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Posted: 1/16/2024 10:46:06 PM EDT
https://gizmodo.com/the-self-checkout-nightmare-may-finally-be-ending-1851169879
The Self-Checkout Nightmare May Finally Be Ending Self-checkout is a failed experiment, and a growing number of stores are backpedaling on these cursed machines. By Thomas Germain Published5 hours ago Comments (129) Photo: Reshetnikov_art / Shutterstock.com (Shutterstock) Don’t ring the funeral bells just yet, but the self-checkout kiosk horror show could be nearing its end. So far, the grand experiment in robot cashiers is an abject failure. Stores across the country are reversing course on the machines, and consensus is growing among analysts and insiders that self-checkout has been a disaster for consumers and retailers alike, according to a new report in the BBC. The machines aren’t disappearing anytime soon, but if nothing else, you can expect fewer stores to force them on you in the near future. In 2023, Target restricted self-checkout kiosks in some stores to ten items or less. Walmart pulled the machines out of a number of locations altogether. Booths, a British grocery chain, abandoned self-checkout. Dollar General made enormous bets on self checkout tech in 2022, but it recently announced the project flopped. On a December earnings call, Dollar General CEO Todd Vasos said the retailer is planning to increase the number of employees in stores, particularly in the checkout area, in a major reversal of its checkout strategy. “We had relied and started to rely too much this year on self-checkout in our stores,” Vasos told investors. “We should be using self-checkout as a secondary checkout vehicle, not a primary.” The biggest problem is theft. Not only is it easy to steal from self-checkout machines, it can be hard not to steal from them. Shoppers are reportedly 21 times more likely to sneak items past machines than human cashiers, but consumers also constantly steal unintentionally because the self-checkout process can be so cumbersome. One in five shoppers reported that they’ve accidentally stolen items during self-checkout in a survey from Lending Tree. One in seven said they’ve stolen from self-checkout on purpose. Not only do self-checkout machines double theft rates, they actually increase labor costs thanks to employees who get taken away from their other duties to help customers deal with the confusing and error prone kiosks. Overall, some analysts say the machines increase costs overall, which is especially painful news for the industry because they’re so expensive to install. A system of four machines can cost upwards of six figures. Still, 60% of consumers said they prefer self-checkout as of 2021, presumably because they’ve never seen Terminator (wake up sheeple). That’s true even though 67% said they’ve had self-checkout machines fail. But a growing number of consumers are souring on self-checkout, thanks to endless frustrations, accusations of theft, and wasted time. Big retailers would love to give hard working people’s jobs to robots, and in many cases they already have. It turns out human beings might still have something to offer. View Quote n 2023, Target restricted self-checkout kiosks in some stores to ten items or less. Walmart pulled the machines out of a number of locations altogether. Booths, a British grocery chain, abandoned self-checkout. Dollar General made enormous bets on self checkout tech in 2022, but it recently announced the project flopped. On a December earnings call, Dollar General CEO Todd Vasos said the retailer is planning to increase the number of employees in stores, particularly in the checkout area, in a major reversal of its checkout strategy. “We had relied and started to rely too much this year on self-checkout in our stores,” Vasos told investors. “We should be using self-checkout as a secondary checkout vehicle, not a primary.” But why? The biggest problem is theft. Not only is it easy to steal from self-checkout machines, it can be hard not to steal from them. Shoppers are reportedly 21 times more likely to sneak items past machines than human cashiers, but consumers also constantly steal unintentionally because the self-checkout process can be so cumbersome. One in five shoppers reported that they’ve accidentally stolen items during self-checkout in a survey from Lending Tree. One in seven said they’ve stolen from self-checkout on purpose. Not only do self-checkout machines double theft rates, they actually increase labor costs thanks to employees who get taken away from their other duties to help customers deal with the confusing and error prone kiosks. Overall, some analysts say the machines increase costs overall, which is especially painful news for the industry because they’re so expensive to install. A system of four machines can cost upwards of six figures. To which I say ... WE TOLD YOU SO. |
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I happen to like self checkouts. They'll never hire enough cashiers if they do away with them and you'll end up standing in lines again.
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I like them and can get out usually a good bit faster. Even with a lot of things to buy.
