Coming Soon: Self-Serve Supermarkets

Supply Chain Systems Magazine ^ | Cindy H Dubin

[SamAdams76]

I guess I'm just a rube. I ran into one of these self-checkouts this week and I was shocked. I'd never seen anything like it before. I had over $100 in groceries and the store evidently trusted me to scan my own groceries. Nobody seemed to be watching (though I'm sure they had a security camera trained on me).

So I scanned the groceries, bagged them myself and paid for them with my debit card. In and out of there in less then 10 minutes. Not bad for a first time. I'm sure I'll shave a few minutes off as I get used to it.

I know that many here will criticize the stores for automating checkouts but I like it. No more dealing with "God-why-did-you-have-to-pick-my-aisle" gum-snapping eye-rolling teenage cashiers with their attitutes and those glowering bagboys who are never able to keep up with the flow and end up shoving everything in bags every which way.

After using this self check-out and seeing how easy it is, I gather they will be showing up in all supermarkets before long. They must save the supermarkets a bundle of money.

[Sir Gawain]

Wouldn't it be easier to have your credit card info just implanted into your hand?

[Paul Atreides]

They are practically self-serve now. Every time I go into one, I am served by some sullen teen, who looks as if he/she would rather stab me with an ice pick rather than be civil. Or, they are scanning my products, while talking to a co-worker. It's as if a robot is checking me out.

[SamAdams76]

No, the strip might wear off if I go swimming.

[Paul Atreides]

I think it would be fun to have it stuck to your butt. That way, you could pay up and drop your drawers and show the help what you think of them.

[El Sordo]

They have these babies at the local Freddies.

I love them. They're the greatest thing since the last greatest thing.

Now I can buy Good Housekeeping without shame.....

[Slyfox]

I can't see little old ladies using them, especially the ones who don't surf the net and find machines like that exasperating. One older lady I know said after one trip to Kinko's to use a self-service copy machine, "I don't care what they say, those machines may be the exact same model, but I swear, they all operate differently."

[Paul Atreides]

What is fun is to be shopping and have one of the bag boys called to the front, and they will practically mow you down going there, without so much as an excuse me. I guess good manners are passe.

[Paul Atreides]

I absolutely hate getting in the aisles of the trainees who don't know squat, and they have to have someone come and hold their hand throughout the entire procedure. Then, there is getting behind the person who wants to pay for two dollars worth of merchandise with a one hundred dollar bill.

[Dog Gone]

I've been using them at my local Kroger's for about a year now, although they are still limited to 15 items or less. They're great.

My only complaint with them is the rubes who stand there staring at every screen as if it's an oil painting. ;-)

[discostu]

We've had these down here a while, the only one I tried out the UI sucked so bad I couldn't get it to start scanning, and the idiot "supervising" the area didn't even try. To be fair though the store I tried this has a LONG history of just plain sucking and I almost never go there, which I loudly reminded them of as I walked off leaving my not quite a purchase on their counter.

[Alice in Wonderland]

I used one at my local K-Mart today. It was great: it ate my money...spit out the correct change...and I was out of the store in no time at all.

[Paul Atreides]

LOL! You should go to a Wal Mart shopping center and have to stand behind Fred and Doris Ziffle, as they gawk at the size of the store. Then, there are the people who hold family reunions in the middle of the aisle, and will not budge when they see a bottleneck forming.

[discostu]

If you went to an aisle with a person you could pay cash and there'd be no permanent record. Gotta think these things through.

[Paul Atreides]

I bet they won't go over well in Floriduh.

[kellynla]

I thought there was a very slim profit margin for groceries until we started shopping at the 99 cents stores. As for the self-serve. I love it. Don't have to deal with "Ms/Mr Personality"...who either don't speak English or don't know what they are doing or both(I live in SoCal) so hardly anybody in retail speaks English or knows what they are doing. I love the ATM's though. Now all they have to do is bring the ATM's into the bank branches and put the tellers out!

[Focault's Pendulum]

My local KMart has a variation on this, coupling regular lanes with lanes that you scan yourself.

It keeps telling me to bag the last item....so I hit on the gal standing in back of me.

[B Knotts]

You can pay cash on these, too. You just insert the bills, and it gives you change.

[freesia2]

I am laughing here. Not quite a little old lady yet, who definitely surfs, uses copiers, pumps gas, etc., I HATE and DESPISE those #$#$&#% grocery scanners. I think I'll have my food devlivered if that becomes the only choice at check-out. I want my groceries scanned and bagged with a smile; afterall, I'm paying a small fortune for them.

[Slyfox]

My pet peeve is standing behind someone who is simultaneously yakking on their cell phone and paying for their stuff.

LISTEN LADY!! PUT DOWN THE FRICKING PHONE ALREADY!!

There I know feel much better.