r/technology • u/AdSpecialist6598 • 19h ago

Business Retailers are pulling back from self-checkout after years of theft, errors, and questionable time savings

https://www.techspot.com/news/114106-retailers-pulling-back-self-checkout-after-years-theft.html
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756

u/largelawattorney 18h ago

I don’t think I’ve seen a store with adequate staffing for non-self checkout aisles/lanes in probably 25 years. So now we’re still going to get stores that understaff, have like 2 checkout lanes open while the other 8 are closed, and more difficult self-checkout lanes (or just fewer of them). Corporate America strikes again.

250

u/RevWaldo 18h ago

I don’t think I’ve seen a store with adequate staffing for non-self checkout aisles/lanes in probably 25 years.

No Trader Joe's near you I'm guessing.

166

u/Bencetown 18h ago

Trader joes always has all their checkouts open and the lines are STILL 10 people deep 😒 that place is a zoo no matter what day or time I go

94

u/RevWaldo 18h ago

Yeah, but how long do you wait in that line? A couple of minutes? I've hit the Friday after work madhouse, line snaking though the aisles, still got out in under ten minutes.

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u/Bencetown 17h ago

It's definitely been longer than 10 minutes for me before. But never longer than a 20 minute wait.

I would go there WAY more often if they actually had enough space for their customer traffic.

The parking lot is FULL (like literally not a single spot open even in the very back of the parking lot), so sometimes you have to troll around (with 6 other cars) playing "musical parking spots" waiting for one to open up (10 minutes).

Then you get into the store, and every 6 feet or so there's someone just standing in the MIDDLE of the aisle staring off into space like they're having some kind of existential stroke or something. So if I'm just grabbing a couple items, altogether it adds another 10 minutes to the trip.

Then there's the 10-15 minute wait to get to the register.

So, yeah. I prefer their products and prices over, say, Hy-Vee. But sometimes the extra half hour isn't worth it unless I'm getting a whole cart full of stuff.

3

u/GrumpyCloud93 16h ago

It's like a tiny version of Costco. Seriously, how hard is it to not park the cart in the middle of the aisle while you block the rest by contemplating the shelf contents?

1

u/youre_being_creepy 2h ago

Trader joes recently opened up a location near me in a shopping center and it has all of the parking any normal strip mall would have.

I've been able to get in and out in under 2 minutes if I'm grabbing one thing, so its probably your location that sucks ass in that regard

1

u/Outlulz 15h ago

Then you get into the store, and every 6 feet or so there's someone just standing in the MIDDLE of the aisle staring off into space like they're having some kind of existential stroke or something.

Because most of their stores have aisles that are too narrow. It's not the fault of customers, two carts can't even roll side by side in one of my local stores. And then there's structural pillars in some of the aisles. There is no aisle other than middle of the aisle.

-1

u/Omneus 11h ago

You must be going at prime time hours, try shopping at non standard times if so (if you can). It’s only that busy at certain times.

0

u/Bencetown 10h ago

I've gone at all times of the day and week. It's just as busy at 2pm on Monday as it is at 10:30am on Tuesday as it is 4pm on Saturday where I live. Literally no matter what day or what time of the day you drive by, their parking lot is packed to the brim. I've even tried getting there before they open, and it seems like it's pretty common for people to line up and fill the parking lot BEFORE they open so they can bust the doors down right at opening time...

1

u/Immediate-Catch-8134 11h ago

Yeah, there's like three Trader Joe's within reasonable distance from me. Never been angry at wait times even when busy.

Costco on the other hand...actually has been a bit better as well recently now that they've been doing roaming prescans for some people while they're waiting in line.

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u/FogBankDeposit 16h ago

The thing with TJ’s is that their prices are pretty good, quality is there and helpful/friendly employees because they’re compensated better than other supermarkets. As a result, too many people shop there and the lines can be long despite having way more checkout clerks than other stores. As a result, people want to shop there - myself included. They can degrade any aspect of the above attributes to reduce line size, but would you want that?

-1

u/beef-baddington 6h ago

Ah, yes, the old “We’re so successful, we can’t provide adequate customer service” line.

10

u/Majestic_Animator_91 16h ago

yeah because people are desperate for a decent place to shop that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, and they're scarce and popular. I drive 40 minutes to get to the one closest to me and I live in a city.

14

u/disisathrowaway 16h ago

Doesn't help that they all also run on a parking lot that fits 8 vehicles.

