#SelfCheckout Is a Failed Experiment
Please, not another โunexpected item in the bagging area.โ
by Amanda Mull, October 18, 2023
"The widespread introduction of self-checkout kiosks did enable shoestring staffing inside many stores, but it created plenty of other expenses too. Self-checkout machines might always be at work, but, on any given day, lots of them arenโt actually working. The technology tends to be buggy and unreliable, and the machinesโ maintenance requires a lot of expensive IT workers. Much of the blame for that can be placed on the systems themselves. During the years I spent processing purchases at big-box and chain retailers in the 2000s, every point-of-sale system I used felt more intuitive and less error-prone than the ones Iโm now regularly tasked with navigating as a paying member of the public.
"Thereโs little evidence that self-checkout is reliably faster than the old cashier system, and that feel of convenience has always been largely a trick of perception. 'Trained cashiers can scan and bag goods faster than even the most aggressive or enthusiastic shopper,' conceded a 2002 New York Times story about the machinesโ growing popularity. 'But actual checkout speed tells only part of the story. Self-checkout has a psychological effect: as long as the shopper is taking an active part, it seems to go faster.'
"Perhaps an even larger issue than the problems that self-checkout directly creates is the set of behaviors its presence can enableโfrom executives, from employees, and from customers. Retail executives, looking for any available corner to cut in order to juice short-term profitability, took self-checkoutโs proliferation as a license to trim store staffing to the bone. Many stores are now messier, their shelves go unstocked for longer, and customers have a harder time finding the products theyโre looking for or employees to answer their questions. Retail jobs, which have long been low-paying, precarious, and unpleasant, are now even worse. Forget staffing up to the levels required for a good customer experience; in some instances, stores have reportedly had problems staffing their floors to a minimum level of employee safety. Self-checkout is far from solely responsible for this doom loop, but it has contributed to the way certain stores have rotted from the inside."
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/self-checkout-is-a-failed-experiment?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us
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