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I must be weird. At no time has the idea of a line ever influenced my decision to go into a convenience store.

sgift 9y ago
Or people like me who don't go shopping in convenience stores at Saturday are weird. I only do it under duress if I forgot something the other day, because I know the line will be so damn long.
jonknee 9y ago
Happens all the time to me, I'd rather give my money to someone with more appropriate staffing than wait in line to buy something.
- Gargoyle 9y ago
  So where do you go instead?
  - jonknee 9y ago
    Sometimes nowhere, sometimes down the street. I do the same thing for restaurants, if there's a wait or my reservation isn't ready on time I'll go somewhere else. There's tons of competition out there, no need to waste my time for the benefit of a business owner.
reaperducer 9y ago
I agree with you, and go one step further. I refuse to use self-checkout. For two reasons. 1. I don't like the thought of contributing to a system that costs people (cashiers) their jobs. 2. The whole reason I go to a store is for customer service. If I wanted self check-out, I'd order online from one of the same-day-delivery outfits.
- onion2k 9y ago
  I don't like the thought of contributing to a system that costs people (cashiers) their jobs. People in boring, low paid jobs shouldn't be there. There are far better things people can be doing than working a till. The idea that we're doing people a favour by 'enabling' them to have a job when that job is tedious menial work a tiny compute can do is nonsense. We need to automate those jobs away to free people to do more interesting, fulfilling things. We also need to do things to work out how to enable those people to do more interesting work, like figuring out how to pay people if the free market fails, but that's a separate issue.
  - JoeAltmaier 9y ago
    Not a separate issue to the person losing their job! These have to be solved together, or big trouble will be coming.
    - gizmo385 9y ago
      > or big trouble will be coming The implication here is that the trouble isn't already on it's way. Those jobs are operating on borrowed time at this point and I think they'll be gone sooner than most people think. This is a problem that we should have started addressing several years ago at least.
  - neonnoodle 9y ago
    >We also need to do things to work out how to enable those people to do more interesting work, like figuring out how to pay people if the free market fails, but that's a separate issue. Seeing as the free market has deeply failed many, MANY people (and stands to fail even more in the near future), I would hesitate to put more people out of work before addressing this "separate issue." Lots of people can have their lives ruined before those in power decide it's time to think about how to ameliorate the damage done.
    - throwawayjava 9y ago
      In the history of economics and politics, that has never happened. Tumult creates unacceptable carnage, and the solutions fall out of the carnage. Furthermore, we don't always correctly predict the form that carnage will take, so it's not even as if we know what acceptable solutions might be until things are already in freefall. So although it's a nice sentiment, I'm not so sure it's realistic.
- mason55 9y ago
  Your second point doesn't apply here. No matter what you have to walk around and pick up the items you want (at least for now, if you're going to a B&M). The difference here is waiting in line vs. just walking out of the store when you're done.
- nkrisc 9y ago
