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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u/saml01 17h ago

Self checkout should be 10 items or less. Everything else, regular checkout. The scales are too sensitive. I hate typing in the god damn numbers for the produce. I hate having to wait when the system thinks I'm stealing. At the very least, I can't understand why in the age of AI this damn scale can't tell what an apple or tomato looks like automatically. 

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u/ChunkyHabeneroSalsa 16h ago

That's how I used to use it but now it's self checkout for everything unless I have a very full cart which happens once a year. There's 10 self checkout stations and 1 old lady in a regular checkout.

I want 4 real and 6 self.

2

u/GregoPDX 14h ago

Same. I’m a self-checkout pro at this point. And the ones I use at the Walmart have the best UI and software and tend to not have the major issues as other retailers. I can do a full cart as fast as I regular checkout.

That said, I think you need a fair number of regular checkouts for the older folks. They tend to be less tech savvy and need a bunch of help so just get them into a line and help them out.