Grocery Self-Scan Aisles

[Schmidty]

I was checking out today in a self-scan aisle at the grocery store, and realized how much quicker and less irritating it was. Then I realized the fact that it also puts people out of work.

I'm conflicted - So much so, that I can't vote on it. What do you all think?

[JPhillips]

It was great until I had a child. Now I always go through the regular checkout because I can't scan/pay/sack without the girl getting pissed at lack of attention.

[cuervo72]

I tried this when the Food Lion switched to Bloom, and it yelled at me when I didn't put things in a certain place to weigh them (do I really need to weigh my 12 pack of soda?), it yelled at me when I put things in the bag, and then it just gave up and told me to wait for an attendant.

So I'll just go to one of the regular conveyers with a check-out person, thanks (actually, I usually have a bunch of stuff and need the conveyor anyway). I'm never in that much of a hurry, and really, only in a few cases was there ever much of a line in the first place.

[DaddyTorgo]

i voted yes, but it's a conditional yes. it's GREAT when you only have one or two things and you can bag them yourself and avoid the checkout aisles with 3-4 people all with $100+ checkouts.

if i'm going in to buy a loaf of bread and some PB on a break from work I don't want to have to wait while some soccer-mom does her entire week's grocery shopping and then can't find her credit card and figure out how to work the little credit-card swiping thing.

and that's another rant. seriously...i see so many people that can't figure out how to work those things, and they're literally EVERYWHERE. what were you...living under a rock until today?

[KevinNU7]

They are great if they have 12 items or less restictions

[Easy Mac]

The only people being put out of work from them are teens, so its not that big of a deal. Its just so much easier, and I can scan far quicker than some slack ass having to scan things, then half-bag half-chat with the bag boy who is just standing there.

[bosshogg23]

I almost always go through self checkout. Id rather go to self checkout twice in 2 days than regular scan with double the items once.

[Raiders Army]

They're okay. Great if used properly and extremely frustrating if some lady has 100 items and doesn't know how to scan grapes, apples, onions, or any other weighable. I had one item about a month ago at Walmart and this lady had no control over her kids, had no reason to move quickly (since her kids were eating stuff before she scanned it), and was generally a pain in the ass. I agree that they need to have restrictions...the problem is that a lot of people don't enforce them.

[Raiders Army]

Oh yeah, sometimes it's quicker when there's someone who knows how to scan stuff rather than the guy who doesn't or has wrinkled dollar bills he's trying to feed into the machine.

[Lorena]

I never thought of it as people losing their jobs but you're right Schmidty, so I voted no. Besides, there's a few times those things are dirty and don't scan very well.

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

i voted yes, but it's a conditional yes. it's GREAT when you only have one or two things and you can bag them yourself and avoid the checkout aisles with 3-4 people all with $100+ checkouts.

Same here. It's horrible if you have a 12 pack of soda or more than 15 items because of having to keep all the food on the scale. For one or two things, it's awesome.

[cthomer5000]

I live in an area of incredibly high population density, so there are always lines at the types of places that have these things. It is significanly faster for me to self check-out, so i do. Yes from me.

[Rizon]

The line for these at our local stores are longer than those of the cashiers. If you only have a couple of things and there are no lines they are great, the other 90% of the time they are useless.

[Esquared1]

Even though I'm in sales, I really hate people. So speaking with some tool about his cold ranks really low on when I buy a 12 pack of Dt. Mt. Dew.

[Mr. Wednesday]

At the Meijer in Mishawaka, it's almost always faster to go through the U-Scans. The lines aren't long, you're supposed to have 12 items or less, and the staffing of the regular checkouts is such that there are usually one or two people at each of them with full carts.

[korme]

Self scans have their advantages.

[molson]

The self-scan things actually intimidate me. Every time I try to use the one at Walmart I screw something up and have to helped. Very humbling.

[Young Drachma]

I only use them if I have a few things and can get out of their faster. Otherwise, I'll go to the main aisle so they bag my stuff for me. When I lived in Boston, it was always faster if I had one thing to go to the self-service aisle. That's the reason I like it.

[Chief Rum]

Technology has put millions, probably billions out of work, in the history of man. Don't worry about them. They will find other jobs. Or natural selection will kick in (and it is irresistably going forward anyway, regardless of the rate or type of progress we experience).

[Danny]

Most people can't even figure out how to pay with a credit card without help, so I wouldnt worry too much about this putting people out of work. I work as a checker at a grocery store while going to school, its right next to the campus, has flexible hours and the pay isnt terrible. A lot of hard working, very kind and intelligent people make a career out of working there though.

[Abe Sargent]

I don;t like how people lways expect me to go to them, so I voted no because I don't want to be evangelized.

