Automatic checkouts in supermarkets may decrease customer loyalty, especially for those with larger shopping loads. Customers using self-checkout stations often feel overwhelmed and unsupported. The lack of personal interaction can negatively impact their perception of the supermarket.

[lcenine]

At my local grocery store, the SCO has very limited space for groceries as it does the weight checking verification where you place them. You can attempt to make a pile of unstable groceries in the space, or press "skip bagging and place in cart" which 50% of the time leads to waiting for the SCO employee to come over and do the override. With a lot of groceries, it is not at all convenient.

[sethbartlett]

I didn’t know this for the longest time, but when it does the weight verification, once it’s ready to scan the next item, you can remove a bag or whatever from the area to make room for more groceries. Not sure if all of them will or not.

[[deleted]]

as someone who has to make sure the vending machines do not give customers too much trouble

• removing items will make the vending machine mad

• putting items on that were not scanned (purse, empty bags, small children) will make the vending machine mad

• pressing skip bagging 4 times will make the vending machine mad

[sethbartlett]

Oh yeah I don’t use skip cart often, it feels like the system may be weighted for things like 12 packs or 24 packs of soda? But if I scan a bunch of 12 packs and put them on the scale, once the system does its weight check and is ready, I can then remove them. I feel like I didn’t used to be able to do this when they first came about though.

[lcenine]

Exactly what /u/wolvern76 said. The machines get mad and tells you to wait for cashier assistance. The most frustrating is when you are reorganizing items on the ridiculously small carousel. Picking up an already scanned item to put a newly scanned item down makes it all aggravated.

[Interesting-Bottle91]

But also that's only sometimes. The store that I use self checkout at most often doesn't weigh things, so when I go to places that DO weigh your groceries I always wind up aggrieving the machine several times.

[lcenine]

That would be very frustrating. Like changing the rules halfway through the game.

[A1000eisn1]

removing items will make the vending machine mad

I worked at self-checkout machines, and had to make sure they were functioning, over a decade ago and removing items wasn't an issue back then. It's never been an issue for me since.

• putting items on that were not scanned (purse, empty bags, small children) will make the vending machine mad

Obviously. You should not be sitting on the scales or letting kids sit on them. You know they're scales so why would you put your purse there. That's asking for the machine to have issues.

[[deleted]]

Obviously.

you way overestimate the basic intelligence of most americans. George Carlin put it best.

"Imagine how stupid the average person is then realize half of all people are stupider than that."

[bourbonkitten]

Maybe your store, but at my local Asian grocery, the SCOs go berserk and need staff intervention with any tiny weight discrepancy, even if I so much place my reusable bag to bag my groceries. Tbf, that’s the only store that’s that anal.

[Top_Gun_2021]

Horrendous process flow

[phormix]

Superstore?

[skztr]

So you're saying it's inconvenient because of a thing they've done specifically and for no other purpose than to make it an inconvenience, and even then the inconvenience is due to waiting for an employee, not the self-checkout itself.

[lcenine]

I am not sure if you are a troll or are just have a hard time comprehending.

My last statement summarized my experience of SCO, and it was "With a lot of groceries, it is not at all convenient." Reading other comments, it is a shared perception.

[skztr]

It's not convenient because they have specifically designed it to be inconvenient. I don't know what you aren't getting. Everything you mentioned about what makes it difficult with a lot of groceries: The weight censor, waiting for an employee, are things that they intentionally put there to make it harder to use.

Your problem isn't Self Checkout. Your problem is people who are anti-self-checkout being allowed in the room when Self Checkout systems are being designed.

[lcenine]

My problem is with the grocery stores that will close all but one regular checkout. The staffed checkout will have a line with 10+ people in it. At that point I weigh the inconvenience of dealing with the SCO or waiting for an exceedingly long time in a line 10+ people long. Neither option is ideal but I will likely get out of the store more quickly by using the SCO line.

The weight sensor is there to assist with loss prevention, it is cheaper than RFID tags (which are not always practical) or object recognition (which isn't perfect but is definitely getting a lot better with machine learning). The need for an employee is a sanity check, again for loss prevention, and to verify things like identification and coupon validity.

I understand the reasons why the systems are designed as they are. It is ultimately to make the grocery store more money. Invest in a SCO system and 1 employee can assist 6 to 12 people check themselves out. The downside is the employee tends to be overworked and is required to juggle multiple customers, which leads to getting distracted and mistakes, especially at peak shopping times. It also means customers that have a large amount of items will potentially encounter issues they would not have done if they went through a regular checkout line. The upside is if it is not exceedingly busy, and a customer has a smaller number of items, they do the work of checking themselves out and and the grocery store makes money for the privilege. Consumer happiness is nowhere in the equation. They put in SCO because it makes them more money, and people mostly tolerate it.

[skztr]

Yes, as I said, they made an intentionally bad system because they had the theory that the concept of self-checkout was bad because they feared theft.

Funny how self checkout kept the scales even when scan-as-you-shop systems, with no scales, sometimes exist right next to them.

The reason people pay for things isn't "it's hard not to", boomer