Posted on 06/06/2004 4:36:52 AM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
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 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."
Watch out, Pharmboy. They're coming your way. We've had them in the Pathmarks in central Jersey for quite a while now. Of course, I shop at Wegman's...where they know what customer service and a pleasant attitude can do.
The best interface (and the only one that is any good at all) is at Home Depot. Funny how they are able to keep their employees courteous while others (Publix/Kroger) can't. I never have any problems with self-checkout at The Depot, but constantly have problems with the ones at grocery stores.
I would venture to guess that these machines are causing a lot more shrinkage cost than it would to pay a cashier. The jury is still out on that one. If anyone in the biz could supply some figures on that we would all appreciate it.
That said, the real problem is a lack of service/friendliness in retail. Americans want their butts kissed when they give up their hard earned coin, and retailers should take heed at the anger from their customers. You don't have to have the best product any more to get the business, you just have to know service. Be warned, however, that this trend is only going to worsen. Kids today don't have a clue about service.
That's true, and they would probably use TWO hands to bag the groceries.
Available at Albertsons here in Salem Oregon!
(s)Democrats demand supermarkets deduct wage/social security taxes for people who use self checkout lanes. Kerry was heard stating that the self checkout was stealing tax dollars fromt he government.(/s)
The good old days of full service gasoline have been replaced by pay at the pump. The cheaper prices offered appealed to the public, but the attitude of " I would be glad to pay more if I got full service " changed many peoples buying practices.
When the ballast on the hard wired florescent light over my work bench burned out, it was replaced by the same fixture with a plug in cord attached. Made in the USA (it didn't come from Walmart), no waiting for days and making an appointment for an expensive union electrician to do the work. The cost $8.99 plus tax and 10 minute instillation. If I am not mistaken a ballast alone cost $8 or $9 in the '70s.
Do I miss the good of days of a friendly hello, may I help you and the thank you for your patronage? Yes
Do I miss the union clerk that throws the can goods on top the bread? NO !
With some common sense about safety and some Midwest ingenuity I may not be as self sufficient as my grandparents were on their 40 acres and 7 or 8 kids. But I can do many things myself. Yankee ingenuity, no thank you that makes me think of northeastern liberalism.
Perhaps I am getting more conservative and wiser in my old age.
After all Wise and Conservative are synonymous !
Hey! Was that you in line behind me?
My son went to SUNY Geneseo, and one of the things Mrs. Pharmboy and I loved about going there was the Wegman's. I only wish they would open up here in Morris County--we have Acme, Key Foods and ShopRite.
We still wave in Texas.
I think they'd appreciate the remark. Remember, this is "contrived ugliness," they're flaunting. The idea isn't to look beautiful, but to be recognized; to lend some sense of self-worth to an otherwise ignominious existence. A nice "my, you look repulsive today," will go a long way toward helping these kids' self-esteem.
I hate self-checkout. They put more people out of work and the self lanes always take much longer. IMO I avoid them whenever possible because I'm ornery. The real checkers appreciate it as well...
The machines can handle everything except checks.
Thank G-d we have people like you to make our decisions for us.
I hate these self-checkout things with a passion and I'll be one of the last holdouts standing against them.
Glad to see that - I feel the same way.
I find it interesting that the rationale now is that you "save time". It used to be that this latest "benefit" would save you money, albeit sometimes indirectly.
I live in a small town and have gotten to know most of the clerks, who are older and stable. Always have a friendly word. Should these machines come to my store, I'll pass, even if I have only one item.
IMHO, this is the key phrase:
"That is the way it is supposed to work, . . . 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.
LOVE the big-ticket purchasers, screw the small purchaser. Volume, volume, volume. Shut up and move along.
I also tell them to have a wonderful rest of their day. That usually gets a thank you.
I hope that is sarcasm. If anything, it keeps people with 2 or 3 items out of long lines, where they tend to be grumpy. In all of the stores I have seen self checkouts in, the same number of people are checking, but with shorter lines.
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