6 ms·
What a dismal existence. In the land I live, I just do this: 1. Enter the store and immediately present my loyalty barcode from my phone app to the scanner 2
by z9znz 4y ago
What a dismal existence.
In the land I live, I just do this:
1. Enter the store and immediately present my loyalty barcode from my phone app to the scanner
2. Pickup a hand scanner which is now associated with me for this visit (I could even use my phone as a scanner, but I haven't tried it; I assume it wouldn't be as fast as the good laser hand scanner device).
3. Scan every item as I put it into my cart. If I buy multiples, I tap the + button on the scanner after I scan. If I buy produce that needs to be weighed, I go to the scale kiosk, put the thing on the scale, make no more than 3 taps of the screen, and then stick the printed label on my item and scan it.
4. To finish my shopping, I go to the checkout area and drop my scanner into a slot. Then I walk to the checkout kiosk of my choice and scan my loyalty barcode (from my phone app or from a plastic keyfob thing). The screen shows details of what I bought, but I ignore that and quickly pull up Apple pay with my bank card, move the phone near the card reader, and pay my bill.
5. Tap the screen to choose physical short receipt (just a barcode used to pass the exit gate), long receipt with barcode, or opt to use my loyalty barcode to exit.
All of this is so easy, and the experience is refined to the point where there's little left to improve.
- joshgev 4y agoNo offense intended, but what you describe sounds pretty dismal to me. We have what you describe where I live (France), but I prefer to go to the markets where I know the butcher/green grocer/cheese person/dried fruits and nuts person/fish monger/etc. and they know me. I stand in a line, sometimes for a while, and finally they get to me and ask me how I've been doing recently. Then they ask me for my order and frequently tell me something interesting or useful about what I'm ordering (e.g. where it comes from, how it was grown, etc). They might tell me how to prepare something or offer a suggestion as to what I could buy that I don't usually buy. They might even tell me something about an event happening in the community soon. It's pretty rad.
- 0des 4y agoI hope this way of life never dies
- joshgev 4y agoYes same here. I really go crazy when technology that takes us further away from each other is presented as some sort of progress. Why don't we look around at how isolated we've become? Is it any wonder that our stupid little factions (right vs left, black vs white, etc) are pulling further and further away from each other when so much effort is being put into limiting our contact with one another?
- forty 4y agoTo be fair, the self checkout are mostly replacing the cashiers in supermarkets that are lowly paid for a very though job, who probably don't know you and who would probably be fired if they "lost" one second saying something nice to you, not the friendly fruit producer from your local market.
- 0des 4y agoStrawman
- gjs278 4y ago
- z9znz 4y agoThe human operated lanes still exist in my store. Many people use them, and they do have chats at the checkout line. And no offense :), but I don't go to the grocery store to make friends. I have much better or more interesting things to do. If I could get fast reliable delivery and not even have to go, I would choose that option. The point relevant to the OP is that self-checkout systems can be implemented well.
- unethical_ban 4y agoI think the idea of making acquaintance with people in one's community is what has held society together historically, and the derision for human interaction with others (shopping, eating, pub, etc) is the downfall of civil society.
- z9znz 4y agoI chat with the cafe owner on my street fairly often. My grocery store, however, is 20 minutes away in a neighboring town. They have a large staff which is in frequent rotation. The staff also is mostly early 20s or younger age. Add all these things up, and it just doesn't make much sense for me (or them) to go out of our way to socialize.
- rlkf 4y agoThis is the way we have it, too. I would like to add yet another advantage of this approach: You can designate bags in your cart to where the items go in your house, e.g. for fridge items, bathroom items, dry items, frozen items. When you're in the store, you sort things right then and there when you pick them of the shelf; when you get home you just drop the bag off in the right room, no more running back and forth.
- lumost 4y agoYou are describing a system which can only exist in a high trust environment with reasonably well compensated and motivated staff. You fundamentally need to trust that your customers won’t try to steal from you, and that if they do they will be moderate enough that you can track it as a cost of business - or so extreme that your staff will catch it easily (and care enough to fix it). Many people, unfortunately, do not live in such places.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- Nextgrid 4y agoThe problem with this option is that it requires a loyalty card, sharing personal information and agreeing to a "privacy" policy (from experience, if a "privacy policy" is mentioned, your privacy is about to be violated). If they could make this system work with anonymous accounts (walk up, swipe credit card and pick up scanner, put back scanner when done and the previously-authorized credit card is charged the appropriate amount) it would be lovely.
- z9znz 4y agoYou can walk up to the info counter at the entrance on each visit and pickup a new loyalty card. There's no registration required. It would be a bit wasteful of plastic, but there are no privacy issues at all there. Of course, when you checkout with a non-cash payment, they can keep records of what you bought based on your payment info.