Albertson's Doing Away with Self Checkout

[mizbear]

I just caught this on msn.com (I have no clue how to post the link to the article)

Albertson's grocery stores are doing away with self checkout! I personally am sooo thrilled. I hate self-checkout strictly because I believe it takes away jobs.

Anyone else have thoughts on this?

Last year our local wal-mart got rid of all of the self-checkouts it had put in fairly recently.

[Deleted]

I wonder why they are doing this?

[mizbear]

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43687085/ns/business-consumer_news/t/major-grocer-getting-rid-self-checkout-lanes/

Hopefully the link will work to the article.




By golly, I can copy and paste!

[illinicheme]

I prefer self-checkout. It's almost always much faster than the cashier line. I have zero interest in additional "human interaction" with my grocery store.

[el1504]

Mizbear - I also really don't like self checkouts because I think they take away jobs. There are always going to be people who need minimum wage jobs and we can't just remove them all from the economy... My DH think I'm crazy when I go off on my self-checkout rant but we stand in line and wait till a checkout with a person is aavaiable to us!

I don't like intracting with the staff at the store though (we shop at 7 in the morning deliberatley to avoid as many people as possible) so I don't really want to talk to the checkout person but I will always thank her/him and wish them a good day.

fortunatly in Australia self-checkouts are still new and not in every store so we can avoid them pretty much - hopefully this is a sign they won't invade everywhere.

[daisylu]

I LOVE the self checkout, and I LOVE that so many people are afraid of it.


I do not see companies adding more jobs though. I see longer lines and checkout times. DH stood in line last night for 45 minutes to get three bags of pet food. Store was jam-packed with only 2 registers out of 26 open.

[Agatha]

Yeah! No self-checkouts! Yes, I'm rejoicing to hear this. My local store had nothing but self-checkouts open when I would shop late at night. Ugh! A basket full of groceries through self-check out? Please. . . .

The "pleasant" () voice of the computer I found so bloody annoying. "Remove the item from the bagging area." Often when I had just scanned it or there was nothing in the area! If it had been a real cashier I would have strangled her at worst or given her my "ticked off old lady" glare at best.

I'll be glad when they are all gone from the grocery stores. But I'm probably hoping for too much. . .<sigh>.

[Deleted]

Plenty of jobs have been eliminated through automation- heck, if you buy on-line it's another nail in the coffin of brick-and-mortar stores. That's not my objection to self-checkout. It's that the darn things almost always require human intervention, IMO. I'm very computer-friendly but at least one item won't scan or I get an error message I can't resolve and a human has to intervene. If you use them in a store that also sells liquor and buy a botte of wine with your groceries, it stops till someone can come over and check your ID. (Get real. I'm 58.)

Albertson's PR people may have composed their warm and fuzzy words about wanting to interact with their customers, but but my guess is that they didn't work well enough and customers didn't like them. I wonder how much stores have spent over the years on self-checkouts that were later removed.

[marvholly]

I do not like/use self checkouts because:

If you have produce by the pound you MUST wait for the 1 person handling 6 lanes to enter

If you have marked down/clearance items is NEVER scans properly & upu MUST wait for the 1 person handling 6 lanes to correct

If you have coupons they MUST be entered by the 1 person handling 6 lanes to scan/enter with their personal code (has to be entered separatly for each coupon)

It does NOT save me any time AND I have to then go bag everything myself - taking up even MORE tme.

If a store checkout line is SOOO long that I would have to wait 45 minutes to checkout I would WALK OUT w/o any purchases after letting the store mgr know why he lost my sale. I NEVER need anything so much that I would be willing to wait that long. In actual fact, if more than 3 people are in line at all open, manned checkouts I DO walk out.

Interestingly enough, some stores DO get it. The mgr at my fav CVS has trained his staff to call for the backup cashier if the line is 3/more. He came from one of our BIG natl chain grocers and is VERY coupon aware & friendly (helps that he has 4 kids + wife is a MAJOR couponer.