[stevew]

What they really need is an express line where the cashier absolutely IS FORBIDDEN TO MAKE CONVERSATION WITH THE PURCHASER. It is not an express line when they discuss inane details with the people who are trying to buy, costing me valuable time waiting behind them. On top of that, they need to have a sign that says "HAVE YOUR FUCKING MONEY OR CREDIT CARD READY, ASSHOLE!!!!!" Grandma needs to get a grip, it's okay if you get back 49 cents worth of change, no need to search for that elusive penny you just know is in your fuckin purse.

[Danny]

haha stevew, you wouldnt last a day. Today I had someone who had me take off/put back on an item she wasnt sure about at least 5 times, then I got her checked out, she changed her mind again and waited in line again. Believe it or not, in my 6 months there I have never yelled at, fought with or been rude to a single customer. Its been tough though!

And I try to keep conversation to a minimum, I say what I need to say and get the next customer in line. Well, unless it's a cute girl, but can't blame me for that, right?

[14ers]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

Same here. It's horrible if you have a 12 pack of soda or more than 15 items because of having to keep all the food on the scale. For one or two things, it's awesome.

This is wrong at most places.

You do not need to keep all your items on the scale after being scanned. After an item is scaned and the weight is checked you can then put your items back in your cart and continue scanning new items. Once the computer is ready to scan the next item you no longer need to keep the items you have already scanned on the scale.

I use the Self-Scan aisles with an entire shopping cart full of items. I fill my little bags full of goods and then remove them to my cart and continue scanning.

[stevew]

Originally Posted by Danny

haha stevew, you wouldnt last a day. Today I had someone who had me take off/put back on an item she wasnt sure about at least 5 times, then I got her checked out, she changed her mind again and waited in line again. Believe it or not, in my 6 months there I have never yelled at, fought with or been rude to a single customer. Its been tough though!

And I try to keep conversation to a minimum, I say what I need to say and get the next customer in line. Well, unless it's a cute girl, but can't blame me for that, right?

Dude, one of my jobs I work as a midnight cashier 4 days a week at a gas station. At this point, I fucking hate people, I just can't put up the fascade any longer.

[Danny]

I don't blame you, Im going to be looking for another job myself pretty soon (though quite possibly in addition to this one, though I'd prefer to just be rid of this one altogether). I want more job experience releated to my future career for my own good and to help my graduate school application.

[JeeberD]

Originally Posted by KevinNU7

They are great if they have 12 items or less restictions

Bingo. I hate the people who bring whole cart loads of groceries to the self checkout...

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Schmidty

Then I realized the fact that it also puts people out of work.

I'm with everyone else on the convienance aspect of this, and on the general usage, but I thought this was interesting. In this context then I absolutely don't have a problem with it.

The company I work for has a device that automates the check-in process at doctor's offices. There is a definite potential to put people out of work. But what we're finding out is that isn't actually happening... the tasks that the device automates save the doctors a ton of money in charges that otherwise never would be realized, and there is more than enough work to do at the office that the people who don't spend all day checking in patients still have other tasks to do.

I'd like to think its similar here. You still need an employee to monitor the checkout area, one that was probably on a register before, and there is no reason necessarily to fire people because you need 1 or 2 less human run registers open, there are other things to do in a store, keep it cleaner, offer better customer service, keep the stockroom neater/more efficient.

I've also worked for a company where the entire selling point of our product was that it would allow healthcare companies to carry 1/2 the staff in a couple of low skill areas, and I had no problem with that, so I'm just an asshole I suppose

[QuikSand]

On the self-serve checkouts -- I love the concept as well, but in practice I have had way too many tedious and time-consuming experiences to make them appealing to me... at least so far.


On the notion that we "owe it to the employees" to burden ourselves with less convenient or cost-effective options, just to help them out. Nonsense. If your job is better performed by a machine, it will be eventually... fleeting notions of consumer welfare only serve to promote inefficiencies and drive up our prices. There's nothing immoral about behaving as a sensible consumer in this case.

[stevew]

Don't ever try to scan Kool Aid in a self scan aisle. It doesnt have enough weight to register, and causes a constant error message.

[JeeberD]

That's when you hit the "Skip bagging" button. At least Walmart has that right...

[Mustang]

Love em personally, just a learning curve to know what makes your life easier and what will cause delays.

Buying a loaf of bread and lunch meat.. great.

buying an R rated movie.. eh.. easier to go through the checkout since someone has to come over and confirm that you are 17...

Don't stand there with your kids with a cart of 200 things and have them help you out unless you want to stand there for 30 minutes.

[CU Tiger]

I am conflicted also.
But not about puting people out of work...just not that big of a concern I guess.

