From "Self-Checkout Is a Failed Experiment" (The Atlantic).
October 18, 2023
"Not only does the act of bagging up your own stuff create new opportunities to make it out the door without paying for everything...."
"... but understaffed stores also enable theft overall. The most reliable way to deter shoplifting is to make thieves think they’re going to get caught, but when even customers who want to pay for something struggle to flag down an employee, the store has already forfeited that battle entirely.... The kiosk technology, as it stands, just isn’t good enough to support the level of autonomy from the vagaries of paid human labor that retailers wish their stores could have...."
From "Self-Checkout Is a Failed Experiment" (The Atlantic).
From "Self-Checkout Is a Failed Experiment" (The Atlantic).
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46 comments:
Ethics and social justice.
I was so hoping that archive.today, recommended here a few days ago, was going to let me read paywalled articles. Alas, it was not to be.
Yeah, it's the Self-Checkout where all the theft is... that's the ticket. Even customers who "want" to pay for their purchases just have to steal because there aren't enough employees. See, it's the stores fault. Goddam lib idiots are deranged.
Isn't one of the Commandments "shall not steal"?
I haven't had a cold since starting to use U-Scan at the supermarket a decade ago. You avoid high school baggers and cashiers, who are great sources of the latest bug going around.
The chief recent problem is failures, signalled by "Help is on the way." The machine doesn't like something. Then you have to wait because help is not on the way.
Blame the self-checkouts for the thievery- why am I not surprised?
self-checkout is easy unless you want to buy booze. people steal because they want to.
Stores will adapt. I see in Britain they're employing a device where you have to scan your credit card (of Apple Pay) just to gain entrance. This is the future.
The Blogger spouse will not use self-checkout. I am fine with that given that many of the blogger children got started as baggers and checkers in grocery stores. I don't mind self-checkout when I have a few quick items and cane be out is a flash - except when some 3 toed sloth is in front of me and does not know how to scan his own items or look up his veggies or even pay, taking more time to do his own checkout than he would if he was third in line with a cashier.) Really, if you don't know what you are doing why are you in the self-checkout? I use cashiers when I have coupons of discounts or anything non-standard. Let the experts take care of me.
archive.is always works for me (except for runnersworld.com, weirdly)
Then again, some retailers are doubling down on automation.
Beer markets that track purchases using cameras and sensors : Levy, the new food and beverage partner at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, is using a new technology at the B&O Markets to charge customers. The B&O Markets, which sell cans of beer, hard seltzers, cocktails in a can, sodas, waters, and pretzels, will track patrons’ purchases using camera technology in the ceiling and sensors on the stocking shelves. This technology will tally what patrons take out of the refrigerators and then automatically charge the respective credit cards.
Patrons will tap their credit card when they come to the market. This will open a gate allowing patrons to enter, grab the items they want, and then walk out without having to stand in a line to pay.
There are three B&O Markets on the first level of the ballpark.
Comment over there: I went there last night at the Navy vs UMBC game. When you tap or swipe your card to enter, it preauthorizes your credit card $25. There's no way for season ticket holders to get their 25% discount. Just outside the exit (after purchase), you have to show an employee your ID and open your own beer before you can walk away. Trying to say all this is to speed up lines, when they're just eliminating cashiers' jobs.
Its a "failed experiment" for who? Stores implemented it because it saved them Money. If they're not saving $$, they'll go back to checking everything out. Of course, that still wont stop the people who just walk out without paying.
Before they went from 4 to 10 self-checkouts, my local grocery store manager told me he had to limit the number of hand-baskets available. because people would load them up, and walk out. It seems people rarely do that with shopping carts.
I usually pay for everything when I use the self-check, but sometimes its frustrating. Something wont scan, the clerk is busy, and result: I'll either leave it, or not pay for it. I consider that my service charge for doing it myself.
I'm beginning to feel like a fool for being honest in the self checkout line.
Let's pay baggers/clerks $35 per hour.... We'll show those resisting self check out.
Only idiots believe a padlock on a tool box stops theft. Padlocks only deter the honest.
Penalties for theft are a good incentive not to steal…
Self checkout is a blessing in many stores. People suck…
The failed experiment seems to work pretty well for me. And for failed stores don't seem to get rid of them.
So I am going to guess that The Atlantic is full of it. Again.
Bag limits.
Blame self-checkouts, blame guns, blame babies... people cannot be entrusted with moral moderation. It's an ethical, ethical, ethical progression.
"but when even customers who want to pay for something struggle to flag down an employee"
Then leave it there and go to another store where they have checkout clerks. There's always a justification for stealing, if you look hard enough.
"Look what you made me do!"
