Check her out. :-)
I’ve been in stores where the ONLY option was self-checkout. Then there’s the tactic of providing only one checker, so that the line will back up, to induce people to use the self-checkouts. It’s the our-way-or-the-highway approach to customer service. Needless to say, if customers are ringing up their own groceries, they’re not eyeballing the candy bar or magazine rack. Serves the stores right.
Self-Checkout Lanes Result in Sharp Drop in Impulse Buying
The growth of self-checkout lanes is having a dramatic impact on the sales of impulse items among consumers, according to a new study from IHL Consulting Group. Consumers said that they purchase impulse items such as gum/mints, chocolates and candies, chips or salty snacks, soda/water, and magazines at a frequency 45.4 percent less often when they use self-checkout than when they use a staffed checkout lane.
What’s more, the impact is greater for women (-50.0 percent) versus a drop of 27.9 percent for men in the study.
The ‘impulse’ extends all the way out into the street. That is after experiencing a store like the above. I won’t even pull in. Poor service is an insult. I’ll pay a little more for good customer service, the good stores have always known this. You know, if you don’t shop at the local good stores, all that will be left are the crappy ones.
Well, I stopped by the local Safeway today, and although there are no self-checkout lanes, I still expect to get crappy service every time I go in there. This bozo today puts my nectarines in a bag and then tries putting a bottle of laundry detergent on top of them. Do as little work as possible: that seems to be the motto for half of these clowns. No wonder they need a union to get paid $9.00 an hour, because they sure don’t earn it from the work they do.
I wonder…. does the profit-loss of less impulse buying outweigh the savings of not employing as many checkers?
Since I have Safeway on the brain now… when I got to the store today, there was not a single cart waiting inside the entrance where they should be. I had to walk all the way back to the drop-off spot that was next to my car to get one. Yet, outside the front door to the right, there were 6 employees just standing around smoking.
I remember several years ago working at Publix Supermarket in Georgia when I was in college. We all had to wear navy slacks, a white button up shirt with a blue tie, and a blue apron with a nametag (girls had a similar but feminine uniform). Now, you go into a store and maybe they have a matching polo shirt that is either tucked in or most likely not. So I guess I’m thinking if the stores themselves don’t care that their people look like slobs, why should the employees?
I’m also sure they are breaking labor laws in many states. I’m forced to become an employee working for the store, for zero wages.
Also, since we are being our own cashiers, why don’t we get a discount on the groceries? They are saving the labour costs of not having to pay anyone. But then again, they are taking the banks aproach to this. They are saving labour costs, but why not pocket that money as profit (and cost to maintain the machines doesn’t add up to that much)
#2- $9.00 an hour?? Where do you live? Uh no they make$.20 – $.50 over minimum wage. You should try doing the job. Hint it sucks.
i’m not gonna put up a fuss. i LOVE self service check outs and i’m a sucker for impulse buys … and it KILLS me.
so, all in all, i’m a happier customer.
i’m sure the store isn’t, though.
You people all shop in crappy stores. Our Stop & Shop has self-checkout, even self-scanner computers you can take around the store and ring up your stuff as you put it in your bags in the cart. Check out is fast. I use the self-checkout lanes all the time. I love them and, oh yeah, I still impulse buy. Maybe more because there is no one to see me with that candy bar.
We have a chain store with 4 self-checkouts and one employee to watch over them. After using them a few times it seemed faster to have a cashier check me out. The machine kept making mistakes and god forbid you need to look up a produce code or use a coupon. The systems used here also have security in the form of weighing your scanned items to prevent theft. Every little problem shuts the process down till the employee can clear it. What junk. The single self-checkout employee could have checked these 4 people out faster in a single lane then having the 4 do it themselves. I don’t think they are saving in labor at all. I won’t be using them again
My personal experience with self-checkouts is good. I now mainly go to two stores in the area which have them. I am also very happy with the Home Depot for having them. I see many technologically illiterate people having all kinds of troubles with these, making such lanes almost allways free (please people, keep avoiding them). I never have had any issue using these, my checkout time (which I value the most) have dramatically decreased and I do not see any particular burden in scanning items to put them on the belt vs. putting them on the belt for someone else to scan.
I don’t mind the self-checkout lanes as much as I do the people who ignore the “10 items or less” signs on the express lanes. Most cashiers will go ahead and ring them up instead of telling the customer to go to a non-express lane. At least the self-checkout lanes could be programmed to not accept more than the maximum listed, but I don’t know if they are.
At the several grocery chains I shop at, there are no impulse items in the self-checkout areas. Therefore NO impulse buying is possible.