  And yet self-checkouts have not replaced cashiers. I often see more people waiting for cashiers than in the self-checkout line at the stores I visit. When I use the self-checkout I'm giving the cashiers an opportunity to have more time to serve those who choose them instead. Lastly, every time I walk somewhere I don't fret about costing a taxi driver their job. I'd rather just give someone money to live and let them find something productive they'd like to do with their time than shoehorn them into menial jobs that don't need to be done for the sake of having a job.
- koiz 9y ago
  1. I don't like the thought of contributing to a system that costs people (cashiers) their jobs. So only when you need customer service you care about their jobs? Come on think about your statement for a moment and realize what the internet has done. You are part of that.
brookside 9y ago
NYC Trader Joe's aren't convenience stores but my shopping times are informed almost entirely by the expected line length.
lackbeard 9y ago
I avoid Safeway and Trader Joe's because the lines are so damn long...
prepend 9y ago
You must be lucky to live where you do. I’ve definitely timed visits to Costco, Trader Joe’s, and Wal-Mart to avoid long lines at checkout. The self checkout doesn’t help, it actually takes longer than a good cashier.
- btgeekboy 9y ago
  Agree; Costco is far more palatable on a Tuesday at 7 PM than on a weekend. I think of Go as a better self-checkout. Those machines are awful, and Go’s tech basically does the same thing but in a smoother, more scalable way.
  - ghaff 9y ago
    >I think of Go as a better self-checkout. Yeah, I don't think this type of thing is actually that big a deal for a supermarket where stuff needs to be bagged etc. But it seems like a qualitatively different experience than self-checkout at a convenience store/small grocery store. I also expect a lot of US readers tend to think in terms of either supermarkets or fairly junky 7-Eleven style convenience stores. But there are a lot of places in Europe where there are more intermediate options like the Marks and Spencer markets.
- skywhopper 9y ago
  Amazon Go is much more akin to a 7-11 than to a Trader Joes or Costco. They have yet to show that this model even works on this tiny scale. The capability of this tech to scale up effectively to an actual grocery store much less to a warehouse type store is completely unknown. (I personally wouldn't count on it.)
- imron 9y ago
  > The self checkout doesn’t help, it actually takes longer than a good cashier. Yep. Someone who scans and packs thousands of items a day is going to be much better at it than I am, given that I'd only scan a few dozen items a week. Unless the lines are really too long, I'll always take a cashier over using the self-checkouts.
Johnny555 9y ago
Or maybe you've never experienced a convenience store with a significant line. If there are 2 or 3 people in line that doesn't dissuade me from shopping there, but if I see a long line of a dozen people winding through the store, I almost always go somewhere else. I've run into that at gas station convenience stores a lot -- I go in for a drink or snack while pumping gas and if there's a long line, then I just go back to my car and leave.
alasdair_ 9y ago
>I must be weird. At no time has the idea of a line ever influenced my decision to go into a convenience store. I've walked into a store to buy something in the half hour before some large lottery is about to close (and everyone seems to be buying tickets), and walked right back out again. Lines are also the primary reason I don't shop at certain stores (e.g. walmart).

