“things have gotten so bad that it has made many people need to steal, so we can’t keep self checkouts open”
They’d rather change their operations than lobby for the poorest to have enough money and not have to steal.
There’s a Walmart near me that I just never bother going to because like 80% of the non-grocery items are locked behind plexiglass. There are 4 self-checkouts and 2 employees assigned to just stand there watching people to make sure they don’t shoplift. They’ve made shopping so hostile that it barely makes sense for it to be a department store at all. Might as well just go back to the old model of telling the employee what you want and then they go get it for you.
I wanted to buy some razor blades and the poor teenager at the Walmart just couldn’t get his magnet key thingie to unlock the plastic lock on the hanger holding the packages. I waited patiently for like 5 minutes and was like look I’ll fix it. I pulled down on the packaging, tore the little cardboard piece and freed the blades in like one try.
I then still paid $40 for them like a good citizen and ignored how much I was getting ripped off.
All while being watched by a million store cameras, three people at the self checkout, the camera reflecting my own image in the self checkout machine, the greeter giving me a dirty look and the detectors at the door.
Its more absurd than airport security how pointless it all is.
Which is basically what they are doing with grocery pickup.
Never thought of it that way… But yes.
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Pretty sure the self checkout isn’t where most people steal, why not just walk out the door with whatever you want?
Well, it’s just a simple fact When I want something, I don’t want to pay for it I walk right through the door
Shitty thing is they won’t hire more cashiers when they shut these off.
Guessing they’ll also raise prices when they simply return to previously normal operations.
My local grocery had self checkout for about a year before ripping them out and putting normal ones back in. They don’t seem to be understaffed.
Not all stores are awful on all fronts. They don’t have chairs for their checkout people yet though.
They could have saved so much time and money by just paying the cashiers a living wage.
If you can’t develop the agency to acquire employment at a living wage or - here’s a fucky idear for ya - start your own (successful) business, then you deserve to succumb to entrapy, imo
Empathy, it is really becoming scarcer with each passing day.
Hmm I like self checkout because I don’t like dealing with retail people. I’m introverted by nature.
Just get me the F in and get me the F out. Charge the correct price and give me correct change. Machines do this SO WELL.
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Seriously: if they take away our self checkout, we riot.
I’m on the same boat.
I like it because I don’t have to talk to people. It is otherwise an inferior experience.
This seems very US coded. In euro they’re doubling down even with self scan on the phone or with a tool they give me. I scan them as I put them in my cart and at checkout I just pay and leave. It’s awesome.
I’m learning a lot in this thread about European dystopia. I guess if y’all like it to each their own. Over here in the US, we’ve had enough.
They aren’t bringing back cashiers, they’ll have one cashier with a massive line as a deterrent to get you to download the scan as you go app on your phone so you supply the bar code scanner at your expense and they track your phone and change the digital price tags based on your Palantir profile as you walk up.
Or the other option is Walmart has started remodeling their stores into primarily warehouses. The main entrance is badged only for picker workers to hand orders to Doordash or put app orders in people’s cars. The legacy experience entrance will be a temporary secondary option until they get enough robots to make the building fully lights out and automated. Shambling automatons will emerge from the black hell portal in the surface of The Edifice with your tampons and then run facial recognition on you and sniff your car for drug and explosive residue.
You’re just silly.
Your car itself will sniff you for drugs and explosives every time you start it and every 30 seconds thereafter, not the Walmart robot.
Im surprised how many people here hate self checkout. I am much faster at scanning and bagging my own items than most cashiers. I almost never get errors, and if I do I know what to do to clear them typically. I always look at self check first, and then human lines second. Plus, none if that “how’s your day? Want to apply for a store credit card?” talk from a bored looking cashier.
Hell yeah. They can’t take it away from me now. Idgaf what Walmart does, I haven’t given them a red cent in years. I’m all about WINCO & COSTCO. If you don’t have winco where you are, I’m sorry for you
I’m surprised too, I live by self checkout. I use reusable bags, some of which are insulated ones, and pack things irregularly compared to the store. I’m careful so I’ve never had a problem with things breaking. I don’t like telling people what to do, especially strangers. Cashiers have repeatedly misunderstood what bags are which, use extra paper or plastic to pack my stuff, and sometimes have questions on what should be in the bag or what can be packed where. I avoid all of that just silently packing myself. I don’t blame the cashiers, I just do thinks in my preferred way and won’t be the asshole who “directs” them or something. I will switch stores before ditching self checkout edit: Should note my grocery runs are probably much smaller than average, which helps. I’m not using self checkout for a family of 4 or something
It is not the self checkout that bothers me but the occasional check after you are done scanning.
I don’t see any evidence they’re “pulling back”, at least not in Europe. More and more are self service checkouts than ever before. That said I think stores prefer the kiosks where people scan their items than the kind where people have barcode readers and wander the store scanning (or not scanning) goods.
My experience isnt representative of the situation as a whole, but ive noticed a pull back in our usual shopping locations (mid-west US). Our local Meijer (grocery) closed half of the self checkouts and added two more people to their standard checkout lanes plus a few more to assist the remaining self checkout. Costco near us got rid of their self checkout entirely. Aldi on the other hand installed more self checkouts, but its in a gated area where you have to scan your receipt to get out.
My local LIDL in Ireland just installed a self-checkout / gate system. Curiously there is an ALDI not far away with self-checkout and no gate. Near to that is a Tesco which has self checkout and another lane for the bar code reader devices. I hardly ever see people with bar code readers. I don’t believe anybody likes those - not staff, not customers.
Questionable savings? I have saved A LOT of time at self checkouts, especially when just buying a few things. It’s way faster than standing in line behind people seemingly doing their yearly shopping.
Ok, now will they actually staff the registers? Because every time I’m in the store there’s only one checkout lane open, and before 10am or so, the self-checkout is closed.
It’s always a clumsy experience for me. In some stores I just walk in, get a drink, scan, pay, and be out in less than a minute. But for my actual shopping? Way too much stuff on that little terminal thing.
Pretty funny coincidence here
You still need employees to help hapless customers and flag tech problems, the security cameras from above to dissuade theft, and someone to man the monitors of said cameras. They were banking on full human replacement. Can’t wait for our AI future with a store devoid of employees where they drop a net from the ceiling and pepper spray me because I forgot my eggplant was the organic price.
My main issue with self checkout is simple. They constantly incorrectly flag me for shoplifting and then proceed to show my shiny bald head from top down to everyone within 20 feet on the checkout screen. It is not a flattering angle.
Where a hat with something rude on the top. Or draw a nipple on the top when you go shopping.
I like the way you think. 😄
