Unexpected item in the bagging area
I just used one of those self serve supermarket checkouts for the first time. The over all process was quicker than using one where an employee does the scanning and takes your money but only because there happened to be a shorter queue. The actual time spent scanning my stuff and paying wasn't any quicker and was on the whole rather irritating. E.g. It turns out that you can't scan a second item until you put the item you just scanned down on the bagging area, which is about a foot off the floor. So I scan my magazine, drop it on the bagging area, scan my other magazine, drop that on the bagging area, then pay, then bend down to retrieve both magazines. All this wondering why I couldn't just keep the magazine's in my hand. Perhaps it's less irritating if you actually put your items in bag, which I didn't. From this experience I can only conclude that self service checkouts are a cost saving exercise (one employee can hover around half a dozen self serve check outs in case there's a problem so that's five fewer people need to be employed) and offer no tangible benefit to customers. It's not like you get a discount for doing the work an employee would otherwise have done.
Mike Willis
18 Aug 2009 13:09
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Steve Rumsby
I think it is part of an anti-cheating system. The expected process is “scan, bag” and anything that differs from that (e.g. “scan, bag, bag”) might be somebody trying to cheat. You can sort of understand them trying to make people do this.
It turns out, though, that some items are too light to register. In Tesco you then have to get an attendant to say it is OK. Other systems (Asda?) have a “I don’t want to bag this” button on the screen.
Equally irritating is if you want to use your own bag. When you put it down before scanning your first item it says, “Unexpected item in the bagging area,” and refuses to let you go on. I think if you ignore it long enough it gives in eventually.
Overall, with just a bit more thought they would work really well. As well as needing fewer staff, I think they also take up a bit less space.
The best bit, though, is watching all the people who can’t figure them out and get stuck unable to do anything. I find them quite entertaining…:-)
18 Aug 2009, 14:27
tim
that whole bagging thing is annoying, but it’s fun though!
you should try the self checkout at ikea, you get a little gun thing to zap things so you don’t have to take them out your trolley. zap, zap!
18 Aug 2009, 16:23
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