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> “We have different ideas of efficiency now,” Wood says. “We want to shop with as little intrusion by anyone else as possible. Self-checkout is one of, in my o
by bsg75 11y ago
> “We have different ideas of efficiency now,” Wood says. “We want to shop with as little intrusion by anyone else as possible. Self-checkout is one of, in my opinion, the least efficient tools in the world, yet everyone is obsessed with using self-checkout at the grocery store. It’s so much faster to just wait in line and have someone check out for you.”
There seem to be contradictory statements there. No wonder online vendors are killing the retail outlet.
Self checkout appears to be a way to lower both employee costs and customer satisfaction. These systems often don't work well, and with the cashier staff reduced to minimums, often it takes longer to un-wedge the self checkout process than to wait for the one or two human cashiers among the 20+ unused registers. My local Target and Home Depot stores come to mind.
> In actuality, I think Amazon is highly inefficient if you don’t know what you’re buying because you don’t have anyone to help you and say, ‘No, actually, this is better than that.’
That service died with the management ilk of chains like Circuit City in the US that replaced experienced, knowledgable salespeople with underpaid "ad pushers", trained in nothing more than moving the hot item of the week. In some cases I found it most efficient to order online for pickup at the local store, and bypass all the unhelpful "help".
With Amazon, I can at least read reviews, attempt to pick out those that are informed, and get some actual information. Modern retail does not have a current or past equivalent.
- meatysnapper 11y agoAmazon had a nice tax dodge for a while too. Lower price for the same thing; not bad.
- toomuchtodo 11y agoAmazon is frequently more expensive on some items I buy; I still buy from Amazon because the experience is better, cost savings be damned. Drive to the store, have to talk to someone, grab item, checkout, drive home? NOPE.
- kevin_thibedeau 11y agoMany self checkout systems are purposely designed to run slower than possible to combat shrinkage (theft). There are some systems that do run at full speed and don't depend on weighing each item after a scan. I was a grocery store clerk many years ago and the funny thing is that the IBM systems in the early 90's could run circles around the throughput possible with today's ponderous staffed checkout systems.
- ZanyProgrammer 11y agoUnder the right circumstances, self checkout lanes are very efficient. Just keep your items to a minimum and no fussy items that you have to look up (like produce, or one off items). A lot of times I'll go to a store with only one or two lanes open, and those are packed, while I can just zip through a self checkout lane with only a few items. Other thoughts: I think its an incredibly stupid law in CA to limit alcohol in self checkout lanes I was a grocery store cashier for 4 years. IME slow customers are going to be slow at any lane. Customers who dig out change and count it for exact cash are fucking slow, self checkout or not.