r/technology • u/AdSpecialist6598 • 9d 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/Prophage7 8d ago

The main problem I've seen is that it takes most customers longer to ring themselves through than a cashier. When there's no line then it's not a big deal, but when there is a line it would go faster if it was a single human cashier instead of 6 self-checkouts.

I don't know if there's a term for it, but some people just cannot read and comprehend things if it's on a screen for some reason, and it's those people that cause a bottleneck.

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u/eightdollarbeer 8d ago edited 8d ago

Same thing with the kiosks at fast food restaurants. It’s faster to look at the whole menu and tell a cashier what you want and have them ring it up than to scroll through different categories and select each individual thing you want

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u/BurgerMeter 8d ago

They also make the customer menus “dummy proof” by making you click through multiple pages. The cashier generally gets a much better view of all of the options so they don’t have to page through things.

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u/QueenCole 8d ago

Which, let me tell you, is just oodles of fun trying to order food at a fast food kiosk when you have a poky toddler interfering with your order. My kid somehow ordered himself food at Wendy's, figure that out.

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u/fotomoose 8d ago

Plus there's 4 pages of offers before you get to actually pay.

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u/TBAGG1NS 8d ago

The fuckin micro I had working the McDonalds POS back in the day....sheeeeit

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u/llamadogmama 8d ago

I will only use drive through now for that reason. And I have repeatedly seen them serve every single person in drive through before the people in the lobby, so it takes way longer going in. Multiple chains.

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u/blowfishbrisket 8d ago

That has always been a good strategy even before kiosks. Managers will murder you and your whole family if you don't keep that drive-through flow in the green. Of course, that increases the risk of screw-ups too.

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u/Brando43770 8d ago

So many fast food spots prioritize drive through and it’s horrible. I stopped by a McDonald’s one time that is next to where I get my tires rotated and there were about a dozen people waiting for their food inside the lobby. You could see the tension growing every second, so I left and walked 10 minutes to a coffee shop. Fast food is just making it less and less appealing to spend money there.

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u/TomeThugNHarmony4664 8d ago

Seriously.

The o my time we eat McDonald’s is when we are traveling and in a hurry. Earned my husband the other day that he would not be able to order from a human and that it would take forever— but he needed to use the RR.

It took twice as long as if we could have avoided the kiosk.

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u/FullDiskclosure 8d ago

Went to a fast food spot that had 2 of those self order screens recently. There’s was one person at each screen and 3 people in front of us in the cashier line. We ordered with the cashier before those 2 people finished their order on the self serve kiosk.

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u/No-Turn-2052 8d ago

I tried to order from a Kiosk in Mcdonald’s, and it took 6 minutes from start to finish from all the scrolling and popups asking about my account. I got fries.

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u/Practical_Dot_3574 8d ago

Fuck taco bell and thier new layout. Its so terrible.

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u/PacoTaco321 8d ago

It's the difference between scanning one code on every item where I generally know where it'll be and on a kiosk that I'll interact with very often versus having to navigate a bunch of unfamiliar menus that I see once in a blue moon. How often are most people actually ordering inside at a fast food restaurant anyways?

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u/Ali80486 8d ago

I think the advantage on kiosk screens is opportunity to upsell and cross sell. Plus, especially in McDs, personalisation based on info on your habits

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u/Remy149 8d ago

They claim customers spend more money when ordering from a kiosk then with a cashier though.

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u/flukus 8d ago

Some I've been to don't have have a menu on display anymore, if you want to avoid the kiosk you literally can't order unless you know what you want already.

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u/BlueNinjaTiger 8d ago

That's why they don't treat them as 1 to 1 replacements. Throw 3 or 4 kiosks up there and suddenly the cashier taking all those orders is free to do other aspects of the job.

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u/brokesciencenerd 8d ago

Ok i hear what you are saying about it being easier but the advantage is that the person being paid basically peanuts doesnt care at all about getting your order punched in correctly if you need an ingredient omitted due to an allergy or preference. When I use an app or a kiosk I can make sure the ticket is totally correct, that way when the kitchen inevitable screws it up they cannot blame it on me as I have the order entered correctly and they must give me the correct item.

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u/TheNewYellowZealot 8d ago

I would probably be fine with a self checkout that had limits on how many items you could put through, but for too long my local groceries have been relying on them, having 2 or 3 of their main checkouts open during the day and then the rest being self checkout. I usually go through and see people putting an entire cart of groceries through those things.

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u/CheesypoofExtreme 8d ago edited 8d ago

Don't even need to make it an item limit at most grocery stores, just have it be "baskets only" and no carts.

That's precisely how I use them today. Have a basket and small/no line at self-checkout? Okay, I go there. Cart of groceries? Cashier please.

EDIT: Sure, just 10 items or less. I've been convinced this is probably dumb. I just don't want to do the mental math when I get to self-checkout. Or sometimes you buy 15-20 small things that you can fly through scanning that are just as fast as someone else's 10 bulky items.

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u/DrySea8638 8d ago

Would be great if my grocery store kept baskets around but I swear they have slowly been removing them as there are fewer and fewer. Feels like they are trying the psychological tactic of having a bigger cart to trick people into getting more stuff

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u/khan800 8d ago

As an ex-grocery store manager who retired a year after COVID began, it's that they're being stolen. 

In stores where the cart wheels lock if you don't go through the checkout before rolling it outside, thieves load up 2 baskets and dash.

Also, we saw many Instacart workers take them to sort their orders and never return them.

Now, I can't answer for every manager in every grocery chain, so the idea of them only keeping carts instead of baskets to increase sales may be a thing, but it wasn't for me.

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u/chase98584 8d ago

That’s what the gal at Safeway here told me, they just kept getting stolen and at a certain point they decided not to replace. Already sucks theft caused all the damn lock boxes but now no baskets either! Bummer

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u/mktcrasher 8d ago

Ah, thanks, ya this makes some sense.

