Technology

They could have saved so much time and money by just paying the cashiers a living wage.

My main issue with self checkout is simple. They constantly incorrectly flag me for shoplifting and then proceed to show my shiny bald head from top down to everyone within 20 feet on the checkout screen. It is not a flattering angle.

I was astounded the other day when I visited a town that had a nice busy grocery store. It was like what I imagine the 70's were like. They had 20 lanes OPEN with cashiers quickly and efficiently ringing up items, much faster than I could, with baggers neatly and efficiently filling the bags. There were no waiting lines because everyone found a cashier lane to walk right up to as the last person was finishing up.

It was ten times faster than a self checkout.

I rarely see that anymore. Its usually one lone cashier and a bunch of people waiting for a self checkout machine.

I use self-checkout occasionally. On the one hand I don't absolutely hate if I have a few items. Yea, I cannot scan nearly as quickly as the pros. Which is fine if I have three things. Luckily I have mever either been accused of theft myself or seen it happen to anyone else.

That said, I will absolutely not be sad to see these machines go. Nothing of value will be lost.

Hire more cashiers and pay them a living wage so they don't have to immedeately sign up for food stamps right after being accepted into employment. Our government should not be subsidizing the billionaires, who are all mentally unwell from having long since surpassed mere riches.

All self-checkouts I see around here are either completely empty, or full of workers who have to help the people using them, at least about 1 worker for every 4 self-checkout stations.

Good. Fuck self check out.

This feels surreal, self checkout is insanely normal here and theres no scales and or other sensors besides normal cctv. Switzerland, for context.

I'm mixed.

I dislike peopling in person, and I hate lines with a passion, but I also hate putting cashiers out of business, running the register myself, and waiting for one person in charge of 17 registers to come over and figure out WTF just went wrong with the checkout process, which is also peopleing and lines.

Pretty funny coincidence here

It certainly always saves me time. Especially when I cut out doing the part where I pay.

Self check-out should be for maximum 5-5 products, no more. They should be Fast lane only.

Didn't realize self checkouts were such a divisive topic, like wtf I'll take that any day of the week over standing in line behind people who have seemingly never been to a supermarket before and their shit is still standing there all over the place while the cashier is already scanning my products. I get that it keeps someone employed but I think the answer to that is better welfare, not sticking to the old ways just so someone gets to do menial shit for a living.

The article talks about time savings but it was always about labor costs and I have a hard time believing it didn't deliver on that front.

I'm pretty sure I stolen bottle of wine because of the self checkout.

I'm bought a bunch of stuff and some wine, I scan to the bottle and it beeped and I put it in the bag but then no one came to ID me when it came time to paying, presumably it somehow didn't register.

You still need employees to help hapless customers and flag tech problems, the security cameras from above to dissuade theft, and someone to man the monitors of said cameras. They were banking on full human replacement. Can’t wait for our AI future with a store devoid of employees where they drop a net from the ceiling and pepper spray me because I forgot my eggplant was the organic price.

I don't see any evidence they're "pulling back", at least not in Europe. More and more are self service checkouts than ever before. That said I think stores prefer the kiosks where people scan their items than the kind where people have barcode readers and wander the store scanning (or not scanning) goods.

This seems very US coded. In euro they're doubling down even with self scan on the phone or with a tool they give me. I scan them as I put them in my cart and at checkout I just pay and leave. It's awesome.

This probably has a wide latitude of success depending on whether it's a high trust or low trust society.

"things have gotten so bad that it has made many people need to steal, so we can't keep self checkouts open"

Have they tried adding AI? 3D printing? Quantum computing? Space based solar power?