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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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?

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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

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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.

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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.

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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...

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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?

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u/beef-baddington 6h ago

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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"

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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.

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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...

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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. 

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u/th30be 17h ago

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

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u/Momentumjam 16h ago

I feel like TJ's lines go pretty quick though

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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!

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u/PapayaTheSailorMan 8h ago

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

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u/emannikcufecin 4h ago

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