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Quoted: I happen to like self checkouts. They'll never hire enough cashiers if they do away with them and you'll end up standing in lines again. View Quote |
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Quoted: I happen to like self checkouts. They'll never hire enough cashiers if they do away with them and you'll end up standing in lines again. View Quote I wind up standing in lines on the self checkouts too. Especially when people bring full cartloads; the machines are not built to make handling that much stuff easy and quick; or when random items require a worker to show up and say "yes he's of age, he can buy this." or you accidentally double scan something and have to wait for them to take it off. |
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If I have just 2 or 3 items I love self check out. No wasting time.
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I don't want to self checkout and I don't want to bag my own groceries. I bagged groceries as a kid, now I expect some snot nosed kid to do it for me.
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I love self checkouts. Sounds like they just need better tech, RFID instead of bar codes?
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At my supermarket over thanksgiving-Christmas they would have three or four cashier registers open, and half a dozen self checkouts.
The self checkouts were so busy and chaotic that they had to have a couple of employees helping boomers and retards operate the self checkout, and another couple of employees directing people to available self checkouts because they had long lines and people would actually argue and fight to be next in the fucked up line. |
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I hate anything but self checkout
In fact I refuse to use a checkout where I have to interact with another person |
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The ability to competently and honestly use a self checkout should be the threshold for voting rights.
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They will say we don’t have workers for checkout staff. We will say what about the 50 million illegal that occupy space in this country.
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The Home Depot near me turned the self checkout into “pay for old women who can barely operate the machines to operate the machines for you” because of theft. It’s infuriating.
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Quoted: The Home Depot near me turned the self checkout into “pay for old women who can barely operate the machines to operate the machines for you” because of theft. It’s infuriating. View Quote Did they also stick the power tool batts and small lengths of electrical wire in locked cases which nobody is ever around to open? |
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I love self checkout and if they get rid of them, I'll probably resort to buying online with pickup. People are just too weird/awkward today and I can bag my own groceries quicker and faster than the mutant behind the register dropping a gallon of milk on my eggs.
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Quoted: I love self checkout and if they get rid of them, I'll probably resort to buying online with pickup. People are just too weird/awkward today and I can bag my own groceries quicker and faster than the mutant behind the register dropping a gallon of milk on my eggs. View Quote People are so wierd and awkwards today in large part because they don't have to interact with other humans face to face on a consistent basis. Self fulfilling prophecy. |
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Walmart’s self checkout system seems to work great.
The local Kroger here makes me want to punch kittens. |
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While I'm not a theif, I hope lots of theives are fucking Meijer stores hard.
We got a new one near me and I can't use thier machines without having to double check every price. If they are not trying to fuck you on price, they just plain don't work. When Im with my wife, I wont even scan anything. My wife finds a problem at least 50% of the time, where we never have a problem anywhere else. It's the only store where people at the kiosks tell others to watch thier item prices. And this is all the time. Its widely known and talked about around here. And by now, if it was a flaw, it would have been fixed. |
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Quoted: The Home Depot near me turned the self checkout into “pay for old women who can barely operate the machines to operate the machines for you” because of theft. It’s infuriating. View Quote They did the same thing where I live. Didn't last long since they left the self checkout intact but had the cashier run it. In other words, she was on the same side as you and blocked the aisle. |
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Quoted: I wind up standing in lines on the self checkouts too. Especially when people bring full cartloads; the machines are not built to make handling that much stuff easy and quick; or when random items require a worker to show up and say "yes he's of age, he can buy this." or you accidentally double scan something and have to wait for them to take it off. View Quote |
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How else am I supposed to get my organic fruits and vegetables at GMO prices???
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I didn’t hate them until the local supermarket went nuts on the scale tied to the check out.
Due to thieves they ratcheted down the weight tolerance or the F’d up entering the system’s weight for each item. If your weight doesn’t make their scale happy item by item it will stop and summon the attendant. I used to be able to put my bags on the scale and self bag as I rung the items up. Nope cannot do that anymore. Go too fast and it glitches out too. In that particular store I simply have a human ring up my groceries. |
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I like it in some locations, hate it in others.
