'It hasn't delivered': The spectacular failure of self-checkout technology

I know this isn't the most popular opinion, but I love self-checkout systems when they're available and used correctly. My local supermarket closed 2 10-item-or-less lanes and put 6 self-checkouts in the same space. I probably make 2 trips/week to the store for fewer than 10 items, and being able to check myself out has been a huge time saver. There are still another 8 lanes with cashiers for larger shopping trips. If the supermarket can avoid the race to the bottom thinking of "well, we replaced 2 lanes, maybe we can also replace the other 8), it'll be a nice compromise.

Now contrast that with my local Home Depot, which typically has 1-2 cashiers MAX at any given time. They have turned the checkout process into a tedious pain in the ass, and I've more or less stopped shopping there as a result.

Fuck this bullshit article.

I fucking love self service. I don't want to deal with people.

Just let me buy my stuff and get out. I don't want or need small talk.

I want the disgusting supermarket shop to be as cold and sterile as possible.

I bring my own bag. I'd Honestly rather just scan everything as I go. And just pay as I walk out.

Current system is stupid. Walk around shop picking things up. Then take everything out and rebag

Sounds like low trust society issues to be honest. I only see those systems expanding in Switzerland, and they never use annoying scales or complain about unexpected items, because there aren't even any sensors for that.

Oh no, did your attempt to cut labor costs and make shoppers do more of the labor that checkers used to do end up increasing shrink?

Oh no, how awful for you that you aren't able to properly afford more *checks notes... Stock Buybacks.

This is how I imagine retailers complaining about this.

I don't mind self checkout.

I mind that I need the one employee overseeing 12 checkouts every other scan because the system decides something is wonky. I mind that it now has AI that assures said single employee that I'm fleecing them for an $0.80 can of tomato sauce and I now have to wait for this person to dig through my 3 bags looking for this hoisted sauce.

If they're so determined that every customer is lifting everything at checkout all the time - if only there was a way they could have an employee verify every item gets scanned, every time, perhaps by doing it themselves. Then we could wait in a line and feed our items to them so they can rest easy knowing everything was scanned appropriately. Oh, what science fiction Dreams I have.

I love self-checkout. Faster, don't have to rush because someone is waiting for me, don't have to interact with people, can easily double check it had the correct price etc. They're fantastic

What are they talking about, self checkouts are great. It makes the shopping experience more fair for those with fewer items

The only people I've ever encountered IRL or online that can't stand self check out are dumbass boomers that can't figure out how to use them correctly. This article has the same energy as those articles that claim people don't want to work from home.

I almost exclusivity self-checkout for groceries, and it had drastically sped up my checkout time as most people in my area opt to use traditional checkout and the stores are still keeping lots of lanes open (just closing the express lanes). The last 3 times I've used a non-self checkout, each time I was double charged for items or didn't have reduced prices applied and didn't notice because I was bagging.

I don’t get their point that shoppers “need to be socialized into using self-checkout”. Who ever needed to be persuaded? It’s just that they try hard to make it painful. Self checkout was always an over-complicated conglomeration of parts with poor usability, then poorly thought out additions to try to control theft and no counter space . It just never works well. Maybe we should “socialize” retailers into getting their shit together she it can work more smoothly

Ehm, it's pretty much a success where I'm from. Sounds more like a personal opinion.

self checkout is a default for me

I hate self checkout because they make the system frustrating as if they don’t trust you. Which they don’t. So they make it weigh items and it yells if you’re too slow putting the item in the bagging area.

If you don’t trust me to do it. Pay someone else to do it.

Usually I quite like self check

Except at ALDI.

Before they put in self check the cashiers sped through transactions at lightning speed. Now they've cut the number of cashiers and people sit at SCO slowly scanning and bagging everything....

It's ALDI bruh scan that shit and go to the bagging counter.

I think self checkout is a good way for stores to get more customers through faster but the stores seem to think they are a replacement for human cashiers and they are not at all. They are nice to have in addition to human cashiers.

