Store's Self Check out

[GeekyPenguin]

We went to the Wal-Mart in DBQ all the time just to use self check out...that's what happens when you go to college in a small town. There was a Wal-Mart 10 minutes from our house, but what fun is that?

I really liked it for buying the things you don't like to buy with a cashier - feminine products, sexual products, that type of thing.

[absolutuscchick]

I really like self check out...its so much easier than having to talk to the cashier when you're in a crappy mood and when you just want to get out of the store!! Plus its often faster!

[lifesaver]

Self check out here is only for express lines, (20 items or less) at the grocery store.

My peeve is the dumb asses that think to scan something you have to hold it still over the scanner window. UM, no. Have you ever bought groceries in the last 15 years and seen that ALL CHECKERS EVER use the sweeping motion and they usually get it on the first try (about 3 or 4 times out of 5). I usually get frustrated and say something. Or the dumbasses that try to take their bags off the machiene and it throws off the scales and makes the copmuter think that you are trying to steal something.

[KSig RC]

Originally posted by AGDee
It all started with self serve gas. Except, with self serve gas you got a DISCOUNT if you pumped it yourself. I refuse to bag my groceries and I refuse to use the Self Check Out because I am paying people's salaries in the overhead when I'm paying for my groceries. They should give you at least a 10% discount if you're doing all the work yourself (probably more like 25%). You pay the same whether you do it all yourself or whether you have a cashier and a bagger.. so go with the bagger and cashier. Besides, those lanes are going to put people out of jobs with no lower cost for the products. Eventually, we'll only have self serve and our lives will just be filled with more work. There was a time when they delivered the groceries to your house or at least loaded your car!

It's one of my pet peeves...

Dee

HI!!!!!

I'd just like to say that the margin on grocery items is close to 4% overall.

Any discount to your groceries would result in the store closing. This is why stores concentrate on diversification into things like premade foods (think Pizza, Chinese) and nonfood items, in an attempt to raise margin even one percentage point (if that).

It's a convenience. It's nowhere near comparable to gas prices going up during the Oil Crisis then never declining back to a quarter a gallon. Besides, the investment into the actual checkstands, plus the need to still keep at least one employee present, plus upkeep fees probably offsets the loss of 2 or 3 minors sacking groceries at minimum wage.

[AGDee]

I just see it as another indication that SERVICE is quickly disappearing in this society. A lot of you won't remember when you went to a gas station and they not only filled your tank but they checked your oil and washed your windshield while they did it.

You can't hardly get help in a department store any more because commissions are out the window.

I was always appalled, especially as a graduate student (after experiencing the real world for a while) how poor service was on college campuses! Universities do NOT treat their students as customers, they treat them as the scum of the earth! Online registration, etc has helped some, but back in my day, as a freshman or sophomore, we would stand in line for as long as FIVE hours to register for classes. Dealing with the Financial Aid office was always a nightmare too.

The self serve grocery lines are just another example of service going away.

The one time I used it, I had a couple light items that didn't register and this machine is yelling at me to put the item in the bag and it WAS in the bag!!!! It was very frustrating. I want real people. I still think it will lead to a loss of jobs because they will have one person monitoring 4 of the self serve machines rather than 3 lanes, each with a cashier and bagger. Maybe they are "just" minimum wage jobs, but some people rely on that income.

I don't profess to know the actual margin of groceries but 4% does seem awfully low!

Dee

I didn't realize this had become so common!

I've yet to see a self-checkout stand anywhere... what kind of store have them?

[mu_agd]

Originally posted by Ginger
I didn't realize this had become so common!

I've yet to see a self-checkout stand anywhere... what kind of store have them?

mostly grocery stores and stores like walmart, target, and meijer.


i first saw it my sophomore year of college. which is surprising since i went to school in the middle of cornfields in ohio and it usually takes forever for new things to get there.

[GeekyPenguin]

Originally posted by Ginger
I didn't realize this had become so common!

I've yet to see a self-checkout stand anywhere... what kind of store have them?

I haven't seen them anywhere around here, either, Ginger. The only ones I've seen were in Dubuque.

[CatStarESP4]

When I lived in Fayetteville, Arkansas, the new Wal-Mart had the self check-out option. If I needed to buy some things, I would pay through self check-out. I thought it was one the coolest things ever invented.

I live in Arizona now and I think there is a local supermarket that offers self check out, but I am not sure.

[Munchkin03]

Supposedly, my hometown Wal-Mart has them. Since I won't go anywhere near one, I'll never know.

I happen to like buying feminine products and contraception with cashiers, especially if they're nervous Nellies. Yes, I am mean.

