Only about one-third of surveyed retailers plan to invest in self-checkout technology this year, significantly fewer than in 2025, according to an annual retail industry report. While...
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
You missed a third option that already exists. At the supermarket I go to, I pick up a scanning gun with a screen on it when I walk in. As I shop, I scan things and place them in my bags. At the end, I press a checkout button on the scan gun, and it makes a little bar code on the screen. I head to tge self checkout, scan my barcode, pay, and walkout. It’s fucking seamless and amazing and should be the standard in every supermarket.
The only thing that sometimes ruins it is when there is a line of idiots at the self checkouts with full carts of groceries and I have to wait for them. There needs to be a dedicated lane for scan gun only people. Self checkout is for people with like 10 or less items, not a week’s worth of groceries.
I saw one of those with I visited my wife’s family in the south of England in 2014 and I thought “oh cool, what a great idea!”
12 years later (sorry) and I’ve never seen that in Canada or any place I’ve traveled to. But it seemed like the future at the time, and probably still would!
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
You missed a third option that already exists. At the supermarket I go to, I pick up a scanning gun with a screen on it when I walk in. As I shop, I scan things and place them in my bags. At the end, I press a checkout button on the scan gun, and it makes a little bar code on the screen. I head to tge self checkout, scan my barcode, pay, and walkout. It’s fucking seamless and amazing and should be the standard in every supermarket.
The only thing that sometimes ruins it is when there is a line of idiots at the self checkouts with full carts of groceries and I have to wait for them. There needs to be a dedicated lane for scan gun only people. Self checkout is for people with like 10 or less items, not a week’s worth of groceries.
I saw one of those with I visited my wife’s family in the south of England in 2014 and I thought “oh cool, what a great idea!”
12 years later (sorry) and I’ve never seen that in Canada or any place I’ve traveled to. But it seemed like the future at the time, and probably still would!