Why self-checkout has been an inconvenient 'failure' for both shoppers and stores

Original (Archive)

Comments (Archive) For shits and giggles!

Self-checkout kiosks became increasingly common in stores in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and retailers hailed them as a major convenience for shoppers.

But journalist Amanda Mull, in a biting article published by The Atlantic on October 19, stresses that self-checkout has turned out be the polar opposite of "convenient." Self-checkout, according to Mull, has been a headache for consumers as well as stores.

Mull recalls that in the past, the argument for self-checkout was "scan your stuff, plunk it in a bag, and you're done. Long checkout lines would disappear."

But the journalist adds that the reality of self-checkout has been much different.

"You still have to wait in line," Mull laments. "The checkout kiosks bleat and flash when you fail to set a purchase down in the right spot. Scanning those items is sometimes a crapshoot — wave a barcode too vigorously in front of an uncooperative machine, and suddenly, you've scanned it two or three times. Then, you need to locate the usually lone employee charged with supervising all of the finicky kiosks, who will radiate exasperation at you while scanning her ID badge and tapping the kiosk's touch screen from pure muscle memory."

Mull adds, "If you want to buy something that even might carry some kind of arbitrary purchase restriction — not just obvious things such as alcohol, but also, products as seemingly innocuous as a generic antihistamine — well, maybe don't do that."

Self-checkout, according to Mull, has not only been a hassle for shoppers — it has been expensive for retailers, as "the average four-kiosk setup runs around $125,000." And when stores cut their staffs, she notes, theft became more common.

Some retailers, Mull reports, realize that self-checkout has problems and are cutting back on it — or at least making adjustments.

"Costco is stationing more staffers in its self-checkout areas," Mull reports. "ShopRite is adding cashiers back into stores where it had trialed a self-checkout-only model, citing customer backlash. None of this is an indication that self-checkout is over, exactly. But several decades in, the kiosks as Americans have long known them are beginning to look like a failure."

 

[George Lucas]

Isn't stopping shoplifters illegal anyways and workers don't even stop them even if they see the offender in plain sight?

It’s not illegal, but you’re not immune to liability like a police officer would be.

 

[Jacknife]

For purchasers of produce and bulk foods, self-checkouts are a miraculous technology. Literally. At the point of sale, pine nuts are divinely transubstantiated into rolled oats costing 1/25 of their price. Pistachios become peanuts. Dried cherries and blueberries become cheap raisins. And all the fancy organic produce turns into non-organic stuff, at least if you have enough brain cells to remember the memorize the codes for it. Who says the store isn't paying you for the work you do?

Okay you got me, I reserve these practice for baked goods, they have the cheap bread rolls and the expensive one which cost way although the quality isn't much better, the cheap ones are always sold out so I just get the expensive ones for the price of the cheap ones then.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

Isn't stopping shoplifters illegal anyways and workers don't even stop them even if they see the offender in plain sight?

Most companies would fire you even if you are in the right to stop a shop lifter unless you are "Asset Protection" trained and quite frankly Asset Protection is probably the worst position in Retail because you get White Trash Rage Pigs and Feral Ghetto Niggers actually stalking you to your house to get revenge on you for catching them breaking the law.

 

[Mordecai "3 Finger" Brown]

A problem with self checkouts is they run fine at first, and then they rapidly wear out. I've never seen one torn down, but I'm willing to bet they skimp as much as possible on heatsinks, or even forego them altogether. There's really no other explanation for why they break down so fast.

I've heard dumb explanations for why they get slower, such as "oh it's the ISP being slow" but that doesn't explain why all the transitions start lagging and all my inputs take four to ten tries before the machine responds.

Makes me think of the slot machines at casinos.

They are literally a machine that prints the owners money and still look like they've been dragged behind a car doing donuts in the parking lot.

Worse than Self checkouts are stores that have automatic security gates and railings separating the entrance and exits. Sometimes you don't buy anything and you have to walk through the self checkout area to get to the exit.

Also the security theatre gates and railing makes me feel like a Nigger. Why can't we just have them in Nigger only stores and have Whites Only Stores without all the bullshit?

I distinctly remember the week that the gates got installed at my local corpo.

A few weeks ago at a different store, the prices were so high at my local liquidation, scam-charity, fell-off-the-truck store that I had to walk out of there for the first time without buying anything.

Get with the times, ya luddites.