[Deleted]

Jul 9, 2011 7:15:30 GMT -5 @cheapcat said:

I think stores lost money with self checkouts because some people don't scan all their items, whether by accident or on purpose.

Ah. I'd forgotten that little reason they may have done away with self-checkout. Yeah, forget the warm and fuzzy explanaitons.

[mizbear]

The only time we have big problems with lines at our local grocer (my fave) is at dinner or shift change- but our management will get on registers.
My gripe with self checkout isn't just the job thing- depending on the store, I scan faster than the machine take the info. And there is no bagging room. So if my ex-SIL and I go, where both of us have worked in retail and both of us can scan and bag quickly- great (we just switch positions for each ones order), but if not I hope I don't have too many things.

[973beachbum]

I don't have an Albertson's but have an Acme and I LOVE the self checkout. At this point I know what I can do and not do so I just leave that stuff till the end and call the cashier taking care of the 4 self checkout lines over. Acme does have the rule about coupons that they must be entered by a cashier, but since that is last anyways it is no big deal to me.

The main reason I have always used it is that I hate when they bag for me. I cant stand the way most cashiers bag my groceries! I always feel like they are throwing so much garbage in the bags. Ironically my favorite cashiers are always at the self checkout section. Even if I don't need any help they always come over to say hi and just say again that if I need any help just ask.

One told me a while ago that the cashier having to ring up the coupons was because they had had a few customers who had copied Internet coupons and other things they they shouldn't have done with the coupons. He said one woman would have multiple coupons for the same product with different values. She would ring up the largest value coupon and put the low value coupons in the box knowing the box only knew that she had placed one in, not what it said.

As long as they let me keep bagging on my own I am happy.

[mizbear]

Fraud and theft- the few that do cause problems fr the many that don't...

[Deleted]

I don't like self checkout because I'm lazy and I usually have a full cart. I don't get a discount for doing it myself, so I prefer to let the cashiers and baggers do their jobs. I only go through self checkout to avoid waiting if I have just a few items.

But even at home improvement stores I avoid self checkout even if I only have 1 or 2 items. I guess ringing up and bagging my own purchases just bugs me for some reason. <<<shrug>>>

[sapphire12]

In theory I prefer self-check out. In practice, it is not always as efficient as I would like. There are some people that need the assistance of the cashier and I willingly will let those people have the access to the cashiers. However, I prefer to bag my own purchases. The cashiers tend to give you too many bags and I always have to ask for paper.

Despite the article claiming the warm and fuzzies, I suspect theft is a problem and the inefficiency of the machines. I don't want to talk to the cashiers and I don't like being behind a customer that desires to have that conversation.

I find grocery stores to be cold and I want to get in and out of the store as quickly as possible. I can usually do that quicker with the self-check out.

I do have a problem with people doing major grocery shopping in Walmart using the self-checkout. Oh the horrors of being behind someone on public assistance on the 15th of the month in a military town. Really? You don't know by know which items are acceptable for WIC and which are for food stamps? Oh that was not a happy time. A reason I try to stay out of Walmart as much as possible.

[leanna]

I'm happy to hear that Alb's is getting rid of self-checkout.

I find it insulting that stores want me to ring up my own groceries. What's next - will I have to grill my own hamburger at Burger King?

[cathysmom]

I'm going to miss the self-scan lanes at Albertson's. When I only have a few items, I prefer to use them because they are often empty and I can get out much faster and with two little kids in tow, ANYTHING that goes faster is a good thing. But-- I never try to use them when I have a rain check or anything else that I know requires a cashier. Luckily, they let you do coupons yourself. Kroger requires handing them to a cashier who usually 'forgets' to scan one or two of them, so I don't usually bother with Kroger's self scan lanes.

What's next - will I have to grill my own hamburger at Burger King?

