I gotta ask...

[DMD]

Actually the grocery store we use has excellent service, bags your items, rings you up much quicker than I could do myself AND they take your cart out to the car and unload it for you. AND they are not allowed to take tips. And you do not have to have a ID card to get discounts. They get all my business.

[Footballjoe]

I have used it in Lowes. At first it was because of the long line and lack of cashiers. I will use it now only if I have a small amount of items.

[wildcat2334]

Actually the grocery store we use has excellent service, bags your items, rings you up much quicker than I could do myself AND they take your cart out to the car and unload it for you. AND they are not allowed to take tips. And you do not have to have a ID card to get discounts. They get all my business.

 

 

 

that's cool each to their own, I have no problem helping to bag and taking my groceries out to my car at all. Where I live, the ID card discounts are well worth it, the amount you save at Safeway for instance is hugh.

 

The only non ID store I shop at is Whole Paycheck, and only for certain stuff, not weekly groceries because their prices are a joke.

[Kid Cid]

that's cool each to their own, I have no problem helping to bag and taking my groceries out to my car at all. Where I live, the ID card discounts are well worth it, the amount you save at Safeway for instance is hugh.

 

The only non ID store I shop at is Whole Paycheck, and only for certain stuff, not weekly groceries because their prices are a joke.

 

No kidding. I'd make the extra effort to go there all the time if the prices weren't so outrageous. The quality of the produce/meats/seafood is far and away better than any other store around here.

[keggerz]

Grocery stores are going to self serve checkouts - usually they have a couple of them available where you the customer has to scan every freaking thing correctly, bag them yourself and pay for it all for the privilege of not getting anything taken off your total. The grocery industry is now considering new technology where you get a small computer with your cart that has a hand scanner on it. You go through the store, scan each item you select and place it in a bag in your cart. By the time you are done, you can just push the cart out the door and have your debit card hit for the total. You have to scan your "store loyalty" card before you start so they know exactly who you are and exactly what you are getting.

 

Does anyone like this stuff?

 

What ever happened to service? I know it is not being sent offshore - it just disappearing from stores. They want ME to do all THEIR work? For nothing in return? Ain't going to happen. I never use self-service checkout and never will. If a store goes entirely to it, I will not shop there.

 

I won't even go into the privacy issues I have with them knowing exactly when I am at their store, what I am buying and with the most recent technology, they even know what order I gather the items.

 

I hate going into stores anymore.

 

And another thing.... If my items total up $11.53 and I give the cashier $22.03 why in the name of all that is good do these morons freak out? "Uh... it's only $11.53. You gave me too much". "Uh, I only want a ten and two quarters back instead of a five, three ones, a quarter, two dimes and two pennies back YOU IDIOT -Just ring it up and see what happens".

 

I worked retail when I was a teenager. I work food service. I was never an idiot like people these days.

 

Then again maybe I am too young to be this grumpy...

 

i refuse to use a self checkout....and I dont care how long the line is...if I am not on the payroll I am not doing their work....one day I had someone say sir you can come over to the self checkout(i had 1 item)...i said sorry but I'm not on The Home Depots payroll

 

oh and dmd try giving them the .03 after they rang up the sale

 

we have a grocery store called UKROPS and they do it all including bringing it out to your car and they are NOT ALLOWED to accept tips

[Swampnuts]

The grocery store closest to me has this old beeyotch that is always working in the self checkout stands. She'll walk up and down the cashier's lanes and take people out of line and say "I'll take you down here". So the people will follow her thinking she's a cashier, and she just leads them down to the self checkout and walks away. People get either confused or pissed , but it sucks nonetheless. I won't use them unless absolutely necessary, and never if she's there.

[The Irish Doggy]

The grocery store closest to me has this old beeyotch that is always working in the self checkout stands. She'll walk up and down the cashier's lanes and take people out of line and say "I'll take you down here". So the people will follow her thinking she's a cashier, and she just leads them down to the self checkout and walks away. People get either confused or pissed , but it sucks nonetheless. I won't use them unless absolutely necessary, and never if she's there.

 

 

 

dang that would piss me off too

[wiegie]

i refuse to use a self checkout....and I dont care how long the line is...if I am not on the payroll I am not doing their work....

This from a guy who has kids make their own teddy-bears.

