#self-check

“Excuse me, m’am.”  I said and she turned around to face me.  I swear she looked afraid, like I was going to tell her to piss off, we don’t want her kind here or something to that effect.  “You ran off without the rest of your change.”  I placed nearly a dollar of change in her hand and returned to my place at self-check.  

It is one of the most contentious of debates hitting retailers and restaurateurs these days. In their attempt to modernize and incorporate technology at every turn, they invariably wind up offending some customers’ sensibilities, as well as confusing those who no have tech savvy.

And then there are people like me who embrace all the change and have no problem using technology to make my life easier, which I am sure also benefits the business. Bring it, please, and hurry.

I could only be talking about self-serve kiosks, the touch screens and self-scanners that cause people to lose their minds over on social media. They fear jobs being lost and all manner of hypothetical ills. Maybe that’s just a cover for their inability to navigate the onscreen menus, but either way, there has been a line drawn in the sand between those who love and those who hate these things.

But a recent report yields a surprising conclusion: They’ve not been nearly as bad as some speculated, and all those fears of job losses simply did not materialize. In fact, by letting customers do the mundane part of the transaction—the ordering—it frees up employees to perform other essential tasks that help improve the customer experience.

The benefits of self-serve kiosks, especially in restaurants, are significant. The service level is consistent, removing the human element. Variability both within and between employees is removed by machines that always pitch the upsell at the precise same moment, and customized for each customer. In fact, with AI, it can be better than humans, because the order can be analyzed up to that point and relevant add-ons proposed that fit what the customer ordered.

It’s much better than just “Would you like fries with that shake?” No, now the machine-driven order taker can notice that you ordered a specific type of sauce to go on your taco, and would you like more?

Although fast food is not my thing, I confess to occasionally stopping at a Taco Bell while on long road trips, because I know that I can get bespoke burritos all courtesy of their kiosks. I can add this, delete that, to a far greater degree than you can do just standing there talking to a human, because the majority of the add-ons aren’t even on the menu. Well, not the one hanging on the wall behind the clerk. I am in and out of there in 10 minutes, and back on the road. Avocado and black beans? Yes, please.

Of course, there are downsides to kiosks. If you replace the human interaction aspect completely, thereby forcing customers to use the machines, there may be pushback. Some people are simply intimidated by them, and require assistance. This slows down the process. And, a study has shown that if there is a line at the machines, the same thing happens as when there’s a line to order with a human: We get cranky and order less. Or walk out.

As for supermarkets and other retailers with self-check kiosks, there is the increased risk of theft. It’s just too easy, especially with savvy thieves who tap the screen such that it thinks you are weighing bananas, but in fact laying a T-Bone steak on the scale, it’s easy to see how stores can wind up losing money.

As for me, I am a huge advocate of the self-serve kiosks. I don’t go shopping for chit-chat. I want to expedite everything. I also like packing my own groceries into my reusable shopping bags. Since I have Walmart+, I can simply scan a QR code when I’m ready to leave, and it charges the card I have on file within the app. Easy peasy. Call me a control freak, but I have this down. You can thank COVID for this. I cut my teeth on the system back then, and am now pro level.

I suspect that line in the sand is also a demarcation between younger and older shoppers, those most open to, and resistant to, change. Ooooh. There’s that word again. I use it a lot in every one of my classes. It’s a generational thing, digital natives versus the geezers who have spent their entire lives trying to keep up with all the changes around them.

It’s understandable, and to be honest, my students, you may very well just be geezers in training. I won’t be around, but please do a self-check—the personal reflection kind—when you hit 65. You may find yourself resisting technology that hasn’t even been invented yet.

Meanwhile, I have to make a Walmart run soon, probably later today. And you know where I will be when it’s time to wrap it up.

Dr “In And Out” Gerlich

Ever since my local Walmart installed self-check kiosks, I have been a fan of doing it myself. I don’t come to the grocery for chit-chat to begin with. And when COVID hit, I most certainly wanted to be anti-social and pack my own. Heck, it’s even better today with the Walmart+ membership and app. I just tap the camera icon on my phone’s screen, scan the QR on the POS device, answer one question, and off I go.

Paid. In. Full.

Alas, things are not all that well in some sectors of retail land regarding these self-check marvels. Turns out that theft is an issue (they should have seen this one coming), but also whenever you buy alcohol, an employee must verify your age. And then there are those products that simply defy scanning, and assistance is needed over at Terminal 7.

The result is that some stores are rethinking how they deploy—if at all—self-checkout. In some instances, like at three Albuquerque stores, Walmart is removing them completely. Albuquerque has earned its reputation as a high-crime city. Walmart also recently shuttered a huge store over in a neighborhood known pejoratively as “The War Zone.”

Enough said.

On the other hand, it is tiring to listen to the virtue signalers crying “I don’t work for Walmart” and “I want to be paid to check my groceries.” I hope they remember all of their virtuosity the next time they use a product or service rolled out in the last century or so whose primary benefit was labor savings. I won’t bore you with a list, because you can probably come up with your own. There have been many disruptions the last hundred years, and every time, we recovered nicely.

Theft, of course, is the biggest problem, although better surveillance—albeit at great cost to the retailer—could help curtail it. One of the biggest frauds being perpetrated is the “banana trick,” whereby someone needing to weigh an expensive item—like a steak—would instead key in that they are buying bananas, which are only 59 cents a pound. The right camera could easily catch that (come on, I can do an image search in my camera roll and find all the bananas quite easily, if only I had photographed some to begin with).

But when you have to keep installing sophisticated equipment to try to stay one step ahead, labor savings may very well be tossed out the window.

As for alcohol and the occasional item that will not scan, I have no problem with those minor inconveniences. And when you’re 64, they don’t bother asking for IDs, at least not in Texas. One look and they’re good with me. “You have a good day, Sir.”

But I have to wonder about the people who need hand-holding at every step. Why would you enter the self-check area if you don’t know how to do it? I know. There’s always a first time for everything, right? But it’s not like you haven’t watched hundreds of cashiers through the years do this for you. It’s really pretty simple.

As long as customers have a choice, I’m good with it, with the possible exception of the Amazon Go stores with zero cashiers. That’s the whole point there, though. If you like having the F2F interaction, then have at it. If you don’t, then take care of it all yourself.

The sad commentary on this is not jobs displaced or companies spending millions on equipment. No, the issue is theft, something I don’t think will be cured by returning to traditional checkouts. Theft was occurring long before the first self-check terminal. Given the economic uncertainties of the day, along with inflation, it is easy to explain. That does not excuse it, of course, but it helps put reason to it.

As in most things, I suspect the correct answer is somewhere in the middle. Finding that right mix, though, is the challenge du jour, and I don’t need someone to point that out to me.

Dr “Bag And Go” Gerlich