Supermarkets Look to Automated Checkout
 

So what are all these out of work cashiers gonna do now? Heh.


Supermarkets Look to Automated Checkout

Jun 5, 10:03 PM (ET)

By IRA DREYFUSS

WASHINGTON (AP) - Supermarket checkout clerks are going the way of the bank teller - available if you want one, avoidable if you don't. Self-checkout machines, which let customers scan, bag and pay for their own groceries, offer shoppers a chance to avoid the lines at the checkout stands.

"This is like an ATM for them. It's quicker and easier," said Jennifer Panetta, a spokeswoman for the six-state Harris Teeter chain, based in Matthews, N.C. "They are in pretty much all our stores."

About one-quarter of grocery chains are trying them now, with some 34,000 machines in use in stores in 2003, said market analyst Greg Buzek, president of IHL Consulting Group in Franklin, Tenn.

Buzek, who wrote a report on the equipment, predicts that by 2007 there will be 244,000 self-checkout machines in stores and that virtually every chain will at least some of them.

"The way we shop has changed quite a bit in the last 15 years," he said in an interview. "But the checkout lane hasn't changed all that much."

For example, shoppers have been shifting from grocery carts to plastic baskets, and adding short stops to the big weekly grocery purchase. More than half of supermarket customers bring fewer than 15 items to the register, and self-checkout is ideal for them, according to Buzek's report.

Express lanes were set up to speed these customers through, but self-checkout can be even faster, Buzek said. A space that could fit one or two lanes can handle four to six self-checkout machines, reducing the chance of getting stuck in a line. "There's usually nobody in line at self-checkout," Buzek said.

Customers take longer than a clerk to ring up and bag groceries, but the shoppers do not seem to notice that, the report said. Because the customer is keeping busy scanning and bagging instead of waiting while the clerk does the work, time seems to pass faster.

"I think this is faster if you know what you are doing," said Khatool Reha of Reston, Va., as she dropped a couple of cans of spaghetti into a plastic bag at a Harris Teeter store. "There is no need to wait in line."

When she buys more than 10 items, "I just go over there," said Reha, motioning toward the staffed lanes.

That is the way it is supposed to work, Buzek said. Getting more small purchasers into the self-checkout lanes frees cashiers in the staffed lanes to deal with big-ticket purchases that customers prefer to have someone else bag, he said.

For retailers, the use of self-checkout can reduce staffing at the front of the store. One staffer typically is the only employee needed to assist customers at the self-checkout lanes when shoppers cannot get a bar code to scan or do not know where to put their credit card.

Buzek said there also is less theft at a self-checkout counter.

Employees are responsible for most of the theft in a retail store, he said. One common form is "sweethearting," in which the clerk helps a friend by passing a cheaper item over the scanner but dropping a more expensive one into the bag.

That is hard to do on a self-checkout machine. The computer can identify the object, typically weighing each product-coded item. A customer drops the item into the bag after it is scanned, and if the weight of the bag doesn't change by the proper amount, the machine halts the transaction until things get straightened out.

Wal-Mart has self-checkout in about 840 of its more than 3,000 stores, and is putting the equipment into all of its new stores as they open, said Gus Whitcomb, a spokesman for the chain in Bentonville, Ark.

Whitcomb said Wal-Mart customers have put just about everything through the scanners - even ready-to-assemble desks in "a big gigantic box." Other stores, such as The Home Depot (HD) hardware chain, also have been using self-checkout.

Not every food store chain is leaping to the technology. Publix Super Markets, based in Lakeland, Fla., has about 800 stores, mostly in Florida, but only about a dozen have self-checkout, and seven of those were already in stores the chain purchased in Tennessee, said Brenda Reid, a Publix spokeswoman.

The corporate culture at Publix emphasizes having staffers do things for customers, Reid said. "Self-checkout would be very countercultural," she said.

Publix stores where the manager sees a demand for self-checkout can get it, she said, but "nobody is beating down our doors."

We already have them up here but I prefer to use the person still. She can scan, bag and ring up the bill faster than I can.

