Just as a mildly interesting story, I thought I’d share:
The best self checkout experience I had so far, was at a Japanese clothing store in Germany. There was a box at the checkout station, and each clothing item had an RFID in their labels. You just toss all your items in the box, it detects which exact products you’re gonna buy, and if the list of items shown is correct, you just pay and go.
A few years ago I heard of a similar concept for groceries, but that one was experimental and I don’t think they’ve implemented it ever since. But this one at the clothing store was not a test, and it worked flawlessly.
Look into Amazon fresh stores. They have that concept. You just place the item in the cart and it shows you the list of items you have in the cart while at the store. After that I think you just go to the register and it chargers your Amazon account.
But how do you do it with produce? Say you want to buy three apples. I can get that it could figure out amount with a scale, but how does it know you’ve bought apples?
Man, I love the self checkout. Also didn’t they already show that rising costs everywhere WEREN’T from theft, but instead corporations artificially inflating their prices during the pandemic and then leaving it there?
Take away my self checkout, and I’ll steal out of spite
It’s fine if you have a few things and no one else is using them. These days, you go to the supermarket and you either wait in a long line for people to check out the stuff themselves or you wait on a long line for someone to do it for you. All they did was eliminate jobs.
They expect me to do free labor for a huge evil corporation, but give me a scanner far worse than they give their paid employees, which scolds me every 10 seconds for not having enough space to put things.
I’m pretty sure people were complaining about this when supermarkets replaced greengrocers. “What do you mean I can’t just hand a list to the clerk and have him package up my groceries? They expect me to do free labor?” But we kept it around because the convenience was worth it.
for a huge evil corporation,
The smaller evil corporations use them too.
but give me a scanner far worse than they give their paid employees,
I don’t know where you’re going, but at the grocery stores I go to (and the one I used to work at) the scanner is literally the same unit as on the checkout the human is operating because that way it’s easier and cheaper to keep parts on hand to fix them.
which scolds me every 10 seconds for not having enough space to put things.
HONESTLY this is like the ONLY JOKE people have about self-checkouts. You could joke about the thing always being out of bags, or having trouble when you’re trying to buy alcohol, or flagging down an attendant when the thing doesn’t have a barcode, and yet everyone chooses “unexpected item in the bagging area,” which hasn’t been a problem for people who actually know how to use the thing for a decade or more? Why is this the mindvirus that has infiltrated everyone and not, like, social equity?
Very much not. I’ve shopped biweekly since around the beginning of the pandemic, and the trouble I have is when the overhead camera thinks I’m stealing, like, a fast food soft drink I have in my cart or something. I haven’t heard “unexpected item in the bagging area” or anything like it for years, literally. And I only have to wait for a person in the case of the aforementioned camera debacles, or if I’m buying alcohol.
See my comment here for my recent revelation. In short: the problem isn’t with self checkouts, it’s that the stores you’re going to aren’t maintaining them well.
If you read the article they are only a “nightmare” for big box retailers who are crying about theft. I love the self checkout and generally use it every time unless I have a specific reason not to
These corporations are saving money hand over fist by eliminating jobs, and use this as an excuse for why their profits aren’t EVEN bigger! Their missed profit from an article here or there that we “forget” to scan doesn’t remotely amount to their savings off the backs of the American blue-collar.
I really enjoy using the self checkout. I don’t have to talk to anyone, it’s faster than the employee scanning, and I bag my shit better and not have to worried about smashed bread or fragile items. It’s not for everybody and I get it but it leave it for the people do want to use them.
Meijer is the only one that has their self checkout figured out. 2 different sections in my store with 10-12 checkout stations. So a minimum of 20 self check out stations open and they’re always open and working. They never give me the errors like Walmart and Kroger.
Walmart might have 20 checkouts as well but half aren’t working or open plus there’s 3x the people at Walmart so there’s usually a 15 minute wait.
Kroger is the worst with the errors. They might have 20 checkout stations but 5 might be open.