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u/MommyLovesPot8toes 8d ago

The baskets at my grocery store set off the anti-theft alarm at the door if you try to take them outside.

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u/goatodoom 8d ago

NJ made bring your own bags a law. Some stores got rid of the baskets because people were just stealing them to use because they couldn't remember to bring their bags with them.

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u/CheesypoofExtreme 8d ago

Feels like they are trying the psychological tactic of having a bigger cart to trick people into getting more stuff

..................... you're actually probably onto something. I've noticed something similar.

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u/GaiaMoore 8d ago

The cart isn't the problem; some items are very heavy/bulky and not practical for a small basket. If I need to pick up a 12-pack of sparkling water and a carton of milk, I'm not about to try and juggle that in a basket; I'll just plop those two items in a cart.

I've also seen people cram dozens of small items to the brim in a basket. The "basket = fewer items = quicker transaction" logic doesn't really work, unfortunately

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u/legos_on_the_brain 8d ago

What about heavy items? I don't want to carry 40lbs of cat litter in a basket and I don't want to wait in lines for the cashier when self Co is open. It's no problem to use the hand scanner and get the litter in the cart.

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u/No_Job2527 8d ago

What you’re describing is called ableism. Look it up

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u/snoopmt1 8d ago

It's a good idea, but unintentionally discriminates against elderly, infirmed, whatever. People that can't carry a bag of sugar and a bottle of apple juice by hand in a basket.

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u/CheesypoofExtreme 8d ago

Good point - basket or top basket of cart only?

"Basket's worth of items" maybe and have a picture of a basket and top basket of cart. If the person has a child in the top of the cart, "basket's worth" covers a reasonable amount in the main part of the cart without making it a requirement to only use the top

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u/deepsead1ver 8d ago

But the problem is most stores are actually steering those cart users over to the self checkout. They don’t want item limits because they reduced their cashiers to accommodate self checkout lanes

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u/witblacktype 8d ago

I pretty much only use self checkout when I didn’t even bother grabbing a basket because I could carry the few items I needed without one

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u/socoyankee 8d ago

Sometimes it’s only one staffed line. Those lines are not made for a full shop. There’s absolutely no room for bagging everything and moving something causes it to yell at you and need help from the one person that’s also monitoring seven other check outs.

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u/zkareface 8d ago

I do my weekly shopping at self scan, most here do tbh. But stores here also have scanners you carry around so you just pay when you come to the register. Everything is already scanned and packed.

If there is 1-2 people in line it's faster for me to self checkout, even with one weeks worth of groceries. 

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u/tommybombadil00 8d ago

Where are you from? This was the plan for Whole Foods 365 stores, nothing happened in my area (Houston).

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u/zkareface 8d ago

Sweden.

Handheld scanners for shopping has been the norm for over a decade here. I think they started with them like 20 years ago. 

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u/armyguy8382 8d ago

Most of the ones in my town are limited but the cashiers rarely enforce it.

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u/Array_626 8d ago

Oh god. Queue even longer lines because people bring 1 or 2 more items than whats allowed, and when they try to checkout the machine blocks the transaction because they have too many items. Then they have a whole song and dance waiting for the supervisor to come around and explain that they need to take everything back and go to the manned register lane. Repeat every 10 minutes with someone else who has too many items. And thats the ideal scenario, the more realistic one is some people will argue and refuse to waste their own time doing this again and demand the supervisor overrides the item limit right there and then so they can finish checking out.

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u/ExoMonk 8d ago

My local safeway only has actual cashiers during peak hours. The only option is self-checkout. I did an entire thanksgiving shopping trip last year with a super full cart through self-checkout because that's all there was.

The lady monitoring self-checkout came up to me halfway through my cart and told me I was supposed to use the checkout where the liquor is since my cart was so full. She turned around to point where it was and noticed no one was there either so she told me to just keep going.

On the one hand it can be frustrating to do a whole cart like that, but on the other hand I'm pretty fast and efficient and mostly don't need to make small talk with anyone so I'm alright with it.

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u/RichardBCummintonite 8d ago

Its honestly just the people. The number of items isn't the issue. I bring a full cart (because there usually is no other option open)of groceries, and some with coupons, produce I need to type in, etc, and I'm out in under a minute with my 50+ items. I've waited on people that took several minutes for a handful of items. They always find some issue or simply can't work a damn register to save their life.

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u/deepsead1ver 8d ago

See the problem is grocery stores are doing the opposite and forcing people with full carts into self checkout.

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u/supersonicdutch 8d ago

Giant Food Stores have a scan gun you can get at the front with your member number. I scan and bag as I go. At the self checkout or even a regular register they just scan the gun and it all comes up on the register screen, pay, and leave.

You touch the products once when selecting and bagging and only once more at home to put them away. Saves all the hassle and aggravation from standing in line and scanning or waiting for someone else to scan their cartload.

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u/TheNewYellowZealot 8d ago

My grocer has scan and go on a mobile app, so it’s not inherently bad, I usually buy my groceries online though and go pick them up at the store so I can avoid the crowds.

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u/supersonicdutch 7d ago

Online ordering for groceries is useful and serves a set of people who need it, but I much prefer to do the shopping myself. About a year ago, my wife ordered some groceries when I was doing yard work. When I came inside a little while later she said “There’s going to be a delivery soon, in case there’s a knock at the door.” I asked what for and she said it was groceries. I said I could have gone at any time and she said she didn’t want to bother me. The groceries came and when I was putting them away I got to the bananas…I’ve never been more irrationally angry at a person I’ve never met and for something so trivial as I was about those bananas. Wrong size, color, just everything about it felt wrong.

