Nobody Likes Self-Checkout | Hacker News Reader

Nobody Likes Self-Checkout

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10 pointsnrsapt36 comments

"unexpected item in bagging area" ... haven't heard that for years.

The new hotness is the camera replaying your last scan while flashing a red light for clerk help because you were holding the item wrong and it thinks you're trying to sneak something past.

They also seem to be confused if you're using both arms to scan things, it beeps but it asks for help often as not. Apparently ambidexterousness is rare enough to be suspicious.

I dont mind the self checkout, I like it better when it works right; and when there's actually clerks to come kick the damned thing when it gets confused. The store I go to has a newly installed fleet of i dunno ~30 or so self checkout lanes, and probably one clerk to 16 lanes. Who is usually tied up with customers using checks, here.

Even if there's some delay, almost all self checkouts are roughly trying to square what you just scanned, with the weight of the stuff in the "already scanned" area, and optionally throwing errors after some threshold (the worst offenders turning off the scanner altogether until the last scanned item is weighed/validated).

I enjoy the concept. I don't enjoy the implementations.

Many have these plastic bag hanger things similar to what's been used at checkout for decades. They make using your own reusable bags awkward if they're a bit on the large side (many are). Kroger is notorious for this. Some Target self checkout as well (but not all).

Home Depot seems to be the best implemented, but man, they have to put a lot of trust into their customers. There's no verification scale, probably because many items are just too large. The wireless scanner is great, though, as I can just go through my cart and zap everything without removing them. Not sure how Home Depot might feel about doing that, but eh, it works, and personally, I'm not looking to rip them off.

Kroger has, by far, at least in my own experience, the worst experience. Their system assumes everyone is a criminal and any small discrepancy must be verified by a clerk. There was a time where they had to have 2 clerks per pod of stations because they were constantly bouncing from station to station, causing delays, and frustrated customers waiting in line. In the previous city I lived in, the Kroger there had a scale that would trip issues when the doors opened and it was a breezy day, so a bit of wind would hit it. Kroger has improved more recently, but still, by far, the worst. I tend to avoid it as much as I can.

Oh man. I miss the Home Depot scanner now. It's even better than the Target one. I love just being able to leave everything in the cart and shoot them with the scanner. It's like a little video game built in to the shopping experience.

The scanner just feels right in your hands. Ergonomic, weighty, with the full power of modern capitalism behind it. It's wonderful.

I love them. Especially at Target where you can use the scanner gun and rapidly pew-pew everything much faster than the big scanner.

agree, and i think Target has the best system i've seen by far.

I love self-checkout. It is always faster than using a cashier, for the following reasons:

(a) I already know what I'm buying and have a mental map of how to bag it. No sorting or anything required.

(b) I am motivated to get through in a way that cashiers are not. Customers self-sort into shorter lines so cashiers who move quickly just get more customers. No cashier who gets to go home at a set hour is going to move with as much purpose as me (I get to go home as soon as I pay).

(c) Usually there are multiple self-checkout scanners per line. As a result, the line can only be slowed, not stopped, by one person taking forever.

....apart from the rest of the civilised world.

Self check out has teething problems mainly because users need get trained on how to do it but once you grok it, you never go back - its simply faster, more efficient experience.

The removal of the cash option is a hard nope for me. I don't always use cash, but if it's not an option, I vote with my feet, regardless if paying with cash or plastic.

Last time I went to the self-checkout lane I dutifully scanned all my items and clicked "Pay" and it brought me to a list of payment options with cash all grayed out. There was only one real cashier working that day with a long line stretching back into the aisle. I left the stuff I picked out right there and just walked away, so I guess they had to pay someone to put my stuff back anyway. Not sure what these companies are getting at with these user-hostile changes to their checkout flow. I drove to a small local quick-mart and did my shopping there instead.

Cash is a hassle to process, and includes fixed costs, while use of cash declines every year since the advent of payment cards.

So it's expensive to support and has little traffic. It's not exactly surprising more and more stores, especially high volume ones, let their cash payment processing decline.

> faster

"Stores today are catering to shoppers who perceive self-checkout to be faster than traditional cashiers, even though there's little evidence to support that. But, because customers are doing the work, rather than waiting in line, the experience can feel like it's moving more quickly."

superior UX confirmed

Not sure it's faster. I worked as a cashier for awhile at a grocery store. A 2 person team, one scanning/keying in items and one bagging, is a ton faster then you doing it all yourself. Customers who would do this were great. The worst ones were the ones who just sorta stared at you as you rang up then bagged their groceries for them while complaining about long lines.