Going to Walmart or Kroger is always a hassle. I avoid those 2 unless I need one or two items.
Wait…ok, so I haven’t really shopped anywhere but Meijer or (to a lesser extent) Kroger for about a decade. Is this why I haven’t seen the problems with things like “unexpected item” and such? That could make a lot of sense. It’s been driving me crazy seeing stories like this when the worst experience I have with self checkout is when the camera thinks I’m stealing something because I have, like, a Wendy’s cup.
lol maybe. Meijer is such a breeze at the self checkout compared to Kroger. The memes are mostly true. Unexpected item in the bagging area half a dozen times, then the cashier has to come over and put their passcode in and override whatever happened.
Our Meijer is quite a bit further away too. If we’re out in the area already we’ll stop by and do a bigger trip. I could put up with the nonsense at Kroger if their damn prices weren’t so ridiculous. Kroger is by far the closest but they’re by far the most expensive for me anyway
“Nightmare” says you. “The only thing that makes grocery store checkout tolerable” says I. I’ll wait longer for a self-checkout rather than subject myself to a human who will try to make conversation with me (which forces me to take out my earbuds), be annoyed by the fact that I want to use my own bags, underload my bags, take forever, ask me required scripted questions, and put the bread underneath a can.
Frankly this is one of the most disheartening editorials I’ve ever read on Gizmodo. “Cumbersome?” “Confusing?” “Error-prone?” “Terminator?” “Frustrations?” “Wasted time?” Just say you don’t understand how to use them and have no intention to learn. Weird flex for a tech journalist.
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Just as a mildly interesting story, I thought I’d share:
The best self checkout experience I had so far, was at a Japanese clothing store in Germany. There was a box at the checkout station, and each clothing item had an RFID in their labels. You just toss all your items in the box, it detects which exact products you’re gonna buy, and if the list of items shown is correct, you just pay and go.
A few years ago I heard of a similar concept for groceries, but that one was experimental and I don’t think they’ve implemented it ever since. But this one at the clothing store was not a test, and it worked flawlessly.
I like the idea for groceries, but how do you do produce?
Look into Amazon fresh stores. They have that concept. You just place the item in the cart and it shows you the list of items you have in the cart while at the store. After that I think you just go to the register and it chargers your Amazon account.
But how do you do it with produce? Say you want to buy three apples. I can get that it could figure out amount with a scale, but how does it know you’ve bought apples?
That one you would type the produce cause it could tell it was produce. Only been once so I don’t remember how it calculated the weight.
Got it. Thanks.
Man, I love the self checkout. Also didn’t they already show that rising costs everywhere WEREN’T from theft, but instead corporations artificially inflating their prices during the pandemic and then leaving it there?
Take away my self checkout, and I’ll steal out of spite
It’s fine if you have a few things and no one else is using them. These days, you go to the supermarket and you either wait in a long line for people to check out the stuff themselves or you wait on a long line for someone to do it for you. All they did was eliminate jobs.
They expect me to do free labor for a huge evil corporation, but give me a scanner far worse than they give their paid employees, which scolds me every 10 seconds for not having enough space to put things.
I’m pretty sure people were complaining about this when supermarkets replaced greengrocers. “What do you mean I can’t just hand a list to the clerk and have him package up my groceries? They expect me to do free labor?” But we kept it around because the convenience was worth it.
The smaller evil corporations use them too.
I don’t know where you’re going, but at the grocery stores I go to (and the one I used to work at) the scanner is literally the same unit as on the checkout the human is operating because that way it’s easier and cheaper to keep parts on hand to fix them.
HONESTLY this is like the ONLY JOKE people have about self-checkouts. You could joke about the thing always being out of bags, or having trouble when you’re trying to buy alcohol, or flagging down an attendant when the thing doesn’t have a barcode, and yet everyone chooses “unexpected item in the bagging area,” which hasn’t been a problem for people who actually know how to use the thing for a decade or more? Why is this the mindvirus that has infiltrated everyone and not, like, social equity?
I’m not making a joke.