[DMD]

The grocery store closest to me has this old beeyotch that is always working in the self checkout stands. She'll walk up and down the cashier's lanes and take people out of line and say "I'll take you down here". So the people will follow her thinking she's a cashier, and she just leads them down to the self checkout and walks away. People get either confused or pissed , but it sucks nonetheless. I won't use them unless absolutely necessary, and never if she's there.

 

 

Oh man I would go nuclear if she did that to me

[RFFL Chump]

This from a guy who has kids make their own teddy-bears.

 

 

[wildcat2334]

i refuse to use a self checkout....and I dont care how long the line is...if I am not on the payroll I am not doing their work....one day I had someone say sir you can come over to the self checkout(i had 1 item)...i said sorry but I'm not on The Home Depots payroll

 

oh and dmd try giving them the .03 after they rang up the sale

 

we have a grocery store called UKROPS and they do it all including bringing it out to your car and they are NOT ALLOWED to accept tips

 

 

 

jeebus you guys are soft. Where I come from bringing groceries out to yer car is for blue hairs and people with special needs who honestly need it. I think it is funny yall wanting this customer service from grocery cashiers and kids making minimum wage- I go the other way- it is a chit job, why not help em out and carry my own effin stuff.

 

If a kid baggin groceries asks me if I need help to my car - uh, naw I got this one- thanks.

[keggerz]

This from a guy who has kids make their own teddy-bears.

 

actually they help in the process...there is a machine manufacturer that is selling a "coin" operated machine so that an employee doesnt have to help in the process...we will not buy that machine...why? because we want to interact with our customers...actually nix that we HAVE to interact with our customers...we arent just selling bears, we are selling an experience...the grocery stores are pushing their inability to hire, train and retain employees into a cost cutting exercise that benefits their bottom line.

 

oh and to your comment it was a good one

[Azazello1313]

i refuse to use a self checkout....and I dont care how long the line is...if I am not on the payroll I am not doing their work....one day I had someone say sir you can come over to the self checkout(i had 1 item)...i said sorry but I'm not on The Home Depots payroll

 

so you'd rather sit in line with your thumb up your ass than wave your 1 item past a scanner yourself.

[Fatman]

A timely article in the WSJ today - take a look at the end for a bit on self checkout...

 

Big Boxes Aim to Speed Up Shopping

Time-Pressed Customers Get

Help Finding Wanted Items;

The Self-Checkout Debate

By KRIS HUDSON and ANN ZIMMERMAN

June 27, 2007; Page B1

 

The average shopper at a Wal-Mart supercenter spends 21 minutes in the store but finds only seven of the 10 items on his or her shopping list.

 

As Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, tries to boost flagging sales growth, one key is helping customers find and buy those eighth, ninth and 10th items before they rush off to their kid's soccer game. So the chain is attempting to make its sprawling stores easier to navigate. Among the changes: better signs to help shoppers find merchandise, more convenient placement of hot-selling items and staffing changes to speed up checkout times.

 

"We don't decide how long the people are in the store," Wal-Mart marketing chief Stephen Quinn explains. "What we decide is how easy it is for you within the 21 minutes you've allocated to get what you want."

 

Many of Wal-Mart's big-box brethren, from Home Depot Inc. to Best Buy Co., are also pursuing the goal of making their premises less overwhelming for shoppers. Their tools range from brighter light bulbs for quicker comparison shopping, to personal assistants catering to customers' whims. Like Wal-Mart, many are determined to eliminate lengthy checkouts, perhaps the biggest turnoff of all for harried customers.

 

Focusing on convenience represents a turning point for discount retailers. For years, they kept building bigger and bigger boxes, figuring the combination of low prices and huge assortment trumped other considerations. The result is that shoppers all too often spend much of their time trudging from department to department to find elusive items on their shopping list, and some give up without finding them.

 

Wal-Mart's efforts last year to lure upscale customers by stocking fancy merchandise and clothing largely failed. Wal-Mart's same-store sales, or those at stores open at least 12 months, rose a meager 2% last year, its smallest annual increase since it began tracking such sales in 1979. But Americans collectively make 127 million trips to Wal-Mart each week, and the retailer knows if it can sell each of them another item or two, it can keep its sales growing rapidly. Indeed, Wal-Mart officials say the chain's customers are spending more during each visit this year, which is helping the retailer offset a decline in overall customer visits.

