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'Self-checkout is doomed': Major supermarkets to scrap technology in huge overhaul
Daily Express US ^ | Jan 9, 2024 | SOLEN LE NET

Posted on 01/09/2024 9:33:12 AM PST by where's_the_Outrage?

Consumers should anticipate two major alterations to their shopping experience in the coming year, an expert has warned.

A consumer specialist is forecasting a grim conclusion for two contentious supermarket policies that could reshape shoppers’ habits.

Supermarket Guru, Phil Lempert has projected retail tendencies for a quarter of a century, and his recent predictions might come as good news to some shoppers.

In a conversation with The U.S. Sun, the expert explained that security concerns and consumer preferences may be the main drivers of these changes.

“From a security standpoint, what’s happened is the retailers with self-checkout have had to add employees, whether it’s security or other employees to help people at self-checkout.

“So, you know you’re not accomplishing anything. You’re not reducing labour, you’re not getting a better shopping experience.”

(Excerpt) Read more at the-express.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Chit/Chat; Computers/Internet; Society
KEYWORDS: checkout; labor; retail; selfcheckout; selfscan; stores
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets
Of course, it is a form of exit checkout (as I would expect to deny thievery), but much quicker. The "buying" us all done when the product is handled once, taking it off the shelf and into the basket and scanning the article using your phone, whence you see the price as it is added right then to your bill, and can be refused.

The second scan at exit is done one after the other quickly with the employee's hand scanner without handling again. Then just wheel the lot out to your car, unloading it there. Eliminates a lot of handling or waiting, and also the time lag of fiddling with your money card.

Accurate for both seller and buyer, and hard to beat for convenience. You won't get the feel of it by staying home yourself.

The setup at Walmarts doesn't at all work as well.

101 posted on 01/09/2024 1:49:21 PM PST by imardmd1 (To learn is to live. To live is to teach another. Fiat Lux!)
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To: Vermont Lt

I’ll “self-checkout” if and only if, they pay me...

At the inflated prices being charged for the shrunken content of grocery items, I want some one to check me out...

Particularly the nasty clerks in the grocery stores near me in MD...


102 posted on 01/09/2024 1:51:36 PM PST by SuperLuminal (Where is the next Sam Adams when we so desperately need him)
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To: John Milner

Next time, just bail out. Wheel back around and start over on a different station. This will transfer the trouble where it belongs.


103 posted on 01/09/2024 2:28:24 PM PST by old-ager
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To: al_c

You are under absolutely no obligation to comply with checking your receipt at the door. It is your property and no one has any right to make you prove the ownership of your property. It ceases to be their property when you paid for it.

Don’t be a sheep. Just kindly say “have a nice day as you stroll past them.”


104 posted on 01/09/2024 4:32:11 PM PST by cyclotic (Don’t be part of the problem. Be the entire problem)
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To: where's_the_Outrage?

The ONLY reason there’s a move away from self check-out is theft has sky-rocketed.

Once again, the damned crooks ruin a good thing for the honest folks.

Line ‘em all up and shoot ‘em. Assholes....


105 posted on 01/09/2024 4:37:30 PM PST by nesnah (Infringe - act so as to limit or undermine [something]; encroach on)
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To: Mathews

Okay, that is wrong at Lowe’s. But there should be both types, especially at the big stores. I have a Tractor Supply near buy, and they only have cashiers, and the lines are always long and slow, and they always want your phone number. Rather nosey.

I don’t want some employee knowing what I buy, and I get to bag things myself in the proper category I use for unloading at home.


106 posted on 01/09/2024 4:40:21 PM PST by Alas Babylon! (Repeal the Patriot Act; Abolish the DHS; reform FBI top to bottom!)
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To: where's_the_Outrage?

I think this is a local issue. In my corner of flyover country, self checkout lanes have been added at a modest level during the last couple of years.


107 posted on 01/09/2024 4:45:31 PM PST by EVO X ( )
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To: imardmd1

I have done Wal*Mart, and agree that it is less than ideal.


108 posted on 01/09/2024 5:25:29 PM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead!)
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets
In my Walmart (a rather small one) there are I think ten self-check stations since at least 3 or 4 years. Until about 2 months ago, they were all open and in continual use. On heavy business days, even then they had people waiting.

But now, you are not permitted to scan your own items. It is required that an employee do it. The downside is thar even on heavy days,not more than four or five stations have employees assigned, with the rest being shut down, and one long line for customers trying to use it.

