Paul gives his thoughts on self service checkouts and whether or not they're worth it.
People who know me will attribute this blog topic to my Meldrew-esque irritation with the modern world, and unwillingness to accept any form of change. But they’d be wrong. This particular hobby horse has been bubbling under ever since self-service checkouts were introduced in numbers when I was still a child.
I’m NOT going to bang on about missing the ‘human interaction’, or the chance to quip about the fact that I’ve just spent £80 ‘..and I only came in for a pint of milk!’ To be honest, and no offence intended here, I really couldn’t care if I never spoke to a checkout assistant again.
No, my issue centres around the lunacy of introducing an automated system that (1) requires regular human intervention, so doesn’t actually reduce the overhead in the way that was intended (2) increases the ease and opportunity for customers to shoplift (3) removes the chance to upsell, or highlight any product faults and replace them without causing a longer queue of frustrated waiting self-servers. I’d even venture as far as saying there’s probably evidence to suggest that people buy fewer and smaller items to make the escape through the self-service checkouts as trauma-free as possible. I know I have.
Photo by Boxed Water Is Better on Unsplash
So, today I was delighted to find that one good old Northern supermarket chain has announced then end of its self service system.
The reasons given largely centre on marketing bollocks about ‘improving the customer journey’ – and I accept that it’s the sort of thing people like to hear.
What I’d really like to hear is the CEO saying ‘Do you know what? It’s been a f**king disaster – we spent all this money on automation because we thought it would be cheaper to run, but nobody likes it…and its not saved anything. We did it because we thought we wouldn’t have to argue about sickness and holiday entitlements ever again – or dealing with Janice’s personal hygiene issue – but we haven’t saved a red cent, Janice still stinks, and the customers hate us!
So, if I happen to deliberately take a plastic carrier bag without paying for it – I do so to help hasten the demise of a system many customers really don’t like.
Like the elderly gentleman in the next bay to me at my local Tesco who was having to verify his age to buy alcohol free lager… He asked the flustered assistant ‘I thought I was doing your job and not getting paid for it – but it turns out we’re both having to do it!’
Paul
