Nobody likes self-checkout. Here's why it's everywhere

From the article:

"The rationale was economics based, and not focused on the customer," Charlebois said. "From the get go, customers detested them."

A 2003 Nielsen survey found that 52% of shoppers considered self checkout lanes to be "okay," while 16% said they were "frustrating." Thirty-two percent of shoppers called them "great."

So...about twice as many people called them "great" as "frustrating", and that was 19 years ago. I think most people like them now, because there's usually not a line, and you don't have to get the checkout clerk trying to do the upsale or whatever. As long as there's an employee nearby to take care of when they have a problem, and there almost always is to discourage theft, I think they're great.

I fucking love self-checkout, but that's probably the crushing social anxiety talking.

My opinion dropped severely after each store, one after another, took away the mute button.

I was ok with this, even though the machines seemed barely competent & often complained about putting things into the bag after I had. But at least they were otherwise fairly painless.

But now that they are yapping loud and often a pain in the ass... Im glad to wait in the longer line & exchange some words with the human, as I get checked out. The experience of machines has just gotten worse & worse.

I’ve been waiting for auto checkout. Roll your cart through the scanner and zazam all tallied.

People can hate on self-checkout all they want but it’s super convenient when you have only a few items.

Self-checkout is amazing! Not the old-school ones with finicky scales as described in the article, but the ones where you grab a small handheld scanner when you enter the store. Then you scan items as you pick them up from the shelves and bag them immediately in your cart. The checkout process then just becomes a quick tap to pay for your items.

Saves so much time and hassle.

Not much of this Automation involves AI... The companies behind the tech promote it as intelligent tech, but I'm still typing in "Banana" whenever I put them on the scale, and I'm paying a higher price than ever when technology was supposed to lower costs. It's not about my individual needs, and I understand it to be so, but why does every major technology hurdle cost more for everyone? No matter what they do as well, humans still need to be monitoring the process.

I fear the day when no humans are around to help... Just try shopping at Home Depot now as an example... All prices become arbitrary, even when they're wrong.

Imagine a far better world where we just embrace humans in stable jobs (only aided by tech, just as we have had for the past decades instead of continual lies about automation and AI), as a community that is healthily employed, talking to customers and each other, with health benefits, jobs and housing, as a bright beacon of progress... Instead of letting companies preach about how much better AI and automation is, in a lifeless store with everything in boxes, surrounded by homeless encampments, where no one can afford health care, and in cities with junkyard tons of discarded older models of failed tech gear.

The older way of doing things was less expensive, less wasteful, more supportive of communities and humanity, and far more enjoyable (to me at least). It was very hard to go a week without talking to a stranger, and that somehow seemed a lot better for mental health. The last thing I want is endless isolation, computer voices, and having to learn how to check out my own groceries anew every time there is a software update. They don't pay me to be a cashier at all, I don't even get an employee discount.

Self-checkout is awesome even with its flaws. way faster than waiting for cashiers.

Why hasn't RFID based self checkout become a thing? It works almost like Amazon Go but you must walk your shopping card through an RFID gate that scans your shopping cart.

The cost of labeling might still be there but you could have a bunch of employees at critical spots where unpackaged products are sold and then attach an RFID tag for the whole bag.

Self checkout makes it very easy to buy sushi for the price of peanuts.

self-checkout is worse in most ways than cashier-assisted checkout.

It is nevertheless a preferable experience in 90% of cases because it is faster.

I don't even need to read the article to know why it's everywhere - it's because it is cheaper than hiring the number of cashiers it would require to make checkout an equivalently fast process. And I (and many others) would rather be at home with my family sooner even if that means I occasionally have to argue with a machine about whether or not I put my groceries in the bagging area.

Self-checkout is convenient until several people with full sized carts try to use it and don’t know how to scan things. They’ll occupy the station for several times as long as someone with a small basket. Not sure why they insist on coming through self-checkout. It takes them longer than going through the regular checkout. The self-checkout lane is labeled as 15 items but no one pays attention, even the attendant.

There's a man with a disability working as a cashier near me, and I wait in line for him even when the self-checkout is open.

Except I don't have these failures with self-checkout in the NL. Self-checkout is my preferred way to shop.

I hate self checkout. I won’t even use it if I have a single item and the self-checkout lanes are wide open.

The Costco in the last town I lived in did away with self-checkout because not enough people used it. If we unite we shall prevail!

Heck no. These days I have plenty of time, but even when my time was more precious, I never used self-checkout. Next thing they ask me to stuff the shelves and mop the floor.