Touch screens replacing cashiers

[blazespinnaker]

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/mcdonalds-r...200601087.html

I saw this in an A&W .. very cool. This will soon be everywhere. This is source of massive deflation.

[Chris]

Re: Touch screens replacing cashiers

In the UK, our supermarkets replaced cashiers with do-it-yourself machinery a few years ago. One staff member can now supervise six computerized checkouts and it makes our supermarkets some of the most profitable businesses in the country.

It has also turned an ordinarily tedious experience into utter misery.

[bpwoods]

Re: Touch screens replacing cashiers

"It has also turned an ordinarily tedious experience into utter misery."

We have the same Speaking Robot checkouts- they are awfully polite, here in Dublin. 10 items in your trolly. Slow, tedious and quirky.

Now we have a nifty Constitution. Says we have TWO official languages - English being No. 2. So, some bright spark will soon demand we have our own, First Official Irish language checkout robot anyday soon. Tesco Merrion or Superquinn Blackrock look the likelyist - they are the 'posh' ones! ATMs have this duality.

Brian

[touchring]

Re: Touch screens replacing cashiers

In the UK, our supermarkets replaced cashiers with do-it-yourself machinery a few years ago. One staff member can now supervise six computerized checkouts and it makes our supermarkets some of the most profitable businesses in the country.

It has also turned an ordinarily tedious experience into utter misery.

How does it prevent theft?

[jiimbergin]

Re: Touch screens replacing cashiers

Lowes Home Improvement stores all have some self check out stations as do some Wal-Marts. I use them because they usually have no lines.

[Alvaro Spain]

Re: Touch screens replacing cashiers

In the UK, our supermarkets replaced cashiers with do-it-yourself machinery a few years ago. One staff member can now supervise six computerized checkouts and it makes our supermarkets some of the most profitable businesses in the country.

It has also turned an ordinarily tedious experience into utter misery.

When I read things like these I am aghast.

How is it possible that people continue to shop at those places instead of going somewhere else where they don't experience utter misery? I don't want to think that people obtain what they deserve, but sometimes I am tempted into it.

[Chris]

Re: Touch screens replacing cashiers

When I read things like these I am aghast.

How is it possible that people continue to shop at those places instead of going somewhere else where they don't experience utter misery? I don't want to think that people obtain what they deserve, but sometimes I am tempted into it.

There is nowhere else, usually. The supermarket chains out priced most local greengrocers a decade ago.

[Chris]

Re: Touch screens replacing cashiers

How does it prevent theft?

This will give you an idea: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8399963.stm

[Ghent12]

Re: Touch screens replacing cashiers

I love self-service checkouts, even with all their quirks. I'm quite thankful for the option primarily for the reason jiimbergin pointed out--there are usually no lines. Right now they only exist at Wal-Mart and just a few other places here in Norman, but the potential is significant and definitely worth pursuing. It is bad news for low-skilled labor, but when is the news ever good for them anyways?

[blazespinnaker]

Re: Touch screens replacing cashiers

Yeah, they frustrate me a bit too. The ones in the fast food joints though are an utter pleasure. I guess the only reason they weren't done before was because of the lack of opportunity to upsell.

[c1ue]

Re: Touch screens replacing cashiers

The self service checkouts will work only so long as they don't become ubiquitous.

Right now the 'service' checkouts are where many of the slowest and most demanding customers go.

Were all checkouts to be replaced by self service, this benefit would no longer exist. In fact, I'd bet money it would get worse because the lack of service and help would have aisles tied up even longer than normal due to technical ignorance as well as ordinary contrariness.

As for theft - how do you prevent things like mis-entering produce codes? Organic oranges entered as non-organic. Large oranges entered as medium.

I do like the option of self checkout - it allows me to see firsthand the prices of items entered and coupons/discounts applied. I get far fewer incorrect purchases due to my misunderstanding and/or misleading advertising. However, equally I am far slower than a professional checker.

[lektrode]

Re: Touch screens replacing cashiers

In the UK, our supermarkets replaced cashiers with do-it-yourself machinery a few years ago. One staff member can now supervise six computerized checkouts and it makes our supermarkets some of the most profitable businesses in the country.

It has also turned an ordinarily tedious experience into utter misery.

about the only time this setup is worth bothering with is when: 1- NO produce or anything that needs weigh/count; 2- no 'errors' in 'specials' pricing or needs any kind of cashier-input (then ya gotta wait on that ONE person to deal with all the others similarly hamstrung by the gee-whiz machines) 3- you only have a few items, cuz a cart-full and the trained cashier can do this seemingly simple task a LOT faster than you can 4- the lines at the cashiers stations are HUGE with empty stations for the selfserve - other than those limitations, they work ok and homedepot seems to have it worked out perty well...

[lektrode]

Re: Touch screens replacing cashiers

....Were all checkouts to be replaced by self service, this benefit would no longer exist. In fact, I'd bet money it would get worse because the lack of service and help would have aisles tied up even longer than normal due to technical ignorance as well as ordinary contrariness...

and that observation is proved out by watching the old ones deal with lektronic banking/cards - cant/wont tell ya how often i'm pressed for time and watch helplessly as some oletimer who apparently has never used a debit card before attempts to navigate the process/sequence involved in checkout/payment and THEN they fergot to input their clubcard number, or they note they didnt get the price expected on some item and then inevitable "but that was on the 64oz size, not the 32" and then start discussing how dumb it is for one quart to cost more than 2... sigh.... but at the rate of 'progress' in all things lektronic? we'll _all_ be there (bypassed by the latest gizmos) shortly tho, so i try to be patient = why it tends to be quicker to go to the human-staffed line if there's an 'express' and one has more than a few items to scan oneself...

[touchring]

Re: Touch screens replacing cashiers

This will give you an idea: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8399963.stm

thanks, this sucks.

[jiimbergin]

Re: Touch screens replacing cashiers

and that observation is proved out by watching the old ones deal with lektronic banking/cards - cant/wont tell ya how often i'm pressed for time and watch helplessly as some oletimer who apparently has never used a debit card before attempts to navigate the process/sequence involved in checkout/payment and THEN they fergot to input their clubcard number, or they note they didnt get the price expected on some item and then inevitable "but that was on the 64oz size, not the 32" and then start discussing how dumb it is for one quart to cost more than 2... sigh.... but at the rate of 'progress' in all things lektronic? we'll _all_ be there (bypassed by the latest gizmos) shortly tho, so i try to be patient = why it tends to be quicker to go to the human-staffed line if there's an 'express' and one has more than a few items to scan oneself...

hey, youngster! you need to be patient with us old gizzards! you will get to our age soon enough!