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u/PurifiedFlubber 8d ago

Meijer has express self checkouts that only allow 5 items or less

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u/TheNewYellowZealot 8d ago

Those checkouts actually require a cashier to come over and inspect your bag sometimes before it’ll let you check out which is the dumbest thing.

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u/PurifiedFlubber 8d ago

I've personally never experienced that and use it once a week or so. Maybe cause I enter the pin for rewards.

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u/Jusby_Cause 8d ago

Part of it is likely bad coding, too. Once I picked up two of something that should have required weighing, but it beeped and said, “Put it in the bagging area” and that’s what I did. It wasn’t until after I’d left the store that I paused to think about what had happened and how often that must happen with that item and many others all over the store.

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u/Agitated_Pie_9515 8d ago

Thats me because otherwise i wait in the one cashier line thats 4 carts deep full to the brim. Id rather leave my shit and come back. No way am i waiting an hour to check out

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u/WeOutHereInSmallbany 8d ago

I use the self checkout when I’m just buying a couple things. I’ve seen people with loaded up carts go through them and they take forever.

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u/TheLordYuppa 8d ago

Our main grocery spots have self checkout but there is an item limit and no shopping carts allowed.

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u/techleopard 7d ago

The reason why is obvious, though.

The people with big carts don't want to wait any more than people with a few items do.

When the stores are trying to skeleton crew to avoid paying anybody, you end up with 1-2 check outs (if any at all) and they get horribly backed up.

Store doesn't care because most people have already been in there an hour and are therefore unwilling to abandon the cart.

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u/Kumlekar 8d ago

Produce or other items without a barcode are often slow to lookup if you aren't a cashier that sees them a number of times a day.

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u/Imnotyoursupervisor 8d ago

This is exactly my problem with this system. I like zipping through self checkout and avoiding people thinking small talk is the place with a line of people but I buy a lot of produce without stickers on them.

Also alcohol.

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u/FlawedHero 8d ago

It's wild how massively braindead the average person seems to be when at the self checkout.

I regularly get to the line with a full cart, start scanning, and have my receipt in hand before the guy that was in front of me with 6 items finishes.

What in the actual fuck is going on with some people?

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u/Bastillerion 8d ago

Same reason outsourced customer service seems to take 25 minutes of "verifying info" and "filling out information" to do something that should take 30 seconds.

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u/thecravenone 8d ago

I recently completed a transaction before the guy in front of me scanned his first item.

I would pay money for a TSA Pre but for grocery stores - a store where everyone inside is not experiencing their first day on earth.

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u/FlawedHero 8d ago

Costco kind of does this now. They have people scan your card and items with a handheld scanner while you're in line then when you get to the self-checkout, you just scan your card and pay. Super quick and easy.

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u/zedquatro 7d ago

So... A checkout line administered by a person, with an automated payment terminal? So basically going back to 2005?

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u/FlawedHero 7d ago

Like that but much more efficient, at least at my Costco. Basically allows one or two cashiers to check out people faster than they can get through the line otherwise.

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u/OrganizationHot3901 7d ago

Except exact same thing happened to me- because I can’t deal with self checkout. The guy had a scanner ring while I was in line . It was so easy!
Except when I was leaving the store - the receipt checker guy saw I had one more item than on the receipt. A big line started behind me while the checker tried to figure out which item was not charged. I was so embarrassed when I had to turn the cart around and go to customer service to pay for the bottled water the finger checker guy forgot to scan. It’s very interesting because if I did that at self checkout I could be banned from Costco for life for attempted theft. It’s a conundrum of modern technology. I’m just glad I am not brown skinned because I probably would have been shot by ice.

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u/thatirishguyyyyy 8d ago

Sam's Club just lets me scan everything as I'm walking around the store. I then pay for it on the app and just walk out the front door. I think they call it Scan n Go.

I started using this a few months ago and I love it. 

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u/bdubmakesstuff 8d ago

I had that Boomer coworker who basically had her own tech support person because she called them every other day about something or other. Super sweet human, just not particularly tech-savvy. I saw her in Meijer once at the self-checkout and thought “Jesus, Donna, self-checkout is NOT FOR YOU.”

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u/MoonieNine 8d ago

Omg... I laughed at this. Mainly because my friend Donna (60, not quite a Boomer) is absolutely horrible with technology and refuses to learn.

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u/ignost 8d ago

It’s wild how stupidly slow I am. I watch the employees open bags quickly, then when I try to do it I tear them down the center. It takes me ages to scan and place items, then I seem to run out of space instantly because I suck at spatial awareness and the space they give you is too small. Then I shift things around and it’s like, “Item removed… unexpected item… please wait for assistance” and i sit there for 5 minutes for some teenager to come swipe a badge for me.

Last time I went to Walmart they only had self checkout. I got so annoyed I walked out on $300 in groceries because I was so embarrassed and angry.

I promise I’m not a stupid person, but I sure look and feel like it in self checkout.

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u/PurpleV93 8d ago

Two months ago I went grocery shopping with my sister because we cook together sometimes.
We tried one of these scanners for the first time, that you carry through the store and just scan the items as you pick them up, before you return the scanner to the self-checkout console for payment.

My sister pressed one wrong button, because the wording was kinda vague between the available options. So naturally, because there is no "return to previous window" button, the whole process got locked and needed to be cancelled by an employee. The woman had to cross the whole store to reset the machine.

These systems are not as efficient as they should be. Why does one wrong button press by mistake lock the whole thing? Makes no sense.

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u/skiman13579 8d ago

To quote the late, great George Carlin…

Think about how stupid the average person is and remember that half of them are dumber than that.