I like self checkout. It's usually faster for me. The Kroger near me improved their self checkout by adding handheld scanners for the heavy stuff. I appreciate the improvement, but would like them to improve their software. I do not need to be directed to put the item in the bagging area with each and every item. I've scanned my loyalty card, so it should know that I've done this a time or two before and react accordingly.
Target has one of the best self checkouts. Their software is great. Too bad I almost never shop there anymore. Walmart's is in the middle. It's annoying that they've added a screen that gives an option of printing the receipt or having it emailed to me. I am not going to stand there and enter my email address.
Costco has a pretty good self checkout. I mostly like it because the lady-in-the-box (voice of the self checkout) enunciates "Costco" so crisply when she says, "Thank you for shopping Costco."
I keep reading articles saying self checkout is a failure, but it seems very location specific. I feel badly for the stores because they're going to get criticism if they close the self checkouts in the cities that have gone easy on crime. If these cities are also high cost of living cities, the stores can't afford to raise prices enough to pay enough people to cover self checkouts effectively. The self checkouts will close first, then the stores will close in those places. People will blame corporate greed.
"Self-Checkout Is a Failed Experiment"
Shorter Atlantic: You can't unionize kiosks.
At a medium or large store, the optimum level of fraud and theft is not zero, its around 5-7%. You spend more than you recover below that.
Seems to work fairly well around here.
BS. The self-checkout works fine. Employees aren't allowed to do anything about shoplifters whether they are manning a cash register or supervising the self-checkout
Automatic checkouts via RFID tags is coming and the current explosion of theft at self-checkouts is one reason why.
The author of the article clearly does not like self-checkout. One snip from the article:
"Retail executives, looking for any available corner to cut in order to juice short-term profitability, took self-checkout’s proliferation as a license to trim store staffing to the bone. Many stores are now messier, their shelves go unstocked for longer, and customers have a harder time finding the products they’re looking for or employees to answer their questions."
It should be obvious to even the most clueless that having more checkout clerks won't have even the tiniest impact on stocking shelves or helping customers looking for something, if those checkout clerks are at the register, checking people out.
You know what would be interesting? Having someone who likes self-checkout write an article on the subject, and comparing the results.
C'mon commenters, it's The Atlantic after all. In the tight race to see who's the most "Jim Cramer" of publishing you gotta get deep in the barrel when oppos like NYT & WaPo daily publish falsity's'.
Self checkout is great and works well over 90 percent of the time (Wal-Mart). They have 10-12 kiosks for smaller orders and a few self serve belt fed checkout lines for larger orders. The kiosk area has a dedicated wrangler to keep things moving and handle glitches. A separate employee continually paces back and forth in front of the belt fed checkouts and a 3rd employee watches the security videos etc..
The best thing about the kiosk area is even when there is a very long line it still only takes a couple minutes to get your turn. Even 2 or 3 slow pokes don't jam things up because there are so many kiosks.
It is a pain in the tail. You can't use self checkout to buy booze in California. Trying to figure out how to check out with produce (which doesn't have a bar code label) is a nightmare. Blast Kroger stores to Kingdom Come for inflicting this grief on their customers.
Personally I love self checkout. I'm old enough to remember waiting in line for the manned checkouts for 30-40 minutes routinely. Now I fly through as self checkout allows them to have 20 or so checkouts with only 1 or 2 staff monitoring the area.
Being able to reduce staff required here would if anything increase the ability to put staff in other areas, but the reality is a retail operation will keep staff to a minimum in all areas, so any reduction in overhead will be taken, and they will have the optimal number of staff for stacking shelves regardless of how many are operating the checkout area.
From Mason G's snip out of the article:
"Retail executives, looking for any available corner to cut in order to juice short-term profitability, took self-checkout’s proliferation as a license to trim store staffing to the bone. Many stores are now messier, their shelves go unstocked for longer, and customers have a harder time finding the products they’re looking for or employees to answer their questions."
Those bad, bad corporations...looking to improve profitability. Tsk.
I have noticed that people who were working the registers are now surveiling the self-check area and helping out when the kiosk hits a roadblock.
As for unstocked shelves, supply chain issues have caused a lot of that. As far as I know, the customer service reps weren't tasked with stocking shelves, so I don't get the connection between self-checkout and shelf stocking.
In my semi-retirement I work checkout at a locally-owned market a couple of afternoons a week. 4 checkout lanes, no self-service. We have customer service people who bag groceries and carry them to the car. It’s entertaining to see the puzzlement on first-timers who have never experienced that service (and no tipping allowed.) We are fast, efficient and pleasant, even at the height of tourist season. I’ve never heard anyone talk much about shoplifting. I imagine it happens, but my guess is small potatoes.
