I started using grocery self-checkouts during COVID, but I’ve kept using them because there’s rarely a line (and I’m a misanthrope). I’d probably go back to using regular human checkouts if I had to dig through all my crap to prove what I bought.
Having said that, I’ve noticed myself making mistakes. I’ve accidentally failed to scan an item, and I’ve accidentally entered incorrect codes for produce. When I notice, I fix them, but I’ve probably missed a few.
I guess the easiest answer is for grocery chains to reinvest some of those windfall profits and hire more cashiers.
What I do is deliberately go to a cashier, even if the line is extremely long, and I see more and more people doing the same. This forces more lines to open. One time they asked if I could use the self-checkout to speed up the process. I replied that if the items were cheaper at the self-checkout, sure, otherwise I’d stay in line.
This forces more lines to open.
Does it really, though? I have yet to see a rollback on self-checkouts.
I noticed this at my local Loblaws. At first they only had one to two lines open and they were extremely long. Now they have several lines open and it’s very fluid.
At my grocery store, they added in a ton of self checkout, but they didn’t give you enough room to bag your groceries. So you have a cart of food, but a mini-shelf to store them on. And yes, they are no limit. They typically now only have two manned lanes open during peak shopping times. I’m sure some theft is part of it, I’m also convinced most of the “theft” is from the stupid setup and the scales on the mini-shelves. Only place I stop for a receipt check is at membership places like Costco. Everywhere else is a firm, “No thank you,” and I keep walking. Go ahead, call the cops. I have a receipt.
Yep, Costco is fine we all knew the deal when we signed up. But the Walmart greeter stopping me? No way.
You wanna see if I’m stealing? Check the damn cameras.
This 1000%. You can’t just be shaken down without probable cause in any random public place. If you want to do a check, make it a membership and put it in the contract. Otherwise, fuck you, I’m walking out the door with the stuff I paid for already.
My buddy was chased into the parking lot when he said No Thanks. It was an exciting experience where cops were called on a ginger kid for …
Well, that’s what the cop wanted to know.
BestBuy Stalin was given a quick lesson on when you don’t call the cops, and my buddy got to reassure the cop enthusiastically that he and his friends wouldn’t be seen in the store ever again because this was hitting social media So Fast.
Yeah I just walk by and say “no thanks!”
Our interaction is done once I pay for my items. Don’t like it? Call the cops I guess I’m done dealing with the store for the day. Don’t trust me? Hire a cashier, not really my problem.
I’m still pissed all these self-checkouts haven’t lowered any prices. Seems like if you got rid of 30 cashiers the price of my bread should’ve gone down a little.
Wait, are receipt checks why Shopper’s Drug Mart no longer gives me the option of “e-mail only” for my receipt? The garbage bins full of them by self-check-out are disgusting; it’s so wasteful.
Edit: Also self-checkouts are entirely on the companies not wanting to pay for cashiers, so I have no sympathy for them whatsoever. Want to make sure people are checking all their items? Stop trying to automate people out of jobs.
I have a friend who works at a shoppers, and she was saying even at it’s height, theft is like .001% of daily sales. You’d have to steal a bunch of electronics to even make a dent.
This isn’t true for everything across the board however, and the number of .001% is a bit of hyperbole. The driving force behind theft is multifaceted but the biggest ones are probably a mix of resell value, time to flip, and ease of access. Most items not from grocery stores are fenced through oh say Offer Up.
I worked for a major retailer as a mix of boots on the ground and investigative loss prevention and I will say theft is far more common than people give it credit and that mostly stems from how damn easy it is. Pre-Covid theft only loss were probably about .8-1.5% depending on the location and during/after was around 2-4% these numbers are for my state only though.
Now of course this is still a drop in bucket and corporation are still horribly, horrifically greedy which is why I had to get out and now get to relax working from home. I just wanted to frame the numbers a little better since I had to live and breathe this shit for years.
Even this corporate shill website lists ‘high’ amounts of theft with “According to some industry data” as “an average-sized food retail store in Canada can have between $2,000 and $5,000 worth of groceries stolen per week”
So not only are those inflated numbers, that’s still a tiny number. There are about 15,000-16,000 grocery stores in Canada. Even if every single one of those lost 5000 per week, that’s 3,900,000,000 per year. They make over 9,000,000,000 per month - or 108,000,000,000 per year.
Even at their highest possible (and likely lying) numbers, that’s 0.0361111111111111 % lost to theft.
Sure, some hyberbole, but barely. (And I worked at Costco and saw their theft numbers, and even they have laughably low ones.)
I agree but I want to push back on the ‘automation’ of jobs. Self checkout isn’t automation. They just made you do the work.
Ha! Not that I steal, but I don’t care about supermarkets losing money from people stealing.
If they want their customers to know how to use the self-checkout machines better, they ought to pay them for training.
Theft is one thing and who knows what the numbers actually are for self checkout. Even with theft and us making a mistake or two, they don’t have to pay cashiers, I’m sure they’re coming out wayyyyy ahead.