[GeekyPenguin]

Originally posted by Munchkin03
Supposedly, my hometown Wal-Mart has them. Since I won't go anywhere near one, I'll never know.

I happen to like buying feminine products and contraception with cashiers, especially if they're nervous Nellies. Yes, I am mean.

I did not enjoy it at the Wal-Mart in Platteville since they would immediately glance at my left hand searching for a wedding ring.

[texas*princess]

Originally posted by AGDee
I just see it as another indication that SERVICE is quickly disappearing in this society. A lot of you won't remember when you went to a gas station and they not only filled your tank but they checked your oil and washed your windshield while they did it.

You can't hardly get help in a department store any more because commissions are out the window.

I was always appalled, especially as a graduate student (after experiencing the real world for a while) how poor service was on college campuses! Universities do NOT treat their students as customers, they treat them as the scum of the earth! Online registration, etc has helped some, but back in my day, as a freshman or sophomore, we would stand in line for as long as FIVE hours to register for classes. Dealing with the Financial Aid office was always a nightmare too.

The self serve grocery lines are just another example of service going away.

The one time I used it, I had a couple light items that didn't register and this machine is yelling at me to put the item in the bag and it WAS in the bag!!!! It was very frustrating. I want real people. I still think it will lead to a loss of jobs because they will have one person monitoring 4 of the self serve machines rather than 3 lanes, each with a cashier and bagger. Maybe they are "just" minimum wage jobs, but some people rely on that income.

I don't profess to know the actual margin of groceries but 4% does seem awfully low!

Dee

I think maybe what you are referring to when you say "service is going away" is personal service is going away.

I would rather wake up at 9:30, go online and register for classes in my PJ's than wake up, shower, get dressed, take the 15-minute hike to the business building, register for classes and be done with it. I have no problem with the fact that I have to register online even though the advisor is not 5 feet away.

These self-service stations are supposed to make life more covenient and quicker for the consumers. It would be far faster to go to a gas station that has 4 pumps and no one outside, so you can drive in, pump your gas, pay (now they even have pay at the pump options!), and leave -- as opposed to going to a gas station that has 4 pumps, and one attendant doing everything, because you'd have to sit there and wait.

While you argue that you're paying people's salaries so you are wanting personal service, if the store has even one self-check machine, chances are, you are also paying for the cost and maintanece for that machine, so if a store has one or 50 self-check machines, money still needs to be made to help maintain the store's resources whether it is human-work-hours or machine maintanence.

The usage of the machines is also a way to create jobs. You are probably right that some cashiers will eventually lose their jobs, but jobs are also being created because of the machines in the process. Someone has to make those machines -- they just don't fall out of the sky. Someone has to program the machines. Someone has to install the machines. Someone has to deliver the machines. Someone has to train the employees how to use them so they can help customers. Someone also has to go on-site if the machines aren't working properly.

Stuff like this is pretty much happening everywhere and there really isn't a way to stop it. Even McDonald's is looking for ways to automate their hamburger-making!

As an operations management major it is really interesting to see stuff like this going on, because companies are not only doing this for their profit margin, but also to eventually pass the savings on to the consumers.

[sigmagrrl]

Yeah, the self check out machines are an easy way to get rid of the overhead cost of an employee. Machines don't call off, don't want health benefits, don't take breaks....you get the point.

Also, with all the self check-out machines in use, I guess it's ok for me to now put that skill on my resume!

Personally, I love using them....I've loved using cash registers since I was a kid. I've always loved using things that scan. I worked in a library when I was 15 and I LOVED working the check out desk so I could use the scan pan and run it over the labels! LOVED IT! Then, when I was 20, I worked at Caldor and LOVED using the scan gun at the register and when doing inventory! Now, I get to use the self check-out! WOOHOO!

[ToBeSororityGrl]

The grocery store back home that I work at is finally get a remodel WITH a few self-scanners. This store has been open for 20 years and we have customers who have been shopping there since day 1, and when their favorite cashier isn't there, they will ask, so those customers will not use the self-scanners because they like the interaction. There are also veryyy impatient people that shop at the store and go into a regular line not express to buy cigarettes, they don't care about the cashier, so they will be excited with the self-scan, because they can get in and out without worrying about the old lady ahead of them taking their time.

The self-scanning models are a new form of technology and reallly give the customer a chance to see how their groceries add up and how it really works. You'd be SO surprised how many people will scream that their total is wrong, but once they add the items together and see that with tax that yes buying 5, $2.99 items CAN be easily $16.00 they quit bitching.

I'm not complaining about customers, because hell I've been a cashier for 3 years and STILL love to type in my little drawer number and scan for a couple of hours, and most of the customers are really nice and just love it when the cashier actually acknowledges them.