If I walk into Amanda Mull's home and she's not there or I can't get her attention, does she forfeit her property? She may want to be careful with that notion, because it could likely be next in these progressive cities where you may own nothing and be happy about it.
"he had to limit the number of hand-baskets available. because people would load them up,"
I wondered why these disappeared from the biggest chain in my area. They have a limited number of smaller carts, which are always being used, so I end up using a big cart for anything over three items.
As a rule, I avoid self checkouts. If, when I enter a store, I see long lines at the cashiers, I just leave. I've done that several times. Whatever I might need, either it's not that important or I can find another store with a better checkout.
The supermarket stores where you have to put the item on a scale for weight verification never work for me. Home Depot is better, but I still prefer to find a cashier.
Go to Walmart.
Use Self Checkout
Press Email Receipt
Get to Exit
Walmart employee wants to see my receipt to see if I scanned/paid for everything in my shopping cart.
Phuque right off, Laquisha.
MarcusB. THEOLDMAN
The Scan & Go app at Sam's Club is awesome. Use a phone camera and the Sam's app to go through the items in your cart, pay with a credit card via the app. When you hit the exit, a checker scans the QR code that's displayed on your phone, then the checker scans a few items in your cart to double check things. A very smooth process. Unlike Costco, you get to skip the lines!
Have you been to an Amazon Go? You check in when you enter, showing that you have an Amazon account. You grab your items and you literally just walk out. Overhead scanners keep track of what you have grabbed, and your Amazon account is charged. It's pretty amazing, and a bit surreal.
This may be why Whole Foods put palm scanner biometric payment systems in place, and why they have video cameras trained at your face with the self-checkout terminals nearest the exit.
The accountants calculate the theft rate versus labor costs (i.e., benefits, unionization, political protest clothing) for all of this -- self checkout would disappear overnight if it resulted in a net loss.
Since I'm too lazy to plan, I'm in the grocery store almost everyday. I like automation. Starts with my shopping list. Alexa keeps that for me. On the way to the store I might need to put fuel on, so stop at Sam's Club, or Kum and Go, they both have phone apps to pay from. Start the pump from the phone and then the cards in my phone pay the bill. If I go into Sams, I use the scan and go as I put stuff in the cart. Then stroll out the door.
We have HyVee and Fareway. Both with self checkout. HyVee have the self checkout squeezed down tight, with only about half in service. I guess it is still a staffing thing. How may staff it takes to run so many self checkouts. Since I'm in ~5 times a week, I dont have many items. But Fareway is my meat stop, so the bill gets big with a small item count. Later we may go out for a bite at the local smoke house. Their check at the end of the meal has a fractal to scan that lets me pay from our booth, on my phone. Wal Mart is good for the large stock up trip, because they have the belt fed checkouts.
My experience in small town IA would probably not resemble the experience the Atlantic writers experience. Honesty is still a virtue. I'm sure there is theft. That freshly coifed grandmother might be slipping some items past the scanner...but shame is still a controlling deterrent. No one is anonymous in a small town.
Walmart employee wants to see my receipt to see if I scanned/paid for everything in my shopping cart.
If you use the Walmart Pay app (which is much faster with the self scan machines than paying by physical credit card, but still not as fast as Apple Pay), your receipt comes on your phone. Then you have to explain to the Walmart front door person how their own app works. They want to see a paper receipt. Frustrating sometimes.
The Scan & Go app at Sam's Club is awesome.
This is the optimum right now. No lines because you're scanning your stuff as you pick it off the shelf or in the middle of the store someplace. Works with alcohol (changes the color of the QR code). The bar code scanner used to be a little more cumbersome, you had to hold things just a certain way, but the new iteration can read bar codes in almost any orientation and doesn't double scan items like it used to. Scan your stuff at your convenience and then walk right on out.
They appear to have a similar function for the Walmart app, but its a pay subscription service. Not going to do that.
If they want me to do the job of checker, pay me.
MadTownGuy said...
Shorter Atlantic: You can't unionize kiosks.
Correct. Similarly, you can't suggest that raising the minimum wage has any negative consequences.
"It is a pain in the tail. You can't use self checkout to buy booze in California."
That's not a self checkout flaw. Blame the government for that.
"If they want me to do the job of checker, pay me."
It's an option for those who want to use it. Kind of like having meat sliced for you at the deli instead of getting something that's prepackaged.
I've used live cashier at the grocery store maybe 12 times in 12 years since moving to Vegas.
Articles are pure horseshit, likely paid for/influenced by unions.
I've personally witnessed two "walkouts" (patrons leaving without paying for merch) in the past year-- both at Goodwill.
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