder what the real reasons are.
It’s possible to keep self-checkout and still serve your customers well. There are staff stocking the produce, they could chat with customers and make sure selected items are clearly labeled. One store I recently went to had a self service machine in the produce department where you had to weigh your produce and put a label on it - there were no scales at checkout. Their local competitor has the same set-up, except the produce manager scurries over to weigh each customer’s produce. Unfortunately, it comes across as if you’re keeping her from getting her “real” work done, but if properly trained to use the time to interact with the customers in a positive way, it could make for a friendly shopping environment that still allows for self-checkout.
Stockers could be trained to be helpful and friendly, too. Locally I’m made to feel like I’m in the way of the stockers. And don’t get me started on the employees running around filling the online orders.
Cashiers are not the only opportunity customers have to interact with store staff and determine whether this is a place they want to frequently shop.
Interesting, but I can see a problem or three right off the bat. If this system gets much traction, the palm recognition technology will be disabled very quickly. Fingerprint scanners are easily tricked (Mythbusters had an episode on this, and that was how many years ago?), I don’t see palm scanners holding up.
I would settle for a Meijer style shop-and-scan system that eliminates the delays of an inadequately-staffed checkout area where I can wait for 10+ minutes for a cashier to come do the random scan of a few items so I can get going. The practical effect of this is that it is usually faster to go through the self-checkout station, even when the lines are long.
Sams Club and BJs Warehouse do this better. Scan with your phone, pay with your phone, show the exit monitor your phone and have them scan a few items, and away you go. The dedicated exit monitor is what makes it work. Everyone has to leave the building, and the exit is always staffed. I’m not stuck waiting on a shared cashier from the self-checkout who may have a dozen people who can’t operate self-scan queued up before getting over to me at the shop-and-scan line.
It’s also hard for floor staff because they are often being timed !! If they are filling a pickup order or stocking shelves, they have a time limit to complete the task and can be “dinged” (reprimanded) if they go over. Yet, at the same time, they are supposed to take time to help customers!! But the timer doesn’t account for that!
I remember working at Target, and we had 2 minutes from the time a car arrived to retrieve the order from the back of the store, then run it out the front door to the car in the parking lot! The customer is supposed to click “I’m on my way” before they come to the store to give us time to retrieve the order and have it waiting, but many don’t do that. So we fail to make the time, and get reprimanded!! The timer is not measuring what they think it is!!
I agree! I didn’t mean to sound like the employees are at fault! My point was that while “executives” are saying pretty phrases like “We like to talk to people”, they aren’t letting the employees serve the customers well.
I should have used the word “empower” instead of “train.” The employees who are in various positions throughout the store need to be encouraged to make every customer feel valued, and the metrics that their jobs depend on need to reflect that mindset. Making me stand in line to have a cashier handle my purchases, after being bumped out of the way by a stressed online-order-runner and having the aisles blocked by stockers who are compelled to get some number of boxes unloaded during their shift, is not the way to make me feel like a valued customer.
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Evidently, some retailers are reconsidering self-check.
I hope they reconsider, and definitely limit self-checkout to a low number of items and no coupons (lots of scams there). Self-checkout is a big source of theft. But I don’t feel badly for the companies – they made that decision, knowing this.
Now, if schools will likewise please re-think whether all education should be on a computer only…
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