This is actually closer to being historically analogous with the Luddites of industrializing Britain.

The main difference is that the Luddites were skilled craftmens working in the textile industry being replaced by mechanical looms instead of bottom-rung wagies.

The Luddites, opposed to certain factory owners they felt were implementing the changes greedily and unfairly, formed militias that trained in fields by night and targeted certain factory machines for destruction.

It was also a case of a reduction in garment quality from skilled manual labour against the trade-off of a reduction in prices for mass-produced textiles.

The movement ultimately got crushed though when the government eventually took a portion of British regulars off the continental front against Napoleon to go crack skulls back at home.

 

[JosephStalin]

When I go to Walmart use self-checkout for my few purchases. Since I pay to shop at Costco never use self-checkout, that's what I pay to have their employees do. At the commissary never use self-checkout for the weekly order, want to protect workers' jobs. Have a 'personal bagger', whom I use whenever she is there. Does a great job bagging and loading everything into the car. Should I run in for just one or two items usually self-checkout.

The ones at the commissary who use self-checkout for a large order apparently don't want or cannot afford to pay a bagger to bag their purchases.

 

[JosephStalin]

Gen Z should consider themselves lucky they never had to be behind a boomer at the register wait until it's all totaled and then whips out the checkbook. You're stuck there for 10 min.

That's me at the commissary, but I pre-fill the check before going. All I need to do is put down the amounts and sign the check. Takes longer for the commissary's system to process the check and provide a receipt.

 

[marvlouslie]

I typically don't mind self checkout if I only have a handful of items and just ran in to grab a couple of things, but if I have a large buggy full. Yeah... no. Our Walmart is notorious for having only one cashier lane open and forcing people to go to self checkout (which is one of the reasons I refuse to shop there if I can help it).

 

[Kuritan Deplorable]

Wherever you shop must have crappy older models -- everywhere I shop that uses self-checkout has a button on screen for "use my own bag" that avoids this whole problem.

My machines have that button, but my bag isn't some cheap canvas thing, I do my usual grocery run with a big old military surplus ruck, so even with it empty, a lot of store machines get angry at it. Its worse if I've got a water bottle or purchases from elsewhere in it too.

Self checkout is great when I have like two things I want to buy, at least in stores with enough self check machines. But I also stopped going to those stores, and just favor the one that never put in self checkout machines, and kept their six lanes and the staff to run 'em. I can get checked out just as fast there as with any self checkout, and with a full load of groceries. Possibly faster, since I'll be packing my bag while they scan items through.

The mistake was thinking you could automate them through, and use them for anything and everything. Before these machines showed up, a lotta stores around here had a 'fast' aisle that was a checkout for 5-10 items only, for the in n out customers. Shoulda treated self checkout like that, rather than as some magic panacea of headcount, and now they're paying the literal price for it.

 

[Fascist Kirk]

I use them when I have 19 ones, and the tittie bar is closed ...... Nothing like jamming up the system with worthless paper my little way of saying fuck you......

 

[Nick Gars]

I like self-checkout because I'm not retarded, thus I can work a fuckin' register just fine and I'm usually only buying around 5 items.

I hate self-checkout because normies are literally fucking retarded, have zero common curtosy or common sense (even more so in the self-checkout lines) and think it's fucking cute to waste everyone's time with a brim packed fucking cart.

Fucking normies, reeee.

 

[SBG]

Grocery store in the nicest part of my city started doing self checkout in the past year and theft shit up, which I suspect is people just messing up rather than actively stealing.

They’re expecting a bunch of people to do the cashier’s job and not mess up occasionally? Or to be patient and notice when the machine fucks up?

If stores want to be cheap about not providing service they can’t just expect the customers to provide the service for themselves.

 

[Bookwork]

I don't have to deal with a cashier asking what I'm going to do with what I bought.

I wish to subscribe to your YouTube 18+ channel.

 

[Eternal Gopnik]

I used to like self-checkout when I used to shop at Tesco. Other than one minor inconvenience (they installed resistive touchscreens on the self-checkout kiosks while the interface was still designed so that you had to swipe if you were manually adding something that doesn't have a barcode, like fresh bread. Swiping on a resistive screen sucks.) it was always great, the scale worked fine, and their kiosks accepted cash, which was super nice because I could use that to split large bills without feeling like an asshole by making some poor cashier fish a fistful of coins from the register. The kiosk will aggressively shit out perfect change in like five seconds.

