Anyone else still angry about self check out lanes?

Worlds Most Interesting Bagger wrote:

I don't always self-bag, but when I do I always triple-bag. Comes in handy for dog crap. Keep America poo-free, my friends.

I'm at the DNC and I'm double bagging it this week.

Phil Fondacaro wrote:

Anyone who complains about the speed of self check out lanes either lives in a city with stupid people or is stupid themselves. In the SF bay area, where people are intelligent and can comprehend modern technology, self check out lanes are far faster than normal lanes at every store that I have seen (Safeway, Home Depot, Walmart, Target). I stopped going to Trader Joe's solely because of their glacial checkout speed.

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I live in Frisco and agree. We're just way smarter and can figure out the machines.

former wall streeter wrote:

Wise one.. wrote:

When I was a kid, gas stations had full service where they pumped the gas. Then when I started to drive there were full service lanes and self service lanes. The self service lanes charged less per gallon. Now full service lanes are extinct.

Is this the case in all states? It's been a while since I was in NJ but, long after other states moved to strictly self service, NJ was only full service. Maybe it's changed in NJ.

It is still law and will be for the foreseeable future in NJ that mandates full service. Lot of jobs would get lost if they ever changed the law. It's nice in the heat of the summer and cold of the winter not to have to leave your car. Also amusing when someone from NJ first leaves the state and needs to figure out how to fill up their car.

Blah Blah. wrote:

Jsshsb wrote:

You ever thought about how many people are involved

- designing

- manufacturing

- selling

- maintaining

these SCOs?

There's a pricetag to it that is about four times higher than a standard till.

And no time is spend after the shift counting cash manually.

Regards,

Industry Insider

Those people are all Chinese.

Wrong.

It obviously has escaped your attention that Diebold is just about to buy itself a Retail sector.

Old Stogee wrote:

Let me see if I can dumb it down for you erythrocyte. Lets say your favorite sit down restaurant decided that they could increase profitability by getting rid of waitresses and having you punch in your order on a tablet fixed on the table. Then when the food was ready you had to walk up to the kitchen and pick it up yourself and bring it to the table.

You could probably do a better job by avoiding mistakes on what you ordered and you would probably get your food faster because the waitress is busy doing multiple things and chatting with multiple tables. Do you think you should pay the same price for your meal after the restaurant made that change?

I'd definitely pay more for that meal if it costs me less than the tip of having the server. What is with able bodied people finding luxury in paying others to do trivial tasks for them such as open doors, park cars and carry suitcases? A waiter is unnecessary in 98% of restaurants IMO. I usually go out to eat for convenience of not cooking or to have someone cook a meal that I don't typically make. It's not like I prepare a meal at home and think, 'I'd gladly pay for someone to carry this plate of food and drink to the table for me'. Heck, the minimum wager washing the dishes is a service I'd much rather pay for and tip than a waiter. The self checkout aisle fits in the same idea for me.

former wall streeter wrote:

find a better store wrote:

Don't shop where poor people shop and you won't see such penny pinching. People who aren't poor are willing to pay for convenience, and the stores that cater to them are willing to accommodate.

The Target I go to is in one of the wealthiest areas of the Florida Gulf Coast and has self checkout lines. Most people in the store could buy and sell you and me both. Honey's absolutely abound in all ages. It's worth waiting on the self checkout line just to catch the view if you get my drift.

Naples, FL by chance? Love that area!

Self checkout lane = Mostly retard line.

I choose it too. But everyone in front, stares at the screen, takes 40 secs to look at an item like it's a foreign object, before (maybe) scanning. Weighing items & paying are like learning chinese to them.

I live in New England, and the Hannafords/Shaws in the area have actually removed all the self-checkout lanes in the past year.

I figured it was because people were either stealing or that the machines were more work than they were worth.

Wise one.. wrote:

One of the smartest techniques is Aldi's that require you to pay a quarter to get a cart. This allows them to fire all the cart round up people in the parking lots. And the patrons of the store gladly put the cart back to get their quarter back. Nothing short of brilliant! Surprise that more stores have not done the same. Then again this is a German company. Very smart over there.

Grocery stores in Germany took a bit of getting used to between the shopping cart rentals and the lack of bagging. You'd best bring your own bag unless you want to buy one and get started bagging yourself because here come all the groceries whether or not you're ready for them.

