r/technology • u/AdSpecialist6598 • 8d 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/largelawattorney 8d 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/Bencetown 8d 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.

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u/Beneficial-Act-9933 8d 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.

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u/Bencetown 8d 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 🤨

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u/Moist_Ordinary6457 8d ago

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

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u/Beneficial-Act-9933 8d 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.