Supermarket Self-Checkout
-
@Jaime said in Supermarket Self-Checkout:
literally telling you to wait for yourself
Ah, the joys of wearing two hats in a transaction.
I'm sure cryptocurrency solves this particular problem...
-
@remi said in Supermarket Self-Checkout:
I thought it might also have been to maximise the time spent in front of impulse-buy-at-the-till stuff, but the queue at the bookshop was very good at winding through that stuff, so that's probably not the main issue here.
Having a separate queue for each register maximizes each cashier's (and bagger's) work time. With a single queue the customers will wait for a fully open line before committing to it. While they maneuver into place and start loading the belt, the cashier is essentially idle.
I'm sure keeping each cashier busier also maximizes the store's overall throughput - but some customers will be penalized with a longer wait time than necessary.
I have a simple system -
1: Avoid self-checkout. They are the devil's handiwork.
2: Choose a line with an obviously experienced cashier.
3: Choose the line with the highest percentage of males in line. They seem to be able to pay for items a lot quicker.
-
@Auction_God said in Supermarket Self-Checkout:
Having a separate queue for each register maximizes each cashier's (and bagger's) work time. With a single queue the customers will wait for a fully open line before committing to it. While they maneuver into place and start loading the belt, the cashier is essentially idle.
Having a single queue feeding multiple registers works really well if there's someone directing traffic. That way everything flows efficiently. Without that, yes. It also requires a very different structure of store.
I've seen it done a lot at places where you aren't buying much, so you can have the registers on either side of a single aisle, with a queue with switchbacks (to conserve space) ahead of it. That doesn't work so well with grocery carts or belts, however.
-
@Benjamin-Hall said in Supermarket Self-Checkout:
@Auction_God said in Supermarket Self-Checkout:
Having a separate queue for each register maximizes each cashier's (and bagger's) work time. With a single queue the customers will wait for a fully open line before committing to it. While they maneuver into place and start loading the belt, the cashier is essentially idle.
Having a single queue feeding multiple registers works really well if there's someone directing traffic. That way everything flows efficiently. Without that, yes. It also requires a very different structure of store.
The only place I've seen this work well is airport security where everybody is usually stressed and eager to get it over with. In supermarkets there are always people too immersed in whatever virtual activity they chose to spend waiting time with (or just daydreaming) to notice they are supposed to be directed somewhere. Also, one traffic director between half a dozen security checkpoints that need at least 5 staff each wouldn't make a difference in any other position while for half a dozen checkouts with one cashier each you'd increase throughput more if you just added another cashier instead of a traffic warden.
When processing times vary as little as for security, you can also effectively avoid idling processors by dividing the central queue into short individual subqueues just before the checkpoints. If you did that in a supermarket, it would negate the whole psychological advantage you're trying to get from the central queue.
-
@Auction_God said in Supermarket Self-Checkout:
Avoid self-checkout. They are the devil's handiwork.
Depends on the store and how much you are buying. I used to prefer using the self-service checkouts in some stores because they had no queues. The main trick is knowing exactly what the machine is looking for. And avoiding the one on the end of the line that's always a bit dodgy...
-
@dkf I agree that it's store dependant. Walmart, for all it's flaws, has self checkouts that work and aren't paranoid. So I prefer using them over the regular ones since it goes faster. Unless I have lots of things or things that need security handling.
On the other hand, Safeway and WinCo have crappy self checkouts. Slow, paranoid, tiny cargo areas that scream if you remove anything (and even if you don't half the time). So I avoid those ones.
-
@Benjamin-Hall I hate the ones that force you to pile you stuff up on the weigh-out scale, then bag it at the end because if you put a bag down first, they complain "Please remove the item from the bagging area".
I hear that Walmart does their self checkout security a bit differently. Instead of relying on weight checking, they use a bunch of cameras and AI to compare what you scanned to what you have in your cart.
-
@Jaime said in Supermarket Self-Checkout:
I hate the ones that force you to pile you stuff up on the weigh-out scale, then bag it at the end because if you put a bag down first, they complain "Please remove the item from the bagging area".
Most of them here have a "I brought my own bag(s)" button to avoid that.
-
@Jaime said in Supermarket Self-Checkout:
@Benjamin-Hall I hate the ones that force you to pile you stuff up on the weigh-out scale, then bag it at the end because if you put a bag down first, they complain "Please remove the item from the bagging area".
I hear that Walmart does their self checkout security a bit differently. Instead of relying on weight checking, they use a bunch of cameras and AI to compare what you scanned to what you have in your cart.
So wait, Walmart uses Tesla checkouts?
-
@loopback0 said in Supermarket Self-Checkout:
@Jaime said in Supermarket Self-Checkout:
I hate the ones that force you to pile you stuff up on the weigh-out scale, then bag it at the end because if you put a bag down first, they complain "Please remove the item from the bagging area".
Most of them here have a "I brought my own bag(s)" button to avoid that.
I'm specifically talking about the times where you didn't bring your own bag and you're using theirs. Also, the "force you" part happens when there is no such button.
We even have one supermarket where if you press that button, you only have a few seconds before the scale is tared again. When I shop with my daughter, she always takes too long to unfold and place the bags and we always have to have the attendant reset the scale.
-
@Jaime said in Supermarket Self-Checkout:
I'm specifically talking about the times where you didn't bring your own bag and you're using theirs.
Here you're paying for the bags so they're scanned like a normal item.
-
@remi said in Supermarket Self-Checkout:
Supermarkets are mostly laid out with one queue per cashier, but one single queue for a batch of self-checkout machines
The cashier lanes have the conveyor belts, so the customers must line up to specific cashier before their turn to put the stuff on it. Kiosks have no conveyor belts (unlike the original post way above; that was the worst part), so people can go to whichever and start scanning right away.
The small store near where I work has two cashier desks without conveyor belts, plus a bunch of self-checkouts and there is a common queue. And even before it had self-checkouts there was just one queue. Without the conveyor belts, there is no need for separate queues.
The layout makes it a bit difficult to see whether any of the kiosks is free so the attendant keeps calling out “free kiosk N” to direct the waiting people to the free ones.
@remi said in Supermarket Self-Checkout:
Self-checkouts here are usually restricted to baskets only, which avoids this problem
They never are around here. Well, unless there are no trolleys in the shop (like the small one mentioned above).
-
@loopback0 said in Supermarket Self-Checkout:
@Jaime said in Supermarket Self-Checkout:
I'm specifically talking about the times where you didn't bring your own bag and you're using theirs.
Here you're paying for the bags so they're scanned like a normal item.
Around here they just ask you at the end how many store provided bags you used. It was only in the last year that the local counties started a 5¢ per bag tax. Fucking ridiculous.
