I REALLY hate self-checkout stands. Now I consider myself usually fairly good with machines and computers, so maybe… just maybe… the problem is with the machine, not with me…
The other day, I went to Albertson’s (not to pick on them, but that’s where I had the problem) to pick up some grub for my sisters and me, and despite their “no more than three customers per line” policy, there were only two normal checkout lines, and they both had more than three customers each, and each with carts filled past the brim. I had… not enough to cover the bottom of the cart, but more than would be allowed in an express line (not that there was one open), so I went to an open self-checkout stand.
The first problem I had was that the machine lags. The scanner lags… I have to swipe items several times to get it scanned properly. Then there’s a delay before I can set it into the bagging area. And then there’s another delay before it’s ready to scan the next item.
Then there’s the fact that the baggin area is tiny. Actually, that wouldn’t be a problem except for that fact that you’re not allowed to remove anything from the bagging area until your whole transaction is complete. After I moved stuff to the side as much as I could, I didn’t have enough room to bag my next item, so I took off a couple of bags and put them back into the cart. The machine froze the transaction, and the oh-so-helpful self-checkout-checker came over and told me I couldn’t do that, and I wasn’t even supposed to take the bags off the hangers to put to the side of the bagging area. She told me to just slide the full bag out to the edge of the hanger and then use the next bag. I tried to explain that if I hadn’t already taken bags off, she wouldn’t have had the room to slide the bag forward on the hanger and show me how to “properly” do it.
And finally, I bought some fruit, and the scale part of the scanner took minutes to weigh each. I also had to select whether I had used those produce plastic bags, they where in some sort of carton, or if they were simply unwrapped. That menu was also laggy.
By the time I was done, two full carts had been moved through the regular line next to mine already! Who the hell designed this crap?!
If I had my way, stores would use use RFID tags instead of UPC codes. Bags would be provided throughout the store, and you’d bag yourself as you shop. When it’s time to checkout, you’d push your cart of goods through a turnstile with a scanner built into it, and that’s it! (Well, there’d have to be a pay island of some sort. Possibly a credit card scanner built into the turnstile the way rail ones read rail passes.) And yes, my complaint about the scale wouldn’t be solved… but stores could pre-package produce and such into net weight cartons.
go out and market ur idea.. u’ll make billions =)
How expensive are RFID tags.… UPC codes are so prevelant that their costs must be insignificant and they have a whole industry built around their production and use. RFID tags that would be pre-packaged and attached to bags may be pennies or even less but they would add up and margins at supermarkets are VERY low. Cost of adoption of this new form of tagging may be too much to begin with at the Supermarket level… probably a catch-22 thingy.