“Woolworths is discovering what many consumers already suspect – that self-scan check-outs can be more of a hindrance than a help…” VINDICATION for the checkout chicks of the world! I’ve been griping about those things for years.
“Woolworths is discovering what many consumers already suspect – that self-scan check-outs can be more of a hindrance than a help…” VINDICATION for the checkout chicks of the world! I’ve been griping about those things for years.
JulieK
June 12, 2012 — 6:19 pm
I *adore* self-scan checkouts because I know how to use them! People who try to put an entire cart through them should be shot, and if you can’t follow instructions you should be gently led away to a face-to-face line. Yes they are slower than a decent checkout chick, but they’re much faster than the pimply-faced 15 year old who can’t scan and bag to save her life. If only there was a way of distinguishing between the self-checkout line that’s going to bog down because of the mums who let their little precious do the scanning, the full-service checkout that’s staffed by the slowest scanner in the world, the express checkout that’s manned by the expert and all the variations in between.
*sigh*. Apparently you hit a nerve! Must have been the massive Costco and Woolies shop I did on Saturday surrounded by idiots.
Kris
June 12, 2012 — 11:00 pm
I know how to use them! But every single time I use the ones at Broadway, it fails to register an item in the scale and I have to flag down a staff member. Every time! The ones at Bunnings and IKEA are much better. Maybe it’s just the Broadway ones that suck in particular.
Tia
June 13, 2012 — 8:44 am
Being an ex-checkout chick, I love the self scanners. But that’s highly due to the fact that I really dislike the way that most Checkout Operators don’t know how to pack a bag properly. No, they shouldn’t be the predominant type of checkout, but I hope they don’t get rid of all of them.
Kris
June 13, 2012 — 9:51 am
Ah. Why don’t you just pack your own bag? That’s what I always do.
Sue
June 13, 2012 — 10:16 am
I think it is also to do with the really crap arrangement of the check outs. There is no space to manoeuvre. And if all the items had RFID barcodes we could just push a trolley through a scanner!
It works in other parts of the world.
M-H
June 13, 2012 — 10:48 am
In NZ supermarkets you pick up a hand scanner when you arrive and scan every item yourself. (Fruit etc you scan the label, then weigh and scan the scales.) Then when you get to the checkout you just hand the scanner over and they tell you how much to pay. If you’ve pre-registered your card you can go straight on to packing. When I tell Aussies this they say that people wouldn’t scan everything, but they clearly do. There are spot checks done – one in every so many get pulled over to go through the full checkout as a safeguard and there are penalites for repested offences – but if theft were a serious problem they would have discontinued the system.
And the self-checkouts are a problem for people who can’t easily lift full bags of groceries. Check-out chicks will always be needed.