5 ms·

It gets passed on in the form of faster checkouts and shorter lines, resulting in less wasted time.

owenmarshall 8y ago
“Please place the item in the bag.” “Please remove the last scanned item from the bag and scan it before placing it in the bag.” “Please wait, help is on the way.”
- dceddia 8y ago
  Every damn time. I really wonder whether that system actually helps prevent theft, or if it was originally put in place because stores suspected that theft would be a problem, and we're just stuck with it now. Plus, in the couple stores I frequent, there's always an employee standing at the ready to clear out the errors. Which, I imagine, would go a long way toward reducing theft on its own. Either way, they seem to be universally bad. I can only hope a store tries to buck the trend by turning off the weight check and finds that it causes no problems. Maybe if that happens, the other would follow suit.
  - SOLAR_FIELDS 8y ago
    I know over the years at least some of the systems have either gotten better or more lenient. With Walmart specifically I haven't gotten "Unexpected item in bagging area" in a couple of years at least. It's probably a combination of an improved system on Walmart's part and learning how to place items in the bagging area appropriately on my part. There's obviously a long way to go to make these kind of systems ideal (the UX of entering in produce items is probably the most common frustration for me nowadays) but the all-too-common refrain that I hear that these systems are basically unusable without some employee to constantly babysit them is false, at least at the stores I frequent that have them.
- driverdan 8y ago
  When was the last time you used self checkout? I haven't seen this problem in years. Older systems had this problem but it has been fixed for a while.
randomacct3847 8y ago
Disagree. Most people are much slower at scanning things than an actual cashier. Things like produce are especially annoying because you have to search for the item (of which there could be multiple I.e. organic vs non organic bananas). And the error rate is high (will lock up if you don’t immediately put a scanned item in the bag area).
- kalleboo 8y ago
  The difference is that [at least at my supermarket], in the space of 2 manned registers, they fit 8 self-registers. So other people have to be 8 times slower for it to be a regression. [at my supermarket much of the produce is bagged and barcoded and the machines are quick and somewhat forgiving in the weighing, so it's not that bad either]
  - sokoloff 8y ago
    Wouldn’t that be 4x as slow (3 times slower), not 8?
- potta_coffee 8y ago
  It's absolutely more efficient for me to self-checkout, if I have the right number of items. For some reason, the store I go to has extremely slow cashiers. They have no sense of urgency, probably because it's a low paid job and they're going to be there for 8 hours regardless of speed.

“Please place the item in the bag.” “Please remove the last scanned item from the bag and scan it before placing it in the bag.” “Please wait, help is on the way.”

dceddia 8y ago
Every damn time. I really wonder whether that system actually helps prevent theft, or if it was originally put in place because stores suspected that theft would be a problem, and we're just stuck with it now. Plus, in the couple stores I frequent, there's always an employee standing at the ready to clear out the errors. Which, I imagine, would go a long way toward reducing theft on its own. Either way, they seem to be universally bad. I can only hope a store tries to buck the trend by turning off the weight check and finds that it causes no problems. Maybe if that happens, the other would follow suit.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 8y ago
  I know over the years at least some of the systems have either gotten better or more lenient. With Walmart specifically I haven't gotten "Unexpected item in bagging area" in a couple of years at least. It's probably a combination of an improved system on Walmart's part and learning how to place items in the bagging area appropriately on my part. There's obviously a long way to go to make these kind of systems ideal (the UX of entering in produce items is probably the most common frustration for me nowadays) but the all-too-common refrain that I hear that these systems are basically unusable without some employee to constantly babysit them is false, at least at the stores I frequent that have them.
driverdan 8y ago
When was the last time you used self checkout? I haven't seen this problem in years. Older systems had this problem but it has been fixed for a while.

randomacct3847 8y ago

Disagree. Most people are much slower at scanning things than an actual cashier. Things like produce are especially annoying because you have to search for the item (of which there could be multiple I.e. organic vs non organic bananas). And the error rate is high (will lock up if you don’t immediately put a scanned item in the bag area).

kalleboo 8y ago
The difference is that [at least at my supermarket], in the space of 2 manned registers, they fit 8 self-registers. So other people have to be 8 times slower for it to be a regression. [at my supermarket much of the produce is bagged and barcoded and the machines are quick and somewhat forgiving in the weighing, so it's not that bad either]
- sokoloff 8y ago
  Wouldn’t that be 4x as slow (3 times slower), not 8?
potta_coffee 8y ago
It's absolutely more efficient for me to self-checkout, if I have the right number of items. For some reason, the store I go to has extremely slow cashiers. They have no sense of urgency, probably because it's a low paid job and they're going to be there for 8 hours regardless of speed.