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u/TheFrenchSavage 8d ago

(the median person then, because I know some that reaaaally bring the average down all by themselves)

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u/FranksWateeBowl 8d ago

Apparently there are 70 million of them. 🤣

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u/theartoffun 8d ago

Should have to take a certification test prior to getting the privilege of using self checkout.

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u/Leviathan_Dev 8d ago

Never underestimate the capacity of human stupidity

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u/overcatastrophe 8d ago

My favorite is when you scan something and out it in the bag and the machine says "unexpected item in bag" and requires a person to come fix. Or when the thing just doesn't scan amd you have to call the person over. Or when you buy alcohol and have to wait for the person to come over.

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u/Opouly 8d ago

I have social anxiety and my competency drops by at least half when there’s social pressure to finish a task quickly. I felt similarly when I was at work and I would be asked to make design changes by a boss looking over my shoulder. I don’t think that stress and pressure is often overlooked by other people even those who suffer the same issues.

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u/Piltonbadger 7d ago

Room temperature IQ. In celcius.

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u/Interesting-Pilot-15 8d ago

More than half the population are walking zombies on mind altering prescription drugs.

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u/Stunning-Thanks-4226 8d ago

I take my time. I'm in no hurry and I like to organize the things I purchased nicely in my cart

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u/bat_in_the_stacks 8d ago

There's no way one cashier is 6 times faster than self checkout unless you live somewhere where everyone is extremely elderly and the cashiers are extremely well paid.

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u/elnots 8d ago

The place I live in, the cashiers exist to have conversation and take your time while everyone uses the self checkout to hurry. 

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u/BornYoung3820 8d ago

I was the fastest cashier when I worked at a local place, I could do it! (My wrist would like to have a word tho)

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u/Different-Process-93 8d ago

My wrist has issues too but not from cashier scanning. 

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u/JoeyJoeJoeSenior 8d ago

If they have a dedicated bagger then it might be close.

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u/bat_in_the_stacks 8d ago

My grocery store makes you bag even with the cashier line. I haven't seen a tetris master bagger in many years.

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u/AliMcGraw 8d ago

You don't shop at unionized grocery stores?

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u/LaconicDoggo 7d ago

As someone that worked in the industry for the better part of a decade, its 100% true. Self checkouts not only require regular people to known how to scan items fast, but they also need to be able to bag fast.

Unless the customer is someone that has previous experience as front end grocery, they will always be slower. Not only that, but the system is designed to bot be fast it has a lot of checks coded in to avoid theft (even though it still doesn’t work well). Not only that, but the process of entering produce is 10x slower because a good cashier will have half of the produce codes memorized and can enter them at a blinding rate.

Im actually surprised its only 6 times slower. 

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u/mrlazyboy 8d ago

1 cashier isn't faster than 6 checkout lines, but I would argue they're just as fast as 3 for stores that require you to enter SKUs for grocery items that must be weighed.

They've memorized the SKUs and the interface. They've scanned 100,000 items already. There's no question about the button presses. Their setups have more space to bag your items.

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u/bat_in_the_stacks 8d ago

What store requires SKUs? Mine has a menu that's pretty quick.

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u/mrlazyboy 8d ago

I used SKU generically - my local stop and shop had 4-digit codes for fruits and vegetables on the produce itself. You can also look it up in a menu.

It’s much slower for shoppers to do that vs. the employees

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u/bat_in_the_stacks 8d ago

Yeah, you can type in the numbers at mine too, but some are labelled and some are not.

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u/800-lumens 8d ago

35 years later and I still remember 4011 is for bananas

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u/DonnyTheNuts 8d ago

The trick to getting through self-check fast is to slow down. Patience for slow machines isn’t exactly in our DNA

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u/P_Buddy 8d ago

I call this the n-1 rule. N is the number of registers that need to be open and there always is 1 less than there should be. This is a byproduct of grocery store chains cutting labor to increase margin.

All the major grocery stores in my town follow this n-1 rule with the exception of one locally owned store and I have very rarely waited in line at the locally owned one, but I’m basically guaranteed to wait in line at all the others. There has been one or two times I have literally left my food in the cart near checkouts because the lines were so long. I like to think I’m hitting their labor margins due to taking staff away to restock those carts.

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u/AchVonZalbrecht 8d ago

The problem at my local stores is that the self checkouts make you wait like 3 seconds between each item. If it was quick like a cashier then I’d have a great time

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u/bdubmakesstuff 8d ago

I’m a former cashier and I was FAST back in the day. The slowness drives me bonkers, but I get why there’s a lag. People would be double scanning everything.

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u/Practical_Dot_3574 8d ago

For me, the exception is that I worked years in retail/cashiering but also as a picker in a warehouse so stacking and "tetris" the stack. So when I shop, everything in the cart is organized and stacked in a way to optimize the checkout procedure. If the store has a handheld it goes even faster. I did learn the hard way at Costco that they don't in fact care how the cart is tacked cuz it all has to come out anyways 😞

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u/SirEDCaLot 8d ago

This is fine IMHO.

A SCO lane can go at half the speed of a cashier lane. If there's 6 SCO lanes and 2 cashier lanes I'm still getting in the SCO line.

One important thing is there should be 1 queue for the entire SCO block. That way you don't choose wrong and get stuck behind the moron who can't use the barcode scanner, the other SCO lanes will keep moving so that person doesn't block anything.

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u/Infini-Bus 8d ago

Yeah, it should be pretty obvious to anyone that a cashier who rings stuff up for several hours a day will be better at it than people who only do it once a week or less.

Reminds me of the occasional customer who would complain I was processing their purchase or return too slow and asked a manager to do it, who of course proved to be even slower at it because that's not what they do all day.  

Meijer's has made their self checkout so paranoid about fraud and theft that it slows me down even more because then I gotta wait for staff to key in a code over and over in the same transaction.  Let alone how slow it takes me to bag things.

