Shoppers upset over lack of cashiers as self-checkout use soars

Dont forget the fact most stores refuse to hire the staff needed to run the place smoothly. Why pay eight cashiers hourly wages when you can just have two cashiers?

There's a BofA branch near me that has a dozen windows. I've never seen more than two clerks. Whenever I see something like that I remember that there used to be a time when corporations actually cared about providing good service. That time is long since gone.
- Also people used to go to the bank so much there were big lines. Now it's online.
- Every store I go to that is not a mom and pop shop has several cash registers but only one or two in use, even on weekends.

I find cashier lines to be too slow because of the socialization so I always go to the self checkouts.

A lot of old ladies will go to cashiers and have ridiculous questions and requests and you're standing there with your 3 items dying inside.

Around me it's Indian people arguing about the price of every other item.
@NathanielThomas @grte
So seniors with questions are the only persons slowing down check-outs???
- Sometimes the cashiers themselves are slow and scan items like they're regretting every life decision they ever made.
  
  What I love about selfcheckout is I go at my pace, as fast or slow as I want to be.
- People that make stupid assumptions slow the lines more.

I actually prefer self checkouts. It's a simple task and going grocery shopping is one of my moments of solitude in the week, I don't wanna talk to anyone that I don't have to.

Yeah but you're probably able bodied. Self checkouts are a big burden for the elderly or disabled.
- I am not suggesting that we remove normal checkouts. I am just saying I like the option of having self checkout everywhere.
I live by a food basic. Before they implemented self checkout there used to be a pretty long line at peak hours and weekends. After they added self checkout, there is pretty much never a line anymore. The most people I've had to wait behind was like 3. The difference was extremely noticeable.

There are probably some really terrible implementations of self checkout in some stores or locations but when it's done right it seems pretty good.
- Heck, this has even been my experience at Walmart. Even the express aisle took an eternity compared to self checkout. I love self checkouts and think they're great. The complaints about hAvINg To ScAn mY OwN GrOCeriEs are ridiculous. I just want to buy my stuff and get home ASAP. Not like scanning groceries is difficult or anything.
  
  Just wish the self checkouts weren't so shitty about mis-scans. If you accidentally scan something twice, you usually need to call an employee over. You should be able to do that yourself. If they're worried about theft, just make the button get flagged for loss protection to scrutinize or something.
- I agree completely, lines have gotten much shorter everywhere I've seen with self checkout.
You know you don't have to have a conversation with the cashier right? I put my stuff on the conveyor, say 'yup' when asked if I find everything alright, and 'thanks' when they're finished.. Or just silently nod 🤷‍♂️

But literally two days ago I was at the store and the self checkouts were full with 7 people still waiting to use them, while one employee ran around trying to handle all the errors.. and only one standard checkout open for people with full carts. It was soo damn frustrating.
- That hasn't been my experience at least. And yes, I don't need to have a conversation with a cashier, but I also don't wanna watch someone do something so basic that I can easily do myself. And from my experience, lines have gotten much shorter everywhere self checkout has been implemented.
  
  Additionally I am not suggesting get rid of all cashiers, I just don't want them to get rid of self checkout either. Give people the option so they can use what they prefer.

Speaking as someone with a physical handicap, self-checkout can be very difficult.. especially with a larger amount of items or heavy things

Even opening finicky bags causes me a lot of frustration, because my dexterity is bad some days. Continuously bending down to lift, bag, & load stuff into the cart? Very very bad.

Local grocery stores in my area have been cutting back on cashiers, and it is really causing me issues.

I've seen old ladies struggling a lot, too! They probably have it much worse than I do! It's probably a thing they so they don't have to pay more workers, but those workers are sorely needed!

There are no more cashier at all ? Usually, there's a self checkout and cashiers, not just self checkout.
- There's sometimes one cashier, but apparently it is only self-checkout past 6 or 7pm. And often then, they'll just have self-checkout only at random times.
  
  I've seen them only down to 2 cashiers at absolute peak busyness. No more than that. It's madness.

Do I get a discount for checking myself out? Unless it's 1-2 items and the normal line is full - it is cashier every time for me.

