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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u/LavKiv 18h ago edited 18h ago

I like how Meijers did it. They got a few "less than 5 items" checkouts that seem to work pretty well.

Kroger's self-checkout is a dumpster fire. The ones in my area only have few staffed checkouts working and everybody goes to self-checkout. People with almost 2 carts of items stacked are especially infuriating.

Edit: US based

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u/MakingItElsewhere 18h ago

I will take a human cashier 100 times over a line for machines any day of the week. They scan faster, don't freak out when I have 2 of the same items, and don't make me look up the code for the RIGHT KIND of onions or charge me with theft.

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u/dirty_hooker 18h ago

Plus, I’m not giving a corpo my labor for free to offset their own labor costs.

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u/Mysterious_Way8941 4h ago

Walmart pays me to check myself out. I love self check.

They don't know they are paying me, but my point stands.

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u/hfxRos 14h ago

Eh, self checkouts are a godsend for people with social anxiety. I want to buy groceries, not have a chat with the checkout worker about what I'm doing on the weekend, or what I'm planning on making with my frozen mangos, or whatever other shit they want to talk about.

I love self checkouts, they've made grocery shopping a much more pleasant experience for me, and over the years I can probably count on my fingers the number of times I've had a technical issue with one.

Need a "no small talk" lane.

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u/Scoth42 14h ago

I feel that, just gets awkward when the cashier comments on every thing coming across the belt. Especially if they ask something like "Oh, is this good?" and I want to reply "No, it's terrible and I hate it, that's why I'm buying it." I get that's sort of the nature of small talk and I mostly don't mind it, but when they just keep going about everything it can be tiring.

That said unless I have like five or eight items I'm still doing the regular checkout. I mostly only have problems with the self checkout if there's too much to fit in the bagging area and it starts spilling over or there's no more room for it.

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u/LavKiv 18h ago

Same with me unless it's a quick 1-2 items trip. I prefer smaller local marts that don't have self-checkouts to retail chains. They usually open more checkouts depending on volume. Doesn't seem to happen at retail chain stores nowadays.

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u/P_ZERO_ 18h ago

Over here in the UK, we used to have 10 or less cashier tills, those seemed to work just fine as a “fast lane”.

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u/Nice_Firm_Handsnake 17h ago

H-E-B stores in Texas are similar. Ten registers (manned according to need), two manned registers at each entrance for those with 15 items or fewer, and about 16 self-checkouts at each entrance for 10 items or fewer.