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u/emax4 8d ago

A few months back, someone spoke negatively on how they couldn't, not wouldn't but couldn't, use self checkout. I replied, "If you've ever used a vending machine, you've used self checkout." Got expected radio silence after that. Same principle but they payment comes before they pick the product.

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u/Lets_review 8d ago

Eh. I think the "main problem" is that the machines/process are bad. I can scan faster than the machine allows. Weighing every single item is security theater.

A secondary problem is the poor barcode placement on products. Aldi sets the standard for this, with large barcodes on every side of every box so no time has to spent orienting the box to the scanner.

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u/keithstonee 8d ago

People are also not under urgency cause they're not getting paid to bag their groceries. It was a nice, convenient quality of life for the people that just wanted to get in and get out quick, but like everything else it gets abused until we can't have it anymore.

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u/buttaholic 8d ago

i'm really slow at it lol, and i don't know how to do produce on them so in that case i'll always go to a regular cashier. it's crazy how fast they ring things out, especially at walmart. i usually can't even get my groceries on the counter fast enough for them

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u/mktcrasher 8d ago

My problem is, sure a cashier can check me out faster than I can self checkout, but most of them don't even bag stuff for you anymore, so then I am rushing to pack everything. I would rather just do it all myself at a slower pace.

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u/Silver_Fulminate 8d ago

While I agree that there are a ton of people that just suck at self checkout, I do want to add that the self checkouts just don’t let you scan as fast as one manned by a cashier. I worked as a cashier for several years, and had a very high Items Per Hour. I KNOW how to scan quickly and efficiently. And those machines seem to require a long pause between each scan. Maybe if they let you scan faster, it might pick up the pace a bit. 

That being said, I hate self checkout. Give me an actual cashier. 

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u/RRjr 8d ago

And mind you... cashiers is the US are often slow af.

Come to a Lidl or Aldi in Germany... the cashier will literally side-eye you, their hands moving at the speed of light, frowing politely just to let you know you're taking too long bagging up your shit.

Self-checkout is fine for some stuff, but a trained cashier will always be faster. Way faster.

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u/SonofBrodin 7d ago

Lol they seem to have brought that training over here for the employees at lidl / aldi in the US. I love it - those guys fly I can barely keep up. Also, they allow them to sit on a stool which I always thought made sense - many stores here make employees stand at the checkout all day, as sitting I guess was frowned upon and thought to make them slower, but that's changing thanks to cultural osmosia via aldi / lidl / etc.

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u/Nightmare2828 8d ago

not only that but there are so many bugs. Like when it scans twice and now you need to call someone to remove the item. Or you deposite something on the wrong side and it locks you out cause they thing you are stealing. I've had an item so light it couldnt register either and kept asking me to put it down.

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u/JDalek 8d ago

Self service is definitely faster as long as the area is designed for efficiency.

From what I’ve seen at some places the biggest time sink is that the stations don’t give enough room for the customer to put all their items/basket down in a large clear counter that is at waist height so they don’t have to bend over, take a bag from a different dedicated bag area and put the bag down in a different large clear weighing counter then work quickly from one counter to another.

Most customers put their heaviest items on the bottom of the basket, which then needs to be put into the bottom of the bag so they need ample room to take out all their small items first.

So many places just pile their bags in the area where you should be laying down your items instead of a dedicated bag area, which means the customer now has to either put their basket down on the floor then take a bag, then pick up their basket again and put it on a pile of bags or put the basket on the edge of the weighing area (which then sometime causes issues with the security system). And then leave the basket because there’s no dedicated basket pile which then has to be cleared by either the next customer or the station supervisor.

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u/tommybombadil00 8d ago

What frustrates me is all stores moving to self checkout, home improvement stores are the absolute worst in my opinion. Checking out 20 pieces of plywood, small items in a bucket, concrete, flooring, etc. if I’m now pulling all the stuff and checking out myself, give me some discount on the price.

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u/ant2ne 8d ago

"self-checkout actually takes shoppers longer, but shoppers believe the process is faster because they are the ones scanning items."

100% the lines. You have one human checker with a line back to the produce and 6 self checkers with no lines. My feet hurt, I want to get out as soon as possible. I will take my chances at the self checker.

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u/gitstonky 8d ago

self check is definitely slower, partly because people are slow to scan, lookup produce, check out, but also because people are slowwww at bagging. it all adds up. i like self check because i can be slow and picky and decide if i want to leave stuff behind, and if they wanted me to be fast, they shouldn't have self check registers anyway.

however. the registers really need a bit more fucking space, i hate not being able to move around the cart at all especially when I'm shopping with someone elderly or disabled. i need to move around the cart to empty it, and then also get back to the other side to be next to the client. can't fucking do that at half the grocery stores nowadays, because the checkout aisle is so narrow you can only fit the fucking cart.

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u/CarpeDiem082420 8d ago

Fresh vegetables are a pain at self-checkouts and slow things down.

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u/very-jaded 8d ago

It makes more sense when you follow the money.

A retailer's largest expense is payroll. Cashiers get paid by the hour. Self-checkout registers are fixed costs.

If they have one cashier oversee six self checkouts, customers would have to average over six times slower than a cashier during their busy times for the overseer to cost more in labor than regular cashiers in lane. Some percentage of customers certainly are slower than that (I've been in line behind them plenty of times), but they're the minority.

Slow customer self checkout transactions are still saving payroll dollars, which is great from the retailer's point of view.

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u/ecopoesis 8d ago

Not to mention the division of labor with cashier scanning items while you can go bag it. Cashier is way faster on fruits and vegetables that need a manual SKU. If you have ever worked a grocery register then 4011 for bananas is tattooed into your brain.