 

At the same time, retailers with smaller-store formats are nipping at the heels of big-box retailers. Dollar stores have much less selection than a Wal-Mart or a Target, but their pricing is aggressive and customers can buy what they want in minutes. Tesco PLC, the British grocer, plans a splashy entry into the U.S. market over the next few months with 10,000-square-foot stores, a 20th the size of a typical Wal-Mart supercenter.

 

Big-box retailers are using different tactics to make their boxes less intimidating. In a pilot program, electronics retailer Best Buy is employing "personal shopping assistants" in 60 stores who are knowledgeable about all merchandise in the store. They wear button-down dress shirts to set them apart from regular Best Buy salespeople clad in Navy blue polo shirts. Their job is to individually serve time-starved customers making complicated purchases such as home-theater systems. Best Buy won't disclose the results of the pilot program, other than to say it has resulted in the retailer introducing more cross-department training in its 852 U.S. stores.

 

Best Buy rival Circuit City Stores Inc. has outfitted salespeople in 20 of its stores with computer tablets hung from their shoulders like book bags. The salespeople use the tablets to call up product specifications for customers and help them compare features of various merchandise.

 

Target Corp. and Wal-Mart have attempted to make shopping easier for new moms by clustering baby clothes, baby food, strollers, diapers and even maternity clothes in the same department. Target customers "have responded favorably and it has translated into positive financial results for Target," says spokeswoman Lena Michaud, who declined to cite specific sales figures.

 

Hardware chain Lowe's Cos. frequently checks lighting levels at its stores to ensure bulbs haven't dimmed with time. Lowe's installed "Need Help" buttons where shoppers often need to summon assistance -- key-cutting and shelving areas, for example. The average response time: Less than one minute. Rival Home Depot tested the call buttons this year and is now installing them in its roughly 1,900 U.S. stores.

 

At Wal-Mart, catering to 21-minute shoppers enlists several disciplines. The retailer is striving to clear more of its aisles and widen them. It has installed a computer-modeling system to dictate cashier schedules at 1,000 of its U.S. stores. The goal: to have more cashiers available during each store's peak shopping periods. Wal-Mart executives say that 85% of its stores using the scheduling system posted sales gains in March and April twice that of those not using the system.

 

Checkout is crucial because Americans aren't patient shoppers. A 2006 survey by the Mystery Shopping Providers Association found average checkout-line wait times of four minutes, 27 seconds, at grocery stores; four minutes, 55 seconds, at apparel stores; and five minutes, 23 seconds, at department stores. Still, hurried customers bristle at the wait times and often perceive the delays as longer than they actually were.

 

"Navigating jammed aisles and then waiting to check out for more than a few minutes isn't worth the price savings on just a few items," says Guilbert Brown, a college administrator, in Virginia. Mr. Brown says he favors Target above Wal-Mart due to the relative ease of navigating Target's aisles and checkout process.

 

Many retailers, such as warehouse-club chain Costco Wholesale Corp., have added technology that allows shoppers to swipe their credit cards before their entire purchase is rung up. In 2003, Costco opted to incur an extra $40 million in annual expense to augment the staffers who box merchandise at its registers and load it into customers' carts.

 

The result: In the past three years, Costco's average hourly transactions per register increased to 45 from 37, according to the retailer.

 

Some big-box retailers are embracing the most controversial of checkout-line evolutions: self-checkout areas, where up to four shoppers scan their own purchases under the supervision of one cashier. Home Depot has installed self-checkout in all of its U.S. stores, and Costco is experimenting with it in 30.

 

But Target Chief Executive Bob Ulrich eschews self-checkout as clumsy and confusing for shoppers. Instead, Target fine-tunes the staffing at its registers. "Our staffing schedule is designed to cover maximum peak volume," he says. "I am convinced that one professional checker is as fast as four self-checkout machines."

Edited June 27, 2007 by Fatman

[Azazello1313]

actually they help in the process...there is a machine manufacturer that is selling a "coin" operated machine so that an employee doesnt have to help in the process...we will not buy that machine...why? because we want to interact with our customers...actually nix that we HAVE to interact with our customers...we arent just selling bears, we are selling an experience...the grocery stores are pushing their inability to hire, train and retain employees into a cost cutting exercise that benefits their bottom line.

