Only about one-third of surveyed retailers plan to invest in self-checkout technology this year, significantly fewer than in 2025, according to an annual retail industry report. While...
  • billwashere@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11 minutes

    My main issue with self checkout is simple. They constantly incorrectly flag me for shoplifting and then proceed to show my shiny bald head from top down to everyone within 20 feet on the checkout screen. It is not a flattering angle.

  • MithranArkanere@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1 hour

    All self-checkouts I see around here are either completely empty, or full of workers who have to help the people using them, at least about 1 worker for every 4 self-checkout stations.

    • GormayRawdog@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2 hours

      If you can’t develop the agency to acquire employment at a living wage or - here’s a fucky idear for ya - start your own (successful) business, then you deserve to succumb to entrapy, imo

    • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3 hours

      I’ve said this many times, but self checkout as a thing isnt inherently bad. They are a perfectly viable alternative for people who only grabbed a couple things, or something they find personally embarrassing and don’t want to have a cashier see, or dont want to be social/deal with people.

      What made it bad is that these stores replaced 90% of their checkout lanes with self checkout, then refused to have anyone operate any of the checkout lanes. Which sucks for anyone buying more than a couple things. If you have a full cart for your monthly shopping, going through self checkout is like a 40 minute ordeal cause theres no counter space or anything (and i shouldnt be expected to do that much work to check myself out unless you are giving me like a 20% discount for doing it).

      I’m glad to see them reducing the number of self checkout lanes, but i hope they keep at least a couple.

    • Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.netEnglish
      3 hours

      I personally love self checkout. The option for the five finger discount is such a great benefit.

  • NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zipEnglish
    5 hours

    I was astounded the other day when I visited a town that had a nice busy grocery store. It was like what I imagine the 70’s were like. They had 20 lanes OPEN with cashiers quickly and efficiently ringing up items, much faster than I could, with baggers neatly and efficiently filling the bags. There were no waiting lines because everyone found a cashier lane to walk right up to as the last person was finishing up.

    It was ten times faster than a self checkout.

    I rarely see that anymore. Its usually one lone cashier and a bunch of people waiting for a self checkout machine.

    • StabbingSky@lemmy.zipEnglish
      2 hours

      At our grocery store, their self checkout hates me because I apparently scan things too fast.

    • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3 hours

      I see that a lot in more expensive stores in more bougie areas.

      I don’t see it much at all in my poor bitch ass stores.

    • Impractical_Island@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3 hours

      Look at this shill for Big Little Town Grocery. We see your cards bud. Get your lobby-grubbering hands outta the thin-margin profits of real American heros of the grocery industry like Wegman’s and Walmart. These equals in saving the world from the theft of the predation of your marketshare dominance are of the forefront of ways to be as we can be all the mannerism of Christ it be! So get the hell on outta these parts boy, we got you on the split, y’get?

  • Verdorrterpunkt@feddit.orgEnglish
    7 hours

    This feels surreal, self checkout is insanely normal here and theres no scales and or other sensors besides normal cctv. Switzerland, for context.

  • GormayRawdog@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2 hours

    If I can’t check out a clerk or cashier when checking out at a food/grocery outlet, that business is shit and deserves to die.

  • rumba@lemmy.zipEnglish
    7 hours

    I’m mixed.

    I dislike peopling in person, and I hate lines with a passion, but I also hate putting cashiers out of business, running the register myself, and waiting for one person in charge of 17 registers to come over and figure out WTF just went wrong with the checkout process, which is also peopleing and lines.

    • mr_jay@lemmy.zipEnglish
      6 hours

      At this point I find the errors are pretty rare and much prefer self-checkout, mainly because it’s faster, and as you put it, I often don’t care for peopling.

    • MBech@feddit.dkEnglish
      7 hours

      I quite like self checkout, because I am quite a bit faster at scanning my own stuff, than the old as shit people in front of me, who need to find exact cash, and need to read the entire receipt before moving, so they can complain to the cashier that they paid €0,1 too much for their carrots. Even better is mobile checkout though, so I can just scan whatever I need on my way through the shop and pay while walking out.

      • Joelk111@lemmy.worldEnglish
        7 hours

        Depends on how much I’m buying. If I’m doing a bi-weekly shopping run, I’ll be way slower at self check. If it’s just a few things, I’m quicker.

        I’ve never heard of mobile checkout though.

        • MBech@feddit.dkEnglish
          6 hours

          It’s been a thing here for a few years. You scan the barcode with your phone, put it in your bag, net, suitcase, whatever, and then just scan a qr code on your way out and pay with whatever payment you want. I started using it while waiting in line at a checkout, and managed to set up the app, verify my age, set up payment option, scan everything, and pack it, before the 3 people in front of me were done.

  • HertzDentalBar@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    5 hours

    I definitely prefer self checkout, I’m already shopping for myself why not just checkout myself.

    Think about it, were already doing the Labour the shopkeeper used to do by picking our own grocery, so is self checkout not just the logical next step.

    Outside of wages and the evilness of Walmart and shit I’m just talking about pure tech and grocery stores that actually pay a living wage.

      • ArmchairAce1944@discuss.onlineEnglish
        4 hours

        The machines have cameras and are recording you. Yes I know they also have cameras around the cashier’s place, but not staring you in the fucking face. Also I can pay in cash.

