I always will use a cashier since self checkouts will put people out of work and save the company money.
Until the stores give a reasonable discount for using self checkouts. I will always use the cashiers!
I almost always use self checkout at the grocery store. At other stores it's about half and half.
It doesn't really put people out of work. It just shifts things around. Even a cashier scans bar codes, which is probably twice as fast as keying everything in. People have said new inventions have put people out of work for hundreds or even thousands of years, yet people are still working. You are using the Internet, does that mean you are putting librarians and newspaper boys out of work? If you drive a car does that mean you are putting wagon drivers and stable masters out of work? They are just doing different things now.
As for passing the savings on, absolutely they pass it on. Most cost savings get passed on. Competition dictates that it gets passed on. That's even more true for grocery stores which have a very low profit margin (~2%).
I worked in engineering for many years and cost reduction starts from the very beginning. You have to cut costs everywhere possible or the company will go out of business and everyone will lose their job. That even happened a company I worked for. The company has to figure out a way to make it cheap or go under.
I use cashiers for a multitude of reasons. One is what you've mentioned, it justifies my spending, cus at least it contributes to keeping someone in the system, secondly I often buy bakeries and don't really know their names, so I don't have a hard time finding them in the system. And I like to receive some sort of service for my money.
I like to shop early in the morning which is a problem because I'm doing my shopping for the entire week, so it's always super fun to then have to only have the option for self-checkout and have to scan 200 items, and then the machine doesn't work, or they need ID, and then that requires me to go off and find a human being anyway. Literally, I don't work at this store, why am I having to scan my own stuff??? And yes, ultimately we are contributing to humans not having a job because "a machine can do it." I hate that especially considering grocery stores are places where a lot of people who may struggle to find jobs elsewhere, can find decent employment.
If I want to scan barcodes I'd get a job at Walmart
I want someone to ring my stuff up and I want a bagboy to bag it and put it in my cart
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I only use self checkouts. Even better, the Meijer and Sams in my area (Detroit burbs) have an app you can use to scan as you go. There is never a line at the checkout, and you fly right out the store.
It is false to think you are savings jobs. The fact is that the stores are going to push everyone toward self checkouts whether you like it or not. All you are going to do is wait in really long lines. My store had 30 registers before they ripped out most of them and went from 6 self checkouts to around 25. They never had more then 2 registers on... ever. There were lines out into the store. Did they open more lanes? never once. So wait in a line or embrace the future. The sad fact is that many of the people they get to do the registers are incompetent. Last time I used one I paid cash. I gave the woman the extra 6 cents so I could get 2 quarters back, and she was stumped. If the register doesn't tell them what change to give, they are lost. Granted, there are still good cashiers out there, but they are hard to find.
One thing to take into account before you judge. Go speak to the manager of a store like Walmart or Target and see how many are desperately wanting people to work doing checkout! Several months ago I was speaking to a good friend who is a Walmart District Manager about the long lines. He told me between all of his stores he could hire 100 cashiers right now. To be fair Walmart management does not provide enough hours for a lot of these people. I have no issue using self-checkouts for a few items, but if I have 50 items I rather have a human check me out.
I use the self-checkouts if I only have a handful of items and all the cashiers are busy. If there's a line for them, I go to the cashier regardless of number of items.
At some small dollar store set ups, they only have the self-checkouts now. But they always need a cashier because people get confused by them still, or something scans wrong. So someone's still working, and there's tasks to do around the shop other than being a cashier, so they're not really losing work.
It's the way it's heading. Even self check out is going. It's going to be check into the store with your phone, walk out the door with the goods in your bag no checkout needed.
Next wave of automation is coming so that means fewer jobs, less money to be earned. Think about all the guys driving lorries and taxis that will lose their jobs in the next 10-20 years.
I’d always go to a cashier as all this digital rubbish is a nightmare, I used a self checkout only once and it buggered up and wouldn’t work and I had to get someone to sort it out which took longer, never again. Cashier all the way.
in germany we don't have these people that will fill the shoping bags for you. so with the cashiers being so fast, it's super hectic, sorting your shit while being expected to pay at the same time. so i prefer the self checkout. there i don't feel the stares in my back trying to make me hurry.
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Most self-checkout demand bank-card pay and I'm trying to use cash only.
I like to use self checkouts unless I have a cart load of stuff. I’m picky as well who bags my groceries.
With a human, i find it easier that it won't get fked up and I have to wait for someone to do soemthing about it
I usually just go for the cashier route since that's what I've been doing all my life, but if I feel like it I'll go to the self checkout route.
I love self-checkout. The kiosk doesn't give me an attitude. It always gives me the correct change, and I don't have to wait behide some old lady for 40 mins listening to her pick out her lottery tickets.
My Walmart only has self checkout, but I wish people could've kept their jobs
I like having both options available but mostly I go for self check out
I almost always forced to use self-checkout. I would prefer a real person and help them. BUT I find they never have enough registers open creating long lines and some cashiers are so slow and so stupid I end up there for a very long time!
Most shops in germany don't even have selfcheckout, you need a cashier.
I use the self checkout in place of the express lane, but it's a balance.
I enjoy the self checkout because I don’t like talking to people
I almost always use self checkout when it's available.
I avoid them because the female checkers around here are usually cute.
I only use the self checkout when the cashiers are busy
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