#1 I love them, all the good reasons mentioned

#2 I feel almost like I am being ripped off. Kinda like the self serve drink thing at fast food restaurants, damn can I clock in for a few minutes while I ring myslef up/ fill my coke.... I mean that is part of what you pay for right?

[JeffW]

Originally Posted by Dodgerchick

I never thought of it as people losing their jobs but you're right Schmidty, so I voted no.

Don't be shortsighted. People are losing jobs because self-scan is more efficient. Part of the savings will be passed on to the consumer(you).

[Schmidty]

Originally Posted by JeffW

Don't be shortsighted.

Don't be rude.

People losing jobs sucks, regardless of whether helps the consumer. Yes, yes, the economy and businesses expanding and future jobs. Blah blah blah. That doesn't mean crap for the person being put out of a job right now.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Schmidty

That doesn't mean crap for the person being put out of a job right now.

Then they should have made themselves more valuable as an employee, whether in their current profession or some other line of work.

[SportsDino]

At the store I work I almost always U-scan junk while at break (cannot resist cheap snacks, gah!). Its convenient and generally helps a lot of people get out faster, which will hopefully make them shop at the location more. More money won't make more jobs, but it might help the few that have them keep them a bit longer.

Many times under short staffing (which is almost always) if you don't have the U-scans you make long lines of people waiting for small junk and getting ticked off. Rather have the U-scan.

Also, employees are probably better off where they can make the most impact on the customer experience. Cashiers are important for taking out the big carts full of junk (I do it at my area and it takes forever, a well practiced cashier is better than a nerd in the electronics department without a conveyor, desk, decent scanner, etc). I personally work as an electronics helpy person (guy who gets your video games out of the case, finds DVDs you can't, says 'I dunno' to obscure questions about 'thingeys that hook into the gizmo that does the electronical stuff', and rings up all your junk at the itty bitty desk we have)... I think for the average customer more assistants would probably have a fairly good impact. Consider that in terms of time spent, checking out is probably the least amount of time you spend, and looking for/selecting particular merchandise is often the longest part.

Having someone with at least some knowledge to help you decide, or point you there, or go grab something you can't get into because you need a ladder or key... that can take some minutes out of your time in the store, and some of the frustration. And being in my area I've pretty much said hello, took the customer directly to the thing they were looking for, told them all the options we had, rung them up, and carried out their giant televisions and what not to their car pretty much within ten minutes. People like getting out quick and with what they want.

Another position that I'd like to see more of is stocking merchandise. If spaces start getting empty on the shelves it wastes huge amounts of my time trying to find the box in the back where it is hidden (cause customer must have the exact item that is missing on the shelf while it is surrounded by perfectly good substitutes because of the two effects of 'sales' and 'if its sold out everyone else must think its a good product and if its stuffed on the shelves it must be too poor for anyone to buy'). Huge time killer, and its much easier to do it in the later shift when the store is mostly empty of customers instead of during rush times in the day (we end up doing it because its the only time we have a bunch of labor on the floor to do it, sucks).

Best position to have, a manager at some level to make merchandise selection decisions that knows what they are doing. Even a basic understanding of market trends would be nice. We constantly have huge supplies of things that rarely sell and shortages on things that would be a virtual gold mine if we just carried more stock. Boost our capacity in a few areas on products that have some of our highest margins and we'd probably make a bundle. Shelf space is a commodity in the store that is heavilly wasted, and one good human behind the computerized mess could be worth hundreds of dollars a day in just our store.

So that is three positions I think are undersupplied and more important than cashiers:

-Stocking people
-Customer service reps on the floor with knowledge of a particular department
-Intelligent people in positions like inventory selection that could boost profits

U-scan won't really have a negative impact on those positions, it might even encourage hiring more with some of the money saved from cashiers (sadly the companies tend to just pocket the bonus dollars it seems).

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by 14ers

This is wrong at most places.

You do not need to keep all your items on the scale after being scanned. After an item is scaned and the weight is checked you can then put your items back in your cart and continue scanning new items. Once the computer is ready to scan the next item you no longer need to keep the items you have already scanned on the scale.

I use the Self-Scan aisles with an entire shopping cart full of items. I fill my little bags full of goods and then remove them to my cart and continue scanning.

Not at the Kroger I go to. You take something off that scale and it yells at you to put that thing back before it'll do anything else.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

Not at the Kroger I go to. You take something off that scale and it yells at you to put that thing back before it'll do anything else.

Same here.

[CraigSca]

Originally Posted by Schmidty

Don't be rude.

People losing jobs sucks, regardless of whether helps the consumer. Yes, yes, the economy and businesses expanding and future jobs. Blah blah blah. That doesn't mean crap for the person being put out of a job right now.

Agreed, any time a person loses a job it's a sad thing, but we also have to remember that the maker's of the scanning products are creating new jobs.