My own bag. Hand scanner. Zip through the store while loading my bag. Easy check out. Hell no I don't want to use the cashier line.

This seems to be an implementation issue. In my neighbourhood discounter, in Germany, there's three self-checkouts and while they're a bit small they also don't do any of that weighing and whatnot bullshit: You scan your stuff, pay, done. The only thing they can't do is apply best-before rebates.

There's also always a manned till open (or at the very least, when things are slow, a worker hanging out in the vicinity). In practice if the queue is empty you go there, if you have lots of stuff you go there (because it's bound to be faster as you can focus on packing while things get scanned), otherwise you have the choice to use self-checkout. Never had to stand in line for self-checkout, before that happens they open another manned till. What the self-checkouts do is keep small purchases away from the manned tills when they're busy which is exactly what they're good for. I

In my country, it's a huge success. People love it at the point that even Aldi and Lidl implemented the system.

But, the huge difference with the US is cultural. People coming here from abroad have a hard time to make local friends. It can take up to 10 years to make one.

My guess is that people love the lack of social contact more than self checkout itself.

Failure?? It’s in every store in the world

I don't recognize these pain points. I always use the self checkout and it's usually quick and painless. My experience is.

Edit: seems I made the assumption that everyone uses wireless scanner handles.

0. When we enter the store we scan the ID to get a wireless scanner handle.
1. Collect your wares, scan with the handle, placing them directly into the bags along the way.
2. Put the handle back and blip your membership id (card or qr code on phone) again to start the checkout.
3. Blip your payment card.
4. Walk out

Every once in a while I get caught in a random check, which is kind of a pain, but it's so infrequent that it is acceptable.

Is this not how it usually works?

They let me avoid human interaction if I choose, AND they’ve hurt these big retailers while showing them the value of giving people more shifts/hours?

Spectacular success if you ask me! It would be fun to have worked on this tech and then see it helping others by failing or being sabotaged, lol. That’s not a feeling you usually expect when you launch a product.

This is the second article in the last month I've found here on the Fediverse pronouncing the death of self checkout and honestly I just don't see it. Most of the stores around me have only just recently expanded their self-checkout areas and I vastly prefer using it unless I've got more than 25 items.

I'd honestly probably stop going to a store that decided to not allow me to check out on my own. Small talk and having to make a minimum wage worker suffer through it is just not something I want when I'm running to the store for a gallon of milk. I vastly prefer being able to throw in some earbuds, get my shopping, check out, and get out to having to interact with anyone while I'm just trying get my shit.

This article really sounds like it describes an alternate reality to me. Interesting to see how many people in the comments seem to hate self checkouts but here in the UK they seem to work fine. Shops seem to have found the right balance. In the same shop you'll have queues advancing rapidly at self checkouts and people run tills with shorter queues for customers who prefer the human interaction.

Self checkout is just fine, as long as you have enough of them.

Even better are the handsets you can take around the shop and scan as you go, as nobody wants to really be doing an entire trolley at the self checkout.

Hasn't it?

They're always faster than the queue for the cashiers, and they work fine.

The only issue I've had recently is they stopped taking cash for some reason, and I pay in cash. But besides that, they're fast and work great.

As a customer, I 💕 self checkout: the great divide between fast and slow

Self checkout could be fine, the failure is capitalism/corporations in execution

I love self-checkout, because I hate waiting in line.

Maybe this is just a British thing? They're very popular here in NZ

Yea, no. The supermarket I shop at, I just scan everything with my phone as I go, scan a QR code at self checkout and pay.

Worst case I have to wait 2 minutes for someone to do a verification scan (5 random items crom my bag) or wait for them to verify my age.

I don't like to interact with people, but I also don't like to work for free for the owner of the chain, so I take one for the comrades and interact with the cashier.

As someone who has shoped in the us but lives in europe, that only applies to the us. Self checkout is objectively bad in the us. Here, it is actually pretty good. The only anti theft mechanism is a random check wich happens like once a year to me, no weighing bs. Especially, if you use the option to scan while shopping with your phone or scanner device. Then you just pay in the app and leave, no hastle at the cash register.

