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I never saw a paper-sharpie line longer than three or four carts.
I have twice now seen lines stretching back to the pharmacy, easily twenty carts or more, while they try to figure out why the scanner thingy isn't working right.
They've been using that scanner for years, they've just recently switched to scanning every receipt with it, instead of just the mobile receipts. Seems odd that they would suddenly be having trouble with it after years of usage, but then it seems to only be at your one particular store.
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Well, then, I won't bother to repeat that using the app multiplies the data gathered - on you, as an individual - about tenfold. Including your movement down to a foot or so, in realtime.
Oh no, they know when I'm in the store?! As if buying items didn't give that away already, and also can tell where I've been in the store based on what I purchased.
I don't use them. I don't typically use self-checkout. I don't mind paying the cost for cashiers.
A couple times, persistent employees have tried to convince me to use the self-checkout. I just leave them with the grocery cart.
I know it's a small gesture.
I'm used to no price tags on grocery items and having to remember whether this item was $4.39 or $6.59, etc.
I'm used to doing the work of telephone operators and receptionists, punching this number and that before finally leaving a message on a machine for whoever is not available at the moment.
But if I'm going to go to a store with customer service, however small amount that might be, I am not going to provide that customer service myself.
Also, I think it is rude to be a party to eliminating people's jobs while they are standing right there.
At 50, I'm neither a young thing nor a crotchety elder. I love self-checkouts, and choose them whenever possible. They're quick and efficient. Maybe I am impatient, but I have kids at home and work to do, so getting errands over with in a hurry is a priority. The stores around here that have self-checkout (Target, Lowe's, Ralphs (Kroger), Wal-Mart) always have an employee hovering around, so on the rare occasions that I have a problem, I don't have to wait a long time or run screaming to another counter (??) for help.
Going through the regular checkout is fine when it is handled efficiently, but it's starting to p*ss me off when a shopper with a huge order just stands there cooling their heels while the checker has to first scan all the items and then bag them. Come on people. It's not that hard to help bag your own groceries and there are others waiting in line. I prefer the way I bag them myself, anyway, and I don't understand people who get pleasure from standing around idly watching someone else work.
Then why have the self checkout at all? A cashier still has to be there. You still can't check out booze or cigarettes. But the main thing is the store presumes we want to do the cashier's work for them. I remember several years ago, I was shopping at Kroger early in the morning. I finished at 6:15 AM and had a huge cartful of groceries: frozen food, refrigerated items, canned goods, you name it, it was in there. It was around $175 in stuff. I went to the registers and they were all closed.
The snarky employee informed me they would have no cashiers until 8AM; I would have to use the self checkout. I said, "You're kidding, right?" You want me to check this many groceries out and bag them myself? The self checkout is designed for small orders." She said, "Sorry. We have no one until 8AM." I said, "In that case then, I hope you have a stocker available now, because you'll need to put these groceries back. Quickly. I'll just buy them at a store that will actually help me." I turned and left the store empty handed, with the stunned clerk staring at me, speechless, wide eyed, and open mouthed.
They've been using that scanner for years, they've just recently switched to scanning every receipt with it, instead of just the mobile receipts. Seems odd that they would suddenly be having trouble with it after years of usage, but then it seems to only be at your one particular store.
Well, that's the only one that matters to me. And it's clearly slowing down the process even when it doesn't stop it, and it has nothing to do with improving the customer experience.
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Oh no, they know when I'm in the store?! As if buying items didn't give that away already, and also can tell where I've been in the store based on what I purchased.
Compare and contrast these cumulative levels of observation:
I watch you walk into a store. Ten minutes later I watch you walk out.
I take a copy of your receipt when you leave.
I carefully note every single step you take inside the store, everywhere you pause (correlated with shelf contents), and for how long.
If you think these things are equivalent, or that my taking your receipt or following you like the world's creepiest stalker are okay, or believe this somehow benefits you... vaya con PayPal, amigo.
I know what's done with this mass of data, and I doubt you'd approve of or even tolerate most of it if you did. Voluntarily strapping on a micro-motion tracking collar is not something you'd brush off.
Good for you. Stores love customers who do employees' jobs for $0! The only time I use them is if the manned lines are very long. I will go through human cashiers even if I have only one item. Sure I know how to use them, but I shouldn't have to.
I decided to not do self check out till it works like it does in the ad. Stuff it all in my pockets, walk out the door and get a receipt.
Then why have the self checkout at all? A cashier still has to be there. You still can't check out booze or cigarettes.
Our Target, for instance, has four self-checkout stations, and one hovering employee. It's not necessary to have four employees, one for each station, which is obviously a savings for the store.
And sure, people who buy booze or cigarettes are out of luck with the self-checkout. I don't buy that stuff, so it doesn't bother me. It doesn't have to work for everyone to be worthwhile. You might as well complain that people who don't drive can't use a drive-through ATM, so banks shouldn't have one.
Not that you brought this up, but raising minimum wage (my state already has one of the highest minimums at $12/hr) while insisting that businesses maintain the same number of employees is not going to happen.
Then why have the self checkout at all? A cashier still has to be there. You still can't check out booze or cigarettes. But the main thing is the store presumes we want to do the cashier's work for them. I remember several years ago, I was shopping at Kroger early in the morning. I finished at 6:15 AM and had a huge cartful of groceries: frozen food, refrigerated items, canned goods, you name it, it was in there. It was around $175 in stuff. I went to the registers and they were all closed.
The snarky employee informed me they would have no cashiers until 8AM; I would have to use the self checkout. I said, "You're kidding, right?" You want me to check this many groceries out and bag them myself? The self checkout is designed for small orders." She said, "Sorry. We have no one until 8AM." I said, "In that case then, I hope you have a stocker available now, because you'll need to put these groceries back. Quickly. I'll just buy them at a store that will actually help me." I turned and left the store empty handed, with the stunned clerk staring at me, speechless, wide eyed, and open mouthed.
I wish we had that here. All the stores I shop at are just the opposite. The self checkouts close around 8-9pm and don't open up again until a few hours after the store opens. I hate having to stop by the store before work, stand in a long line waiting to be checked out by the one cashier, and them wanting to chit chat with me about my day. I'm not at the grocery store at 6am for the fun of it, I want to pay for my stuff and be on my way from work.
I take a little pride and sense of accomplishment if I can whiz thru a couple dozen item s with no errors and get out the door in good time. I save the retailer and all of us who shop there some costs.
I just made the decision not to re-up with Sam's Club on this basis. They've reduced the checkouts to one or two even at peak times (then put their slowest people on them), and gone to some weird exit process that takes twice as long and faults ten times as often as the check-the-paper-slip game. It took me longer to get through checkout and exit last time than it did to make a slow-stroll shopping pass.
That there are always five or six people rushing around to "help" the overworked checkers and fix problems with the SCS stations is just salt on the wound.
I feel that if stores pass on the work to customers, perhaps they should give a discount for using self-checkout. It's become a lot of "work" to buy things in stores now so possibly that's why online shopping is so popular. It just gets delivered to your doorstep.
When I was a kid they would hire baggers to walk you to your car and help unload your bags. This was a service at many grocery stores. It's non-existent now. Even after I had foot surgery, I had to carry my bags out to my car, myself. Nobody who worked in the store offered.
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Solly says — Be nice!
