One thing I’m getting out of this thread is that no one self-checkout user can generalize their experience in any way to what their experience would be in another store or locale.
For those that have tried self-checkout in the past, and won’t try it again: If you tried self-checkout more than 18-24 months ago … you’re unlikely to have the exact same experience with it today. Most especially if you try a different store from where you were let down.
Not supposed to use self-checkout for cartloads? Not around here. Our WalMart Neighborhood Market groceries never has a cashier lane open. There’s a huge corral with 12 self-checkout stations, one lonely use-in-case-of-irate customer cash register (unmanned), and a barely-occupied customer service area. And half of the self-checkout stations have huge bagging areas – no problems with full cartloads.
Speaking of “bagging areas” though … you know, bagging and the related issues are kind of a thing of the past around here. Our local Winn-Dixie grocery (and the aforementioned WalMart Neighborhood Market) has scales underneath their bagging platform, but they are intentionally either disabled or unmonitored (I think the software is set to ignore scale input). So you don’t get anymore “unscanned item in the bagging area” alerts. And you for sure don’t get that old “place your item in the bagging area!” alert anymore. Want to scan items straight back into your basket? Bypass the bagging area and scale thing altogether? Knock yourself out.
There are some new minor snafus that pop up with more recent self-checkout systems, but hardly to the level of rejecting self-checkout altogether. An example is the camera-monitoring AI with WalMart Neighborhood Market’s self-checkout (which is de reigeur in newer systems). Recently, I was trying to get two new bags separated from each other and fluffed open. I pulled the two bags up to my body and started shaking them with some vigor. The AI caught this motion, halted the transaction, and hailed one of the checkout staffers to view a few seconds of footage to make sure I didn’t pilfer something. All was good, and the time from my bag-shaking to the resumption of the transaction was maybe 20-30 seconds.
I don’t blame self-checkout for that. For better or worse, there are small things about self-checkout that I, the customer, have to learn and adjust to. And I do so with a good attitude, and thus find that self-checkout almost invariably goes smoothly for me.
I think I mentioned earlier in this thread that Scan N Go is my jam. Sounds like yours is too complicated! They have 3 produce scanning stations in our produce section so the way to do it is get all your produce, go to the station, get all your weights and prices on to your scanning gun, and be done with it, well before you actually go to check out. Most of our produce has ID stickers on it but even if not, there is a lookup just like the cashiers (or self checkouts) would use.
Scan N Go is a brilliant invention. The looks on people’s faces when they’ve been in line for 20 minutes and I’m sashaying out the door! Woohoo!
Our WalMart Neighborhood Markets have checkout areas like this. I looked for a closer picture, but you can see the huge bagging areas – full carts area a breeze.
Yeah, that’s not my actual local WalMart Neighborhood market … that photo is of one in the Miami area. I was trying to find a close-up photo of the large cart-worthy bagging area – all the stations in the photo along the far wall are of that variety.
Our self-checkout corral is maybe 2/3 the width of that one … though it looks to be about the same number of stations.
There are three grocery stores, a Walmart and a Target in the entire county. Oh and there is a Whole Foods.
The self check outs are the small ones. The store that had the Scan & Go dropped it. It was Scan and wait for a self checkout to open up. Was pointless.
Yeah, you do learn a new set of small skills when you deep-dive into self-checkout. Avoiding this issue is one of them.
For large bulky items (cat litter, cases of water, etc.), the item never does leave the cart. I just hit it with the scanning gun.
I don’t checkout small items that way (common exception: eggs, because the main reader sometimes has trouble with the wonky smudgy bar codes printed on the cartons). Anything non-bulky absolutely does leave the cart for scanning. Almost invariably bagging, as well – but then they can be summarily placed backed into the cart. The scale remains silent. No pyramids necessary.
The subtitle of that piece makes me doubt the writer’s conclusions from jump.
Come with me, Atlantic writer, for my next dozen grocery shopping trips. Observe as I breeze through the self-checkout every time. Be amazed that when something does pop up, it gets resolved in no time. And then, after that, write about how self-checkout is a failed experiment.
Now, if the writer is talking more from an econmic or sociological angle, that might be a different story. But the tired “bagging area!” issue? Please.
Yes, that’s where this 14-months-later bump started, with this post from @Dr_Paprika.
@Riemann astutely pointed out that the headline and tag sounded like it was an article recycled from 5 years ago. I agree, the mechanics of it are definitely not as finicky as they were at the beginning.
Many of us quite enjoy self checkout and, at least in my city, stores have expanded it within the last year or two. It doesn’t seem to have failed for them.
I went to a store the other day that I hadn’t been to in a while. Marc’s, which is local to Northeast Ohio. This store didn’t even have BARCODE SCANNERS until the early 2000s, and didn’t take credit cards either. Yes, the cashiers typed in every price. Anyway, even Marc’s has self checkout now. I couldn’t believe it! (And I used it)
It is not a uniform thing. At Wal-Mart they use new machines and there are people nearby watching you who would resolve problems if they occurred, but so have never had any problem there. At Dollarama, there is less supervision and more glitches. Supermarkets vary but I’d say 80% easy is fair. But I tend not to use it given the option and if other lines are reasonable.
Well, there’s another factor. I’m not aware of any places near me that have a “scanning gun”, they’re all fixed in place scanners you have to wave things over.
I see. Scanning guns are also virtually omnipresent at more recent self-checkout stations.
It’s a real shame the overall concept of “self checkout” has manifest in so many different ways, and at so many different stages, across the U.S.
I wonder if there actually have recently been new installations of vintage 2010-2015 self-checkout stations (+ software) in some areas of the U.S.? Or maybe even older systems?
How else would anybody be able to determine what sort of system actually works the best? All the lab testing in the world simply cannot replicate the messiness of actual, live use “in the wild.”
I hear you. A lot of the problems reported in this thread were more or less solved no later than ~5 years ago. The “in the wild” testing started, in many areas (maybe not all that many, it seems) at the dawn of the millennium. In some cases, people are in this thread reporting self-checkout problems from circa 2005.
And by no means do I live in a place that latches onto the cutting edge of anything early. Heck, the first store I went to with self-checkout stations was a Kroger grocery in Ridgeland, Mississippi (suburban Jackson). A.D. 2001. It was the old “precisely weigh every item” systems. Rife with issues, but still manageable with patience. In the end, though, that “precise weight” system lost out to better, more user-friendly systems.
The place i use self-checkout most often is an unmanned farmer’s market that’s open 24/7 and expects you to deal. I started shopping there during the pandemic, when, “i can go to a well ventilated place with literally no other people there” was a big draw. I still buy their expensive-but-excellent pastured chicken.
They have no security measures at all, except for cameras. I have made mistakes in both directions (missing an item, and paying for an item i didn’t have) and nothing has ever come of that. Their current machines have better software than the old ones, and i haven’t made a mistake in a while. They are also harder to leave behind your credit card. (A common enough problem that they have instructions on the wall about what to do if you find someone’s card in the machine, and a box to put those in.)
The other place is my local CVS, which often doesn’t bother to staff the checkout area, except for one employee, who will help you with the self checkout if you are clueless enough.
My supermarket is clearly on the “for small purchases” bandwagon, and has replaced the express lanes (there were 3) with self checkout booths. They also have an employee dedicated to watching/helping that area.