No cash allowed, but often, someone's card doesn't work and that station is held up until a supervisor is called and the problem straightened out and the station back in use.

Clearly, the cost of highly-paid employee interfacing of all the stations is more than the management can afford to add to the general price of the products without pressure from the customers.

I think the reason this outflow is throttled is because of some kind of thievery incident to the use of self-scanning schemes to defeat the purpose of them.

It is true that a lot of the customer population is from classes of people who are of foreign cultures or tenement areas, to put it mildly.

It appears that there is some restraint on the kind of shoppers use the store because in the BJ clubs you at least have to pay yearly for a membership card to be cruising the store and buying items. But not in Walmarts.

109 posted on 01/09/2024 7:20:46 PM PST by imardmd1 (To learn is to live. To live is to teach another. Fiat Lux!)
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To: Mathews

I hate it when people take up the cashiers time and the cost of them by engaging them in conversation that interrupts the flow. Multiply that time by however people are in line behind, and you get the amount of other customers’ time and patience you are wasting.


110 posted on 01/09/2024 7:28:21 PM PST by imardmd1 (To learn is to live. To live is to teach another. Fiat Lux!)
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To: where's_the_Outrage?

Local Walmart self-checkout works good - better than nearby Kroger store.

Employees pay attention . . . except when talking with each other.

Mixed bag - re paying attention - some employees better than others.

Local Walmart is a place where a number of people get a job - starting over in life (some, more than once).

Many store visitors get thru the store much faster - when using self-checkout - at this location.


111 posted on 01/09/2024 7:40:17 PM PST by linMcHlp
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To: DIRTYSECRET

some of these stores make you get their card in order to get better prices but then they also have the digital coupons that you have to pick out either on your phone or lap top, and on top of that, there are some specials that are only for those who order online and then have someone deliver to their car....


112 posted on 01/09/2024 7:43:50 PM PST by cherry
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To: cherry

They can use their ebt cards for that?


113 posted on 01/09/2024 9:12:52 PM PST by DIRTYSECRET
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To: where's_the_Outrage?

article is complete BS, particularly the assertion that self-checkout takes more employees than non-self-checkout ...

out local walmarts, king soopers (kroger) and safeways have one employee to assist every 6-8 self-checkout stands ... costco has two employees per 6 self-checkout stands ...

personally, i LOVE self-checkout: waiting time is far less than otherwise ... the only bad thing about it is the trend to not take cash at self-checkout because i always pay cash ... sams warehouse and costco are the worst for not taking cash at self-checkout ... pretty much everyone else does ...


114 posted on 01/09/2024 10:41:18 PM PST by catnipman (A Vote For The Lesser Of Two Evils Still Counts As A Vote For Evil)
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To: cyclotic

I never said that I play along with the receipt police so stop the sheep comments.


115 posted on 01/10/2024 4:14:29 AM PST by al_c (Democrats: Party over Common Sense)
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To: AppyPappy

not all of them, and certainly not any with effectiveness that I’ve seen around my neck of the woods.


116 posted on 01/10/2024 4:19:53 AM PST by jurroppi1 (The Left doesn't have ideas, it has cliches. H/T Flick Lives)
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To: jurroppi1

A local Sheriffs dept was posting pictures of people who shoplifted from self-checkout at the Walmarts.


117 posted on 01/10/2024 5:04:43 AM PST by AppyPappy (Biden told Al Roker "America is back". Unfortunately, he meant back to the 1970's)
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To: AppyPappy

did they do anything other than shame them publicly? I mean, a lot of people are shameless, so...


118 posted on 01/10/2024 5:28:04 AM PST by jurroppi1 (The Left doesn't have ideas, it has cliches. H/T Flick Lives)
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To: jurroppi1

Looking to see if anyone recognized them. Many times, they are West Virginia gypsies or local Methheads. WV gypsies are hard to find unless they are in your driveway trying to scam you.


119 posted on 01/10/2024 5:46:10 AM PST by AppyPappy (Biden told Al Roker "America is back". Unfortunately, he meant back to the 1970's)
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To: unixfox

Very good for you, FRiend. Thank you for correcting my wrong supposition. I don’t like ordering groceries from Walmart, but I don’t like the stores I can go into around here. Out in areas a bit more like you may live in, I sort of like Sav-A-Lot, though the prices are considerably higher than WM or Aldi.


120 posted on 01/10/2024 7:54:10 AM PST by old-ager
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