 

 

and the way i see it, at home depot i'm buying an item, and NOT the "experience" of interacting with their employees. so if self-checkout is the easiest, fastest way to get that transaction done...

[MikesVikes]

Nope just like clockwork baby. Just don't like stuff pushed down my throat under the guise that it is really helping me out when really it is the other way around.

 

 

This is how I feel about on-line shopping. It's always for "my convenience" to shop on-line.

 

Office products for example. The choices are a 3 minute phone call or two co-workers trying to work the on-line checkout for a solid hour.

[Big Country]

Here in California (not sure what other areas are affected) the grocery store unions are pushing for another strike.

 

Wonder what they do when all stores go to self checkout only and they realize they can be easily replaced by technology?

[keggerz]

jeebus you guys are soft. Where I come from bringing groceries out to yer car is for blue hairs and people with special needs who honestly need it. I think it is funny yall wanting this customer service from grocery cashiers and kids making minimum wage- I go the other way- it is a chit job, why not help em out and carry my own effin stuff.

 

If a kid baggin groceries asks me if I need help to my car - uh, naw I got this one- thanks.

 

i didnt say that I let them bring my groceries out(my wife is the one that told me that they always do it and CANT take any tips) :oldrazz:

[keggerz]

so you'd rather sit in line with your thumb up your ass than wave your 1 item past a scanner yourself.

 

yeah i am stubborn like that...i give in for that one item then its 2 then 6 then a cart at some point you have to draw the line in the sand... for me it starts at 1

Edited June 27, 2007 by keggerz

[NSab]

A factor is that there is usually not enough staff in the checkouts, which causes long lines. If this is so, I will use the self-checkout if there is no waiting there so I can get out of the store faster.

 

 

 

Same here.

[seminoles]

Grocery stores are going to self serve checkouts - usually they have a couple of them available where you the customer has to scan every freaking thing correctly, bag them yourself and pay for it all for the privilege of not getting anything taken off your total. The grocery industry is now considering new technology where you get a small computer with your cart that has a hand scanner on it. You go through the store, scan each item you select and place it in a bag in your cart. By the time you are done, you can just push the cart out the door and have your debit card hit for the total. You have to scan your "store loyalty" card before you start so they know exactly who you are and exactly what you are getting.

 

Does anyone like this stuff?

 

What ever happened to service? I know it is not being sent offshore - it just disappearing from stores. They want ME to do all THEIR work? For nothing in return? Ain't going to happen. I never use self-service checkout and never will. If a store goes entirely to it, I will not shop there.

 

I won't even go into the privacy issues I have with them knowing exactly when I am at their store, what I am buying and with the most recent technology, they even know what order I gather the items.

 

I hate going into stores anymore.

 

And another thing.... If my items total up $11.53 and I give the cashier $22.03 why in the name of all that is good do these morons freak out? "Uh... it's only $11.53. You gave me too much". "Uh, I only want a ten and two quarters back instead of a five, three ones, a quarter, two dimes and two pennies back YOU IDIOT -Just ring it up and see what happens".

 

I worked retail when I was a teenager. I work food service. I was never an idiot like people these days.

 

Then again maybe I am too young to be this grumpy...

 

Hey! Don't dis my idea I came up with in 6th grade...it won first place in our invention convention

[keggerz]

A timely article in the WSJ today - take a look at the end for a bit on self checkout...

 

Big Boxes Aim to Speed Up Shopping

Time-Pressed Customers Get

Help Finding Wanted Items;

The Self-Checkout Debate

By KRIS HUDSON and ANN ZIMMERMAN

June 27, 2007; Page B1

 

The average shopper at a Wal-Mart supercenter spends 21 minutes in the store but finds only seven of the 10 items on his or her shopping list.

 

As Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, tries to boost flagging sales growth, one key is helping customers find and buy those eighth, ninth and 10th items before they rush off to their kid's soccer game. So the chain is attempting to make its sprawling stores easier to navigate. Among the changes: better signs to help shoppers find merchandise, more convenient placement of hot-selling items and staffing changes to speed up checkout times. ??? as in educated vs uneducated???