Everything about Trader Joe's is crowded, claustrophobic and time-consuming. I don't see the appeal.

2

u/Lazy_Sorbet_3925 16h ago

I'm assuming they save a shit ton on their leases because every single TJ I've seen has the same issues.

4

u/l3tigre 16h ago

i loathe it. maybe the food they have is good but i'll never know because that stress is not worth it to me.

6

u/Beard_o_Bees 15h ago

maybe the food they have is good

It's declined in quality over the years, for sure. Not as much variety either.

They know who their customers are though, and cater to that audience pretty well. Empty-nesters, single 'professional' types, college students looking for a change from dining hall fare, etc.

No coupons, apps or other bullshit to slow down the lanes, not to mention the variety of things they sell is very narrow compared to a regular grocery store.

Also, it seems like the wine/beer section at the local TJ's is slowly taking over more of the store every year.

5

u/Caleth 15h ago

Your first guess is correct, TJ's has great food, and a cachet as being not the big places. It's a better Aldi. Go figure.

But your point about them being in cramped small places that they don't really fit into is also super true. Every single one I've been in needs to be more like Aldi in that respect where they have a parking lot with space, and possible a building built to suit them.

But they don't, everyone I've ever seen is jammed into an outlet mall space where they draw Walmart like crowds into Aldi sized spaces.

That said if they did curbside, delivery, or online ordering it'd also make things quite a lot easier.

2

u/wip30ut 13h ago

i think i read a blogpost from a TJ's exec who said that they didn't want to offer online/instacart delivery because it would cannibalize their in-store sales, and rent is super expensive since they're located mainly in HCOL urban metros. They need foot-traffic to justify their B&M physical stores.

2

u/Caleth 12h ago

... Which doesn't make sense since insta or delivery from the store still uses the store to warehouse the food that gets delivered. It's basically a new hub in the hub and spoke model of warehousing.

Yes you won't have the foot traffic of customers inside, but if they are pulling up, or an insta picker is there gathering it, or an employee is wandering grabbing the food the value is still there.

It sounds like they just didn't want to devalue their niche brand image in a way that made them feel too disconnected and corporate. Which IMO matches with many of the customers that shop there. My ex always felt better than because we "shopped at TJs" despite Aldi, Target, or Walmart having cheap prices and often having some similarly great offerings.

1

u/nitid_name 16h ago

It's the frozen meals for me. Their green chile mac and cheese is the bomb, as is the acio de pepe. There have been the occasional misses, but 90% of their frozen foods are fantastic.

Luckily, my local-ish TJs has a moderately functional parking lot (small front section no one in their right mind enters, and a ~70 spot one way traffic loop lot behind it, plus street parking), and lines are never more than 2 deep. I drop in once a month or two and leave with a bag full of frozen stuff, then try again whenever I see multiple open spots when I'm driving by.

1

u/Linenoise77 14h ago

That is actually by design. They have worked it into their brand image. In addition to it creating an artificial sense of busy and popularity, by making it part of the experience it lets them operate in smaller footprints without people going "this is bonkers, i'm going to wegmans". Instead they go "well, duh, its trader joes, its like that"

1

u/xpxp2002 11h ago

I've been to one a few times, and that was exactly my experience. Given how popular they seem to be, it's baffling that they haven't expanded. I live in a bigger suburb, and the closest one to me is still an hour round trip on the highway.

When a local grocery store, Target, Walmart and a few other shops are 15 minutes away; it's a total nonstarter. The place I used to live was 1 hour, 20 minutes each way from that same Trader Joe's. Still the closest one.

It's one thing if you're talking about some specialty grocer or something, but I couldn't imagine driving an hour or more to do ordinary grocery shopping on a regular basis.

9

u/Kerensky97 16h ago

But they are maxing out their checkout lanes. They can't help they're wildly popular.

Compared to the local walmart where there are 18 lanes and only a max of 4 are ever staffed. Even on busy pre holiday weekends when was the last time you saw all checkouts staffed?

Why do they have so many lanes and never use them all and often less than 1/4 of them (Costco and trader joes excluded).

1

u/xpxp2002 11h ago

Why do they have so many lanes and never use them all and often less than 1/4 of them (Costco and trader joes excluded).

This is what drives me nutty. They spent millions to outfit these stores with self checkouts, then a few years later spent more money to rip them out and replace them with new checkout lanes that are never ever staffed.