WG

They can always use them like walmart and kmart use them...

They'll have regular checkout and a couple of supervised self checkout systems.

they have had this system in europe for a few years now

i cant remember where it was i think in england in one of their grocery stores you pick up a little hand held scanner thing walk around and fill your cart with stuff and scan every barcode for the goods you put in the cart

then when you are done you put the hand scanner back into the machine you pick it up from and it prints out a receipt with another barcode on which you put into an atm like machine then you pay with your credit card

seemed like a good system im surprised it took so long to make its way over here

one thing i wish that europe would take from the us though is drive thru bank tellers i hate having to queue in banks to make deposits and draw funds lol

I use the self scanners when there are lines or when I don't feel like dealing with a moron.

We have had them at supermarkets and Home Depot for over a year. I am impatient, and use them whenever I can.

We use those all the time at Kroger and Wal-Mart. Saves alot of time and frustration.

If you are getting only a few things, those things are awesome... :thumbsup

If there's any of it in here I didn't notice...

We have them here. After midnight, that's all that's working...no cashiers. What a pain in the ass. They have a long way to go to make them 'easy' and shoplifter safe at the same time.

yeah they are awesome after you took us to that home depot store we just cant wait for OZ to pick up this idea
we still have to queue :BangBang:

Ive seen them around for like a year

They're fucking stupid.

Good concept, but the fact that they (Giant Eagle, Grocery Store here) pay someone to watch you check out at them makes the manager in me scream.

I buy my groceries during the overnights, no little old ladies wandering around, carts blocking everything, whiny kids, etc...

Recently they have forced the automated checkouts on everyone after midnight, the girl that was working the checkout is now managing four of these machines, and for the most part all the customers hate these things with a passion, so much so I have been learning that overnight business is decreasing as so many people hate them.

Its not too bad, I can fudge the costs of fruit and veggies on their scale, and whatnot, still working on a number of other hacks around it. :1orglaugh

they already have them

In Europe, customers bag groceries themselves!

http://www.icaborgholm.com/images/kassa.jpg

I love thos things! except when theyres someone slow in front of me

Some people will NEVER use those types of machines. I for one wouldn't mind though. :)

I wonder how they track that you are scanning everything you had in your cart?

These things are great for less the 5 items. Bread, milk, cheese, shit like that. Don't try a take beer though there, You will in up waiting for a person to come over a verify your age and shit.

it is not specific to Europe, you can find the same thing in Canada depending of the grocery store you're going to

I'm sure one day we'll just push our entire cart through a scanner and pay a bill.

I got pretty used to the automated checkout when I lived in the US. I didnt mind it at all. I did however feel like an idiot the first time I tried to use it. Had to be walked through it :)
Now that Im back in Canada I kinda miss them.
I also miss the 24 hour grocery stores. Theres only a couple in Calgary and none are nearby.

ive used them at home depot before. they always seem to be down for one reason or another.

I use them all the time here. It's very useful when you don't have a lot of things to buy.

There was a trial in Australia with these but I think it'll be a while before we see them everywhere over here. I think it's inevitable though, that they will take over.

Theres one over here and I still much rather prefer the actual person. The line for these things are long because too many idiots don't know to follow simple instructions. It took up to 5 minutes for this lady to scan 10 items, that was enough to throw me off the idea.

inovation

not that it is a bad thing... hell there is nothing wrong with trying to save a few dollars... however... when it takes a job away from a person who may have a family to feed... well... something about that aint right. I mean it's not like those cashiers make a lot.

Another problem with them is that most people are stupid.... it takes them longer to figure out whatt he fuck to do with the machine than a cashiere with a line 5 people long.

Yes they def. need to keep the regular checkouts because the old people freak out when it comes to automated checkouts.

I used one of those for the first time in Tesco, a few weeks ago.

They fucking rock. :winkwink:

They had them at Kmart here for a little while, but I guess the retirees and inbred jackasses couldn't figure out the system, so they took them out. Shame, I loved not having to deal with a slow clerk.