 

"We don't decide how long the people are in the store," Wal-Mart marketing chief Stephen Quinn explains. "What we decide is how easy it is for you within the 21 minutes you've allocated to get what you want."

 

Many of Wal-Mart's big-box brethren, from Home Depot Inc. to Best Buy Co., are also pursuing the goal of making their premises less overwhelming for shoppers. Their tools range from brighter light bulbs for quicker comparison shopping, to personal assistants catering to customers' whims. Like Wal-Mart, many are determined to eliminate lengthy checkouts, perhaps the biggest turnoff of all for harried customers.

Ever notice in big box stores when they have the 2 waves of registers the ones at the front are the ones that are almost exclusively the ones that are open..thats because the other registers mask the line...and if they ever do utilized the other wave of registers you bet the store is damn busy....an old rule of thumb in retail is that you need 1 register for every million dollars you do in sales

 

Focusing on convenience represents a turning point for discount retailers. For years, they kept building bigger and bigger boxes, figuring the combination of low prices and huge assortment trumped other considerations. The result is that shoppers all too often spend much of their time trudging from department to department to find elusive items on their shopping list, and some give up without finding them.

You know there are people called MERCHANDISERS that tackle how stores are laid out...if it aint working then you have to question your MERCHANDISING PLAN

 

Wal-Mart's efforts last year to lure upscale customers by stocking fancy merchandise and clothing largely failed. Did they really need to test upscale merch to realize it wouldnt fly? Wal-Mart's same-store sales, or those at stores open at least 12 months, rose a meager 2% last year, its smallest annual increase since it began tracking such sales in 1979. But Americans collectively make 127 million trips to Wal-Mart each week, and the retailer knows if it can sell each of them another item or two, it can keep its sales growing rapidly. Indeed, Wal-Mart officials say the chain's customers are spending more during each visit this year, which is helping the retailer offset a decline in overall customer visits.

 

At the same time, retailers with smaller-store formats are nipping at the heels of big-box retailers. Dollar stores have much less selection than a Wal-Mart or a Target, but their pricing is aggressive and customers can buy what they want in minutes. Tesco PLC, the British grocer, plans a splashy entry into the U.S. market over the next few months with 10,000-square-foot stores, a 20th the size of a typical Wal-Mart supercenter.

 

Big-box retailers are using different tactics to make their boxes less intimidating. In a pilot program, electronics retailer Best Buy is employing "personal shopping assistants" in 60 stores who are knowledgeable about all merchandise in the store. They wear button-down dress shirts to set them apart from regular Best Buy salespeople clad in Navy blue polo shirts. Their job is to individually serve time-starved customers making complicated purchases such as home-theater systems. Umm you can ask KidCid but I dont think that people purchase Home Theater systems in a rush. Best Buy won't disclose the results of the pilot program, other than to say it has resulted in the retailer introducing more cross-department training in its 852 U.S. stores. Wow CROSS-DEPARTMENT TRAINING there goes a new idea...i have worked for some very large retailers(2billion+ in sales) and one of the things that we always required in training was CROSS DEPARTMENT TRAINING.

 

Best Buy rival Circuit City Stores Inc. has outfitted salespeople in 20 of its stores with computer tablets hung from their shoulders like book bags. The salespeople use the tablets to call up product specifications for customers and help them compare features of various merchandise.

 

Target Corp. and Wal-Mart have attempted to make shopping easier for new moms by clustering baby clothes, baby food, strollers, diapers and even maternity clothes in the same department. Target customers "have responded favorably and it has translated into positive financial results for Target," says spokeswoman Lena Michaud, who declined to cite specific sales figures. A merchandise manager that decided to think outside the box....a store within a store layout makes perfect sense...but these problems arise when big companies lose focus of who they are or who they want to be...you try to be to many things at once well you could be looking at failure not to far down the road. fwiw imo target is one of the best run retailers you will find...go take a look at their growth and see how systematic it was/is done

 

Hardware chain Lowe's Cos. frequently checks lighting levels at its stores to ensure bulbs haven't dimmed with time. Lowe's installed "Need Help" buttons where shoppers often need to summon assistance -- key-cutting and shelving areas, for example. The average response time: Less than one minute. Rival Home Depot tested the call buttons this year and is now installing them in its roughly 1,900 U.S. stores.

