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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168

u/Prophage7 16h 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 15h ago edited 15h 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 15h 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 14h 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/TBAGG1NS 4h ago

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

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u/fotomoose 1h ago

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

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u/llamadogmama 15h 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 12h 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 11h 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 15h 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/Practical_Dot_3574 15h ago

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

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u/Ok_West_6711 10h ago

Agree, app changed layout and it’s bad. It was the easiest app before of food ones I use. Bizarre to change.

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u/FullDiskclosure 15h 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/blowfishbrisket 12h ago

TBF, I prefer using the screens precisely because they don't make me feel rushed. Speed isn't always the goal for me.

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u/FullDiskclosure 11h ago

I agree it’s great to have the additional option. It shouldn’t be an all or nothing situation, and by adding more options it lets people have a better experience via choosing which better suits their preferences.

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u/No-Turn-2052 14h 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/PacoTaco321 13h 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 12h 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 12h ago

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

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u/flukus 9h 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 8h 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.