Same. I will go to the cashier even when it's somewhat inconvenient to me just because I despise the idea that the grocery store is making me be the cashier for free.
- That’s why if something “fails” to scan or you input some produce at a cheaper price “on accident”, then it’s the store’s fault - you’re not a cashier, just a customer doing self-checkout.
- Succinctly: they’re making it more annoying for me as a customer while simultaneously not providing someone with a job.
- I mean, they're also "making you" pick up your items off the shelf, just like the gas station "makes you" pump your own gas.
What value does a real human provide you though?
- They’re a skilled worker that has memorized the codes for the different types of potatoes, a skill I am unlikely to learn.
- I don't have to do the thing myself. They're doing it for me. Unless I'm misunderstanding your question.
Just steal, that's the discount.
- Honestly, it's immoral but yeah. I tried scanning something out of my pile of 15 items at Dollarama. It didn't register after I slapped it against the scanner 5 times so I was like whatever. I was too tired to bother so I just put it in the other side. I wasn't trained on how to use it properly.

I love self checkout, at least when it's implemented well.

As far as I can tell there isn't a single one that isn't a steaming pile of shit. Where have you found acceptable ones?

That said I'm against them because it reduces the employment that a business requires while pushing the work onto the customers. Unless they are giving me a discount for using the self checkout you are effectively being an employee for free for the store.
- you are effectively being an employee for free for the store.
  
  You already accepted being an employee of the store when you decided to enter the warehouse to pick the items off the shelf yourself.
  
  The only question is: Can you clock out faster if your co-worker helps you process the items you picked or will it be faster if you do it all by yourself?
- My local store let's me scan with my phone as I shop. When I get to the checkout I scan a QR code, it transfers everything to the register asks if I have anything else. Occasionally it'll have someone come over and scan a few items to spot check, but not super often. Then I pay and leave.
  
  Usually takes maybe 30 seconds to check out.
- Just do what I do, steal the most expensive small thing in your cart as payment for doing the job.
- As some other people have said, I like the ones where you can scan with your own device or a handheld one they provide. However, I don't mind the regular ones where you scan everything at checkout either, though that's definitely easier given that I live alone and in walking distance, so I don't need to buy that many things at once. I should note that I mostly saw the scan as you go types in Europe, though a Metro store in Canada also had the portable scanners.

I'm a huge self checkout fan, but I think we need more perspective on how shitty ours is sometimes. Loblaws and all of them are way behind on how it should work. Look at the Netherlands and how it's often done there, you walk around with a scanner so you can scan as you go and quickly pay at the end.

Or even better, look at how Uniqlo is doing it. It's all RFID, so you just drop your basket on the checkout, and it scans it all for you basically instantly.

The problem isn't self checkout, it's that the grocery stores are using it to purely cut costs and don't actually care if it's better for the consumer in any way. But hey, at least it's easy to "accidentally" not scan something right now.

Look at the Netherlands and how it's often done there, you walk around with a scanner so you can scan as you go and quickly pay at the end.

Walmart and Sam's Club have this with their Scan & Go app in the US. Scan the barcode with your phone, add it to your cart, pay from your phone, and someone at the door will scan a QR from your phone then scan a few random items in the cart and you're done.

I pretty much wouldn't shop at Sam's if it didn't exist. The checkout lines there have always been long and a pain. It cuts a ton of time standing around waiting in line out of a trip.
I steal something or choose the cheaper option on everything every time. I don't work for free. Need to "make" a couple dollars if you force me to self checkout. Nothing is organic, every apple is a granny Smith. Anything super lightweight is free.
- Do you steal snacks at gas stations because you have to pump your own gas?

I like self-checkout especially when there's lot of people and you have 1 or 2 items, it's convenient, for me. But as written in the article, someone in need like this woman, needs a cashier lane. I'm not against self, but all stores should have at least one lane with cashier, always, for people in need.

Yes I agree I think having a mix of the two is best. Let the customers decide what they would like to use.

I don't appreciate stores trying to force me to do the cashier's job.

I also don't appreciate them trying to pull the rug out from under the economy. If there's one thing my country does not need, it's millions more homeless people.

I don’t appreciate stores trying to force me to do the cashier’s job.

But you don't mind the fact that they have you doing the warehouse picker's job?

I also don’t appreciate them trying to pull the rug out from under the economy. If there’s one thing my country does not need, it’s millions more homeless people.

And maybe the first millions wouldn't be homeless if you weren't so keen to take their warehouse picking jobs. Once upon a time it was a respectable profession. Why do you care so little about them?
- Before I answer, first you need to explain what a warehouse picker is, because I've never heard of that before.

This commercial was made at least 17 years ago. This is what we need. We have the technology. We just need the price to come down.

