Be Careful Using Self-Checkout At Stores

[Father Heathen]

Check-out staff don't clean & organize the store.
In the one store I frequent that has self-checkout,
it's quite clean & organized.
A store's goal shouldn't be to hire many employees.
It should be to serve its customers. And self-checkout
serves that goal in my experience.

Are you a Luddite, by any chance?

You infer strange things from my posts.

 

[Revoltingest]

You infer strange things from my posts.

What did I infer that you object to?

 

[Father Heathen]

What did I infer that you object to?

That I had a problem with technology or automation.

My only point is that there's often a trade-off with smaller crews.

 

[exchemist]

Interesting. I avoided self checkout for a long time because I saw them as a way to cut down on staff, and it seems that was the motivation. A recent news item described how that hasn't worked. Apparently, with the staff needed to oversee the checkouts and help people that are having problems, added to a (genuine) increase in theft, they haven't proved to be any less costly than the old system.

I think self checkouts are great. They are far better suited to the way couples and singles shop in cities . You can just pop in, grab half a dozen items for the next day or two and you are out again in minutes, instead of the old model of queuing up with a vast trolley full of stuff, intended to feed a family for a week. Far more flexible and better for the lifestyle of people who have don’t have a predictable routine. But I’ve learned to avoid Sunday evenings: it’s a zoo.

So I think it’s now become about customers’ expectation of convenience, rather than necessarily cost saving. But with the current cost of living crisis in the UK, they are getting more theft. In some districts they have even resorted to putting security tags on the cheese! We are a poor country now.

 

[Little Dragon]

However, universal rule is the security guard has to see the theft. It's a automatic lawsuit, likely to be successful, if they didn't see the theft happen.

The same applies in English and Welsh law. (The law of the UK except Scotland) The act has to be observed, by either eyeballs or cameras, it cannot be an assumption, as it would, on the basis of an automated transaction.

 

[Revoltingest]

That I had a problem with technology or automation.

First, I asked a question, rather than assuming.
Second, & most important....IT'S A JOKE!
Obviously, you're not a Luddite.

 

[Father Heathen]

First, I asked a question, rather than assuming.
Second, & most important....IT'S A JOKE!
Obviously, you're not a Luddite.

I thought it was sarcasm/rhetorical. My apologies.

 

[Revoltingest]

I thought it was sarcasm/rhetorical. My apologies.

It was indeed rhetorical.
You were supposed to respond appropriately.
Like calling me a "vegan".

 

[Quetzal]

Like calling me a "vegan".

You mean this isn't true?

 

[Revoltingest]

You mean this isn't true?

I sometimes eat vegan fare.
But I ain't one.
Just an omnivore.