I’m rather fond of delivery myself (back issues), but I do want to choose fresh produce myself (don’t trust a stranger to get bananas at the stage I want them, for example).
I also like the Scan & Go option at Walmart (via their phone app), except if I’m buying produce, since I have yet to figure out coping with goods that are sold by weight in that app.
The “buying by weight” thing is handled in a few ways at my store, don’t know if any would apply at Walmart. For shop and scan applications:
In our produce area are scales that allow you to pick which item you’re weighing and prints a barcode label for you to affix to a bag (or, for things like bananas, to thing itself). A tip: make sure the bar code is not wrinkled, folded, or damaged when applied. That is the most common error I see people make. When a customer asks why I’m re-weighing/pricing something they labeled if that’s the problem I point this out to them, that unless the bar code is flat and intact the scanners have trouble reading them.
Our self-serve kiosks devoted to “shop and scan” do have a scale next to them, just like in the produce area, that allows shoppers to generate a bar code for their items.
In both cases, you the customer generate the bar code using the scale then scan that bar code. Again, not sure if that applies to Walmart or other retailers but if I was in one of those stores that’s what I would look for.
I’m sure the Walmarts in my area don’t have the printer scale you describe, but I can ask an employee for guidance on the weigh-at-checkout option next time I try it. Thanks!
Data point in the Netherlands: Decathlon (a sports good store) has only self-checkouts nowadays; no human cashiers whatsoever (at least in their shop in The Hague).
There’s a fairly new chain of mattress stores in the Chicago area, HassleLess Mattress, which advertises, as their point of difference, that they have no salespeople or staff in their showrooms. They tout this as reducing the hassle from “pushy salespeople;” it appears that, once you select a mattress while visiting their showroom, you either order it from a kiosk in the showroom, or do so online at home.
It does look like they have a customer service phone number, but it is definitely a different, self-service sort of shopping than would be usual for buying a mattress.
To begin with there were two screens and it was not clear which one to tap. Second, no matter which one I tapped or where, it didn’t register. A clerk came along and showed me how to tap on top of, not in front of, one of the screens.
Just yesterday, I went in to a grocery that I rarely use to get something that our nearby store has stopped carrying (corn meal). I picked up two bags and nothing else and decided, okay I’ll try their self checkout. I was able to check them for $1.99 each, but when I tried to pay with the CC, I could not. They even had a regular CC reader and I inserted in the usual way and got a “credit card not recognized” message. So I gave up and went through a regular checker whose machine had not the slightest difficulty with my card.
It didn’t help that the automated checkout had instructions and gave messages only in French.
To me self checkout kiosks simply represent the further decay of anything resembling service. They are there to further line the pockets of whichever corporation chooses to use them.
Other money grabs include the push towards e-billing which has become common especially among utility companies, phone/internet companies etc. It doesn’t improve the environment. Well over 1,000 large corps have been forced to backtrack on claims that e-billing helps the environment. It helps the corporations bottom line. Full stop.
Another is ‘virtual assistants’. You know, those bots you have to deal with because corporations don’t want to hire actual support agents. I’ve noticed these have become so prevalent even car lots have them. If these virtual bots have ever helped anyone it must be a very tiny percentage. Inevitably, any ‘conversation’ with a virtual bot ends with “I’ll have someone call you back”. Clearly no regard what-so-ever for the amount of a persons time that’s been wasted. Generally these days, by the time someone reaches out for help they require to speak with an actual human being who can think and assess the grey area of a problem.
As long as people cave to this lack of service it won’t go away. Interesting to note that some of the companies that employ these self assist measures also rue the fact that internet shopping is ruining their business. I’m not aware of any company that’s offered discounts to customers for checking out their own groceries, agreeing to e-bills to save companies postage or permitting them to drop the number of support staff.
I like them.
I can get in, buy my stuff, and get out in a flash.
Most of what I buy isn’t weird stuff that triggers “please wait for assistance”
And if you want to buy alcohol, it is not for sale in New Jersey supermarkets, so that’s a non-issue.
My biggest gripe with the Acme near me is that they just don’t care about staffing the self checkouts.
For example, they recently locked up all of the hand scanners. One day as I was lugging my cases of water to the scanner I ended up chasing down the single employee who was supposed to be overseeing self checkout. She handed one to me and said that they lock them up because people steal stuff (hand scanned stuff bypasses the scale). My response was “I’m honest, so why do I have to lug my water around because of thieves?”