The only time I'm not a fan of self checkout lanes is when they don't also have a lane with a checker open. If I'm at the grocery store with a ton of groceries, it's a pain to do the self-checkout thing. I asked one time if someone could open a lane, because I just had too much stuff that day.

Old stogee wrote:

When I first saw one I felt that if I was going to choose that self serve lane then I should get a discount. After all, the retailer is essentially firing the check out staff and asking the customer to do that job for free. All to make more profit at my expense. Well my customer revolt never materialized and many stores have adopted them almost exclusively. ( I am looking at you Home Depot)

Well you won the battle but the war is not over yet. I will get my revenge.

Have you considered that the store is not having to raise prices so you are saving money albeit it not directly. Grocery stores have very low margins.

Old stogee wrote:

When I first saw one I felt that if I was going to choose that self serve lane then I should get a discount. After all, the retailer is essentially firing the check out staff and asking the customer to do that job for free. All to make more profit at my expense. Well my customer revolt never materialized and many stores have adopted them almost exclusively. ( I am looking at you Home Depot)

Well you won the battle but the war is not over yet. I will get my revenge.

Fuvking socialist! Go back to California!!!

Phil Fondacaro wrote:

Anyone who complains about the speed of self check out lanes either lives in a city with stupid people or is stupid themselves. In the SF bay area, where people are intelligent and can comprehend modern technology, self check out lanes are far faster than normal lanes at every store that I have seen (Safeway, Home Depot, Walmart, Target). I stopped going to Trader Joe's solely because of their glacial checkout speed.

There's no way a self checkout lane is faster than a regular lane.

The woman or man in the regular lane is a professional. She scans stuff all day every day. The self checkout lane is only faster if there is a line for the regular checkout.

Bad Wigins wrote:

The solution is socialism, admit it. Technology has advanced to the point where there is no more work to be done.

When stuff is made that easily, to the point where Adam Smith can't move it from producer to customer anymore, that is the time for public ownership of the product.

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You raise an interesting point. I keep waiting for someone to write an article about who will own the self-driving cars.

I've never understood why UBer is woth so many billions. When a car can drive itself, everyone's car can be a taxi on the side. So the profit shoudl be pushed down to basically zero.

Or why don't we have a discussion if there is a profit? Who should own these robot cars? I personally would rather have a poor person who is struggling to get buy earn a few bucks thanks to their car driving itself around all day by itself than some ***hole in Silicon valley who thinks he's God's gift for inventing a taxi company where the briliant innovation is you don't have to tip or pay the drivers health insurance or vacation.

rojo wrote: There's no way a self checkout lane is faster than a regular lane.

The woman or man in the regular lane is a professional. She scans stuff all day every day. The self checkout lane is only faster if there is a line for the regular checkout.

The professional cashiers main priority is not speed, but completeness. The self-checkers main priority is speed. I scan my own items faster than any cashier, and if I have a glitched or non-existent barcode, I enter it as something else, I don't call someone for a price check.

Again, if your self-checkout lines are slower, it is because your fellow shoppers are idiots. This is not the case in the bay area.

I am quite surprised at the ratio of replies here, as I MUCH prefer the self-check lines. I'm not in the Bay Area, but I see the same thing here - the percentage of slow movers in the self check line is certainly no higher than in the regular lines. One advantage that can be significant is that there is usually a single line for 2 or 3 or 4 or 6 stations, so that your chance of being stuck behind a line-blocker is less.

I don't want to make chit-chat, I don't want anyone to bag my stuff (we have to bring our own bags), I just want to scan, swipe and go.

The large gains of automation in the service industry over the next few years will be a big influence on the UI becoming a reality.

I love self-checkout. No human interaction at all. My favorite places is where the person in charge of the self-checkout doesn't even look at you. Developed by engineers for engineers. Just perfection.

P.B.R. wrote:

former wall streeter wrote:

They don't need the same number of people but the reason there's a person at the self checkout is for training purposes. In 5 years or less that person will be completely unnecessary as everyone will know how to self checkout.

Someone's deluding theirself. As a professed Wall Streeter, it's surprising you'd have so much trust in the general competence / intelligence of the masses.

Whatever the competency of the general public, it will not change the fact that the person near the self checkout will become extinct at some point.

Much like Gas Stations slowly went from full serve to choice to self only, the grocers will do the same. There are still some boobs I run into in service stations.