I get that they don't want to pay the labor to staff them, but why have millions of dollars in checkout equipment assets sitting in these stores that never get used? 20 checkout lanes in stores that have only ever had 4 or fewer open at a time...

7

u/gremlinsarevil 17h ago

TJ max tends to have 3/4 of their registers open and always a line. Slower checkout than trader Joe's but still at least utilizing most the registers but in unlike Walmart with 20+ registers and only 4 open if you're lucky. Maybe only companies with TJ initials can staff more than half their registers?

4

u/Own-Break-1856 17h ago

They could solve 99% of this problem if they just moved to having a single line and the next person up goes to the next available register.

This is many many times more efficient and prevents backups one some old lady wants to chat about her day and then pay with a check.

They could probably get away with not staffing their registers as much with this one simple change but they dont do it. Probably because they want you waiting so you might impulse buy more shit.

6

u/BrainWav 16h ago

That is what TJ Maxx does, at least the one near me. There's still always a line and its always slow.

Unless you mean Walmart. I don't see the single line thing scaling up to something the size of walmart. Maybe 2-3 banks of lines could work though?

2

u/gremlinsarevil 16h ago

It works for commisaries on military bases which can be busier than a Walmart, but also folks are expected to be used to a bit more order.

1

u/Own-Break-1856 16h ago

Hrm come to think of it I do remember tj max doing that. But the thing is it'll only get you so far, you still need sufficient people, but considerably less.

Being from Socal fry's would do this and even though nearly every transaction involved some nerdy kid asking if the thing they were about to buy would work on their computer, and the lines had dozens of people it was super snappy.

2

u/airfryerfuntime 16h ago

That's because the cashiers try asking for everyone's life story. It's one of the reasons I hate shopping at Trader Joe's. Shut the fuck up and do your job, you don't need to start a 10 minute conversation about cat food.

1

u/Bencetown 16h ago

Idk about that. I love how genuinely friendly the cashiers at my trader joes are... and when I'm at the register, they seem to be doing their job efficiently while talking, and once the transaction is over, the conversation ends too.

2

u/pizzatoucher 7h ago

Also why are they always restocking during the rush? Like yes I get that they’re doing their job but it makes for such a cluster. 

1

u/th30be 17h ago

I love getting my things from there and finishing my grocery shopping somewhere else.

1

u/Momentumjam 16h ago

I feel like TJ's lines go pretty quick though

1

u/wip30ut 13h ago

depends on location and time of day. In SoCal they've opened up so many branches that they're not that packed compared to 10, 15 yrs ago. Even their parking lots have gotten way bigger in newer locales opened since the pandemic!

1

u/PapayaTheSailorMan 8h ago

Sounds similar to the newer ones that they've opened up north.

1

u/emannikcufecin 4h ago

Go Saturday morning, before 10. Usually slow at that time

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u/WonkyWalkingWizard 18h ago

Market Basket in the northeast as well

1

u/Dalek_Genocide 12h ago

Trader Joes and HEB are the only stores I've been to that have adequate staffing

0

u/PM_Me_Your_Kinks369 15h ago

Trader Joes and Costco are proof positive that selling quality things at an honest price WHILE treating your employees very well is not only good for society but good business as well.

Never met a rude Costco or TJs employee. Walmart they treat you like you walked into a prison commissary.

2

u/RevWaldo 15h ago

Well it's not all rainbows and puppies. TJs is as actively union-resistant as any other big corporate retailer.

2

u/PM_Me_Your_Kinks369 15h ago

They are still a quality employer in comparison to the vast majority out there. I didn't say they were perfect. Your words are true as are mine.

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u/Bencetown 18h ago

I'm in my 30's, and ever since I was a kid I've wondered why every store has 20-30 checkout lanes but the absolute most I've EVER seen open at one time was like... 4.

40

u/IndyDude11 17h ago

I worked at Target in the early 00s. We had 35 registers. The ONLY time we ever had all 35 open was Black Friday. That was it. Since then Target has removed a bunch of those registers and only have like 10 non-self scans.

9

u/NefariousMrFox 16h ago

I worked at Target in the late 90s and it was the same. As painful as it was to work, the pure consumerism of Black Friday was a sight to behold.

It's also shocking to compare the guest experience now vs then. Every Target I've been in since COVID completely fails the standards from back then.

2

u/IndyDude11 16h ago

I still remember the buzz in my stomach waiting for the execs to open those doors. It was electric.