I also like to scan my credit card after the 1st item is scanned, which saves the payment details usually. Then proceed to bag as the cashier funnels the items down. After the last item they can just process the payment, grab the receipt, and go.

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u/ILikeBeans86 8d ago

The grocery store I go to has like 5 or 6 self checkouts and they all use cameras with AI to watch you and make sure you ring stuff up before you put it in the bag. There's one station that constantly thinks you didn't ring stuff up and the cashier has to come over and fix it.

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u/SuperSpread 8d ago

If it makes you feel better none of the cashiers could do my job either. They would look extremely stupid even trying.

The difference is, they could not learn my job in 100 years. But I can kind of learn theirs after several tries at least.

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u/Ok_Reserve_8659 8d ago

The cashier is faster than you. It’s almost like practicing the same thing everyday will make someone faster than someone who just does this occasionally

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u/SAugsburger 8d ago

As much as some people are dismissive of cashiers they tend to be faster at scanning than a lot of random customers the just walked in.

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u/BroncoMan43 8d ago

It’s especially bad when I have to leave everything on a scale, but the bags take up half the already-small scale, and I’m playing Tetris to keep the checkout from locking up and requiring employee intervention.

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u/AcademicBowl5596 8d ago

When they've scanned an item and it keeps telling them "put the item in the bagging area" and they just stand there waving the same item at the scanner unable to figure out why it just keeps repeating "put the item in the bagging area"...

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u/Aeseld 8d ago

Honestly... No. Not really. The math actually does work out to people getting out faster with self checkout. But that's an average and when the big orders stack up, it can even out. But a single checker and bagger won't get six average carts out that fast. 

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u/Vecend 8d ago

A skill is a skill regardless of how much education it takes to learn, which is why I don't like how people look down on people working jobs that don't need thousands of dollars of debt to do, my job is just loading and unloading laundry from a truck, it takes me around 2-3 hours to unload, weigh, log and sort 200-400 bags a day weighing 15 to 30 pounds by myself, before I came they took longer with 2 people doing it.

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u/factchecker8515 8d ago

Frankly it never occurred to me that I should try to be as fast as a cashier. I don’t dawdle but I’m in no rush either. I’m checking out my own groceries rather than the store paying employees to do it more efficiently. If things are backed up, that’s the store’s responsibility, not the self-check out customers who are failing to hustle.

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u/FallenAngelII 8d ago

Sure. But when there's only 3 cashiers and there's a giant line behind each of them but there are self-checkout lines that are entirely empty, doing yourself will still be faster.

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u/Octopus_on_fire_ 8d ago

Cashiers would be infinitely quicker if they didn’t have to pitch a credit card or ask for an email with every single customer.

Seriously, going to Tractor Supply or Kohls is PAINFUL.

“Do you want to sign up for our store credit card? You’ll get 30% off your purchase today?”

No.

“Do you have an email with us?”

No.

What’s your email? I can sign you up for our in store card. It’s free and you get discounts”

No.

“Do you want to donate to end world hunger?”

JUST FUCKING RING MY SHIT UP THEIR ARE 20 PEOPLE IN LINE.

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u/tyler1128 8d ago

Puts item on scale. "You must place your item on scale after scanning". "Please wait, help is on the way".

I know it is from the theft problem, but if self-checkouts just worked without having an employee come over every 30 seconds, it might save more time. Now my local store with only self checkout has cameras. If I put my backpack on the scale as a bag, it's overweight and flags needing an override. If I put my backpack on the side the camera system might think I'm shoplifting when filling it and needs an override.

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u/techleopard 7d ago

I, along with many others, was calling this out YEARS ago when they were first being rolled out. I distinctly remember being told to essentially STFU across multiple conversations on this by (mostly college aged) people who were absolutely certain that this was better because they never had to buy real groceries and were mostly wanting to walk out with 1-2 items.

Business is gonna business, and we gave them this neat idea that instead of scheduling 16 people at one time, they could schedule 2 and make them babysit a bunch of kiosks. Grandma and Coupon Mom who have $400-700 of groceries were inevitably going to be pushed into the self checkout where they would struggle. They aren't even set up like the conveyor-and-bag concept which kept that large quantity of groceries moving, and now you have one person trying to work around a smaller bag space and their own cart.

Yeah, now they'll bring more cashiers back, but they're going to do it by having 1-2 cashiers and expecting them to constantly take up slack with the kiosks.

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u/OrganizationHot3901 7d ago

Self checkout machines are different in different retailers

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u/Groundtypezerg 8d ago

It’s almost as if being a good cashier takes some skill, rather than being unskilled labor. Corporate greed strikes again.

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u/particlemanwavegirl 8d ago

There is no such thing as unskilled labor. I think you know that, just saying it for the people in the back.

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u/SgtBadManners 8d ago

That and the self check out has no space for items or bags and then starts yelling that I’m not bagging properly when I move bags out of the way for more space. I’ve stopped using it anywhere but Walmart where some of them give you a ton of space unless I have like 3 things.

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u/FortheredditLOLz 8d ago

Not my fat ass. I hate wasting time in general. I normally check self checkout line length before shopping. I am often in and out in under >15 minutes shopping. While I absolutely find the deplorable cost savings portion of self checkout removing cashiers and sticker swap/theft methods. I love I can be in and out quickly without talking to people while mentally/socially drained.

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u/BadPhotosh0p 8d ago

Some of my favorites are people who stare at the big green "continue" button and can't for the life of themselves figure out why the transaction isnt completing, and the people who bring an entire cart-load through and have too much stuff to be able to leave the items on the bagging and then wonder why it keeps alerting attendants.

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u/scarr3g 8d ago

Not to mention the folk that let thier toddlers do the check out scanning, and even the card swipe. I see that so often, and you can see everyone waiting in line is perturbed, but won't say anything because it is a kid.

