POLL: Do you like Self-Check?

[Jenise]

Self-check would be the kiosks at the grocery, hardware or other kind of store where you scan and bag your own items and pay electronically. Personally? I love them. I may not be as fast as the cashiers, but I usually don't have to wait to use one so instead of just standing there feeling useless, I'm busy.

The new market near us has only two cashier lines, the rest is Self-check which makes me happy, but I hear a lot of complaints from other customers. They seem particularly scary to older people who aren't computer savvy or who, perhaps a bit lonely, miss the interaction with a live human.

I have a philosophical problem with them replacing human employees.

Very much indeed.

They are an option in Santa Fe and great fun -- I enjoy keeping track of what I'm spending and being sure the scanner/marking is correct. They are invariably faster on a throughput basis, and it's fun to do my own packing.

Increasingly in my experience, human checkout people seem to be unhappy and bored in the job -- and often spend a great deal of time chatting with other employees.

They haven't caught on here in New Jersey, although Home Depot and Lowe's have them and I always check on them if at all possible.

One OF's enthusiastic Thumbs Up!

I have a philosophical problem with them replacing human employees.

Larry, I have that same aversion! Plus, I pay the same price and I do the work for the store! I have used them exactly twice and I vow to never do it again.

Safeway is the only store here that has one and I refuse to even give it a try. I go into the store to buy and it is their job to check me out. I'm still paying the same price so why should I do their work for them. I have the same problem with addressing envelopes for return visit reminders at my dentist and ophthalmologist. Good grief, I'm not lazy but I'm not being paid to do their work.

Folks like me who self checkout actually subsidize folks who use the checker lines. It's estimated that a store can run four to six self checkout lines at the cost of a single checker line. It the competitive world of low margins, those savings are generally passed on to consumers fairly quickly.

Enjoy the fruits of my labors those of you who insist on using a staffed checkout line.

One other consumer advantage: a recent study reported in "Consumers Reports" showed that impulse purchases among women dropped by 32.1 percent and by 16.7 percent among men when self-checkout was used instead of a staffed checkout line.

[David M. Bueker]

There are exactly two people I trust to do checkout work properly at our store, so I generally self-check & have no issues with it.

I have much bigger issues with cashiers/baggers who treat me like an imposition & do a lousy job. Last week I ended up at the regular checkout (self-check closed for computer upgrades), and the guy doing the bagging (older gentleman who has been there for years) was in a bad mood & broke my eggs, cracked my bottle of milk & completely squashed the sandwich rolls I bought by putting the cat food cans on top of them in the bag. I had to get all the items replaced before I would leave.

So I have no problem replacing the people with the self checkouts.

I have a philosophical problem with them replacing human employees.

Likewise, Larry. I rarely fail to tell whichever checker is ringing me up that I will not use a self-check line unless the store has no more human checkers, and to please pass that sentiment on to their managers.

I have a philosophical problem with them replacing human employees.

Agreed

Supermarkets are soulless enough as it stands.

Do any of the staffed checkout line lovers pump their own gas?

(Just asking -- folks in New Jersey and Oregon need not reply. )

We don't have self check anywhere in South Australia as far as I know. I've never come across it, anyway. I imagine it will arrive, though, and after a while we will get used to is. I remember people being aghast when scanning bar codes took over from stuck-on price tags, and I have elderly friends who have never really gotten over having to find your own stuff on the supermarket shelves instead of asking at the counter and having the assistant go and get the items. It took a while for people to get used to self-service petrol stations, too. Personally, I resisted ATMs for years, just to see how long I could hold out, much to the frustration of the tellers in the bank who were trying to educate their customers to use the hole-in-the-wall.

I guess it is inevitable that more and more retail functions will become automated, and that we will get used to it. The thing people often feel uncomfortable about is that people are being put out of jobs, or having their jobs deskilled. In general, I don't mind much if routine functions become automated provided that there is other skilled work being generated.

Of course, the human interaction and enjoying good customer service from a real person can't be beaten, and as fast as big outlets like petrol stations and supermarkets automate, other small "boutique" outlets spring up that offer the opposite end of the spectrum: the handmade, the individual, the personalised. Thank goodness "inevitable" doesn't seem capable of being "all-pervasive".

As an aside, I was talking to a business colleague yesterday about food outlets in rural Australia, and the name of the Stone Hut Bakery came up. This is located in a town right out in the donga in country South Australia. On another thread, Robin says Adelaide is miles from anywhere plus half an hour; Stone Hut is another two and a half hours up the road. When the proprietor, who had already been operating in a small country town, and decided to move to the even more isolated location, people told him he would never make it - nobody would go there. But people are going there, sometimes from very far away, because of the combination of local produce, handmade foods, and good personal service. Places like this make the prospect of fully automated supermarkets bearable. (For the curious, http://www.oldbakerystonehut.com.au/ )

You are right on the money, Matilda. We have examples of both -- Abma with knowledgeable checkout people who also stock and even harvest and pick eggs from the laying boxes. Corrado's, vast and with automated checkout -- a series of small boutiques, really, with old hands who make mozz and explain dozens of different cheeses on offer, a meat department that will make sausage on demand to your recipe within ten minutes, etc.

The checkout people are kids with little expertize and little interest other than scanning bar codes and moving goods down the line, griping if you are too slow at bagging.

Let me relieve the tedium of the folks that have to checkout eight hours a day -- it's ten minutes for me and gives me a second chance at quality control.