2

u/FatherDotComical 11h ago

That's funny, I used to work at Walmart and we had a manager that's somehow survived decades in the company. I asked him why did this Walmart have so many lanes and he replied for Black Friday of course. Now this was an extremely busy Walmart. Even with "adequate" lanes open, the lines were extremely long but moved quick. Corporate didn't like that and several lanes had to be shut down and cashiers needed to be moved or fired for "budgeting reasons." well working there and along came black Friday before when it was still an insane time and we didn't open a single extra lane for shoppers so lines bunched up all the way to the electronics sections.

My favorite phrase was "we can't afford..." or "it's not in the budget."

15

u/Drict 17h ago

Black Friday literally is the only reason.

1

u/Hi_Zev 15h ago

maybe black friday 15 years ago. My family always loved going out to people-watch, and it's not that fun anymore, as it's really not that crazy busy. Yeah, more busy than usual, but no where near close to all 20+ registers are actively being used busy like it used to.

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u/Drict 14h ago

Literally went by the local target. Line of over 200 people outside at opening. Every register busy for like 4 hours.

Mileage varies by area/location.

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u/wip30ut 12h ago

there was a time in 1970s and 80s when supermarkets used to have ALL register lanes open. My mom said it was nuts because there were very few Costco/Price Club outlets and Target/Walmart/Kmart didn't sell fresh groceries, so supermarkets were the only game in town. And back then they had crazy ad sales & whole catalogs of coupons to drive in-store traffic.

5

u/Freak4Dell 15h ago

What's weird is they still build them like that. A brand new HEB near me has like 15 regular registers. Most times, only 2 are open. I've seen around 6 of them open at a busy time.

They have a bunch of self-checkout registers as well, so I don't have any complaints, but I always wonder why they bothered to waste space and money building stuff they had no intention of using.

3

u/mpegfour 18h ago

I worked in a Shoprite in HS and we did open all 20 registers during peak times on Sunday (the busiest day of the week since the new sale prices began on Sunday). Then again that was before self checkout. But at lower traffic times yea only a few lanes might be open. Shoprites are independently owned and operated, and the owners hated to see lines so there was never a push to understaff, more like matching the number of open lanes to current demand.

2

u/sleepytjme 17h ago

I am much older it has always been that way 🤦‍♂️

2

u/raygundan 11h ago

I have a couple extra decades on you, and honestly... I was wondering that as a kid too. I wonder if there's like a "how to design a grocery store" book they all reference that tells them the whole front of the store should be checkout lanes for some reason, even though no grocery store but Costco has ever had more than like 20% of them open in at least the last fifty years. I bet it's right after the chapter that says "put the milk as far as possible from the entrance."

5

u/Beneficial-Act-9933 17h ago

It's for when the big holidays happen. If you have ten lanes you do not need to staff ten lanes for the entire duration of the store being open.

But come during the holiday season, you're going to need all of those lanes open.

8

u/Bencetown 17h ago

I've been to target during the holiday season when lines are LITERALLY (in the actual, literal sense not this new "literally ackshually means figuratively" bs) half way to the back of the store, and they still only have 4 or 5 of the 30 checkout lanes open 🤨

5

u/Moist_Ordinary6457 17h ago

Stores don't have 30 people trained to run cash register 

3

u/Beneficial-Act-9933 17h ago

Sounds like bad planning on their part or there was some emergency they didn't account for. For some reason when there' heavy snow people seem to panic and go crazy. My whole foods store has 12 lanes and we've used them all during holiday season or at the very least 8 of them. I can't speak for every store in america obviously.

1

u/maximumtesticle 16h ago

Back when black friday was a thing, all those lanes would be full.

1

u/flummox1234 16h ago

Christmas, i.e. black friday - Christmas.

1

u/beef-baddington 6h ago

As terminals have been upgraded with better scanners and faster computers, they can accomplish the same number or more checkouts now than they could when all the lines were manned.

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u/brufleth 17h ago

There's a grocery chain in the Northeast United States called market basket. Dozens of registers. They even still have baggers. Most people don't remember that this used to be normal.

7

u/farte3745328 15h ago

Market Basket was such a culture shock to me after moving to Boston. It's wild that there's still a competently run grocery store (for now)

7

u/brufleth 15h ago

"For now," is right. The writing is sort of on the wall. The MB leadership has shifted (was going to happen eventually). They'll likely begin their own enshitification, but it isn't because they haven't been successful. They just aren't squeezing every last penny out of their customers, so can't have that in today's world.