 

At Wal-Mart, catering to 21-minute shoppers enlists several disciplines. The retailer is striving to clear more of its aisles and widen them. It has installed a computer-modeling system to dictate cashier schedules at 1,000 of its U.S. stores. There have been programs like this used by other retailers for a very long time(GAP uses a system that not only does cashiers but all departments and it is tied to metrics that they record) The goal: to have more cashiers available during each store's peak shopping periods. Wal-Mart executives say that 85% of its stores using the scheduling system posted sales gains in March and April twice that of those not using the system. I am not walmart but my cheap old Intuit POS system gives me the ability to look at trends broken down by time periods so that I can schedule accordingly.

 

Checkout is crucial because Americans aren't patient shoppers. A 2006 survey by the Mystery Shopping Providers Association found average checkout-line wait times of four minutes, 27 seconds, at grocery stores; four minutes, 55 seconds, at apparel stores; and five minutes, 23 seconds, at department stores. Still, hurried customers bristle at the wait times and often perceive the delays as longer than they actually were.

 

"Navigating jammed aisles and then waiting to check out for more than a few minutes isn't worth the price savings on just a few items," says Guilbert Brown, a college administrator, in Virginia. Mr. Brown says he favors Target above Wal-Mart due to the relative ease of navigating Target's aisles and checkout process.

 

Many retailers, such as warehouse-club chain Costco Wholesale Corp., have added technology that allows shoppers to swipe their credit cards before their entire purchase is rung up. In 2003, Costco opted to incur an extra $40 million in annual expense to augment the staffers who box merchandise at its registers and load it into customers' carts.

 

The result: In the past three years, Costco's average hourly transactions per register increased to 45 from 37, according to the retailer.

 

Some big-box retailers are embracing the most controversial of checkout-line evolutions: self-checkout areas, where up to four shoppers scan their own purchases under the supervision of one cashier. Home Depot has installed self-checkout in all of its U.S. stores, and Costco is experimenting with it in 30.

 

But Target Chief Executive Bob Ulrich eschews self-checkout as clumsy and confusing for shoppers. Instead, Target fine-tunes the staffing at its registers. "Our staffing schedule is designed to cover maximum peak volume," he says. "I am convinced that one professional checker is as fast as four self-checkout machines." BRAVO Mr. Ulrich BRAVO(oh and fwiw Target CROSS TRAINS it employees on register

 

i have to say that it is almost embarrassing at how many Retail Management people cant forecast or hire or interview for that matter without having to have a tool to do it for them. In the end it comes down to HIRING AND TRAINING...HIRE WELL and TRAIN your employees well and you will in turn be able to run a successful store and it wont matter if you are selling apples or automobiles

Edited June 27, 2007 by keggerz

[Skippy]

The grocery store closest to me has this old beeyotch that is always working in the self checkout stands. She'll walk up and down the cashier's lanes and take people out of line and say "I'll take you down here". So the people will follow her thinking she's a cashier, and she just leads them down to the self checkout and walks away. People get either confused or pissed , but it sucks nonetheless. I won't use them unless absolutely necessary, and never if she's there.

 

I love that beeyotch! I now look for that person to pull me from my line because I will not no how no way check myself out. I play dumb as we walk to the self check out and then I spring it on her that she can have at it. Once and a while this leads to a little exchange of words that will often lead to the manager ending up doing the checking out or at the very least the beeyotch that pulled me from the line checking me out.

 

And just to make it 100% clear, I do not use self check out and never will.

[DMD]

I think that those of you who like the self-check out are solely thinking of running into a store and only buying a couple of items instead of shopping for the week's groceries. A shopping cart full of groceries and they think there is any chance I would spend MUCH more time processing it than a cashier would? Not a chance.

 

There is a home depot near my house with a couple of those self-service checkouts but I never use them either. It's hard enough for a trained cashier to find bar codes on lumber, pipes, tools, etc.. No way am I going to do it.

[Caveman_Nick]

I think that those of you who like the self-check out are solely thinking of running into a store and only buying a couple of items instead of shopping for the week's groceries.

 

 

 

That's pretty much what it's targeted for. People that check out $200 worth of groceries at the self checkout are smoking crack!