Unstaffed tills were supposed to revolutionise shopping. Now, both retailers and customers are bagging many self-checkout kiosks.
  •  MajorHavoc   ( @MajorHavoc@programming.dev ) English
    24•9 months ago

    Silly fluff piece.

    Self-check out is there by customer demand. People suck to interact with, even underpaid, underappreciated people who are being asked to stand all day and deal with shitty customers.

    Shareholders were promised other savings on pure speculation, and didn’t get it.

    Yes, CEOs and shareholders, you get to pay for the machine, then pay someone to maintain it, and pay someone to watch it, and pay someone to help me when I can’t work it.

    In return, you get one more day of staying in business.

    Suck it up, buttercup. Self checkout is here to stay.

    •  tyler   ( @tyler@programming.dev ) English
      10•9 months ago

      I’ve seen several of these articles over the past few months. Someone is pushing hard to make self checkout seem bad. If it wasn’t for self checkout I’d absolutely hate the grocery store. Lines fucking suck. Self checkout is a more efficient line because it usually feeds many machines, rather than being 1-1. Not only that but I can do self checkout in about half the time it takes any normal cashier to check me out. I know exactly the stuff I picked up, exactly the way I want it in bags, and exactly the order I need to do things in.

        •  Scary le Poo   ( @Scary_le_Poo@beehaw.org ) English
          3•9 months ago

          That may be the case, but how often before self checkout became available did you go to the store and of the 15 check out lanes there were maybe one or two open.

          That’s the massive difference. With self checkout there will be as many as 12 machines running simultaneously which means that everybody gets out of there so much faster

  •  jjjalljs   ( @jjjalljs@ttrpg.network ) English
    6•9 months ago

    I don’t mind self checkout. I like that it’s usually one line that feeds into all the machines instead of one line per machine.

    I’m really not a fan of groceries that have one line per register. I don’t want to eyeball 10 registers and try to figure out which one is faster. I don’t want to be stuck behind the guy arguing over the price. Just have one line that feeds into all the registers. Trader Joe’s does it and it’s fine. The self checkouts do it and it’s fine.

    I think some people see one big line going into many registers and think it’s much slower than many small lines. Those people probably think the tall glass has more water in it, too.