Tonight while shopping at BJ's Wholesale Club, I was reminded of something I had observed a few weeks back, at the peak of the holiday shopping season: the lines at the self-checkout were much longer than the lines at the "traditional" checkout.
I for one love self-checkout. I prefer as much as possible to avoid human interaction in a transactional environment, not only because I am naturally introverted but also because I arrogantly assume that I am less likely to screw something up than someone else. (I don't keep track of how accurate that assumption is, so don't ask.) Take pay at the pump, for example. I drive to the next station if the one I stop at doesn't have it. It's less of an issue now that they almost all have it, but this used to annoy me greatly.
Even given my own penchant for avoiding human contact, I did not expect to see such disparity at BJ's, since self-checkout is still an "emerging" technology with a few annoying bugs, and especially since your average BJ's shopper doesn't strike me as the early-adopting, self-checking type. And as much as I would have rather taken the matter of paying for my purchase into my own hands, my desire to get out of the store quickly won out, and I went to the traditional checkout line.
What about you? Do you like self-checkout, hate it, or something in between? Would you wait an extra few minutes to use it rather than enter a line with a human cashier?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
I love self-checkout, but if I have any item that could even possibly be a question, ie, a special kind of coupon, a sticker that says "discount taken at register", an item with a regular price sticker rather than a bar code... I automatically go to the manned line. Self-checkout in those situations is just asking for trouble. This doesn't apply so much at BJ's, but does often at WalMart.
Self-checkout is awesome. Somehow I always get embarrassed buying things from a real person - I feel like they are judging me by what I buy. I am sure this indicates an underlying insecurity about myself that should really be addressed in therapy, but still.
I did, however, make the mistake of trying the self-checkout line at Wal-Mart on Christmas Eve. Boy, oh, boy.
Some of us avoid shopping altogether, just to avoid anything resembling a check out waiting line ... a waiting check out line? But when we get cold and hungry, I go for the shortest line or better yet the empty check out line. If all the lines are full. I'll pick one with kids. You don't have to talk you can just smile. It's not boring and they don't care what you're buying unless it's alive.
It took me a while to actually use a self-checkout line, and I'm ok with them now, but I really dislike machines that talk.
Self-checkout is teh awesome.
(::impresses self with the call-back::)
Self-checkout is ok... I don't exactly get excited about it. Mostly because of those kinks you mentioned. To me its worth waiting for a human. Self-checkout= standing there trying to screw around with a computer that keeps yelling at me for doing something I didn't do. Then my face turns red as I try to get it to work and the people behind me think I can't read. (eventhough they will soon experience the same exact thing.)
Until they make a more user friendly version, I'll stick with the smartest and quickest looking checker.
amen to tracey.
as some who works in a store where we probably won't ever have self checkouts (ahem *wegs*) because of danny and his customer service mantras- i am not a huge fan. too often i end up looking stupid when i've used them in other stores, which i'm in really rarely. so for me, i'd rather just find someone who is moving along, and chatting. if they can do both, you've found someone who is truly competent at their job.
i will go along with scott about the gas stations though. that's just easier, but luckily i've not run into any major issues when using those.
I love it, but only if it's faster. If I have a couple items, I'll go for the self line every time... but more than, say, 5? Ah, I'll hit the express line. Now, Hannaford, in Maine, gave people little hand-held scanners that they kept with them throughout their whole shoppping experience, and they scanned dozens, even one hundred, items themselves. At the end, the customer places the scanner in its receiver, and it prints a receipt. You carry that to the self-scan checkout, and you pay a real person. Kind of cool, but I haven't seen it anywhere else.
Post a Comment