  • OriginalTangle@feddit.orgEnglish
    7 hours

    The article talks about time savings but it was always about labor costs and I have a hard time believing it didn’t deliver on that front.

    • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2 hours

      If you put your blinders on and only look at that one line on the spreadsheet, it was probably “successful” in that regard. They pay fewer employees, full stop.

      But that doesn’t take into account the fact that the machines themselves are extremely expensive up front, have a nontrival setup cost, require ongoing maintenance, assuredly these days come with some manner of mandatory service contract attached, and the monetary losses from theft on the machines are huge. So whether or not any large businesses actually came out ahead on the proposition as a whole is questionable, and I don’t have the data to support a conclusion there either way.

  • TheObviousSolution@lemmy.caEnglish
    6 hours

    This probably has a wide latitude of success depending on whether it’s a high trust or low trust society.

  • zoltanshields@lemmy.zipEnglish
    7 hours

    In 2016 I used self checkout if I wanted to get through quickly.

    In 2026 I look for a cashier.

    • smeenz@lemmy.nzEnglish
      4 hours

      Can you elaborate? Here in NZ the self checkout is so much faster and less hassle.

      • zoltanshields@lemmy.zipEnglish
        2 hours

        At least where I am in the southern US self-checkout ends up being slower.

        Ten years ago my experience was likely similar to yours, pretty quick to just scan your own groceries, not much of a line to speak of as some people are opting for a cashier. Go for the self checkout every time.

        The trouble now is that there aren’t enough cashiers so almost everyone has to go through self checkout. Longer line but you would think it wouldn’t make that much of a difference.

        But they only have one attendant watching all the self checkouts. So if three people are buying beer at once you have only one to go around checking their IDs. If an item (usually a fruit or vegetable) doesn’t have a proper entry in the kiosk’s database and no barcode to scan then the attendant has to go by and manually enter a code scan the item to unlock the machine. For example when buying habaneros my grocery store only had an entry for “green habaneros”, if you selected them the machine would call a cashier over because you picked an item they don’t actually have. Don’t even get me started on their touchy anti theft measures erroneously triggering because you moved your hand weird when setting down a bag.

        Again, none of this was really a problem back then, but now at my grocery store it’s one attendant handling 8 self checkouts at once where any number could have these problems to resolve.

        This part may be more in my head, but I also frequently feel like I’m stuck behind people who have never used a touchscreen before, or been in a grocery store, or exchanged currency for goods. Someone always needs help with some part of the process and if you add that to the problems I listed above, it can really slow things down.

    • yardratianSoma@lemmy.caEnglish
      6 hours

      Strange, I use self-checkout daily in Canada, and its great, for just a handful of items usually, I don’t have to hold up anyone needing to checkout an entire households worth of groceries.

      • Grabthar@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3 hours

        I use the express checkout for that. Cashier is always faster and you can usually walk right up to an empty counter just past the lineup for the self checkout at the local Sobey’s.

  • Binturong@lemmy.caEnglish
    8 hours

    Good. Just pay people, society is for people. All of these cost saving schemes from capitalists in service of infinite greed end up failing and wasting even more money than they would have made or saved simply by paying people for their labour. Also, wealth tax immediately, I mean now.

    • Auth@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5 hours

      People like self checkout and if that saves the shop money thats a win/win. Not everything is an evil scheme. When competent governments are in power unemployment isnt high enough that we need to make things worse to give people jobs to do.

      • Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.netEnglish
        3 hours

        Also, the point of tech is to free people from needing to toil at bullshit jobs so they can pursue their actual passions.

        Unfortunately, we live in capitalism that insists people must toil to “earn” their right to live, which completely negates the benefits of tech that frees people from toiling, because that toil is how most people make a wage.

      • Binturong@lemmy.caEnglish
        5 hours

        That IF is doing a lot of heavy lifting here, as the article will point out. People like convenience when they feel perosnally disconnected from it, but I’m always sensitive to the implication of the adoption of a technology and long term goals, and you should be too. You claim it’s a win/win, but if this were applied broadly it would eliminate jobs for people who might not have good alternatives, if any, with no provisions for acces to other future labour. This is bad for ALL of us, even if you’re not working in retail and you don’t think people should have to, because like a chain our society is only as strong as the weakest and most neglected parts. Retail is largely a undesireable job because of OUR culture of consumption that gives people free license to treat employees like shit, and for the owning class to pay them as little as possible and disrespect their labour.

        This is why you need to expand your view and afford respect for every worker working any job, their labour has intrinsic value to society, remember that you, the consumer, are the one creating the demad for their job to exist. Don’t forget the knock-on effect for owners who see tactics like this succeeding leading to more automation projects to eliminate more labour costs for the exclusive benefit of CEOs and shareholders. Based on these facts, I’m telling you, you’re wrong to think of this so simplistically, and to make so many assumptions in the face of clear precedents in corporate actions for pure profiteering. I know the purpose of coporations is to generate profit, and that’s true, which is also why we can only tolerate their existence with strictly imposed limits on their growth because by design unregulated capital will cannibalize society, the retail workers are the canaries in that coal mine, so to speak.