Problem is, I had to stop going to Tesco when the coof hit and these goddamn jews jacked up the price of everything and put a permanent "sale" on like 80% of items - but to get the sale price you have to use their shitty club membership card to access. Go fuck yourselves, I'm not installing your shitty app and I'm not giving you my address.

So I started shopping at Lidl, mostly. They recently installed self-checkout kiosks at my location and they're pure garbage. Tesco had the system figured out since like a decade ago, but at Lidl the scales are shit, so you need to call staff nearly every grocery run at least once, and they only accept cards while I'm trying to use cash as much as possible because I hate the Antichrist. And to top it off, you have to scan your receipt on your way out, but only if you use self-service, otherwise you just walk out normally. And the receipts are printed on a super thin paper that's also dark blue colored, it's fine for me to read, but the scanner has severe problems handling it, I guess the contrast is too low. So it's overall just a bad experience and definitely a lesson in how not to do it.

 

[Harbinger of Kali Yuga]

We need to to protect the working class and legislate to keep these jobs, as a matter of social and economic justice, so people still have jobs when customers come in to buy their buggy whips.

 

[Meat Target]

I only hate the self-checkout registers that talk to you, spelling out every item price, and then make that annoying jingle when you pay. I know how it works, are they trying to accomodate blind people?

 

[Lorne Armstrong]

I hate self-checkout because I always make mistakes. 5 avocados in my bag but when it asks how many I always forget and press “4”. Same with bell peppers, tomatoes, etc. Also, I always grab the salad tomatoes but make the mistake of pressing the button for Roma tomatoes which are $0.10 per lb cheaper. Then since I have to bag everything up I usually find an item under my bags while loading up my trunk that I missed scanning. Yep, I end up making way too many mistakes when checking myself out.

 

[Safir]

Such is life in a low-trust society, but hey; it's so heckin' diverse and vibrant!

The USSR was ultra high trust but we didn't even have self-service; instead, a store employee at a counter would get you the stuff you wanted, tell you the total, then you'd go the cash register, pay, come back with a receipt and get the goods. Stores used to be spacious and well-lit, with counters near the walls and large open spaces with register booths in the middle, as store managers didn't have to squeeze out profit out of every square inch centimeter.

I detest self-checkout. I know a lot of people on here love it, but I see it as becoming an unpaid employee for the store while putting myself in jeopardy should a carrot not get scanned. As someone who doesn't go around shoplifting, getting accused of such for a simple, avoidable mistake sounds mortally embarrassing. Plus, it's just easier (for me) if someone else does the ringing and bagging.

Same. I normally despise shoplifters, but when one of the local grocery stores introduced self-checkout, I realized the nigger who wrote "checkout is work, so I pay myself in groceries" had it right. Touch screens are laggy unresponsive trash. Interfaces are designed by a total drooling retard. (I still don't steal, I just never go to self-checkout; if I absolutely have to shop at that particular store, I stand in the booze line.)

 

[Mewtwo_Rain]

I don't hate them but I feel long term this is means to a terrible end for shopping.

What I mean is just like full service gas stations. They got rid of jobs once most became mandatory self-serve. Same too I feel with cashiers and self-serve scans.

Even outside of that the thefts that are occurring may one day end up with a small amount of employees having to serve customer and removal of those self-serve systems or putting all the groceries behind glass. Some stores have already done that where I live, and one place hired a deputy to literally watch the self-line. Either that or the stores will lose money from theft and close. Then you don't have to worry about either option or job loss.

It may be mere paranoia but I sometimes wonder if those pushing for more of it haven't long gamed this exact outcome to screw people over. Similar to this push of "digital only" future being pushed on media.

 

[Sicko Hunter]

Isn't stopping shoplifters illegal anyways and workers don't even stop them even if they see the offender in plain sight?

Yes. Because of insurance and liability issues attempting to stop a shoplifter as a worker will get you in serious trouble and probably fired. You can contact security and tell them about the shoplifter and that's it. Basically all major retail outlets explicitly tell you not to in the training videos.

 

[DavidS877]

I don't have to deal with a cashier asking what I'm going to do with what I bought.

It's worse when they start offering suggestions. "Our store brand bleach costs less and is just as effective at cleaning up blood." "You know that rope is also available in a 100 foot length for less per foot." "You're probably going to want a bigger shovel, that narrow one doesn't really work that well."