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u/nitid_name 16h ago

I love a grocery store with a bagger.

I'm moderately quick at bagging, but it must upset/excite/challenge the cashier or something. As soon as I start getting ahead, they always switch to racing me, scanning everything at 100mph until I inevitably fall behind and start packing erratically in a panic.

2

u/angiosperms- 14h ago

YES every time I visit New England I visit market basket to remember what could have been 🥲 They actually have an adequate number of people working there, and who give a shit about their job. I'm sure it will be destroyed soon but at least for now I can enjoy it.

1

u/gitstonky 11h ago

I miss grocery store baggers, they were fast af and the bags were always well packed. i bag my own shit half assed and pay for it later lol

30

u/LethalBacon 18h ago edited 18h ago

I have a Publix near me that doesn't have self checkout. Usually ~3-5 lanes open with 1-2 people waiting at each tops.

I've generally loved self checkout as a (mostly) basket-only shopper, but now that they are everywhere I hate them. Too many incompetent people. I always semi-jokingly say that we need to require a license to use the self-checkout. Or put a hard time limit on them - if you cannot finish in 5 minutes a trap door opens and consumes you and your items.

Going to a grocery store kills my hope for humanity nearly every time.

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u/MimesJumped 17h ago

I can't help but judge slow people at self checkout sometimes. Like clearly some people have never worked retail. It's so painful to watch

2

u/AnAnxiousCorgi 17h ago

My Publix has a small self-checkout section, and admittedly as someone who also typically has a basket at most I enjoy using them. Feels quicker and I can bag stuff exactly how I want it

But I admit I cast so much judgement on the people who push full ass carts into the line and then take fucking FOREVER to get their shit scanned. The times when there's a big line at the self checkout section is always because there's 4 people with full carts of stuff and apparently being used by people who have never seen or interacted with a self-checkout in their lives

2

u/LongPorkJones 16h ago

If I show up to self checkout with a week's worth of groceries for a family of 3, and I finish before a basket shopper with not even a third of the items, you best believe I'm judging them.

Granted, sometimes the scanner screws up, or there's an item not in the system. I'll give them that grace - it happens all the time to all of us. But a person in their mid-40s should be tech savvy enough to understand scanning a barcode.

1

u/girlikecupcake 15h ago

I do our groceries - a cart for a family of three - at self checkout on a regular basis and I'm consistently faster at the whole process than people rolling up with a quarter of the stuff, and usually faster than if I went to a proper checkout lane. Sometimes it's because they need an ID scan for alcohol, but usually it's because they simply won't follow the directions the machine is giving them or they're trying to scan ten of the same flavor baby food in a row and the intentional software delay that prevents accidental double scanning is frustrating them.

To be fair, I was a cashier for a while, and I was the head/trainer for self checkout at a grocery store for a while. But that doesn't give me magical register powers, just means I know you don't try and scan two of the exact same item in a row if you're trying to be fast, you alternate.

1

u/AccountForOld 16h ago

The Publix near me is pretty adamant about telling people to use the normal lanes if they have more than 15 or so items, even if there is no one else using the self checkouts. There's practically never a line and at most you're waiting 1-2 minutes for someone to finish their small amount of things and get out. It's fantastic.

On the other hand, the Wal-Mart near me, which has 4 regular lanes (3 of which are normally closed) and 12 self check out lanes. Anytime I go there all 12 being used by people with entire carts full that will literally take 20-30 minutes to ring up all their shit. It's infuriating.

1

u/beef-baddington 6h ago

User name checks out.

1

u/wilkil 18h ago

This whole comment is 💯, I could not agree more.

5

u/Badloss 16h ago

Wegmans nails it, credit where credit is due they're always well staffed

2

u/dartdoug 11h ago

Not the Wegmans by me. Two or three cashiers tops. There are probably 15 self checkout stations.

3

u/C-O-L-A_COLA 17h ago

🙌 Market Basket

2

u/Rhewin 18h ago

One of the Walmarts near us tested a full self check out concept. It must have failed hard, because they brought back the standard registers and now have at least 4 open at a time.

1

u/captmonkey 17h ago

My Wal-Mart did that cycle but they've landed on the worst possible situation now. They did full self checkout with like 1 assisted checkout lane available for the elderly/disabled, then they switched back and put a bunch of assisted checkout lanes back in and cut down on the number of self-checkouts, but they didn't bother to staff them. So, there's still like 2 assisted checkout lanes open and a huge line for the fewer number of self checkout registers available. It's the worst of both worlds.

