Please Don’t Tie Up Our Associates
Having just read my colleague Tim Parry’s post about Stop & Shop’s new Scan It! technology and the wonders of self-checkout at the grocery store, I felt compelled to put in my two cents on this topic.
The store I frequent most – an A&P Fresh that used to be a Food Emporium that is horribly overpriced because it’s in a shopping center where the rents are exorbitantly high – just recently installed several of these next generation “self-checkout” stations.
I know they’ve been around for a while, but I’m still kind of conflicted about these things – on the one hand I like them because they sometimes make it easier and faster to get through the checkout process — but on the other hand I’m kind of offended that I’m being coerced by store management into using them.
For the first couple months after they were installed, there was some nerdy kid up at the front of the store who was pulling shoppers out of the regular lines and saying “over here, sir, you can self-checkout right here.”
It was almost as if the underlying message was: “Sir, please don’t tie up our associates with ringing up your items when you’re perfectly capable of using these new-fangled machines over here …”
When I saw this kid grab a customer by the arm and pull them toward one of the new machines I thought,” Wow, this is an aggressive push.” It was kind of a rough way to bring about a change in behavior.
OK so I started using their stupid new machines – cheap bastards that they are for not wanting pay real people in a down economy and with unemployment on the rise. But the thing that really annoyed me was how the nerdy kid was watching me like a hawk to make sure I was using the machines correctly. When I made one minor procedural mistake, he came rushing over and grabbed an item from me: “No!” he said, as if scolding some kindergartner for not using a toy properly. “Here, let me show you …”
But the thing was, I knew what mistake I had made – there was no need to correct me as if I was a child. The machine is totally intuitive – it tells you what to do in such a way that it is almost impossible to make a mistake.
For the next several weeks, every time I got into a regular checkout line, some associate would tell me to go over and use the new machines. “But what if I don’t want to use the new machines?” I asked one day. “Well, you better get used to them, because this is the wave of the future,” was more or less the response.
Now, I have to say that sometimes I find these self-checkout machines quite convenient – especially when I’m just picking up a few items. But if you buy a lot of produce that has to be weighed, they can be kind of a pain.
Also, if you have a lot of items, they’re no good, because very often there’s not enough room for all your stuff on the bagging platform (which actually “weighs” the total number of items to make sure you placed each item into a bag). There’s also the problem of using bottle return vouchers – or paying by check – the machines won’t accept those forms of payment.
Yes, these machines definitely have their limitations … and so does my patience …
Tim’s story made me wonder whether Stop & Shop will be eventually forcing customers to use it’s new Scan It! technology as well. Will they have associates at the entrance handing out scanners, saying “here, you’ll need this in order to check out?”
No doubt these new systems will soon start appearing in all the big box stores like WalMart (er, um correction they already have them) and Target. In fact, I’m pretty sure Home Depot already has them in use.
So much for service with a smile …
December 29th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
If it means though that these stores can have more employees on hand to keep the stores clean and well stocked, it will be a plus. But I think you still need human cashiers to ensure stores aren’t getting ripped off. How simple would it be to forget about scanning that one container of Mallomars (if I have the correct spelling, and if the product still exists!)?