As for people with more than 15 items in a 15-item-or-less checkout aisle: What are the cashiers supposed to do? Have the customer reload their cart and attempt to back out with 3 to 5 customers behind them? It’s faster to just check them out than to just have them reload their cart.
My peeve is people who don’t start looking for their method of payment until the cashier is done.
“As for people with more than 15 items in a 15-item-or-less checkout aisle: What are the cashiers supposed to do? Have the customer reload their cart and attempt to back out with 3 to 5 customers behind them?”
No, you have them push the damn cart FORWARD to clear the lane for the rightful person behind them.
“My peeve is people who don’t start looking for their method of payment until the cashier is done.”
I agree completely, especially if they are going to write a check. 🙂
Also, I am not complaining about someone who might have one or two items more than the maximum posted. 16 items rings up as fast as 15. I am complaining about those who have a buggy half full that is obviously way over the maximum. And KB is right. Cashiers should have them go on forward through the checkout and back around to get into a non-express line.
IF they can knock off Checkers, thats about 10-20% of the corps wages, it also kills off MORe book keepers, And more wages and taxes…
All you need THEN, is Stockers… And 200 paper workers…
MORE corp monry..
THen to get rid of the stockers, and the Book keepers..
Mike, it’s apparent you hate safeway. Good for you. The safeway here has outstanding customer service, friendly people working throughout the store (if you ask where something is, they ALWAYS walk you right to it), and the baggers are always very good.
If you have beef with the way they bag stuff, or 6 employees out front smoking, why are you shopping there in the first place? Sounds like you’re a glutton for punishment (assuming these accusations are even true).
As far as self checkout lanes, I utilize them at Lowes every time I am there. The technology deficient goons don’t use them, and there is always at least 1-2 of the 4 checkout stations open.
Personally, I hate self-checkout lanes. When I, the untrained, unexperenced consumer, can scan my items too quickly for the computer, something is wrong.
Then there’s the tactic of providing only one checker, so that the line will back up, to induce people to use the self-checkouts.
Yeah, the Albertson’s in Novato CA does that. That’s why I don’t shop there any more. Sorry, guys!
Self-checkout is their way of exporting labor costs to the customer. Their tough luck if it backfires on them. Customer service is the defining quality of a business.
Ever try to buy produce in a self serve checkout? An exercise in futility, because there ar no barcodes, and the stickers with the price code often fall off. Also, those checkout machines are often out of service in most of the grocery stores I shop.
As a result, in my town almost every shopper that has more than a few items goes to the real checker(s) whenever possible.
I’m so lucky because we still have a small town grocery store where they carry your groceries out to the car. It’s a little more expensive than the supermarkets, but they actually have a meat counter where you can select the meat you want and they wrap it up in butcher paper. My husband used to take my list into the store and give it to the clerk to package up while he had a drink at the bar two doors down. They will even deliver for a fee. Gotta love it.
Well, I can see from Brian that I one of the “technology deficient goons” or in the words of dusan maletic a “technologically illiterate” person who refuses to use the ‘self checkout’ lanes. I prefer dealing with an actual person and I don’t feel like doing the work of the store. I was at a Home Depot once and was pushed to the self serve area. I handed him the purchases I was going to make and went to Lowe’s. To me, self checkout lanes are the same as ATM’s – they put people out of work. I want an actual person in front of me so I can say ‘hello’ and ‘how’s your day been?’ And as for being technologically deficient, a goon or technologically illiterate I would say wow, I guess I didn’t build my own computer, install my own stereo/computers or am able to use any technology at all. I love the smell of broad brush statements in the morning, it smells like, – ignorance.
Gadlaw-
I’d rather have that cashier who’s normally up there with their thumb up their rear in the store helping out, pointing people in the right direction.
Ignorance? Hardly. When I see people shy away from the self checkout lines I love it! It means a faster checkout for me as people yearn for the ‘good ole days’ that really, weren’t that good.
It is a bit amusing to see people debate over which big box store has the best service. If you ask me, big box is the definition of inadequate service. It isn’t necessarily “poor”, as I have had clerks who genuinely try to go an extra mile for me when I do need help, but they are working in a system that is designed to shove products out the door with a bare minimum of labor or expertise.
Perhaps I am the only one, but I generally like the self service checkouts lanes. I can get what I want, and since their are usually allot more self service checkouts I can usually find either a shorter line or no line. To be frank I do not want to interact with most of the idiots who work the register these days. All I want is to go to the store, grab my stuff, checkout, and leave as fast as I can.
I was behind one of those 25 items in the express lane morons the other day. When they got to the cashier, she looked at all the stuff on the belt and smiled at the customer while asking sweetly, “and which ten of these items did you want to buy?”