You can really tell these days who has never worked in a grocery store or restaurant before.

We had a CVS Pharmacy location near me that decided to leave that location. Self checkout there was based on assuming everyone was a thief. All their wounds were self inflicted. Almost everything was locked up and you could never find someone to get your item for you. The genius management thought it was going to help profitability by deterring theft. Instead it was a deterrent to willing and eager customers wanting to buy their stuff. When you step over a dollar to get to a dime, your business is on borrowed time.

It's a common sight at many retail stores: a queue of people, waiting to use a self-checkout kiosk, doing their best to remain patient as a lone store worker attends to multiple malfunctioning machines.

I have never had this happen. The only issues I've ever had is people not understanding something so simple as scanning a barcode and then tap to pay.

Self checkout is one of the greatest advancements I've ever had. Probably the most irritating thing about California is that they made it illegal to use a self checkout to buy beer. The state literally forced me to stand in lines when i can easily scan a barcode.

The self check out was supposed to decrease the amount of cashiers the store would have to use so they wouldn't have to pay so many cashiers.

They're a detriment to society.

I do not use self-checkout for several reasons, including what other people have said: i don't get a discount, it's taking someone else's job, it's annoying as fuck. Further, I use my own canvas bags, and that machine yells about the weight mismatch no matter what I try. I'd rather listen to nails on a chalkboard.

But i also shop for groceries 1 time per week, which means I'm buying beer, which means the self-checkout STILL requires somebody to help me. I end up standing around for longer than it takes to go through the regular line.

Anyway, the self-checkout lines generally see very loud usage in my NC town.

My troubles with self checkout usualy has to do with the confirmation weight scale which slows things down tremendously. Sam's self check out featured a lack of scale (Sam's also had a scan-as-you-go app my wife loved).

I avoid self checkouts unless the lines at the cashier checkouts are unreasonable.

Half the time I go through one of those I get hit with an error that I've then gotta wait on the attendant to fix. The other half I get bogged down by the stupid process like how you've got to put the item down on the bagging area before you can scan another one or how you can interact with the card reader to pay but the transaction will not complete until you select a payment type on the main screen. Lately, I've noticed some trying to trick me into signing up for rewards or some bullshit.

Much easier to just dump my stuff on the conveyor belt and have the cashier handle everything else.

I think self checkout works for one or two items. But not much more than that. I don't want to have two or three things to checkout and be stuck behind someone with a cart full.

But If I have much more than that, an "old fashioned" checkout is a lot better.

We have those by me still, I love them. Except when they check the weight of every item so you can't have one person scan and another bagging.

Their intent was to cut jobs/costs. They worked as designed. The user experience being improved was never the real goal of these, both on the employee and customer side. I'm fine using them for a small number of items/one item, but if I'm going to buy a bunch of things or anything that requires special handling (alcohol), I just skip them. I also skip them if there's no line at a human checkout because I don't want to drive those folks out of jobs either.

I enjoy Sam's Club's "Scan and Go" feature in their app. I scan my items and pay in the app. I never have to interact with a soul, and that's peachy keen in my book.

I love self-checkouts.

But what I love even more is having one single line for all lanes. It's ridiculous that customers have to guess which lane will move the fastest.

Making a single line is the best thing self-checkouts have introduced around here.

Also, if they won't bag my stuff for me, then I might as well be at the self-checkout. And since they don't offer plastic bags at most places around here, most don't bag your stuff for you.

If there are multiple lines and they won't bag my stuff, I'll go somewhere else that has self-checkout.

In Brazil I only see more and more places adopting it, does not seem a failure

SCO would be better if you got the same type of scanners as the regular registers

Putting everything from the cart onto a belt, and having access to more than 2-4 sets of bags (or a whole carousel at walmart!) without the dumb "did you scan this?" prompt would make me use SCO every single time. Trying to bag groceries in current SCO is miserable, and the sensors are usually so bad that you CANT EVEN REMOVE FULL BAGS when you need to fill another bag

I want my goods squeezed out of a cold unfeeling robot's bowels right into my home just as long as I don't have to see another filthy human because I use linux and think I'm a fucking cyborg

I know a few large supermarkets in yhe us that have this that have disabled the weighing and improved over time. Also having one employee for 8 machines doesn't sound like a failure

I don't see the benefit for me.