Uniqlo stores around me almost have this implemented. You don't scan the individual items, you just place your basket on the machine and it somehow knows every item in there. Super fast and convenient. I think it's only a matter of time.
- It scared the hell out of me the first time because it somehow knew what I had in my arms and I didn't know what to scan to check out. But the items kept appearing and I didn't know if they were actually mine or not and it was a very creepy black mirror-esque experience for me.
  
  Great store though, really impressed.
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I was just at the grocery store tonight and saw a new shopping cart, I thought it was a touchscreen to serve up ads and thought fuck that why the fuck would anyone want that, decided to go take a look at them and it’s kinda the same idea as the vid, a clunkier version of course

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbP8IbX3c-A
- Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=PbP8IbX3c-A
  
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  
  I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.

I don't mind there being a self-checkout, but for the love of everything good in this world, these companies need to stop asking 21 questions when you use one! "Do you want to apply to a credit card?", "Do you want to donate?", "Did you want a receipt emailed?", "Did you want to fill out a survey?", "How many bags did you use?", etc.

And if it's a self-checkout at Walmart, expect to have 10 available, but only 2 working and three staff overlooking them...

Ironically, the local Walmart has been closing them all later in the day so that people must use cashier's, presumably due to increased theft etc
At the self-checkout at the Walmart near me a little man would go around asking if we want to save on groceries by signing up for their credit card.

The fourth or fifth trip there that he did this I had to get a bit ruder until he finally grabbed the self-checkout and clicked the credit card opt-in and I had to tell him to fuck off. He acted shocked but dude I go to self-checkout to avoid human interaction, not be sold a bullshit credit card only a teenager would fall for.
- Bullshit.
Omfg I ran into this at shoppers. Its usually fine at grocery stores but shoppers self checkout is the worst. I think I counted 8 prompts when I used it last time.

I try to do self checkout whenever i can. Cashier is one of the most soul crushing jobs, no one needs to be dealing with food shoppers

I'm the other way around, kind of for a similar reason. I like to use the regular cashier line, because it gives me the opportunity to interact with adult humans outside of my own house. And I take that opportunity to be as supportive and friendly as possible to those people, partly in order to help "uncrush their souls."

Also, I don't like fighting with trying to open the plastic grocery bags, and I'm too forgetful to remember to bring my own bags.
- most of the time I dont want to be a captive audience even for someone trying to be friendly. I have to be polite, and Im at work, I cant just leave.
- You're the reason I go to self checkout. You're seeking out social interactions in a purely business relationship. I want my avocado and grapes and to get the fuck out of there, not stand there while you ask somebody how their day was and whether the weather might be getting cooler this weekend.
- Are plastic bags still a thing anymore? I think Ontario banned them, cause I haven't seen them anywhere. It's especially awkward if you use Instacart cause they just keep giving you need reusable bags every time. But even before this, they've been dwindling for ages, with lots of big chains no longer having em.

If self check is too hard to use, just take the items for free

I got into a situation where a cashier came to debug an issue and she wasn't able to.

It just ended up with her letting me go with the item for free because ''she isn't paid enough to fix this shit''

I prefer self checkout if I have a few items but it can be a pain the more items you have. There isn't a lot of room in the bagging area and I have to fight with the machine freaking out over unexpected items in the bagging area 🙄

My insistence on paying cash for in-person purchases means that I can't—and won't—shop at a store that only offers self-checkouts. I haven't come across any yet in this neck of the woods that don't have at least one cashier, but if I did, chances are good that I'd put the goods down and walk out without buying.

I do understand, however, that most people aren't willing to make that level of sacrifice just to keep the credit card companies from tracking part of their purchase history.

I genuinely don't think I've paid in cash in Canada for about 10 years now.
- Chacun à son goût. I admit that many people I know don't carry cash anymore, or only carry a small amount "for emergencies".
- Only at places like farmers markets for me, and even then, I'd say at least half of vendors accept credit cards. And frankly I hate using cash. I don't want to carry physical money around when tapping my phone is so easy.
- I haven't touched a note or a coin for 6 months now, last time I just had to because the machine only accepted coins
Do yours not take cash at self checkout? That seems really odd to me.
- I have yet to encounter one that does, but since I avoid self-checkouts in the first place, that doesn't mean that they don't exist.
I still pay cash quite a bit, i like to avoid tracking to piss off the vultures. Also, i'd rather keep the money they would make from transaction fees.
We have Interac in Canada, which don't use credit card debit systems, and pre-date them by like 20 years
- I'm aware (I live in one of the more thinly-populated parts of Ontario). Interac just allows the bank to do the tracking instead of the credit card company, which is a distinction without a difference as far as I'm concerned. It's the act of linking purchase to identity that I object to.
I am buying vegetables and healthy stuff with card. Alcohol and sweets only cache.