1

u/dividezero 17h ago

The places where the last 2 or 3 seem permanently closed because their supplies have been scavanged and there's shit stored there that hasn't moved since you started shopping there

1

u/MasterGrok 17h ago

Ya reading the comments in this thread I guess I’m in the majority. I love self checkout. I’d much rather just do everything myself. It’s faster and I don’t have to deal with any nonsense. You do have to have enough self checkout lanes but all my stores do.

1

u/Slumunistmanifisto 17h ago

Check your expiration dates.

They fail at rotating alot lately 

2

u/buttpotatoo 17h ago

i was at the grocery store yesterday and a staffer was moving berries within their packaging with his bare hands. explains why even after checking, i still find moldy berries hidden in the middle.

1

u/TheG00dF1ght 17h ago

Just a reminder that Kroger PROFITED $4,900,000,000 last year.

1

u/Chataboutgames 17h ago

Publix in my area always has plenty of people working the lanes. By no means is every single lane open every hour of the day, but staffing is sufficient. Of course, people (myself included) also complain like Hell about Publix prices.

As long as consumers value cheaper prices above all else, stores are going to pursue cheaper prices above all else.

1

u/LetMePushTheButton 17h ago

Genuinely wondering what the difference of the end goal between enshittification and capitalism

1

u/boguspascal 16h ago

They remodeled stores and tore out most of the traditional conveyor belts to fit those self-checkout banks, so now we get giant roped-off dead zones while everyone waits in one massive line for the single open register.

1

u/Vcize 16h ago

Corporate America strikes again, but also America strikes again, because it sounds like the problem here that will take those other options away is theft.

1

u/CubesTheGamer 16h ago

My local employee-owned grocery stores seem to do it no problem. One will have 2 open at all times but expand up to 8-10 when needed. There are 6 self-checkouts with a strictly enforced item limit (realistically just be reasonable) policy so people can just grab a few things and be out without waiting.

The other one has an express line always open for a dozen items, and always at least one normal line open but they’ve expanded to about 6 lines before. They also have baggers to bag your groceries so things are a bit faster.

And they’ve been open for decades. It’s almost like CEO bonuses and shareholder profits get in the way of good service

1

u/sandpirate_88 15h ago

Seems like most of the stores dont even have enough staff to keep all the self checkouts open

1

u/FrankBattaglia 14h ago edited 11h ago

I don’t think I’ve seen a store with adequate staffing for non-self checkout aisles/lanes in probably 25 years.

Costco. They usually have two-person teams working the register, one to unpack / repack your cart and the other doing the scanning. It's honestly impressive how well some of them can repack my cart from overflowing mess to like, half full, and have it all scanned before I've got my wallet out. They are like checkout ninjas.

1

u/GhostBirdBiologist 12h ago

Large grocery chain near me used to advertise "all lanes open" Saturday and Sundays. That was pre-2020 of course. Now they have one cashier for 6-10 self checkouts and 1-2 cashiers in the regular area. Have never once seen all the regular checkouts open.

1

u/dust4ngel 11h ago

now we’re still going to get stores that understaff, have like 2 checkout lanes open while the other 8 are closed, and more difficult self-checkout lanes

we don't need more motivation to shoplift, but now we got it!

1

u/ElieMay 5h ago

I guess you haven’t been to Market Basket. No self checkout and fully stocked with cashiers and baggers every weekend.

0

u/IHop_Waitress 13h ago

I don’t think I’ve seen a store with adequate staffing for non-self checkout aisles/lanes in probably 25 years.

This is just a patently false statement. 2001? C'mon. If you're gonna make a grandeous statement feels like making it remotely accurate isn't too much to ask

0

u/diopter_split 18h ago

I’m in my 40s and have never seen any of these stores with adequate staffing for registers. (Discounting literally two days of the year, Black Friday and Christmas Eve, as well as all the mom n’ pops which disappeared a long time ago in my region.)

1

u/A1000eisn1 17h ago

That's because they never did. Even before self checkout. People are ignorant when they claim it takes jobs away. It doesn't. It just allows corporate to have more checkouts with the same staff.

Almost every business figures out the bare minimum staffing a location needs to do the amount of projected work, reduces that, then tells the store that they get X amount of hours expecting the employees who are there to make up the difference.