I don't use them. But, I am not nearly as opposed to them as I am ATM machines that provides no customer service and charge me a $2-3 surcharge for accessing my own money.

The only grocery store here that uses them is Safeway, and I love them there. Mostly because the checkout clerks there are required to address you by name if you use a card to pay. It's pretty annoying to have the checker run through your items and pack them up without ever making eye contact, grab the receipt, and say, "Thank you very much, Mr. Filif.....Mr. Figil......Mr.............." I would much rather do the checkout myself than have to submit to their false intimacy.

OTOH, I'd be pretty upset if the little store around the corner dumped their clerks for automated stations. The people there are genuinely friendly.

Love self-checkout! One can talk to the screen about high prices and not get a surly look!!

Do any of the staffed checkout line lovers pump their own gas?

(Just asking -- folks in New Jersey and Oregon need not reply. )

Replying from Oregon.

I'm not a fan of the self-check option myself. The closest supermarket to me (six miles), Roth's, has the most friendly and helpful employees of any supermarket I've ever shopped. They also have a large organic produce section, a huge selection of cheeses, grass fed meats and a wonderful selection of wines- reasonably priced. They have no self-check option. Don't need it. Just up the street are Kroger's and Albertson's. They both have the self check option. I don't shop either place.

I can do one-stop shopping at Roth's. The last place I frequented that had such complete one-stop shopping was in Cu Chi, Vietnam. It's name was "Girls, Beer, Bazaar, Car Wash."

The other place I shop is Harvest Fresh right in downtown McMinnville. Natural food store. It's small and very personal. Again no self-check lines.

(I don't own stock in either.)

I can pump my own gas in Oregon. But, then again, we own a gas station.

So I have no problem replacing the people with the self checkouts.

Apparently the people in NH value their jobs more than those in CT. The folks at all the supermarkets and other stores around here are pleasant and careful with the groceries and other goods.

I'm not a fan of the self-check option myself. The closest supermarket to me (six miles), Roth's, has the most friendly and helpful employees of any supermarket I've ever shopped. They also have a large organic produce section, a huge selection of cheeses, grass fed meats and a wonderful selection of wines- reasonably priced. They have no self-check option. Don't need it. Just up the street are Kroger's and Albertson's. They both have the self check option. I don't shop either place.

But surely that's because you prefer Roth's, Chef. I can't imagine not shopping at an excellent store simply because they give you a self check option. Unlike gasoline where in Oregon and New Jersey there is no option (unless you own the joint).

My impression after driving cross country recently is that there is almost always a self service and an attended island in other states -- I can't remember seeing one single car in the attended lanes during that trip, even when there were lines to get into the self service lanes. Nickle a gallon more for attendants, plus waiting time to round someone up, I suppose, explain the reason. But gas, pay and go -- I preferred that to waiting for attendants here in New Jersey, frankly.

I don't use them. But, I am not nearly as opposed to them as I am ATM machines that provides no customer service and charge me a $2-3 surcharge for accessing my own money.

Jo Ann, if it's your own bank charging you to access your account, you really should think about changing banks!

I'm not a fan of the self-check option myself. The closest supermarket to me (six miles), Roth's, has the most friendly and helpful employees of any supermarket I've ever shopped. They also have a large organic produce section, a huge selection of cheeses, grass fed meats and a wonderful selection of wines- reasonably priced. They have no self-check option. Don't need it. Just up the street are Kroger's and Albertson's. They both have the self check option. I don't shop either place.

But surely that's because you prefer Roth's, Chef. I can't imagine not shopping at an excellent store simply because they give you a self check option. Unlike gasoline where in Oregon and New Jersey there is no option (unless you own the joint).

My impression after driving cross country recently is that there is almost always a self service and an attended island in other states -- I can't remember seeing one single car in the attended lanes during that trip, even when there were lines to get into the self service lanes. Nickle a gallon more for attendants, plus waiting time to round someone up, I suppose, explain the reason. But gas, pay and go -- I preferred that to waiting for attendants here in New Jersey, frankly.

Bob, you have answered your own question (if you asked one). And that is at the pump, there is a reduced price for those who pump their own gas. And in the grocery store, a gallon of milk cost the same for the self help line and the line with an attendant.

I am not nearly as opposed to them as I am ATM machines that provides no customer service and charge me a $2-3 surcharge for accessing my own money.

You don't think the ATM in and of itself is a form of customer service? Otherwise you would be limited to getting money during normal banking hours and only at specific branches.

And in the grocery store, a gallon of milk cost the same for the self help line and the line with an attendant.

The store has to pay for the equipment used in the self help line, Bob, and for an attendant to help the confused and to reduce pilgerage. Not free to the store by any means.

My guess is that gas stations charge the nickle to discourage people from seeking out an attendant.

Back to the original question, I'd pay a small fee, say 3% of the grocery bill [roughly equivalent to the nickle on a gallon of gas] for the speed and convenience of checking out my own groceries. I'm blessed that the stores don't charge for the fun of doing so.

Folks who dislike the grocery machines seem to use the gas self checkouts even though jobs are lost because they do so. Or may be not -- do you pay the extra nickle a gallon?

The store has to pay for the equipment used in the self help line, Bob, and for an attendant to help the confused and to reduce pilgerage. Not free to the store by any means.

Not to mention all the bells and whistles and people running when you swipe a six pack of beer!

Speaking of which - anybody wanna buy a gas station?