Not always a good thing.
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."
Well, I don't get to sit in my office waiting for calls every hour that I'm at work. I'm a drainage engineer, so I spend a fair amount of time out in the field. And while I do carry a cell phone when I'm out, sometimes it's not convenient or proper for me to answer it immediately.
If I'm meeting with a client and I get a call, that caller's going to have to leave a message - I simply can't be so rude as to answer my phone while engaged in face time with another client. And when I'm out in the bush slogging through brush and/or muck up to my waist, the cell phone is going to get left in my truck.
It's not like I'm trying to be rude to people by making them talk to the machine, it's just that I can't always be on hand to answer the phone.
I sure don't think you are a luddite... but there's a definite disparity of experience.
Everyone likes a smile and a greeting. The problem is these day-care kids have grown up totally balkanized. If you aren't part of their "circle" of aquaintences, you aren't a "real" person. It's like you are a telemarketer to them; you're an annoyance they have to put up with.
Well if you work, chances are you shop at night, so you get these kids working part-time. The older, full-time workers work day-shift... they're almost uniformly pleasant.
SamAdams76 wrote: "Your obsession with reaching a "live person" puzzles me."
Ha! I'm not obsessed about it. I just don't like reaching an answering machine when I'm trying to get something done. As for having a secretary filing her nails between calls, a proper secretary should have no shortage of things to do. My insurance agent has a secretary, and she can do anything he can do.
In your particular case, a good secretary would not only take a message, she'd research (and maybe resolve) the problem for you. At a minimum, she should be able to collect the information for you to make a decision. However, I DO agree with you about email. I find it to be much more convenient than voice mail or even reaching a secretary. I work odd hours, so it's sometimes difficult to contact someone on my schedule. With email, I can compose a message at 3AM and have an answer when I wake up.
The computer in Detroit does say "Thank You, please take your change".
BTW I'm glad you can use the self checkout. Lord knows I've been behind a few people that couldn't!!!
Somehow I doubt that, but I bet the labor savings more than offsets the theft.
I like them a lot.
Not always a good thing.
I can't stand tackle faced brats or punks that get tattoos because it's now a fad.At a Walmart the other day,there was some dufus outside ,getting into his car, showing off his pierced nipples and shaved chest.Last thing I want to see in public.
CFC__VRWC wrote: "I'm a drainage engineer, so I spend a fair amount of time out in the field."
You make some excellent points, but I believe customers are often lost over something as simple as an answering machine. It really depends on what type of business is involved. If I'm looking for a part, for example, I'm going to start calling around. If the phone is busy or I reach a machine, I'll keep calling until I find someone who can serve me immediately. They'll make the sale--not the company who was too busy or undermanned to meet my immediate needs. Yes, I'm selfish. When I want something, I want it now, I want it inexpensively, and I wanted it made right. Those are difficult requirements for ANY business to meet, but I'd bet there are a lot of people like me.
?????? Okay, now I'm curious -- what's their excuse for making it illegal? And then what's the real reason, the gas-pumper's union?
In the competitive industry I am in, secretaries became an unaffordable luxury years ago. My company simply cannot afford to hire people to sit around answering phones (even if they do helpful tasks in between the calls). When you say that a good secretary can "take a message and research & resolve the problem", well that is exactly what I do already. I also do my own typing, filing and scheduling. I even get my own cup of coffee!
Here in my town in Massachusetts, they think we're too stupid to do it safely. We do have a large population of over 70 folk though who love it. The guys who have to pump it, hate it. So do I.
Can't get a hello? So what.
Do you want every employee in the store to say hello to you when you walk in? How about a good bye? Are you getting enough of those?
Let's see, there are probably 1000 people in and out of supermarkets, even small towns, daily, can you imagine having to say hello 1000 times a day? Oh, and don't forget about smiling. Did they choke up a phony smile for you just so you'll be pleased?
How pathetic. Personally, if I walk into a store and don't get a hello, I could care less. I am not there for phony customer dialog. I am there to do my business and leave.
I think it's very strange watching these greeters in stores like Wal Mart. The guys stands there saying, "Hello how are you doing" as fast as he can as hords of people walk by him. Like self check outs, they ought to have a dummy up there with a recording that just repeats, "Hi there, welcome to Walmart" all day long. And paint a smile on it's face.
Because greedy grocery corporations like to screw you! [/sarcasm]
Seriously FRiend, if you can't answer that question without making *someone* a bad guy, you really need to get some education in economics. I don't mean to insult, but even Rush says economics is one of those thing that's absolutely vital to understand, but is never taught in school.
These suckers are nice. Rarely is there a line for them like the regular checkers. You just get your change from a nearby clerk once you leave the machine.
I feel bad for checkers that lose their jobs though.
That is why I am glad that the grocery store here does not allow the machine to give you your change. There is a special checker whose sole purpose is to give you your change once you go through the machine.
You get the best of both worlds....real quick checkout, but the person still has a job.
lol...I was a bit scared at first that I would look like a moron trying to figure the thing out, but it really was very easy and they had written directions.
Actually, often they do. And even when they don't, they can keep the inevitable price increases from rising as quickly as they otherwise would have.
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