Self-checkouts? I will come right out and say it - I am not a big fan of them.
Like others, I strongly suspect that self-checkouts were brought in to cut staff costs. If customers are scanning, bagging and paying for their items then supermarket staff don't have to do that.
The only time I feel happy about self-checkouts is when I have no more than a handful of items to process. This allows me to avoid joining queues at the manned checkouts. In contrast, the worst time to use a self-checkout is when you have a full trolley of items and the manned checkouts are all closed.
It can take ages. Often I cannot easily locate the barcodes and the machines with their sensitive scales frequently react belligerently with "Unexpected item in bagging area" announcements etc or flashing red lights to alert supervisors.
I much prefer to load my trolley items onto the conveyor belt and then let somebody else do the scanning work.
It seems that self-checkouts are associated with higher levels of theft. Some of that may be accidental or unintentional but most of it is certainly deliberate. It is as if being given responsibility for processing your own shopping tempts a minority of people to bag items they have not paid for.
When self-checkouts were being introduced, I do not remember any shop or supermarket asking me what I thought of them. If I had been asked, I would have said - Yes, okay for a few items and the customer is in a rush but do not let them take over. There should always be manned checkouts available.
What is your opinion of self-checkouts? Love them or loathe them or somewhere in between?
from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/uxJwl17