The other big speed enhancement is memorization of common PLUs. Seeing bananas and just knowing the code (4011 or 94011 for non organic/ organic respectively) Is a lot faster than trying to navigate through the menus. It's on the label but most people don't seem to realize that.

That said I still think it should be self check out all the way, letting one person run 6 self checkouts at midnight so I don't get caught behind the person buying two shopping carts of misc stuff while I'm just trying to grab an orange juice is miserable.

Replacing 1 cashier/bagger with 1 self-checkout station is definitely slower.

Replacing 1 cashier/bagger with 10 self-checkout stations with 2 attendants? That'll probably be faster, especially once majority of the shoppers get used to the new system.

You can always tell the people who have had jobs where they learned how to run a cash register versus the ones who haven't.

I love self checkout. If there's no line at either the cashier or the self checkout, I'll take the self checkout every time. It's way faster, I don't have to make chit chat, and I don't get cashiers trying to upsell me or ask me for donations or whatever else.

Way better experience for me. I don't care if I'm saving the company money by doing the labor for them. It's still a better experience for me so who cares.

I love self checkout. Just know how the system wants to be used and use it thusly

Article written by a known extrovert, apparently generalizing the experience of all humans. (Note my light sarcasm & playful tone)

As long as it works right, it's great. Especially with a small amount of items, I can get checkout out and on my way quickly.

Spot on. Self checkout shines when it’s for 2-3 items. I wouldn’t pass a huge haul of groceries through it. The more things you buy with self checkout the greater chance of some weird bug like missing barcode, not knowing where to select esoteric non-scan items etc

Also the self checkout areas are never designed to haul a cart through. It's stupid to haul a ton of stuff through there.

There's a few in the store near me that are basically just normal lanes with the cashier area flipped around. They're great other then the fact you just halved the amount of scanning/bagging work power you have.

Works great for me. My most frequently-used grocery store has a scanner gun and doesn't require moving items to the bagging area at all, letting me get through a lot faster and easier.

I hate self-checkout, especially the ones with built-in scales that can't handle picking up two items at once. Or when you need an ID check. Or when they want to verify your purchases, twice the work. Don't misscan something and remove the second item, then you're guaranteed to end up in a verification...

Two items at once? Scan and put one in the weight checking section. Is that hard?

ID check? Buying cough medicine? Booze. It's law. Lol

Stop confusing the system dude!

I pick up two items at once to make it go faster, but the UX is dumb and throws an error of course. Weight doesn't match haha... Yes it will you dumb machine!

So let me scan my ID instead of wasting my time!

Horrible UX, I wait in line.

You know it's not meant to work with 2 items, yet you still try it and then complain. Do you ever see the regular cashiers doing 2 at a time? I don't, because they know it's overall faster to do one at a time quickly.

They need a person to verify the ID to make sure things like the picture matches who is scanning it.

No I didn't know when I tried it, I assume the best (which you should too ;)) but unfortunately it let me down. I often see regular cashiers preparing the next article, while having the previous one in their hand. I don't get why that matters though because it's a new system. It doesn't work like the old one, that's the entire point so why provide an inferior UX if you want people to use it?

Thanks, I was confused as to what the purpose was. If I can open a bank account by showing my ID and my face at the same time, it should be pretty trivial to implement the same system.

The self checkouts are grand on the condition that they get rid of a lot of the security stuff, I'm sick of needing approval to buy a bottle of beer or it failing because it didn't like how I did something

Self check out at Whole Foods is great. I think they’re using AI to detect produce because there are suggestions that are often accurate. I bring a backpack and like to organize it by packing big heavy things first.

I'll switch to self-checkout when they pay me to do the work, perhaps by giving me a discount on the groceries I'm buying. Otherwise, the store's employees can continue doing their jobs.

I don't mind them, but sometimes you get random things the self checkout will not let you buy. Like anti-perspirant, had to stop and go over to a regular line for that.

There's also always the item that's too light to be registered. Powdered drink packets are the one I run into most, but sometimes other things.

I much prefer the self checkout. Always have.

What the hell?! I haven’t had a problem with self checkout in years.

Self-checkout beats dealing with lazy cashiers. A recent checkout with a cashier included a delay because the cashier made a phone call while buyers were in line. A personal phone call.

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