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My local Whole Foods just put in self-checkout. It's a strange experience.
I scanned my Prime code but didn't see or hear any reaction. Employee came over and showed me the small-ish red message "Thank you for scanning your Prime code" or similar.
I scanned an item but didn't hear the traditional "beep". Employee came over and pressed a vaguely labeled button repeatedly to turn up the volume.
I tried to do a bunch of bananas. Searched for "banana" and the first thing that came up was "baby bananas". I guess it's because I only typed "ba". Employee came over, watched me type the full word, then finally got non-organic bananas. Other supermarkets usually have frequent foods with pictures and it takes two taps.
Tried to enter a bag of organic grapes using PLU number. It said "not found". Employee came over and told me to just search for the food. Then it asked what kind of container: plastic produce bag, plastic bag, box, bulk bag, and several other choices. This time both of us were stumped. Employee finally said to go with plastic produce bag (actually grapes were in a printed, zip lock style bag).
Finally got to the payment step. I tapped my credit card and it prompted me for a pin. For some reason, my card is often seen as a debit card. I tried to press enter to get past that, and it canceled the sale. Employee came over and told me to try again. This time I did nothing, and the pin prompt disappeared after a few seconds and the transaction completed.
This system is NOT ready for "Prime time"! I don't blame WF; I think this hot mess is the fault of the Amazon team managing the business. Amazon's great at online retail, but they don't know jack about traditional brick-and-mortar.
Same reasons I prefer online banking vs ATM banking, just way too many analog people who still can't easily and quickly perform their transactions. ATM banking should take less than 5 mins to get your money or perform a deposit. But we have so many people with sloe brains and hands that it can take 10 mins just for someone to process each screen and make the right click.
That's why any self-checkout or ordering at a kiosk fails because too many analog people that can't properly process digital transactions quickly.
And the scary thing is the richer someone is the more analog they are.
Same reasons I prefer online banking vs ATM banking, just way too many analog people who still can't easily and quickly perform their transactions. ATM banking should take less than 5 mins to get your money or perform a deposit. But we have so many people with sloe brains and hands that it can take 10 mins just for someone to process each screen and make the right click.
That's why any self-checkout or ordering at a kiosk fails because too many analog people that can't properly process digital transactions quickly.
And the scary thing is the richer someone is the more analog they are.
You've seen someone spend 10 minutes to use an ATM?
Interesting. Definitely not a thing where I am. Our stores don't have any limits on self checkouts.
Our Walmart and ShopRite doesn't, either. Lots of people have full carts. I think that used to be more standard back when they had more in-person cashiers than self-checkout, but now when there are 8 or 10 self-checkouts and only 2-3 manned lines, they don't have any limits. Not going to wait in line 30 minutes behind 5 families with full carts when there are open self-checkouts.
You've seen someone spend 10 minutes to use an ATM?
Yep and more, that's why I hate banks with just 1 ATM machines and some woman who can't figure out she got no money in her acct and still trying to take out cash.
You've seen someone spend 10 minutes to use an ATM?
Yes, usually at a drive up after waiting behind 2 other cars
Worse is waiting in a cashier checkout lane behind the little old lady counting pennies from a little coin purse, or the soccer mom who waits until all is rung up and bagged before digging in the bottom of "bottomless" purse for a credit card that then does not work.
I like the brief interactions we have with human cashiers. It helps me decide where to shop. Scanners are like grumpy cashiers. “They” make mistakes, occasionally double scanning the same item. When you discover after paying it’s a big rigamarole to get your money back. And where are those darn codes? Turn over the rotisserie chicken to find it and what a mess. Plus the last patrons milk was leaking. Yuck. It all takes twice as long especially with self packing.
I can see having it available for impatient folks who often by the same item every few days. But for the rest of us, a live cashier is wonderful, efficient, and helps with mounting stress in the environment.
Yesterday, once again, there were no checkers at the Walmart Neighborhood Market I shopped at. I do the shopping for my parents and it's right around the corner and it was so handy and convenient...but no more. Yes, the ergonomics are horrible, especially when I have a purse with me. There's only a small shelf to packing and sorting thing, there's no good position for the cart that makes it easy for me to grab and scan, and there's almost always something that needs looking up that I just can't find (when that happens I just don't pay for it..sorry not sorry).
Like I keep saying, I don't get paid to be a grocery store cashier and it's disturbing to me that people don't get that these jobs are being lost all over the place . It's fine to have self checkouts, go for it, it insane to ONLY have self checkout line or to limit the cashiers so severely that the lines are really long, all in order to socially engineer people into having to use self check.
The country would be a better place if there were MORE people doing MORE service jobs. I was watching a show set back in the early 1900's where elevator operators and doormen got paid to do a job that made everyones life easier. While I don't think we need to go that far there's a human cost attached to the automated do it yourself trend that we should be concerned about.
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Btdt