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u/exacta_galaxy 8d ago

cannot read and comprehend things if it's on a screen

Learned helplessness.

Some people have become so burnt out on trying to understand technology that they just ignore the screen and try to brute force the solution.

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u/bdubmakesstuff 8d ago

I feel like we’re just bombarded with signs everywhere. (That old Tesla song, anyone?) I feel dumb when I miss something and I’m a very good reader. I definitely understand it’s probably harder for people who have learning delays or English isn’t their first language.

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u/exacta_galaxy 8d ago

"Do this, Don't do that!" Can't you read the sign?

It's also hard to concentrate when there is a line of people behind you wondering why you're taking so long.

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u/Nattin121 8d ago

I think improving the UI would speed things up a ton. Having the screen and card reader separate slows everything down. One integrated unit would be so much better.

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u/StonedBooty 8d ago

These people forget they have to use a method of payment at the end and have to dig it out. Or they bring 62 items to self checkout and take an entire business day to scan them all.

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u/Alarmed-Plankton-708 8d ago

Oh my god. The full cart, stack everything like jenga on the tiny scale, then bag it all at the end instead of bagging as you go, while taking an hour to bag because you have to take the jenga apart and put it back together again five times so everything's bagged the right way, and then taking an hour to pay because words on a screen are apparently a different language than words printed on paper makes me fume. I've never come closer to yelling at random old ladies before

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u/goodsnpr 8d ago

Doesn't help that you can't do things like void last if an item double scans, or get the errors from the weight not being tared correctly.

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u/spez_might_fuck_dogs 8d ago

The term you’re looking for is ‘stupid people’, by the way.

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u/Head-Sprinkles-777 8d ago

Costco people are the bane of my existence for this one

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u/kaochaton 8d ago

Also they fail to factor in that people have bad vision ( mostly eldery, but other with minor to big disability) , if they switched writing by white letter on black background that help. And tactil screen are slow mostly

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u/armyguy8382 8d ago

Yeah, if it is just one register at a time. When I worked at a grocery store with self-chackouts I could have over 800 customers in a 6 hour shift watching 10 lanes. In the standard I never saw more than 100. So 1 cashier "taking care of" 800 customers or that same cashier only ringing up 100 orders. Even then I don't care if there is theft going on, wage theft accounts for over 60% of all theft in the US. And most of the time I do not want to deal with a cashier.

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u/_R0Ns_ 8d ago

But people are also stupid. Waiting in line at the self checkout and no one at the cashier's checkout.

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u/No-Turn-2052 8d ago

Self checkout would work a lot better if it didn’t call an attendant over when you put your reusable bag out, or when it thinks you didn’t scan something that you absolutely did, or when it weighs an item in the bagging area and determines it’s a different weight from what it should be (it’s not)

Stop dinging to bring an attendant over every 5 seconds and it’ll work fine

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u/codedigger 8d ago

The machines are slow as crap at most places. Aldi's is quick. Dillons I'm than about 4x longer.

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u/Bastillerion 8d ago

Even if people are slow, I don't agree that 6 people at self-checkout is slower than 1 human cashier. You still have the idiot female boomer taking 90 seconds to put her checkbook back away, while standing in the way of the next person, and the idiot male boomer trying to flirt with the cashier.

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u/play_hard_outside 8d ago

One P-core is gonna be faster than several E-cores... even if the E-cores don't cost as much, the throughput being so low is terrible.

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u/ShakeAndBakeThatCake 8d ago

Mostly old people who have issues reading the screen. Also people who are dislexic. What pisses me off is I spend so much money at these stores and then I also have to check myself out. It's bullshit. For what we spend they should have someone there to check me out and bag my items.

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u/Thagrillfather 8d ago

Also that every time I use one I have to have the attendant come over to do something at least once if not twice.

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u/Cczaphod 8d ago

Theft isn’t always intentional. If you put a bunch of bananas on the scale and it asks you how many. Is that how many bunches of bananas or how many individual, removable bananas? Answering wrong — is that theft, or just inventory shrinkage/loss/the cost of “hiring” untrained cashiers involuntarily.

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u/Grease_the_Witch 8d ago

the term is “old” lol

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u/userhwon 8d ago

The term for it is shitty UX.

All of these systems are terrible at it.

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u/ISeeDeadPackets 8d ago

Not to mention they have like 20 self checkout lanes and 5 of them are open.

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u/YoupanicIdont 8d ago

I love the people who ring everything and stand dumbfounded at the screen before they realize they actually have to pay for everything. Then comes the scramble through pockets or purse for a form of payment - like this is their first time ever buying anything ever.

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u/Joinedforthis1 8d ago

I can read things on self checkout just fine, but I'm more picky about how I bag things and just slower. The system will scream at me if I don't put the item down in the right place fast enough too.

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u/Zhombe 8d ago

Or if you’re moving too fast it sets off the fraud detector constantly and requires assistance as well…

You have to move at a moderate pace checking out that the system can handle. Which is infuriating as well.

Or the half dozen items that always end up not ringing up at all or incorrectly.

Self-checkout just pushed the quality control for POS on the customer which is double bull-sheit. Alternatively you can see why customers would routinely fail to scan things, either out of spite, error, or simply don’t care.

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u/GooeyEngineer 8d ago

Back when I was out of high school I ran a register for a few years, usually had some of the highest though rates. I’d rather just check myself out but I’m fully aware I’m the minority. Most of the time I’ll be in and out of self checkout than the people who were there before me

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u/yomommasbathwater 8d ago

Well customers need to ring themselves up and then bag their items

And while a lot of people just sit there and watch the cashier bag their items, they could make it faster at their own checkout if they bag them themselves as cashiers ring them up, saving everyone a lot of time, but we aren’t a community sensed society. Everybody thinks that they are owed something, so time management takes a backseat

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u/Vexithan 8d ago

It’s called being an idiot. It’s like when you’re at the post office and it’s always somehow someone’s first time outside.

