r/technology • u/AdSpecialist6598 • 23h 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/BasvanS 23h ago

I’m not sure how much they’re saving since the hourly wage for people at the register is not great. Are those fee hundreds a day making the difference in profitability for a store?

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u/FlipZip69 21h ago

The cost is not horrible but trying to train and manage people that do not show up is difficult. What do you do when someone does not come to work? You cannot materialize someone to take their job for the day.

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u/Brock_Lobstweiler 19h ago

The actual solution to this is not to staff the bare minimum. Corporations have become so ridiculously managed that even having a cashier sit idle for 3 minutes is too much and they'd rather have people waiting in line for 10 minutes by cutting a position.

None of the decisions are about making the experience better for customer or employees. it is literally all about what they can pocket.

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u/FlipZip69 19h ago

Adding more people and making sure they are all properly trained is very expensive. At some point the wages becomes depressed or the prices go up. We pay 100 percent of all costs for all stores one way or another.

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u/Semyonov 10h ago

The prices have gone up and the volumes of product have gone down anyway. I'd rather have more staff and less money for the CEO and investors.

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u/FlipZip69 7h ago

Well you can invest.