2026-10-06 18:08 UTC
Replies (31)
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@spacegoat@lemmy.world 2026-10-07 03:15
Ah so the genius executives behind these will be held accountable by shareholders and fired right? Right?
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@TrackenDaKracken@lemmy.world 2026-10-07 02:54
I’m waiting for them to close the stores to customers entirely and go to pick up or delivery only. I know that would kill impulse buying, but I think they might make it up by not needing to police the isles, and no theft. Service Merchandise did tag pulls and pick up at the register for everything back in the 70s and 80s. That might come back.
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@9488fcea02a9@sh.itjust.works 2026-10-07 00:51
There are actual GOOD ways to implement self checkout though… BAD: Me scanning individual items at a grocery store, LARP’ing as a cashier… terrible experience for all… i’m literally doing someone else’s job for free… GOOD: me throwing my entire basket of purchases into some kind of RFID scanning bin (not sure the exact technology behind it), the screen instantly shows me the list of items and total, and i tap and pay and leave. Actual time saver, and i dont feel like i’m doing a cashier job. In both cases, it results in a loss of jobs, which sucks… but at least #2 isnt infuriating from a customer POV
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@SabinStargem@lemmy.today 2026-10-07 04:19
I don’t think it is a pullout, it is saturation. You can only have so many self-checkout stations before the effectiveness of adding more diminishes.
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@yogurt@lemmy.world 2026-10-07 00:04
They aren’t bringing back cashiers, they’ll have one cashier with a massive line as a deterrent to get you to download the scan as you go app on your phone so you supply the bar code scanner at your expense and they track your phone and change the digital price tags based on your Palantir profile as you walk up. Or the other option is Walmart has started remodeling their stores into primarily warehouses. The main entrance is badged only for picker workers to hand orders to Doordash or put app orders in people’s cars. The legacy experience entrance will be a temporary secondary option until they get enough robots to make the building fully lights out and automated. Shambling automatons will emerge from the black hell portal in the surface of The Edifice with your tampons and then run facial recognition on you and sniff your car for drug and explosive residue.
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@MasutaHarada@thelemmy.club 2026-10-07 04:40
The problem with self checkout is when things gone wrong, either the customer will cancel their transaction, ignore the problem and deny accountability , brute forcing which breaking the rules , or search for the staff for solution. It just make the failure more prominent thus defeating the very solution that self service cashier provide.
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@wesker@lemmy.sdf.org 2026-10-06 18:33
As someone who finds interacting with register attendants painful, and doesn’t steal, this is unfortunate news.
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@Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 2026-10-07 04:49
in our area, people are just smashing in grab at a grocery store, because they arent even allowed to give them “customer” service anymore. these people are not hurting for money, but to fuel thier addiction(very high area of people doing various drugs
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@FireWire400@lemmy.world 2026-10-07 05:01
Questionable savings? I have saved A LOT of time at self checkouts, especially when just buying a few things. It’s way faster than standing in line behind people seemingly doing their yearly shopping.
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@im_fine_sandy@nord.pub 2026-10-07 00:34
Retailers within the same chain seem to have different policies on how many check outs are staffed. I’m in Australia and buy our groceries from woolworths. There’s one I go past on my way home and there’s very rarely any proper checkouts manned. There’s usually one “express” at which you can only buy 12 items or something, but there’s usually several people queued there. The other one where we go to do our weekly shop always has several proper checkouts manned. Usually when there’s more than 1 person being scanned and 1 waiting they will call over the PA to get another staff member to open another lane. IDK who’s decision it is or what strategy they follow to decide which stores will do check outs what way.
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@Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de 2026-10-07 05:13
Looks like the “Voice of Retail Industry” survey the article cites only surveyed US-american stores.
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@kreskin@lemmy.world 2026-10-07 05:18
They are slower than regular checkout lines and only benefit the stores. When things go wrong at a self checkout you inevitably sit there for a long time waiting for someone from the store to get around to helping. If theres a problem checking out, the blame for it falls on you. I despise all of them.
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@NotAnOtter@lemmus.org 2026-10-07 05:25
Self checkout in theory is better for both sides - business and consumer. That said most self checkout as implemented is insufferable. The modern experience is waiting 5 minutes for someone to clear out your order because you accidentally clicked the version of Limes that this store doesn’t sell, despite it being an option on the POS, or to tap no / decline on the 5 different “Donate? Round up? Bag? Survey? Phone number?” prompts, or for the POS to lock up because you scanned a single can 3 times rather than 3 cans once, or for the cart to lock up so you slam your shin into it because the camera determined you were a thief. Personally I avoid all self checkouts.
