Applebees and Chili's replacing waiters with Tablet PCs

[Korea]

While I almost exclusively use self-checkout, it never really seems to be a time-saver.  More often than not, they are filled up by people who should never use it:

- Moms with 3+ kids in tow and willfully ignoring the item limits
- People buying lots of produce (that has to be weighed by the machine, often fails, and they call on the one person monitoring 8 machines)
- Paying cash, and always confused over how to slide the bills in
- Old people/grumbler

I actually rarely and almost never see this at the self check outs here. Even at Walmart, although I very rarely go in there.

[Tonitrus]

The commissary on base is the most notorious for this (as the vast majority of patrons are geriatric veterans or the freak show that are military dependents) but I've seen it at Wegmans too.

[grumbler]

The commissary on base is the most notorious for this (as the vast majority of patrons are geriatric veterans or the freak show that are military dependents) but I've seen it at Wegmans too.

The common feature in all this fail seems to be you. 

[OttoVonBismarck]

The grocery store I go to has the same number of ordinary cashiers as they had before self-checkout and scan-as-you-go, so the assumption you are making seems to be of limited truth if true at all.

What I don't see as much is people from the rest of the store getting called up as emergency cashiers because the lines are more than three deep (all their full-time employees are trained to run a register and they are added in some kind of order to the register bank when there are four people in any line).  They still seem to have the same number of people in each department, too.

This appears to be what happened at the grocery store where I shop as well, they basically leveraged the self checkout as a way to get more throughput with the same number of people. So now there is one self checkout attendant monitoring the six-terminal self checkout bay where before that person would be running an individual aisle. The number of normal aisles staffed remains the same, so if anything they actually added a person to the shift to work the self checkout, or more likely they probably moved a position out of some low volume / low importance part of the store and onto self checkout. I do notice if I go at really off hours, the self checkout person won't always be at their station but will be nearby stocking or etc.

I've honestly noticed nothing but faster check out times for everyone because of it. I'll use self checkout myself basically if I have two bags or less of items, or if I'm just going into a store to buy beer or something. I think it's still more convenient/faster to go through regular checkout with a full grocery haul, but a large number of smaller purchases being routed through self checkout definitely cuts down on congestion in the main lines.

[Capetan Mihali]

I'll use self checkout myself basically if I have two bags or less of items, or if I'm just going into a store to buy beer or something.

The machine doesn't shut down and summon an employee to check for ID?  I've found alcohol to be one of the most inefficient products for buying at self-checkout, since someone ends up needing to deal with you anyway, even if it's just to look at you and override the system.

[CountDeMoney]

I've seen that happen if I don't put the item on the conveyor fast enough, at least in the early days when they first came out.  PLEASE WAIT FOR AN ATTENDANT

[Ed Anger]

Best part of self checkout is that when you arrive in store, you blast through the line to get to the pharmacy. None of that walking around bullshit for me.

MAH DRUGS

[11B4V]

I only use the self checkout if I have a few items.

[The Brain]

I only use the self checkout if I have a few items.

Weirdo.

[DontSayBanana]

The grocery store I go to has the same number of ordinary cashiers as they had before self-checkout and scan-as-you-go, so the assumption you are making seems to be of limited truth if true at all.

What I don't see as much is people from the rest of the store getting called up as emergency cashiers because the lines are more than three deep (all their full-time employees are trained to run a register and they are added in some kind of order to the register bank when there are four people in any line).  They still seem to have the same number of people in each department, too.

In the case of the grocery stores around here, many of them tried self-checkout and actually phased back on it (turns out it goes mad slow, due to customer ineptitude and/or technical difficulties).  The place to watch for them phasing back departments is bakery.  Several supermarket chains have their bakers show up in the morning to do the baking, then move them over to cash register or other departments.  Also watch for open hours cutbacks to departments like meat, seafood, or deli.

[crazy canuck]

And people can ring up my bill and bag my groceries a lot faster and efficiently then I can.

Sure. But there's often customers ahead of you that they have to bag as well.

Nope

[grumbler]

I've honestly noticed nothing but faster check out times for everyone because of it. I'll use self checkout myself basically if I have two bags or less of items, or if I'm just going into a store to buy beer or something. I think it's still more convenient/faster to go through regular checkout with a full grocery haul, but a large number of smaller purchases being routed through self checkout definitely cuts down on congestion in the main lines.

I've definitely seen the same thing.  I actually go one step further and use the scan-as-you-go feature so that all i need to do is pay and leave when I'm done shopping.  I'll use the manned register if there is one free or with only a single person in line, so that purchase gets credited to a human checker; otherwise, I'll go to the self-checkout and run the card myself.  It has been years since I have had to wait in a checkout line for more than a few minutes at Giant Food.

[OttoVonBismarck]

The machine doesn't shut down and summon an employee to check for ID?  I've found alcohol to be one of the most inefficient products for buying at self-checkout, since someone ends up needing to deal with you anyway, even if it's just to look at you and override the system.

Yes, but a lot of times if I'm buying beer that's all I'm buying. So many a time I've been in the situation where I'm walking to the register with my beer, and all the express lanes and normal lanes are several people back, many of them old and probably packing check books. If the attendant is at their station for self checkout, it's like a 2 second interruption, as they are immediately notified that someone is trying to buy an age restricted item. About 75% of the time they glance over at me, see I'm clearly over 21, and just hit a button to make the prompt go away. Other times they come over and ask to see my I.D., and then swipe a card or something at the station I'm at...but even that takes maybe 5-10 seconds total.

If there is no attendant, you'll notice the register starts flashing a notification light. While I have waited maybe a minute to two minutes before for an attendant to come over and help me, every time that has happened weigh that against the very long regular check out lines I was bypassing to purchase my single item and I still came out far, far ahead. Getting behind people with a lot of merchandise is damn dangerous at a grocery store. If they're trying to do a combination of WIC, EBT, and regular money it could take eternity to process. Even worse if they start coupon stacking and going over line by line the price of each item the cashier scans. Blue hairs who slowly scrawl out their information on a paper check as their hands tremble from Parkinson or similar afflictions also can slow you down forever. Even a brief wait at self checkout with a single item is far preferable to standing in line behind that.

But yeah, if I'm walking out with my beer and see one of the express lanes open I'll go up to it, but since I usually need to go to the grocery store after work like most people it's usually a mad house and the self check out lines are a true time saver.

[Admiral Yi]

"But the ad said fish sticks were $2.29!"

:bleeding;

[OttoVonBismarck]

"But the ad said fish sticks were $2.29!"

:bleeding;

I love that shit, especially when they've got five boxes of Gorton's and the ad clearly says Mrs. Paul's, or something else that only someone oblivious to how coupons and products work in a supermarket.