People like to write a lot of things which aren't true about self-checkouts and in a way I should not care, but the economics of retail are not rocket science and a little bit of research would go a long way. Self check-outs, like anything else, can be implemented well or badly. 🧵 1/X - ThreadSky

belovedsnail.bsky.social • 99 days ago

People like to write a lot of things which aren't true about self-checkouts and in a way I should not care, but the economics of retail are not rocket science and a little bit of research would go a long way.

Self check-outs, like anything else, can be implemented well or badly.

🧵 1/X

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scocca.bsky.social•98 days ago

What I love as a customer are self-service/ touchscreen kiosks for ordering customizable food. From my end, it eliminates concerns about getting it all taken down correctly; from the retailer’s end, it allows presenting all possible options (including up-sells).

scocca.bsky.social•98 days ago

On the other hand, I hate the Circle K self checkout stations where you sit all your stuff on a little platform and it uses cameras to identify your items and present your total. I don’t trust it to be right enough for me to pick the stuff up and walk away.

belovedsnail.bsky.social•99 days ago

Retailers have a number of different challenges in front of them, and self-check outs address several of them. One is wait time for purchase; one is coworker happiness (people tend to hate working the tills! there is high turnover here.); one is labor cost.

belovedsnail.bsky.social•99 days ago

So if you have a retail set up where a significant percentage of the customers are doing large purchases, and a smaller percentage are doing small purchases, then self-check out really makes sense to reduce wait time, particularly for the customers with the smaller basket.

3/X

belovedsnail.bsky.social•99 days ago

Why is wait time important? It goes to customer satisfaction. You will avoid nipping in for a jug of milk if you know you will need to wait 40 minutes in line. You might say to "add more cashiers" but you can't staff for peak continually without going broke and there are often physical limitations.

belovedsnail.bsky.social•99 days ago

Then in markets where there is a tight labor market, coworkers hate working tills! This is obviously going to be different in a small town supermarket with low traffic, but for most staff the tills are high stress and tons of customer abuse and they acutely feel the risk of getting it wrong.

#5/X

belovedsnail.bsky.social•99 days ago

If you have a blended self and physical check out model, it is easier to combine jobs so coworkers can do something else, and nearly all the rest of retail is more interesting and rewarding. Turnover rate goes down. Again, yes, there will be local market variations.

#6/X

belovedsnail.bsky.social•99 days ago

The issue of cost savings is the most complex and honestly the self-checkouts are the tiny tip of the iceberg here. In a number of retailers they are essentially trying to cut staffing to the bone-- not just at the tills. I have noticed this in the US where labor costs are rising sharply. #7/X

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