Stores Rethinking Self Checkout.

Jules

Jules

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“But now, retailers are rethinking self-checkout. They have found that self-checkout leads to higher merchandise losses from customer errors and intentional shoplifting — known as “shrink” — than human cashiers ringing up customers.

Shrink has been a growing problem for retailers, who have blamed shopliftingfor the increase and called for tougher penalties. But retailers’ self-checkout strategies have also contributed to their shrink problems.”

https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/13/business/self-checkout-stores-shopping/index.html

At our local WM, I saw a printed list on the wall. The title was Shrink and it had things like limes, oranges, etc in the list. I didn’t know what it meant.

They also removed the reusable bags. You now have to ask the cash admin person for one. A week ago the question of whether I‘d purchased any bags came up. I thought it was odd for a $1 item.

I’d be interested if people head back to using cashiers if they re-opened the lanes. They have as more staff watching the self-checkout; they could be cashiers. Most of the time only half the self-checkout lanes are opening.

Personally, I want to keep doing my own checkout. I only buy a few things at a time.
 

I read an article recently on the daily page in Yahoo that some companies are actually removing self check out and going back to using live people once more. I don't off hand remember the name of the company. I believe it was a small grocery store chain in the midwest. I wouldn't be surprised if this becomes a trend. However, I have noticed in stores near me that have installed self check out machines that many machines are often off with only a few available and store employees watching the activity closely. For these situations, long waiting lines have returned.
 

Good. I refuse to use it for two reasons - the tech seems a pain (this makes my daughter roll her eyes) but more importantly, I'm not giving AI a job instead of a living, breathing person if I can help it.

But my reactin to this is no duh. This is definitely something they should have foresaw. I mean they were making shoplifting easy.
 
hollydolly said:
One of the UK's less well known Supermarkets, a company called Booths who have a chain of supermarkets in the North of England, have removed all of their self service checkouts...to the relief of most of their customers...
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I read an article about Booths on Yahoo last week. That article reported the same. I have always believed that the UK is the trend leader in the world, and not the US. I do hope this turns into a real trend. Here, in my location, many large retailers have adopted self check out machines. But, I've been noticing recently many of the installed machines are turned off and more human checkers are now working once again. Unfortunately, this has meant that long lines at the check out stations have returned.
 
Robb.hisself said:
Unfortunately, this has meant that long lines at the check out stations have returned.
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We have long lines in the express (20 items or less) section of self-checkout. This is the ideal way for shoplifting. The clerks can’t keep up with the confusion on the overflowing stands.
 
I prefer the live cashiers. At the grocery store that I frequent most often, I have come to "know" the cashiers and they "know" me. Makes for a pleasant interlude at the end of my shopping trip. Disposable bags are used and I think they're 10 cents apiece, which is included on your slip.

Because of my age and walking with a cane, the young fellows,or girls doing the bagging will often ask if I need them to accompany me to my car and transfer the groceries to it. So far I've been able to handle this task but the time may come when I'll need that extra help.

I'll stick with the cashiers and baggers at present and gladly pay the small pittance that I presume is tacked onto the store prices.
 
I admit to liking self checkout but if it went away, I'd be fine too. Stupid me, I'm honest and so I scan and pay for everything.

Once at Safeway grocery stores I had bought soda or flavored water, scanned, hit the skip bagging button and put it back in the cart. The young guy staffing the self check out started watching me, looked at my screen. He got on my nerves. I think he was some young twirp who was going to catch a thief and get accolades. In his mind. Well he picked the wrong participant.
 
Jules said:
“But now, retailers are rethinking self-checkout. They have found that self-checkout leads to higher merchandise losses from customer errors and intentional shoplifting — known as “shrink” — than human cashiers ringing up customers.

Shrink has been a growing problem for retailers, who have blamed shopliftingfor the increase and called for tougher penalties. But retailers’ self-checkout strategies have also contributed to their shrink problems.”

https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/13/business/self-checkout-stores-shopping/index.html

At our local WM, I saw a printed list on the wall. The title was Shrink and it had things like limes, oranges, etc in the list. I didn’t know what it meant.

They also removed the reusable bags. You now have to ask the cash admin person for one. A week ago the question of whether I‘d purchased any bags came up. I thought it was odd for a $1 item.

I’d be interested if people head back to using cashiers if they re-opened the lanes. They have as more staff watching the self-checkout; they could be cashiers. Most of the time only half the self-checkout lanes are opening.

