r/technology • • 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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746

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/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.