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...
  • willington@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    2 hours

    I use self-checkout occasionally. On the one hand I don’t absolutely hate if I have a few items. Yea, I cannot scan nearly as quickly as the pros. Which is fine if I have three things. Luckily I have mever either been accused of theft myself or seen it happen to anyone else.

    That said, I will absolutely not be sad to see these machines go. Nothing of value will be lost.

    Hire more cashiers and pay them a living wage so they don’t have to immedeately sign up for food stamps right after being accepted into employment. Our government should not be subsidizing the billionaires, who are all mentally unwell from having long since surpassed mere riches.

  • billwashere@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5 hours

    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.

    • ɔiƚoxɘup@infosec.pubEnglish
      3 hours

      I had one pull this shit on me like six or seven times, and the funny thing is it was because of a pharmacy bag in the basket, so what do I do now? I run the pharmacy bag over the scanner, it doesn’t do anything, I put it in the bag, and it doesn’t complain, which tells me if I actually was stealing, it actually wouldn’t be going off.

    • GormayRawdog@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7 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

  • MithranArkanere@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6 hours

    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.

  • NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zipEnglish
    10 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.

    • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8 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.

    • StabbingSky@lemmy.zipEnglish
      7 hours

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

    • Impractical_Island@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8 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?

    • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8 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.

          • Omgpwnies@lemmy.worldEnglish
            3 hours

            I’d say instead make an aisle and cart design for the store such that the store’s shopping carts would not be able to enter the self-checkout. Essentially, each shopper would be limited to what they can carry in a basket or two, with the added limitation that the checkout bagging area is only big enough for 2 baskets that cannot be removed once you start.

            • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
              3 hours

              Thats way to much of a stretch. Cause no ones gonna invest in new shopping carts for every store, and to make it too narrow for a cart to enter would be uncomfortably narrow for people.

              and its unnecessary, just have maybe, depending on the size of the store, 2-4 self checkouts. and have a cashier on hand at all times to handle cart loads. 2 or more for high traffic hours. a lot simpler solution.

    • Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.netEnglish
      8 hours

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

  • Verdorrterpunkt@feddit.orgEnglish
    12 hours

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

  • rumba@lemmy.zipEnglish
    13 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
      11 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
      12 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
        12 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
          11 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.

  • OriginalTangle@feddit.orgEnglish
    12 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
      7 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
    12 hours

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

  • HertzDentalBar@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    10 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
        9 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.

          • willington@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            2 hours

            Often enough to be annoying there is only one checkout machine of many that accepts cash, and a bunch of people are lining up for that one machine.

  • Binturong@lemmy.caEnglish
    13 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
      11 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
        8 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.

        • Auth@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4 hours

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

          Its not. Tech can be pointless, it can be to free up labor to pursue more furfiling work, it can be for captial owners to reduce labor, it can be just to do something more accurately. The point of technology is whatever humans are trying to achieve through it.

          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.

          Fortunately we live in Captialist economies where private ownership exists and can decide how to operate their business if that means they want to have 4 checkout lanes and a self serivce section they can, if that means 8 checkout lanes they can, if that means self service only they can. Checkout operator isnt a bullshit job that people do to waste time. If you want a store you need a checkout operator or a machine that can do equivalent work. Work must be done for society to function, its not an optional thing in any economic system. Hopefully this addresses your brainrot ‘capitalism bad’ response.

          Also we dont live in “captialism where people must toil to earn their right to live” if you dont work you can still live. You get food and housing and you can live, it wont be an materially rich life but there is nothing stopping you from living and you can find your own meaning without money. Also the US is the worst for this, most captialist countries you can not work and have a much better quality of life.

      • Binturong@lemmy.caEnglish
        10 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.

        • Auth@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4 hours

          What do you mean the IF is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Its not doing heavy lifting. People like self checkout and if that saves the shop money thats a win/win and if it doesnt thats a win for people and a loss for the shop.

          Your point about this being applied broadly and eliminating jobs is dumb. Technological advancement HAS been applied broadly and it does eliminate jobs and yet historically unemployment has been low because there is plenty of work to go around. Sure you can point to some points of high unemployment in history 10-20% but overall there has been no evidence that would suggest we should be passing on advancements to keep a job. So no self checkouts are not ‘bad for all of us’ and the rest of your rant is not worth addressing pure brainrot.

          • Binturong@lemmy.caEnglish
            3 hours

            “and if it doesnt thats a win for people and a loss for the shop.” This case is not a win for people. The people did not ask the shop to automate services better rendered by humans. Half the time shops have to have a human on hand to help the self checkouts when they fail or reader errors plague the customers. I personally have had those machines stall out or stop working and waste my time and that of one of the few workers still around the store which slows up service somewhere else cause of understaffing. These things are specifically not an advancement if you’ll turn your attention to the article that started this post.

            “Your point about this being applied broadly and eliminating jobs is dumb.” How? Why is humans losing jobs dumb?

            You want to vaguely gesture to all technology being good just by virtue of being new, but these things end up being terrible busienss decisions all the fucking time, too. Some work, some don’t, and almost all aren’t done for the benefit of anybody but the bottom line of the owners. You write like you have no point of reference or understanding of working life, or ability to connect to other people in society given the way you just handwave human replacement. It’s embarassing frankly, you want to call nuance brain rot to avoid engaging with it because you’re developmentally challenged.

  • Denfa@lemmy.worldEnglish
    16 hours

    You still need employees to help hapless customers and flag tech problems, the security cameras from above to dissuade theft, and someone to man the monitors of said cameras. They were banking on full human replacement. Can’t wait for our AI future with a store devoid of employees where they drop a net from the ceiling and pepper spray me because I forgot my eggplant was the organic price.

    • Brimstone@lemmy.mlEnglish
      16 hours

      They are banking on the majority being honest.

      We’ll see honest people are when AI has taken their job and they need to eat.