They save money and keep it and fire the workers........

All these things are just designed to make the shop do less work, and for you to do their job for them for free.

I'm sure in the future we won't interact with people at all, because that's whats cheapest for the company. We will be true "consumers", like animals being fed by machines.

Well, at least if capitalism continues.

a queue of people, waiting to use a self-checkout kiosk

That's not how it works with the stores I frequent. Usually about half the self-checkout kiosks don't have anyone at them.

I'd shop somewhere else if they took self checkout away. It's so much faster.

i only check myself out whenever i shoplift

I like self checkout. Used it largely without issue for over 15 years.

Honestly we all carry a barcode scanner in our pockets. If I were running a grocery store, I’d be investing in scan and go instead of self checkout

For most of my shopping, which takes place at our local Walmart (I live in the US), I actually really like using the self-checkout. Now when we make a big grocery run, having a person there makes things easier because they can scan and bag, I can unload things onto the belt and my wife can pull bags off the little turnstile thing and put them back in our cart, but most of the time I'm just running in to grab a handful of items so when I leave I can just walk up to the kiosk, scan my stuff, scan the QR code with the Walmart app on my phone and walk out the door. It'll auto pay with the privacy card I attached to my Walmart account and give me a digital receipt to show if somebody wants to see it at the door. They even have a thing now where you can pay a monthly subscription for "Walmart+" where you can scan and pay for your items as you shop.

Love self Checkout, but if I can't pay cash I'm not using it. And sadly they're all card only here ....

At my grocery store I can't collect or use points, discounts don't register properly so you need help and no carts are allowed at self checkout. I would rather wait in line.

Over here stores are increasing their prices because people steal at the self-checkout. So they reduce costs by not having cashiers but then increase prices due to theft. Quite some logic.

You'd assume it's an easy balance to make: if (saving on cashiers - loss due to theft) > 0 implement self-checkout else don't implement.

I hate self checkout. I don’t go shopping just to work. Fuck that, check me out and bag my shit.

I was cool with using them (less social interaction, scan and bag at my own pace), but over time I'm getting lazier and lazier

It doesn't work everywhere. Smaller store like CvS? Sure

Being watched like a hawk in Walmart? Not a comfortable experience and would rather work with someone face to face

In a new stadium in my city you swipe your credit card, pick up food or drink in a little monitored area and walk out with your items. It is an interesting idea but it is also creepy. That's probably what stores will be like eventually -- at least the ones with the resources to implement something that expensive and complex.

As far as self checkout, I don't mind it for small orders or when it is more convenient for me at the grocery store. Unexpected item in bagging is a bad consumer experience, and buying produce/alcohol is also a pain. If I feel like I am going to run into trouble I head for the traditional lines.

I really despise the ones at big box hardware stores that show a video of you checking out. I'm not stealing, don't judge me or make me judge myself with that unflattering angle.

I treat self-checkout as a game with 2 goals:

1. Make it through the process without getting any help.
2. Do it as fast as a trained cashier.

In a good season, my batting average for #1 might be .300, which would not be bad were the game baseball. As far as #2 is concerned, I have never come close. It's like I throw 30 mph pitches. Things get real when I'm trying to look up bananas or something and the helper comes up behind me. "It's 4198. Here, let me do it." Thanks, I already lost #2 and you just made me lose #1…again.

You do the work for the company and pay them! Fuck self-checkout!!

This is probably a difference between countries, but personally I love it here in the Netherlands. I go to the store after work multiple times a week and I have yet to encounter a queue or problem that stalled me longer than 1-2 minutes. Usually I can just directly walk to a self-checkout machine, check out my stuff, pay by holding my debit card (or phone) against the payment terminal, and be on my way. I like it way more than the old way of doing things, because I now have time to properly pack my bag and I don't have to talk to anyone. It's also way more space efficient. There's even the option to take a scanner with you so you can scan while shopping, though I have yet to try that.

