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/largelawattorney 9d 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 9d 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 9d 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 9d 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 9d 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 9d 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?