There will always be a need for employees in the grocery store, this is not removing all of their daily activities.

[CamEdwards]

I confess, I'm really surprised at the number of people who don't like the self-checkout because it may put someone out of work. Let's face it, checking and bagging groceries doesn't exactly require an advanced degree. Even if grocery stores DO cut the number of baggers because of the self-checkout, there are other opportunities in the service field.

[QuikSand]

Originally Posted by CamEdwards

I confess, I'm really surprised at the number of people who don't like the self-checkout because it may put someone out of work.

I think this is a case of the question greatly influencing the responses.

When asked if we care about putting some poor slob out of work, plenty of us will mull it over, contemplate what seems like a reasonable answer to the question, and then shape our answers to look more like that than what we *really* feel.

However, when we are not accountable for our actions to someone, and can act anonymously, we do what we really want. And even for many of the "I wouldn't want to see that guy lose his job" our actions will betray that supposed preference. We buy the cheap thing... we use the self-checkout... we go to the dollar store... whatever it is, we vote with our feet and usually do what serves us most, rather than what serves some arguable greater good.

[Lorena]

They're easy to use, sure. But what about the person who loses their job, can't find another one and has to go on government assistance? It totally sucks to lose a job and unfortunately for a few people that work at these types of stores, they're not skilled enough to go into the workforce and have to rely on some of these jobs.

I'm just sayin'.

[Lorena]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

However, when we are not accountable for our actions to someone, and can act anonymously, we do what we really want. And even for many of the "I wouldn't want to see that guy lose his job" our actions will betray that supposed preference. We buy the cheap thing... we use the self-checkout... we go to the dollar store... whatever it is, we vote with our feet and usually do what serves us most, rather than what serves some arguable greater good.

Some people don't have the luxury to buy the more expensive items and have to rely on the cheaper stores. Why spend $5.00 on something when you can get the exact same item at the dollar store? $4.00 might not be a lot to some people, but those living paycheck to paycheck, it something they need to do.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by CU Tiger

I feel almost like I am being ripped off. Kinda like the self serve drink thing at fast food restaurants, damn can I clock in for a few minutes while I ring myslef up/ fill my coke.... I mean that is part of what you pay for right?

Dude, you're missing the benefit: FREE REFILLS!

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by Dodgerchick

Some people don't have the luxury to buy the more expensive items and have to rely on the cheaper stores. Why spend $5.00 on something when you can get the exact same item at the dollar store? $4.00 might not be a lot to some people, but those living paycheck to paycheck, it something they need to do.

Exactly... they would rather have the better savings and they prove it by voting with their feet. They don't care if it costs someone else their job. They want the savings, pure and simple. In the abstract people may say, oh it'll cost people their jobs, but when push comes to shove, they'll go the cheap stuff.

[bryce]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

if i'm going in to buy a loaf of bread and some PB on a break from work I don't want to have to wait while some soccer-mom does her entire week's grocery shopping and then can't find her credit card and figure out how to work the little credit-card swiping thing.

and that's another rant. seriously...i see so many people that can't figure out how to work those things, and they're literally EVERYWHERE. what were you...living under a rock until today?

That's bad, yes, but what about the people who STILL WRITE FREAKING CHECKS???!!! I was baffled by one of these morons the other day - I literally stood there behind her, mouth open, just in utter amazement that someone still brought a checkbook to the grocery store... I only hope she (or her husband) worked for a bank or a printing company, and she was only trying to help their cause...

[-apoc-]

Considering the turnover rate of baggers and cashiers at a grocery store they arent costing anyone their jobs. They just might not hire as many new people in the next batch of hirings but no one is going to lose their cashier job and have to go on welfare because of these.

[QuikSand]

Originally Posted by Dodgerchick

Some people don't have the luxury to buy the more expensive items and have to rely on the cheaper stores. Why spend $5.00 on something when you can get the exact same item at the dollar store? $4.00 might not be a lot to some people, but those living paycheck to paycheck, it something they need to do.

You are missing my point. I am an unabashed dollar store shopper myself, and I have no problem with it, for lots of different things.

My point is that there are lots of people who, as you suggest, just go out and buy what's cheapest, because that is what makes sense. But if they are asked directly if they would be willing to pay more for those items if it might mean that someone would keep his job because of it... they consider the values-laden question being asked, and they respond less than truthfully. Meanwhile, they continue to buy the items cheaply, regardless of the consequence for the fellow whose job is supposedly in the balance.

I don't seek to disparage people's behavior. Just to help explain how many people in this thread are seemingly rallying to the cause of the employees supposedly put out of work by the self-checkout advance. I think the very framing of the question tends to skew its own responses.

[Schmidty]

Just an innocent poll and an innocent comment, and we get all of this.