My other response that I didn’t say was “If you didn’t spend 45 minutes of each hour with all of your coworkers out front on smoke break, then maybe people wouldn’t steal as much”
Seriously…the customer service is terrible, mostly absent. They just don’t care. Most of the time when I go through self checkout there is no worker there at all.
But when I have a few items, it’s the bee’s knees!
On the other hand, human checkout can be seen not as a service, but another impediment between me and getting shit done.
Self-service is the most efficient service, IMHO.
Self-service is only efficient IF you know the system well.
If you don’t know how the machines work, or don’t know how to optimize the system, no, it isn’t the most efficient.
That, and a competent check-out cashier is going to be faster than self-service because that would be a person who is doing this action full time (or at least part time) meaning instead of 5-15 minutes a week doing this action they’re doing it 20, 30, or 40 hours a week. They’re going to know the system better, have a lot of things like common produce codes memorized, and be able to handle some things they see daily but you might see only a couple times a year.
Granted, there are too many INcompetent register jockies. That’s a different problem.
But hey, if self-serve works best for you have at it. If you’ve figured out the systems at your local stores and can zip in and out great! Options are good. But my experience has been that there are a LOT of people who are crap at checking themselves out.
At this point I’d say the ideal store has both options, with sufficient staffing to keep both running.
One of the reasons I love the self checkout is because while I’m probably not as fast as the real cashiers, I’m definitely faster than the cashier when I get behind one of those folks that that are crap at every kind of checkout. You know, the person that wants to pay with a check. The person that is surprised every time that they are going to be asked for payment at the end of the transaction and has to search for their card. The person that just arrived from the Middle Ages and has never encountered a PIN pad. The person that thinks that the cashier needs a synopsis of their life story and/or the details of any recent medical procedure.
My local grocery story (which I otherwise love) seems to specialize in those sort of people. Lest anyone think I’m being ageist, most commonly these people are not old. The common denominator is that they are stunningly unaware of their current situation and what the next few minutes might require of them. Self checkout beats that every time.
Of course but I will be faster than a competent cashier with three people ahead of me in line. That’s when I use the self check out.
Checks are not inherently “crap” in this context. I have a number of check-out regulars who always use checks who in no way impede the process. The person who, at the start, let’s me know they are going to pay by check, has it ready, and hands it over with “exact amount” or how much they want back in cash (an option where I work), and is ready to authorize it as soon as possible is no more slow than a person paying with a debit card. But you probably don’t notice those people because they aren’t gumming up the works. It’s the folks who act like they’ve never been in a grocery store - regardless of how they’re paying - who cause maddening delays.
Yeah, it’s downright frightening how many people seem to staggering through life with a brain that’s only half-functioning. Even more so when you realize these people are driving out on the road (which would explain the lady who recently hit a stop sign in the middle of an empty section of our parking lot recently - the ONLY obstacle in a literal half-acre of flat pavement and she slams into it. WTF?)
That is an excellent reason to do so.
I will gladly concede that the concept of a check transaction is crap, but I will note that I perceive a strong correlation between ‘paying with check’ and ‘surprised that the transaction ends with a required payment’ and ‘checkbook is at the bottom of an impossibly deep bag’.
I suspect the Venn diagram of the folks who are surprised to find themselves in the checkout lane of a grocery store and those that need to cut three lanes over to get to the exit that’s been in the same place for 20 years is a circle.
They’re related to the people who used to start looking for exact change after they got on the bus.
A lot of times, that comes across to me as a fellow passenger as hoping the driver will just let it slide to keep the bus moving on schedule.
As someone on the receiving end of these things I’d say that there’s less correlation than you might suppose. There are a lot of people adept with their checks and also a lot of people who don’t seem to know how plastic cards work, or how cash and coins work. You don’t notice the smooth transactions, you notice the ones that don’t work.
Never mind.
In my Safeway days (1998-2009) at least 90% of all transactions were done by check. It was probably 99% checks when I first started, and was only beginning to become mostly debit/credit cards when I got out of the checkstand permanently circa 2004.
Checks were actually the fastest payment method at the time. Customer hands it to you, you punch in the amount on the keyboard, hit the "Check " button, run it through the MICR reader/franker, and it franks the check automatically when it is approved (which typically took only about 3 seconds), drawer pops open, then I put the check into the check slot and count out any change they had coming to them, if any (usually just a $20 bill). Next!
“Step off the bus, Sir / Ma’'m. Once you’re out there, dig out your exact change and have it ready for the next bus. Good Day!”