What?? We can have them grilled instead of microwaved?? I miss the days when fast food restaurants actually COOKED the burgers instead of reheating them.

[Jake 48]

The few times I used self checkout, someone had to come over and fix something. good riddance to them

[Wisconsin Beth]

I don't much like the self checkouts so I tend to not use them. We don't have an Albertson's here that I know of but maybe it's a step in the right direction.

I too think they're getting rid of 1 job (or more) and then dumping 4+ lanes on 1 checker who's basically got to supervise. I'm sure they don't get hazardous duty pay for that either...

[bean29]

Self Check out lanes should be express lanes for people who only have a few items. If you have a cart full of groceries and start removing bags, once you put 3 back in your cart the thing basically shuts down until the assigned checker comes and authorizes. My local grocery store has about 9 self check out lanes assigned to 1 person. Lately they only seem to have about 2 regular check out lanes open.

As others have mentioned if you have liquor or coupons, you need the checker to handle it.

I don't believe customer contact is their main purpose. It is probably because of losses or b/c the equipment is expensive to maintain.

[thyme4change]

I like self check out when I'm picking up a small number of items.
I won't use it if I have a cart full.

[Clever Username]

I dislike self checkout, because it ALWAYS takes longer than regular checkout.
Last time was a single freaking item and I nearly started kicking that thing.
These systems seem to be set too tightly to avoid "shrinkage" or maybe the shrinkage risk is simply too high to make them feasible.

[Clever Username]

Jul 10, 2011 9:52:48 GMT -5 @sroo4 said:

[/li][li]That whole stupid placing item in the bagging area. Who cares if I do, I've scanned the dumb item, why should it care if it's in the bagging area?

Simple. If you are taking (ie bagging) stuff that you didn't pay for, you are stealing.

Your quote is perfect. It wants to make sure that the stuff you're taking with you has been scanned.

[/quote]

[blackcard]

Losing money for sure. One evening I watched a customer, at the self checkout. She had a novel approach. She put 2 items in her hand each time she scanned, yet only 1 item was registering on the screen. Even I did not notice because she was grabbing and scanning them very quickly from the cart into her paper sack. Then my DH, always the observant one, nudged me and said watch her, she is not scanning all her purchases.

I wonder if this was caught on the overhead camera? Because being overhead, it would really just see the back of her hand?

[salserabarby]

I love self-check out. All the Fresh&Easy stores only have self-checkout and I love that I can be in and out quickly. They usually have one or two employees in the front area to help bag your stuff and keep and eye on those that want to be creative in their checkout approch. I seldomly have problems but the times I have it has to do with the calibration of the scale. All you do is tell an employee and they'll fix it for the next person.
For those of you that are saying that self-checkout takes job away. Here's something to think about less job, less cost, groceries will be cheaper. Grocery stores have a very slim profit margin, I believe something like 1-2%.
I hate the interaction with cashier. You don't really care How I'm doing and all I want is to get home, so please stop the small talk and ring me up. I guess as a city girl I love the annonimity a big city provides.

[salserabarby]

Jul 11, 2011 10:16:10 GMT -5 bean29 said:

Self Check out lanes should be express lanes for people who only have a few items. If you have a cart full of groceries and start removing bags, once you put 3 back in your cart the thing basically shuts down until the assigned checker comes and authorizes.

that's true of the smaller ones, but some store have self-checkout conveyor belts just like the cashier have. They still weight the item to verify it's what you scanned but once it gets to the end you don't have the problem you are talking about.

[mizbear]

the ones we have have a conveyor, but the bagging area doesn't hold much. That therein lies the problem.

salserabarby- I can understand not wanting the interaction- I am not a city person at all, but I am not always up for interaction. That said, I find that cashiers older than myself are usually much more polite (not always) and some of the ones younger than myself need to be slapped and sent to work on a chain gang because they have the personality of a wet dish cloth and are rude to boot.