Personally, I want to keep doing my own checkout. I only buy a few things at a time.
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Wow! I didn't know about this. They changed our bags to smaller dark gray bags.
 
Our local Walmart has completely redone their check out area, and so has Sam’s Club, and now they have only one cashier working and everything else is self-checkout.
I hadn’t thought much about theft, but it makes sense that there would be more of it now, with no cashiers. We pretty much just decided that since we do not like self-checkout, we won’t go there unless it is the only choice possible. Most things, i can order online and have delivered, so why even bother going into the store anymore, anyway ?

We stopped by Kroger the other day because they had turkeys for 49 cents a lb, and it was nice to have a store with checkers. It is not as close as Walmart, but if we are down in the area and want to shop, we will probably go to Krogers instead.
 
If I go to my area Walmart early in the morning or late at night, living cashiers are rare, and most of the dozens of check-outs are closed. If I go to one of the few open, the person in line ahead of me often seems to be buying enough to supply a third world village. The wait will be long.

So I’ll often take my handful of items to the self check-out, where the lines will also often be long waiting to use a station. Unseen problems can also be encountered there, like a machine balking at taking wrinkled currency.- -Ah well, ‘tis a brave new world we live in! 😩
 
Locally, instead of self-scan they call it "skip scan" - when you just don't scan the thing you want to steal, or you replace a bar code tag with one from a much cheaper item.

My cousin's daughter is a public defender here in Sacramento. She said courts are hearing hundreds of skip scan cases every month, mostly from Walmart.
 
I used to self check out all the time just about until I realized I was doing someone else's job and not getting paid for it. So I quit and use regular checkout now and by doing so I have a conversation with my checkout clerk while saving her job. It's a win/win situation. :giggle:
 
Have been using self check at supermarkets and retail since it began instead of standing in longer clerk lines. Although some complain about a list of IMO trivial issues, not things I see in my upscale local county areas. The real problem is in poorer areas in this era where cheating is socially acceptable like a game, where theft is rampant. Expect that will result in clerk only check-outs in some areas and a mix in urban areas like I am at.

The current state of self check processes invites thieves because they are too easy to sneak through products without scanning. It won't take much creative design with CCTV and AI to make it impossible to move items from the input shelf to the output shelves certain or thwart those scanning cheap bar codes they pealed off other products.
 
I like self checkout (at Wegman's) since I bought a nice insulated box-like carrier, I have become OCD about scanning the frozen items in a particular order to pack the carrier the way I like it. I've tried to pack it in the regular checkout, but the cashiers are too fast and have their own ideas of which item to scan next.

I've never been to a store with a well designed self-checkout. The carts don't have a good place to park by the scanner, the bag holders are fixed and create a lot of unnecessary side-stepping and leaning. The software is constantly insinuating that I'm a thief. It seems the stores started self-checkout without really planning or testing the set-ups.

The Walmart self-checkout was so annoying I have been on strike against going to any Walmart since (there were other annoyances about going there, but the self-checkout machine behavior was the straw that broke it for me). There is one item they have that I really want, and luckily it qualifies for the Walmart online free shipping (if I buy three months worth at a time), but for the other items I liked to get at Walmart I've decided I'm willing to pay the slightly higher price at Wegman's or Amazon.
 
Jules said:
“But now, retailers are rethinking self-checkout. They have found that self-checkout leads to higher merchandise losses from customer errors and intentional shoplifting — known as “shrink” — than human cashiers ringing up customers.

Shrink has been a growing problem for retailers, who have blamed shopliftingfor the increase and called for tougher penalties. But retailers’ self-checkout strategies have also contributed to their shrink problems.”

https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/13/business/self-checkout-stores-shopping/index.html

At our local WM, I saw a printed list on the wall. The title was Shrink and it had things like limes, oranges, etc in the list. I didn’t know what it meant.

They also removed the reusable bags. You now have to ask the cash admin person for one. A week ago the question of whether I‘d purchased any bags came up. I thought it was odd for a $1 item.

I’d be interested if people head back to using cashiers if they re-opened the lanes. They have as more staff watching the self-checkout; they could be cashiers. Most of the time only half the self-checkout lanes are opening.

Personally, I want to keep doing my own checkout. I only buy a few things at a time.
Click to expand...
I won't use self checkout. I tried it once and a cahier had to keep coming over to me to correct my mistakes. The stores I frequent always have cashier's so I just go to them. I don't mind waiting a few minutes.
 
I read a story on Yahoo today that many large companies are rethinking self check out: Walmart, Costco, HomeDepot, etc. Looks like there's change in the wind.
 

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