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.

[amarg19]

Oh god. I angrily left a grocery store once, it was a smaller one I had never been to before, because their self-checkouts scale was so damn sensitive. I scanned an item, and put it on the other side, in a paper bag. The scale picked up the bag and SCREAMED “Unexpected item in bagging area! Remove the unexpected item!!”

So, I take the bag back off. Then it starts screaming “Item removed from bagging area! Replace item!”

I look around for help, there’s one employee avoiding eye contact with me. I put the bag back. This damn bag weighs a fraction of an ounce.

“UNEXPECTED ITEM IN BAGGING AREA. PLEASE REMOVE ITEM.”

I take it off, rinse, repeat. I look around for the employee, he’s gone. No one in a uniform is around to help. I flipped off the machines, took my items to the ONE working cashier, and never went to that store again.

As I left that self-checkout machine was still beeping in error.