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@bold_atlas@lemmy.world 2026-10-07 05:37
But I love my self-checkout discounts. I’d hate to actually start having to pay for everything in my cart now.
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@buzz86us@lemmy.world 2026-10-07 05:48
I prefer the mobile checkout, but Walmart paywalled that.
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@Felis_Catus_Domesticus@lemmy.world 2026-10-07 05:58
Hmm I like self checkout because I don’t like dealing with retail people. I’m introverted by nature. Just get me the F in and get me the F out. Charge the correct price and give me correct change. Machines do this SO WELL. .
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@HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org 2026-10-07 06:25
I noticed that with self-checkout terminals, fruit varieties are still mis-labeled and missing. I noted that because I write down the price for such items, to be sure I enter the correct variety and price. It wasn’t there. Not only you’d pay more than is on the label - you also risk to be accused of theft if there is a bag ceck. And if you call somebody to correct it, you waste several minutes since the missing variety might not even be in the system.
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@rizzothesmall@sh.itjust.works 2026-10-07 06:29
Good. I fucking hate them. Do the work yourself and then wait ages while the one checkout assistant deals with everyone else’s issues because your checkout is happily accusing you of theft. Bullshit cost saving at the expense of the customer experience.
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@mrmisses@lemmy.world 2026-10-06 18:40
“things have gotten so bad that it has made many people need to steal, so we can’t keep self checkouts open”
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@twinnie@feddit.uk 2026-10-06 18:58
I think this weird anti-self-checkout crowd is just young people who don’t remember the times before self-checkouts. Even if every checkout was manned it was still completely normal to wait upwards of ten minutes, even when it wasn’t that busy. I remember my Mum excitedly running to a checkout because there was only one person queueing there. Nowadays I totally expect there to be no queue at all and I feel hard done by if I have to queue for more than one minute.
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@HotsauceHurricane@lemmy.world 2026-10-06 20:24
Fucking finally.
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@sircac@lemmy.world 2026-10-07 06:59
Immagine how much they wanted it to work…
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@HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 2026-10-07 07:13
Have they tried adding AI? 3D printing? Quantum computing? Space based solar power?
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@echodot@feddit.uk 2026-10-08 03:41
I’m pretty sure I stolen bottle of wine because of the self checkout. I’m bought a bunch of stuff and some wine, I scan to the bottle and it beeped and I put it in the bag but then no one came to ID me when it came time to paying, presumably it somehow didn’t register.
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@MithranArkanere@lemmy.world 2026-10-07 22:35
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.
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@TheObviousSolution@lemmy.ca 2026-10-07 17:20
This probably has a wide latitude of success depending on whether it’s a high trust or low trust society.
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@Alfredo_DisguidoAlCazzo@reddthat.com 2026-10-08 04:53
In North Italy almost all groceries stores offer Self checkout: where you do your groceries and at the end you scan the item one by one Advanced self checkout (you are registered to the store): you get a PDA and you scan and bag all the groceries while you roam the store. Then you scan a qr, you get the total, pay and go. No Id checks for alcol or anything (sometimes you get a random partial re-reading where you get an sales person coming and scanning 3 items at random from your bag to check if you scanned them, or a total re-read) Normal slow cashier point Advanced self checkout is something I would never give back. Even if I buy a lot of things, the quick payment process is so quick that nothing compares. I can enter and leave a store in under 10 minutes buying a lot of stuff (note that I go there walking multiple time per week)
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@brucethemoose@lemmy.world 2026-10-08 04:59
I’m pretty sure delivery made it obsolete? Curbside delivery is awesome, in many situations. And they can afford to leave a few checkers in there for the situations that call for in-store shopping. That’s where self checkout would fail anyway.
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@IronKrill@lemmy.ca 2026-10-08 06:12
I would be sad to lose my beloved self checkout :( I still want real people and full service lanes for bigger / more complicated purchases, but daily small purchases are much more relaxing self-serve. Many likely believe self-checkout saves time compared to a cashier lane, but the opposite may be true. Oh actual cashiers are faster no doubt, but they’re almost too fast. They’ll spin 15 items through in 3 seconds and I can’t check prices or bag fast enough. Once I’ve paid I still have a minute of bagging with next in line pushing me down and 2 minutes of reading the receipt prices left… in self check out I like being able to catch prices errors as they ring up and have less pressure bagging.
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@itisileclerk@lemmy.world 2026-10-08 07:27
Self check-out should be for maximum 5-5 products, no more. They should be Fast lane only.
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@phutatorius@lemmy.zip 2026-10-08 08:44
I hate it and won’t miss it. The workflow is brittle and the anti-theft measures throw too many false positives. Every third time I use it, it requires staff intervention. I’ll always go to a checker if I have the choice of doing so.