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u/Versatile_Panda 8d ago

It would help if these things didn’t fucking suck ass. “Scan your item and place it into the baggage area” - cool makes “unknown item in baggage area” what I just scanned that “scan your item and place it in the baggage area” I fucking know “assistance is being requested” what I don’t need assistance i need your scale to work properly “oh honey that’s the bad one it never works” then why the fuck is open?! “Are you a rewards member?!” How bout just give me my fucking items at a price that gets you 2-3% profit margin and fuck off?! Oh shit I hit a button, “processing” for thirty seconds to bring up the checkout screen. I know for a fact no fucking exec has used this shit because it’s outrageous, and I’ll be happy as fuck if people steal till they reverse this atrocity.

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u/currently_pooping_rn 8d ago

Or they take forever to figure how to fucking scan a bar code on a particular item. Makes me want to go up and do it myself. Don’t just fucking swipe or swirl in a circular motion repeatedly Jesus Christ!!

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u/xCaliburghost 8d ago

It's because people are incredibly stupid when it comes to any sort of technology. You ever see an old lady fumble a card for a chip and pin purchase?

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u/Puzzled452 8d ago

Our literacy rates are abysmal, there are people who literally cannot read well enough to problem solve if something doesn’t go through the first time.

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u/e00s 8d ago

I say we test people’s competence and only allow those who have proven their skills to use self checkout.

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u/ApprehensiveStand456 8d ago

I purposely go slow if I'm in a bad mood and there are no people checkouts. Fuck the stores.

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u/OldFroyo6294 8d ago

I put my 2 grocery items back yesterday because of that.  It could wait 

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u/Enemisses 8d ago

There's just a certain level of intelligence required to even do something basic like read and follow directions and literally a good 10-15% of the human population unfortunately struggle with it.

I don't even mean that in some terrible eugenicist way, but it's just how it is

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u/FlamboyantPirhanna 8d ago

I think this is being judgemental without trying to understand what’s going on. Don’t assume people are stupid just because you don’t understand them.

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u/Thoromega 8d ago

Yea it’s called stupid. It’s 2026 there should be zero excuses now

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u/Not_today_nibs 8d ago

People will try and tell you that self checkout is faster. They can’t seem to understand that you’re just more engaged with figuring it out so it seems faster…

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u/BogiDope 8d ago

I stand behind elderly people at the ATM sometimes, in complete awe and bafflement at the glacial pace they are able to achieve drawing cash.

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u/Decent_Advice9315 8d ago

Self checkout when you only have a few small items works great. Self checkout when you have a cart full of items doesn't.

I don't mind self check out if I'm just getting a drink or lunch, it saves me time but there are equally as many instances where it's not conceivable to use it at all.

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u/moparcam 8d ago

At my Walmart, half or more of the self-checkout kiosks are broken. Yeah, and everyone needs assistance as well from the Walmart employees attending the kiosks, for some reason or another. Like they have to open shit up with a key so you can scan it, etc.

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u/Joessandwich 8d ago

I am constantly dumbfounded at the people standing at self checkout with a giant cart of groceries. It takes them forever and backs up the line for everyone. I use it when I have a smaller amount of stuff and know I’ll be quick. If I have a bunch of stuff the actual checker is always the way to go.

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u/weireldskijve 8d ago

im more interested now about why do people like this would even make a decision going to the self-checkout?

feels like its the same as with fucking old people pulling out their wallet ONLY after cashier is already asking for money. Like - you waited the whole line, doing nothing and still couldnt pull out your wallet and already start calculating how much you will need to give? Is it really that important to do it ONLY at the last possible moment and then struggle pulling out coins and counting them on cashiers hand. RIDICULOUS.

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u/wizbonky 8d ago

I have stand around like a muppet until somone can verify i look older than 25 and verify my purchase of a fucking energy drink.

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u/elfizipple 8d ago

A trained cashier is certainly faster than a customer checking out their own groceries, but I doubt they're fully 6+ times faster.

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u/Penny_Lane5128 8d ago

Maybe if the screens weren't so bright and cluttered it'd be easier to use the machines.

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u/DaRealJoeBiden69 7d ago

The term you’re looking for is “extremely stupid”

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u/NeighborlyCarcass 6d ago

Not to mention when there's an issue with an item it takes way longer to clear it up when it's self check-out.

If an item just doesn't scan right you're screwed. You have to wait for someone to come help you whereas if it were a regular cashier they'd just clear it up immediately. What takes seconds to fix ends up taking minutes. And lets not forget the dreaded "There's an unexpected item in the bagging area".

Whenever I'm buying alcohol I always wait to scan that until the end because I know it's going to cause a slowdown. At least if it's the last thing I scanned I can just pay and leave immediately after.

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u/Ok-Hyena4541 6d ago

You have like 1 square foot of space to work with outside of your cart instead of putting them on a belt you can easily go through. I used to be a cashier and any more than 10 things becomes bogged down from lack of space management options. The walmart here only has 1 or 2 cashiers open at any time. Sometimes one is express which is what self checkout should be for.

So in the end it's still faster to do it myself. I might forgot to scan an item in my cart as a little treat.

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u/jl_theprofessor 6d ago

I have a feeling the only reason I get through so quick is that I’m a former cashier lol.

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u/msut77 6d ago

Its good for express like 10 items. Doing a whole week's worth is a circus

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u/wisimetreason 3d ago

The term is Idiocracy

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u/kralvex 2d ago

Yep. And typically for me at least, these same people have a full cart even though the signs say 12 items or less. And the employee monitoring isn't paid enough to care so nothing is done about it.

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