Every Home Depot I’ve been in over the past few years will have one regular checkout lane open (or none) but will have 3-4 workers standing around the self checkout lanes giving everyone the stink eye like they’re about to steal something. Fuck you. If you’re not going to have the courtesy of providing me a paid employee to ring up my items and check me out, at least have the courtesy to NOT have them hover over me like some junior KGB version of loss prevention. |
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Quoted: At my supermarket over thanksgiving-Christmas they would have three or four cashier registers open, and half a dozen self checkouts. The self checkouts were so busy and chaotic that they had to have a couple of employees helping boomers and retards operate the self checkout, and another couple of employees directing people to available self checkouts because they had long lines and people would actually argue and fight to be next in the fucked up line. View Quote highlighted for emphasis I've used the things a thousand times and had trouble perhaps half a dozen times. A couple of those were from scanning something twice by accident, the others were tech problems or item not in the system. |
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I only like self checkout if I have a handful of items. I hate it at sam's and walmart when I generally have a cart full.
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I absolutely love the self check out - I never go to the cashier lines if I can avoid it at all.
I don't know what the big problem is anywhere else, but self check out here is GREAT! |
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I generally prefer self checkout. Some of them are still like 20 year old tech place the item in the bagging area weigh shit retarded.
The walmarts i go to i can scan one item 4 times and then throw all 4 in the bag... Way faster and less shit crushed going directly from cart across scanner in to bag instead of place ahit on conveyor wait for tard to scan and put the gallon of milk on top of the chips... There's enough cameras that like 2 autists could probably watch the whole damn store and every checkout for theft and have security stop them at the door. The real thieves will just load up their carts or backpacks and walk out knowing security won't do shit anyway. |
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Quoted: Lol I like the "but why?" part. I guess it's a question for the ages https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/132893/two_types_png-3097248.JPG View Quote Yeah the stores in areas with reinforced coke machines should just be fully locked up curbside only. |
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They’re the only lines open every time I walk up. I prefer them.
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Quoted: I wind up standing in lines on the self checkouts too. Especially when people bring full cartloads; the machines are not built to make handling that much stuff easy and quick; or when random items require a worker to show up and say "yes he's of age, he can buy this." or you accidentally double scan something and have to wait for them to take it off. View Quote A lot of them are set up for a cartload of shit now you get 3 or 4 bag caddy things and a pretty large area to load your groceries on. |
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Quoted: I happen to like self checkouts. They'll never hire enough cashiers if they do away with them and you'll end up standing in lines again. View Quote I don't like them. But your right because they are just going to close the self checkouts and not hire anymore cashiers. But I live in a low crime small town setting. Watch, they will keep them here. |
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I can't stand the ones at Kroger. I know they use sensors in the bagging area to see if you put the correct item in a bag but their machines suck. Never fails I'll get at least one popup on the screen telling me to put the item in the bag that I just did. Sometimes this happens enough the attendant has to come over and unfuck the machine.
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I love self checkouts. It keeps the boomers who still use checks away and really speeds things up. Plus you only need to pay for half the items. Win Win.
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In other words, people are either too dumb or too untrustworthy to use them.
This is why we can't have nice things. Sam's Scan-N-Go FTMFW! |
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Even Costco's self-checkout is a joke. It's even worse when their employees come over to "help" scan my items - frequently they get something wrong.
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Quoted: People are so wierd and awkwards today in large part because they don't have to interact with other humans face to face on a consistent basis. Self fulfilling prophecy. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: I love self checkout and if they get rid of them, I'll probably resort to buying online with pickup. People are just too weird/awkward today and I can bag my own groceries quicker and faster than the mutant behind the register dropping a gallon of milk on my eggs. People are so wierd and awkwards today in large part because they don't have to interact with other humans face to face on a consistent basis. Self fulfilling prophecy. Agreed. Case in point: Originally posted by Stiles1410: I hate anything but self checkout In fact I refuse to use a checkout where I have to interact with another person |
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I manage to get the one thing that the computer doesn't know or scan. Stuff from the outdoor stuff in wal-mart and stuff. So if you have to track someone down might as well have one from the start. Maybe if I got a discount for doing their job.
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