I worked every position in a grocery store during high school and college. I am now unwilling to work any of them without being paid to do so. And my current rate is many multiples of what they pay their employees.

I'm not using it only because the two retailers in the country don't need to have my credit card info and/or phone number.

I very specifically wait in line to make an actual employee scan my items and bag them. I will go out of my way to make the corporation pay someone to do the job rather than pass the labor on to me the customer. They sure as hell aren't passing on any savings to me, so they can pay a human to check me out.

Got a dozen cans of soup. Scanned ten cans of soup. Got two pounds of bulk pine nuts ($34.99/lb). Paid for two pounds of bulk barley ($2.49/lb). Etc.

“One thing that we have learned is that piracy is not a pricing issue. It’s a service issue" -- Gabe Newell

I just watched a comedy special where the comedian calls them the "the shoplifter lanes".

Unstaffed tills were supposed to revolutionise shopping.

They were?

I hate self-checkout. It's just annoying and a downgrade from an actual. cashier. I'll use it when I have to. But really it's just terrible.

However, scan as you shop. That's just great. Put your bags in the trolley, scan and put it straight in the bag. Go to checkout machine, pay and your stuff is already bagged.

Well, I work in retail exactly in this field for chain of roughly 100 small grocery stores mostly in rural villages in central/eastern Europe. We do have couple larger stores, where larger doesn't mean big in global scale, for us it means they need 2 cash registers most of the day.

We do have few stores equipped with self check out registers too. There are 3 types for us and all of them with different pros and cons.

1. Bigger stores. We have 2 stores where we installed SCOs as an addition to regular check outs. It works great if you have just a couple items and don't want to wait for those 3 people standing in line. I prefer to use them with most of my shopping there, because they are often empty/instantly available unlike regular check outs.

2. We have 3 small village stores with one regular check out that we expanded with one SCO. These shops are open 24/7, while cashiers are there for roughly 8 hours a day and the rest is full automatic. You get in through ID, pick your stuff, check out and leave. It is great idea, but prety novel in this region and people are not used to it yet. Remember we're talking about villages with less than 1000 people.

3. We also have 2 completely self check out stores. Meaning there's no live personnel tobinteract with, only one person to go in, refill shelves and leavd. There's only one SCO and it also works 24/7 as number 2. This is in the smallest villages, with under 500 people and it's pretty successful so far. People are happy they have place to shop locally, because if it wasn't for this they'd be left without shop whatsoever.

Just my 2 cents. Also bear in mind this is Europe, where people are definitely not used to take long drives very often. Especially not because your everyday shopping needs. Be happy to answer if you had some questions.

Self-checkout systems are already old fashioned. Most stores in my town have apps for that now, where customers scan items as they bag them in their own bags while walking through the store and then just beep out. This removes the need for a queue, the payment terminal, the receipt and the stupid exit gate. Customers are allegedly randomly checked, but I've never seen that.

Realize that many elite schools are pay to win and these business failures make sense.

Making customers bag their groceries for free is not a "cost saving measure" its a "cost shifting measure"

I wonder how many of the people who say self-checkout is unpaid labor will also try to shame people for not returning their shopping carts.

Hate those things. Every time I go up them it seems like a quarter of them are broken so there is still a line. Also the guy babysitting the machines doesn't appreciate when I yelled at the machine "EXPECT THE ITEM IN THE BAGGING AREA!". Been tempted to start randomly leaving ice cream by the machines. Oh I am sorry did the scanner get sugary syrup on it?

And now of course it is am excuse to have even less normal lines open. So the choices are dealing with crap tech or stuck behind old people with coupons.

I donno, asking why self-checkouts haven't delivered anything is kind of like asking why your cook never mows your lawn, dontcha think?

Self checkouts that require the receipt barcode to open the exit door are quite alright.

It's usually fast except for the idiots that bring their small children in there to play around with everybody else's time.