Self checkout

Description

Some retailers have introduced self checkout machines, where the customer is permitted to scan their own items and manually identify items such as fruits and vegetables, which are then weighed where applicable, and place the items into a bagging area. The weight observed in the bagging area is checked against previously stored information to ensure that the correct item is bagged, allowing the customer to proceed only if the observed and expected weights match.

There is normally an attendant watching over several self checkout machines, to provide assistance, prevent theft through exploitation of the machines' weaknesses, and to enforce payment. Attendant assistance is also required for the purchase of age-restricted items such as alcohol and tobacco.

Payment on these machines is accepted by card via EFTPOS, or cash via coin slot and bank note scanner. In addition, many stores also allow customers to pay via check with attendant assistance.

Benefits

The benefit to the customer is in the reduced checkout time because stores are often able to efficiently run four or more self checkout units where it normally might have had one or two cashiers.

The benefit to the retailer in providing self checkout machines is in reduced staffing requirements. The investment in such machines is particularly worthwhile where the price of labor is sufficiently high, as is the case in most developed countries.

Challenges

The time efficiency requires that the customers using the machine are reasonably competent. However, an inexperienced customer can cause the same sort of delays as an inexperienced cashier on a conventional register. The higher number of inexperienced customers compared to inexperienced cashiers can lead to queues. In addition, an experienced cashier (where employers put an emphasis on speed) may find it difficult to slow their speed to the slower pace of a customer-geared self-checkout.

As the weight observed in the bagging area is checked to allow the customer to proceed only if the observed and expected weights match, it is difficult to reconcile with the use of environmentally preferable alternatives to shop-provided bags, for example, baskets, rucksacks, and other reusable (but heavier) carriers.

Although self checkout machines carry a higher risk of theft, each item in a supermarket is typically of low value, and this makes it worthwhile for the retailer to accept the minor loss in revenue given the significant savings incurred through reduced employment.

Alternative system

An alternative system consists of a portable barcode scanner that is used by the customer to scan and bag items while shopping. When the customer has finished shopping, the scanner is brought to a checkout kiosk, where the information from the barcode scanner is downloaded to the kiosk, usually in conjunction with a customer loyalty card. The customer pays and receives a receipt at the checkout kiosk. The integrity of the system is maintained through the use of random audits. The system was in use at many larger Safeway stores in the United Kingdom until the stores were rebranded as Morrisons after the chains merged. Waitrose uses this system under the name Quick Check. This system is also used at some Martin's stores in the United States as EasyShop,[1] and Pak'n Save in New Zealand.

Theft on these services is reduced by a combination of a high barrier to entry (Waitrose for example requires users of its service to have one of their credit cards) and occasional audits of customers' shopping, where customers chosen at random are taken to a specialised till and have their shopping scanned in the usual way.

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