Most self-checkouts range from mildly annoying to downright unusable. Except Home Depot. Home Depot self checkouts are wonderful.

They even give you the nice handheld scanner.
Walmart ones here generally work ok, the worst seem to be Dollarama which removed at you about everything. Like this piece of tissue I bought didn't weight properly so now I have to wait for an employee every other item.

Most stores near me don't let you use the self checkout with more than a basket, but then they will not have anyone at any of the normal checkouts while having 3-4 employees just chilling "watching" the self checkouts.

I don't mind self-checkouts, though I will admit most of those systems are utter garbage. What I hate is a worker telling you that "hey the self-checkouts are open here". If I wanted to do self-checkout I wouldn't be waiting in that line. Had some even bait saying "i'll serve you here, but then they just lead you to self-checkout". Their managers should be fired.

I agree. Most of those computers are buggy af, and I tend to opt for live person when possible. But scanning grapes as bananas is worth it sometimes. 💁

The faces of the execs when 'shrinkage' goes up: :O

If I have just a handful of items it's convenient. But one in 20 times I seem to find a way to screw it up - like trying to scan the loyalty card as an item...

Any more than 8 items I'd rather just use a cashier to scan the items for me. But places (like shoppers) don't make it easy at all.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

CBC News interviewed several people who said during recent visits to major retailers, they were frustrated to find cashiers weren't available — only self-checkout.

Valcov says he stopped shopping at his local Canadian Tire in June, following several store visits where only the self-checkouts were open and no staff members were available to help him.

VideoMining, a U.S. market research company, analyzed shoppers' checkout habits during 1.2 billion trips to more than 1,000 U.S. grocery stores in 2022.

Sharma says retailers like self-checkout because it reduces labour costs, and that customers are increasingly drawn to the machines to avoid long lines at the cash register.

Retailer Loblaw, which owns pharmacy chain Shoppers Drug Mart, says its policy is to offer customers both self-checkout and cashier options at all times.

In an email to CBC News, Loblaw offered Rayman and Winterburn an apology, and said that it has contacted their local stores to resolve the problem.

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Maybe it's just me, but everytime I use a self checkout I end up doing something wrong and have to wait for an attendant to help me. I usually try to just skip the first few steps and just go right to the cashier.

I always use lines with cashiers because:

their jobs will evaporate if people don't use them
self checkout means that you're doing that job FOR FREE for the company

It is a misconception that work has value. Time is what has value.

If it takes longer for a cashier to ring you through, you are giving up more to the business than you would using the self-checkout. If you are worried about working for the company, this is what you want to avoid.

Granted, in practice, self-checkout is rarely implemented well and can often be slower than meeting with the cashier.
- That doesn't make sense. I'm not giving the business my time by using the cashier. I may be wasting my time, but it's not part of the transaction. The business isn't receiving a ledger with "Time from Customer" on one side and "Time Banked" on the other side. And yes, labour has value. What are you smoking, "work has no value". You mustn't be in a union.
- As a counterpoint, I'm unbothered during the time the cashier is doing their thing, usually listening to a podcast or an audiobook. If I have to scan it myself, I have to give up some concentration to scan the things, specially the ones that I need to search for codes and weigh items. So even if it takes more time, the cashier might be time better spent. Time has value, but not just the amount of time; how I spend that time changes its value. In other words, work has value too.
  
  If I'm just listening to music or chatting with my wife, I do tend to pick the self checkout to get out of there ASAP. So I agree with your core idea.
Why does it matter if cashier jobs evaporate. It's a shit job and automation is getting rid of it. That's a good thing. Also, what if I don't mind taking 5 minutes to scan my items FOR FREE just so that I don't have to talk to anyone or wait in line.

The only negative I see is that corporations are making even more money. We should take it from them and implement UBI to pay these cashier's after their jobs evaporate.
their jobs will evaporate if people don't use them

I was thinking the same until couple of them screamed at me for not using self checkout. And most of them are not happy with their job. Or life, I am not sure.

I never use self checkout, if lineups are too long i leave everything and go to another store.

Shoppers upset over lack of cashiers as self-checkout use soars | CBC News