If you’d rather not face another long checkout line at Walmart, the mega-retailer may soon have a solution for you: It has resumed tests of an app that would let customers scan items as they shop, using either a handheld scanner or a smartphone app. [More]
self checkout
Panasonic’s New Checkout Machines Scan And Bag Items All By Themselves
By 12.12.16
Can it still be considered self-checkout if the shopper doesn’t have to do a thing during the process? Yet another retail innovation aimed at expediting the checkout process scans and bags items so humans don’t have to. [More]
Self-Service Checkouts Turn Us Into Shoplifters Unless We See Ourselves On Screen
By 8.10.16
Let’s face it, shoppers: self-checkout is a common feature, and generally expanding to more retailers. It’s a global phenomenon, which is why researchers in Britain audited transactions to find out the “shrinkage” rate at self-checkouts in several countries, and how to keep the rate lower. Their goal: to keep people from sneaking items into their bags, but without having to pay security guards or watch shoppers closely. [More]
Online Grocery Ordering And Self-Checkout Still Bad For Candy Companies
By 11.9.15
Back in January, we shared the news that Hershey was looking toward the future and thinking about ways to make impulse candy purchases part of consumers’ shopping routines we use more self-checkout options, or have entire orders prepared for us to pick up or have delivered. They’re not alone, it turns out. [More]
Toy Self-Checkout Prepares Children For Bleak Future Of Consumption Without Human Interaction
By 12.2.13
What kind of future are we preparing our children for? There’s no way to know, but reader Beth noticed a toy intended to prepare kids for a cold, robotic future: the My Very Own Shop N’ Pay Market, available at Walmart for $20. Yes, it’s a toy self-checkout. [More]
Giant Eagle Says It’s Doing Customers A Favor By Requiring Loyalty Cards At Self-Checkout
By 4.3.13
Many consumers have a love-it or hate-it feeling about self-checkout, but regardless of one’s personal feelings about the system, if a store makes it available, it should be open to all customers. Not according to the folks at Giant Eagle supermarkets. [More]
Trying To Get Out Of A Busy Grocery Store Quickly Is Just Tempting Fate
By 11.20.12
Yesterday, we shared the heartwarming story of a Harris Teeter supermarket that let customers leave with carts full of free groceries and not force them to wait around for the registers to start working again. Yesterday evening, sort of the exact opposite of that happened to Dina when she tried to get through her shopping trip to Giant quickly by using the self-scan station. Trying to get out of a crowded grocery store “quickly” is tempting fate, doesn’t Dina know that?! [More]
Walmart Self-Checkout Shorts Customer $40, Manager Insists It Didn't
By 9.12.12
If we can all learn anything from the experience of Joe’s wife, it’s this: don’t use self-checkout lanes if you’re planning to get cash back from your debit card. There’s a slim chance that anything will go wrong, but if it does, you have a witness to the transaction in the cashier. In the case of Mrs. Joe, she asked the self-checkout for $40 that she didn’t receive. She ultimately went to the manager on duty, who reviewed the security video and supposedly found no evidence that the self-checkout shorted her $40. [More]
Walmart Testing App That Allows Customers To Scan As They Shop Then Pay Quickly At Self Checkout
By 9.4.12
What’s the worst part about shopping? Well, besides not finding what you want on the shelf or having to pay more than you want to, many people would answer that long lines at the checkout are the bane of any retail experience. Walmart is trying to carve into those wait times with a new iPhone app it’s testing that would allow customers to scan their items in the aisles as they shop, and then simply pay at a self-checkout counter when they’re done. [More]
Should There Be A Limit On Items At The Self-Checkout Line?
By 7.27.12
Self-checkout lanes have become a topic of debate in the retail world in recent years. Does it speed up the process and cut down on labor costs, or are they high-maintenance money pits that put people out of work? Are they intended to be used for small purchases of just a few items — or is it perfectly fine to get in line with a full week’s worth of groceries? [More]
At This Walmart, Three And A Half Pretty Much Equals Five
By 7.26.12
I thought the idea behind having all of these computers around was that they were supposed to do the math for us. Correctly. A Reddit user snapped this picture of some fuzzy math at the self-checkout. Either the computer thinks that someone buying a pile of Lunchables and gum isn’t very quick on the uptake, or something is very wrong here. [More]
Fewer Supermarket Shoppers Using Self-Checkout Lanes
By 9.26.11
We wrote earlier this year about the decision by Albertsons LLC, which controls about 1/3 of that grocery store brand’s outlets, to shut down self-checkout machines in favor of human cashiers. Now a new report says we supermarket shoppers are just not using the self-checkout aisle as frequently as we were in recent years. [More]
Lawsuit: Walmart Had Me Arrested, Made Me Lose Job, Had Husband Deported… Over $2.90 Worth Of Chicken Necks
By 7.26.11
A former Walmart employee in Alabama has filed a lawsuit against the retail behemoth, alleging that she and her husband were wrongly accused of stealing $2.90 in chicken neck bones, an accusation the plaintiff says led to her losing her job and having her husband deported. [More]
Some Albertsons Ditching Self-Checkout Lanes In Favor Of Humans
By 7.11.11
The owners of about 1/3 of the nation’s Alberstons grocery stores are giving up on the notion of self-checkout lanes because store executives worry that shoppers aren’t getting enough human interaction during their Albertsons experience. [More]
Grocery Self-Checkout: Blessing Or Scourge?
By 3.18.10
Our sister publication ShopSmart asked their readers today what they think of grocery store self-checkout systems. Would you rather stand and watch someone else scan and bag your groceries, or do you prefer to buy your Oreos and hemorrhoid cream without another soul knowing? [More]
Home Depot Lets You Keep $199 Power Tool That Rang Up For $0.01
By 1.27.08
Johnny was pleasantly surprised when the $199 power tool he grabbed off the clearance rack rang up at the self-checkout for just $0.01. Home Depot, of course, stopped him before he could leave and asked for the item back, but Johnny wasn’t fast to part with his new toy.
I told the manager well that’s to bad because I ALREADY PAID FOR IT!!! and if you don’t return MY PRODUCT!!! that I PAID FOR!!! that I would call the cops because you are now stealing from me. I will call Weights and Measures. OH YEAH and my attorney.
Read the full story after the jump.
