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Curious. Obviously this is just just anecdote, but all the shops I use regularly (in the UK) have been increasing the number of self-checkouts and upgrading the

Curious. Obviously this is just just anecdote, but all the shops I use regularly (in the UK) have been increasing the number of self-checkouts and upgrading the systems. My local Waitrose has stripped out a whole load of basket tills and replaced them with a larger self-checkout area with upgraded hardware that is noticably better/more reliable. Perhaps this is a location or shop specific effect?

curiousgal 3y ago
For UKer, is it just me or is the M&S self-checkout system by far the worst one ?
- jimbobjimface 3y ago
  Yes! They have the worst scanners, no idea where you're supposed to position the barcode so I end up waving it around for 10 seconds before it gets scanned.
- chippiewill 3y ago
  The software on the system itself is, but M&S is my favourite experience of all because in my store they have twice as many self checkouts as anyone else, they have an appropriate number of attentive staff directing people to empty self-checkouts / sorting issues, and they haven't bothered with scales which slows things down.
- odiroot 3y ago
  I find ASDA's to be the worst. Visibly very old computers, lagging and failing to react to touches.
- cameronh90 3y ago
  It varies between shops. Some M&S seemingly have the slow old ones with the tiny bagging areas, but some of the recently renovated shops have the Waitrose-style faster machines with no bagging scale at all.
gregoriol 3y ago
This article looks like written by a 60+ years old: it's definitely not a failure for 30-something technology-able people. It may be complicated for people with habits of cashiers and non-techy, but the near-future is going to be self-checkout. The real future will be no-checkout though: just take the stuff you need and go, shops would be able to detect what you got there and bill you.
- mbork_pl 3y ago
  Where I often see these things, their UI/UX is horrible. I'm a bit of a gadget-geek and rather a tech-savvy person, and yet I did make mistakes with them and wasted time because of the UI/UX. > The real future will be no-checkout though: just take the stuff you need and go, shops would be able to detect what you got there and bill you. I really hope not. That would be a privacy nightmare. And how would I then pay in cash?
  - gregoriol 3y ago
    Well, maybe there will be some validation at the exit of the shop, maybe a message on the phone to check that you indeed bought those things. But cash is going to be gone too in the future-future.
    - mbork_pl 3y ago
      > But cash is going to be gone too in the future-future. Like famine, poverty, cancer and CSS? ;-) Yeah, sure. Seriously though: history shows that if official money is not trusted (for some reason), another form emerges. So no, cash will be there as long as humankind exists.
      - gregoriol 3y ago
        It'll be marginal at some point, like people riding horses to work.
        3y ago
red_admiral 3y ago
There certainly seems to be a variation in quality of the machines across different UK retailers, or maybe some have the tolerances in their scales set much more finely than others.
mewpmewp2 3y ago
Same in my local area. Also I find it very good for my own usage, and there's variance of different self checkout machine systems. One where you use a remote to scan the products as you add them to cart, then just put away the remote. The other one where you scan at the station. I would say I see 5x reduction of actual people working behind the checkout. And I basically rarely wait in queues any longer. I have never witnessed a singular tech failure either.
- chippiewill 3y ago
  > I have never witnessed a singular tech failure either. The newer gen hardware is much better than the old stuff and is now pretty reliable. Some of the older machines were painfully unreliable. My closest big Sainsburys only just upgraded from the original generation stuff and they perpetually had a quarter of their self checkouts broken for various reasons. I once saw them have a technician out to service all the machines one day, and the very next day 2 of them were already broken.

curiousgal 3y ago

For UKer, is it just me or is the M&S self-checkout system by far the worst one ?

jimbobjimface 3y ago
Yes! They have the worst scanners, no idea where you're supposed to position the barcode so I end up waving it around for 10 seconds before it gets scanned.
chippiewill 3y ago
The software on the system itself is, but M&S is my favourite experience of all because in my store they have twice as many self checkouts as anyone else, they have an appropriate number of attentive staff directing people to empty self-checkouts / sorting issues, and they haven't bothered with scales which slows things down.
odiroot 3y ago
I find ASDA's to be the worst. Visibly very old computers, lagging and failing to react to touches.
cameronh90 3y ago
It varies between shops. Some M&S seemingly have the slow old ones with the tiny bagging areas, but some of the recently renovated shops have the Waitrose-style faster machines with no bagging scale at all.

gregoriol 3y ago

This article looks like written by a 60+ years old: it's definitely not a failure for 30-something technology-able people. It may be complicated for people with habits of cashiers and non-techy, but the near-future is going to be self-checkout. The real future will be no-checkout though: just take the stuff you need and go, shops would be able to detect what you got there and bill you.

mbork_pl 3y ago
Where I often see these things, their UI/UX is horrible. I'm a bit of a gadget-geek and rather a tech-savvy person, and yet I did make mistakes with them and wasted time because of the UI/UX. > The real future will be no-checkout though: just take the stuff you need and go, shops would be able to detect what you got there and bill you. I really hope not. That would be a privacy nightmare. And how would I then pay in cash?
- gregoriol 3y ago
  Well, maybe there will be some validation at the exit of the shop, maybe a message on the phone to check that you indeed bought those things. But cash is going to be gone too in the future-future.
  - mbork_pl 3y ago
    > But cash is going to be gone too in the future-future. Like famine, poverty, cancer and CSS? ;-) Yeah, sure. Seriously though: history shows that if official money is not trusted (for some reason), another form emerges. So no, cash will be there as long as humankind exists.
    - gregoriol 3y ago
      It'll be marginal at some point, like people riding horses to work.
      - 3y ago

red_admiral 3y ago

There certainly seems to be a variation in quality of the machines across different UK retailers, or maybe some have the tolerances in their scales set much more finely than others.

mewpmewp2 3y ago

Same in my local area. Also I find it very good for my own usage, and there's variance of different self checkout machine systems. One where you use a remote to scan the products as you add them to cart, then just put away the remote. The other one where you scan at the station. I would say I see 5x reduction of actual people working behind the checkout. And I basically rarely wait in queues any longer. I have never witnessed a singular tech failure either.

chippiewill 3y ago
> I have never witnessed a singular tech failure either. The newer gen hardware is much better than the old stuff and is now pretty reliable. Some of the older machines were painfully unreliable. My closest big Sainsburys only just upgraded from the original generation stuff and they perpetually had a quarter of their self checkouts broken for various reasons. I once saw them have a technician out to service all the machines one day, and the very next day 2 of them were already broken.