Or people like me who don't go shopping in convenience stores at Saturday are weird. I only do it under duress if I forgot something the other day, because I know the line will be so damn long.

jonknee 9y ago

Happens all the time to me, I'd rather give my money to someone with more appropriate staffing than wait in line to buy something.

Gargoyle 9y ago
So where do you go instead?
- jonknee 9y ago
  Sometimes nowhere, sometimes down the street. I do the same thing for restaurants, if there's a wait or my reservation isn't ready on time I'll go somewhere else. There's tons of competition out there, no need to waste my time for the benefit of a business owner.

reaperducer 9y ago

I agree with you, and go one step further. I refuse to use self-checkout. For two reasons. 1. I don't like the thought of contributing to a system that costs people (cashiers) their jobs. 2. The whole reason I go to a store is for customer service. If I wanted self check-out, I'd order online from one of the same-day-delivery outfits.

onion2k 9y ago
I don't like the thought of contributing to a system that costs people (cashiers) their jobs. People in boring, low paid jobs shouldn't be there. There are far better things people can be doing than working a till. The idea that we're doing people a favour by 'enabling' them to have a job when that job is tedious menial work a tiny compute can do is nonsense. We need to automate those jobs away to free people to do more interesting, fulfilling things. We also need to do things to work out how to enable those people to do more interesting work, like figuring out how to pay people if the free market fails, but that's a separate issue.
- JoeAltmaier 9y ago
  Not a separate issue to the person losing their job! These have to be solved together, or big trouble will be coming.
  - gizmo385 9y ago
    > or big trouble will be coming The implication here is that the trouble isn't already on it's way. Those jobs are operating on borrowed time at this point and I think they'll be gone sooner than most people think. This is a problem that we should have started addressing several years ago at least.
- neonnoodle 9y ago
  >We also need to do things to work out how to enable those people to do more interesting work, like figuring out how to pay people if the free market fails, but that's a separate issue. Seeing as the free market has deeply failed many, MANY people (and stands to fail even more in the near future), I would hesitate to put more people out of work before addressing this "separate issue." Lots of people can have their lives ruined before those in power decide it's time to think about how to ameliorate the damage done.
  - throwawayjava 9y ago
    In the history of economics and politics, that has never happened. Tumult creates unacceptable carnage, and the solutions fall out of the carnage. Furthermore, we don't always correctly predict the form that carnage will take, so it's not even as if we know what acceptable solutions might be until things are already in freefall. So although it's a nice sentiment, I'm not so sure it's realistic.
mason55 9y ago
Your second point doesn't apply here. No matter what you have to walk around and pick up the items you want (at least for now, if you're going to a B&M). The difference here is waiting in line vs. just walking out of the store when you're done.
nkrisc 9y ago
And yet self-checkouts have not replaced cashiers. I often see more people waiting for cashiers than in the self-checkout line at the stores I visit. When I use the self-checkout I'm giving the cashiers an opportunity to have more time to serve those who choose them instead. Lastly, every time I walk somewhere I don't fret about costing a taxi driver their job. I'd rather just give someone money to live and let them find something productive they'd like to do with their time than shoehorn them into menial jobs that don't need to be done for the sake of having a job.
koiz 9y ago
1. I don't like the thought of contributing to a system that costs people (cashiers) their jobs. So only when you need customer service you care about their jobs? Come on think about your statement for a moment and realize what the internet has done. You are part of that.

brookside 9y ago

NYC Trader Joe's aren't convenience stores but my shopping times are informed almost entirely by the expected line length.

lackbeard 9y ago

I avoid Safeway and Trader Joe's because the lines are so damn long...

prepend 9y ago

You must be lucky to live where you do. I’ve definitely timed visits to Costco, Trader Joe’s, and Wal-Mart to avoid long lines at checkout. The self checkout doesn’t help, it actually takes longer than a good cashier.

btgeekboy 9y ago
Agree; Costco is far more palatable on a Tuesday at 7 PM than on a weekend. I think of Go as a better self-checkout. Those machines are awful, and Go’s tech basically does the same thing but in a smoother, more scalable way.
- ghaff 9y ago
  >I think of Go as a better self-checkout. Yeah, I don't think this type of thing is actually that big a deal for a supermarket where stuff needs to be bagged etc. But it seems like a qualitatively different experience than self-checkout at a convenience store/small grocery store. I also expect a lot of US readers tend to think in terms of either supermarkets or fairly junky 7-Eleven style convenience stores. But there are a lot of places in Europe where there are more intermediate options like the Marks and Spencer markets.
skywhopper 9y ago
Amazon Go is much more akin to a 7-11 than to a Trader Joes or Costco. They have yet to show that this model even works on this tiny scale. The capability of this tech to scale up effectively to an actual grocery store much less to a warehouse type store is completely unknown. (I personally wouldn't count on it.)
imron 9y ago
> The self checkout doesn’t help, it actually takes longer than a good cashier. Yep. Someone who scans and packs thousands of items a day is going to be much better at it than I am, given that I'd only scan a few dozen items a week. Unless the lines are really too long, I'll always take a cashier over using the self-checkouts.

Johnny555 9y ago

Or maybe you've never experienced a convenience store with a significant line. If there are 2 or 3 people in line that doesn't dissuade me from shopping there, but if I see a long line of a dozen people winding through the store, I almost always go somewhere else. I've run into that at gas station convenience stores a lot -- I go in for a drink or snack while pumping gas and if there's a long line, then I just go back to my car and leave.

alasdair_ 9y ago

>I must be weird. At no time has the idea of a line ever influenced my decision to go into a convenience store. I've walked into a store to buy something in the half hour before some large lottery is about to close (and everyone seems to be buying tickets), and walked right back out again. Lines are also the primary reason I don't shop at certain stores (e.g. walmart).