It’s a terrible design and these should all be scrapped until they make ones that don’t suck.
I haven’t had trouble with this or seen anyone who has in probably a decade. They already have made ones that don’t suck. (As much, to be fair)
Now you’re just making shit up.
Very much not. I’ve shopped biweekly since around the beginning of the pandemic, and the trouble I have is when the overhead camera thinks I’m stealing, like, a fast food soft drink I have in my cart or something. I haven’t heard “unexpected item in the bagging area” or anything like it for years, literally. And I only have to wait for a person in the case of the aforementioned camera debacles, or if I’m buying alcohol.
I hear it happen to a stranger almost every time at Lucky or Safeway.
Happens to me if I try to scan even half as fast as they do at the real checkout scanners.
See my comment here for my recent revelation. In short: the problem isn’t with self checkouts, it’s that the stores you’re going to aren’t maintaining them well.
Please, no. It’s my jam.
Oh wait, it’s for self checkout. Not self scanning.
If you read the article they are only a “nightmare” for big box retailers who are crying about theft. I love the self checkout and generally use it every time unless I have a specific reason not to
These corporations are saving money hand over fist by eliminating jobs, and use this as an excuse for why their profits aren’t EVEN bigger! Their missed profit from an article here or there that we “forget” to scan doesn’t remotely amount to their savings off the backs of the American blue-collar.
I really enjoy using the self checkout. I don’t have to talk to anyone, it’s faster than the employee scanning, and I bag my shit better and not have to worried about smashed bread or fragile items. It’s not for everybody and I get it but it leave it for the people do want to use them.
Meijer is the only one that has their self checkout figured out. 2 different sections in my store with 10-12 checkout stations. So a minimum of 20 self check out stations open and they’re always open and working. They never give me the errors like Walmart and Kroger.
Walmart might have 20 checkouts as well but half aren’t working or open plus there’s 3x the people at Walmart so there’s usually a 15 minute wait.
Kroger is the worst with the errors. They might have 20 checkout stations but 5 might be open.
Going to Walmart or Kroger is always a hassle. I avoid those 2 unless I need one or two items.
Aldis and Meijer are my go to.
Wait…ok, so I haven’t really shopped anywhere but Meijer or (to a lesser extent) Kroger for about a decade. Is this why I haven’t seen the problems with things like “unexpected item” and such? That could make a lot of sense. It’s been driving me crazy seeing stories like this when the worst experience I have with self checkout is when the camera thinks I’m stealing something because I have, like, a Wendy’s cup.
lol maybe. Meijer is such a breeze at the self checkout compared to Kroger. The memes are mostly true. Unexpected item in the bagging area half a dozen times, then the cashier has to come over and put their passcode in and override whatever happened.
The Kroger near me is fine about that, but it’s newer self checkouts so they probably haven’t had time to fall into disrepair yet.
Unfortunately, Kroger and Walmart are a 5-minute drive for us and Meijer would be a 30-minute drive, so we’re sort of stuck with Kroger and Walmart.
Our Meijer is quite a bit further away too. If we’re out in the area already we’ll stop by and do a bigger trip. I could put up with the nonsense at Kroger if their damn prices weren’t so ridiculous. Kroger is by far the closest but they’re by far the most expensive for me anyway
“Nightmare” says you. “The only thing that makes grocery store checkout tolerable” says I. I’ll wait longer for a self-checkout rather than subject myself to a human who will try to make conversation with me (which forces me to take out my earbuds), be annoyed by the fact that I want to use my own bags, underload my bags, take forever, ask me required scripted questions, and put the bread underneath a can.
Frankly this is one of the most disheartening editorials I’ve ever read on Gizmodo. “Cumbersome?” “Confusing?” “Error-prone?” “Terminator?” “Frustrations?” “Wasted time?” Just say you don’t understand how to use them and have no intention to learn. Weird flex for a tech journalist.
Also:
How on Earth did an editor allow an article containing both of those sentences, only two paragraphs apart, to be published?