They better have some pretty specific definitions of “theft” vs “errors”. I think everyone has had the experience of missing something, wondering if you should go back and scan it or if that would get security called on you, etc.

Then you hear the stories like Walmart keeping a running tab and if you go over “$x” it’s grand theft and that’s when they arrest you.

It is the stores job and responsibility to make sure their stuff is all scanned, and rung up correctly. Not the consumer’s. You can’t just offload the labor costs and also shift the risk on the customer.

That’s why I hate self checkout, at least.

So is this a US specific thing or not? The article doesn’t really make that clear.

I do enjoy self checkout, but yesterday one demanded that I put my bag of rice back in my cart before I could continue. Something about heavy or fragile items. The problem was that I didn’t have a cart, but I did have several more items.

Im surprised how many people here hate self checkout. I am much faster at scanning and bagging my own items than most cashiers. I almost never get errors, and if I do I know what to do to clear them typically. I always look at self check first, and then human lines second. Plus, none if that “how’s your day? Want to apply for a store credit card?” talk from a bored looking cashier.

Fuck the fucking idiots who ruined this

I had someone at target try to direct me to the self checkout… I politely declined with “I don’t work here”

If I’m doing the work, I should damn well get the employee discount.

Self Checkout hat serious drawbacks:

• the cashiers are not free to be transferred to more important work, they are fired. this is objectively bad.
• regardless if you are scanning the items when putting them into the cart, or you are scanning them at the checkout point - you are now doing the cashiers work, but you are not compensated for your work. the price you pay is the same. you are now an employee, but without being paid. this is objectively bad.
• when a scanning error happens, you are now responsible for it. the industry word for it is theft. you are a thief if your scan isn’t correct. the responsibility shifted away from a worker with (depending on locale, forget the US for a moment) insurance and workers rights, allowing for smaller mistakes. But the retailer isn’t picking up the responsibility, it just heaps it on the customer. As they did with the work. this is objectively bad.
• depending on the efficiency of this system, the retailer chains (not stores, the chains) are increasing profits. the workers and the customers don’t see a dime of that. this is objectively bad.

A store near me in germany has recently switched a number of rows to self checkout. Absolute chaos, nobody wants it, long rows on the few chashier points. I saw it exactly one time, told me what i think, they tried to sell me the convenience, i told them what i wrote here plus that they are located in a commercial area, not a mixed housing/commerce area. Nobody goes there to buy a handful of stuff. People came for “Hamsterkäufe” (german colloquial, hamstering essentially: buying large quantities for reserve), self checkout is not convenient. I will not visit there anymore, there are other stores who don’t do this crap.

I hope they keep them at least in parallel. I’m so much faster usually when doing self-checkout, because I often only buy a few items and can just skip the line.

Hell yeah brother!

What country is this? They seem to becoming more prevalent here. (Canada) My observation is that people generally look at the cashier lines. If there’s too long a wait, they head for the self-checkout. Or, if they only have a few items, they head to the self-checkout.

I hate it and won’t miss it. The workflow is brittle and the anti-theft measures throw too many false positives. Every third time I use it, it requires staff intervention. I’ll always go to a checker if I have the choice of doing so.

I would be sad to lose my beloved self checkout :( I still want real people and full service lanes for bigger / more complicated purchases, but daily small purchases are much more relaxing self-serve.

Many likely believe self-checkout saves time compared to a cashier lane, but the opposite may be true.

Oh actual cashiers are faster no doubt, but they’re almost too fast. They’ll spin 15 items through in 3 seconds and I can’t check prices or bag fast enough. Once I’ve paid I still have a minute of bagging with next in line pushing me down and 2 minutes of reading the receipt prices left… in self check out I like being able to catch prices errors as they ring up and have less pressure bagging.

In North Italy almost all groceries stores offer

Self checkout: where you do your groceries and at the end you scan the item one by one

Advanced self checkout (you are registered to the store): you get a PDA and you scan and bag all the groceries while you roam the store. Then you scan a qr, you get the total, pay and go. No Id checks for alcol or anything (sometimes you get a random partial re-reading where you get an sales person coming and scanning 3 items at random from your bag to check if you scanned them, or a total re-read)

Normal slow cashier point

Advanced self checkout is something I would never give back. Even if I buy a lot of things, the quick payment process is so quick that nothing compares.

I can enter and leave a store in under 10 minutes buying a lot of stuff (note that I go there walking multiple time per week)

They could have saved so much time and money by just paying the cashiers a living wage.

My main issue with self checkout is simple. They constantly incorrectly flag me for shoplifting and then proceed to show my shiny bald head from top down to everyone within 20 feet on the checkout screen. It is not a flattering angle.