The Forgotten Rational of Self-Checkout in Shops

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A few days ago I saw someone say that they will never use self-checkout because they don’t want to do someone else’s job, and they want to be paid for the act, if they were to self-checkout. In New York, recently, there was talk of a ten percent discount for people who checkout by themselves, rather than use a cash register.

For me, the beauty of self-checkout is that the time you spend in food shops is finding the food and other things, and then within thirty seconds paying for everything without queuing. At Décathlon as well self-checkout works extremely well. You pick up some stuff, dump it in the “bin” and it recognises the RFID codes, and shows how much you owe. Within a few more seconds you’ve paid, and you can leave. The more you do it the more fluid the action becomes.

In contrast, in the bad old days we would go to the shops, and we would queue, and queue and queue. We’d wait for people to empty their trolley, the cashier to scan everything, and then wait for people to put everything back into the trolley. They would then pay with cash, or cheques, and then the next person would start the process.

The result, if you were a fast shopper is that you would spend more time at the cash register, waiting to pay, than shopping. It also meant that you needed a team of cashiers to sit for hours, and beg for a toilet break.

In contrast, today, with Passabene and/or RFID we go, we shop, we scan everything as we go, and then we get to the self-check-out, scan the code, wait, and then pay. If we need help we can ask for it, but if we don’t, then staff are free to do other tasks. They’re free to chat with friends, re-fill shelves and more.

For me, a key freedom that self-checkout gives to shop staff, is that they can walk around during the entire day, rather than sitting in a chair, at a desk. I use desk, rather than cash register to make a point.

If we spend the day sitting at a desk or editing suite we think that we’d love to be standing, in the real world, doing camera work, or something that involves not being trapped by a machine.

Self-checkout, although it changes the job landscape, improves the quality of life. People that might have spent ten years sitting at a cash register are now free to stand all day long, and talk with friends, rather than sit, bored, waiting for customers, especially on weekday mornings when the shops are quiet.

With self-checkout, especially with Passabene and similar systems, and with RFID tags we spend time shopping, but checking out takes seconds.

Self-checkout gives people, who want to socialise with those that work in shops more time to talk, between interruptions, than if everyone was queueing to have their trolleys emptied, scanned, told how much they owe, find the correct change, pay, and then finish filling their trolley. Shopping is now efficient.

And Finally, if you think you need a ten percent discount, or you need to be paid to do the “work”, it’s worth remembering that over time we’re saving hours, and our hourly worth quickly makes self-checkout good financial sense. We don’t lose five to ten minutes per shopping trip waiting to pay anymore. With the Migros self-checkout app we can pay as soon as we pick up the last item and walk out. That does feel tremendously weird.

Psychologically I like to scan the QR code, pay at the till, and then walk out. It feels too much like shoplifting when I don’t. To be clear, I pay via the phone app but psychologically I’m not used to this behaviour yet. I like for cashiers to see me pay.