Actually, I would prefer not to deal with a human
by Pete on September 28, 2011
Big Y Foods, which has 61 locations in Connecticut and Massachusetts, recently became one of the latest to announce it was phasing out the self-serve lanes. Some other regional chains and major players, including some Albertsons locations, have also reduced their unstaffed lanes and added more clerks to traditional lanes.
Market studies cited by the Arlington, Va.-based Food Marketing Institute found only 16 percent of supermarket transactions in 2010 were done at self-checkout lanes in stores that provided the option. That’s down from a high of 22 percent three years ago.
Overall, people reported being much more satisfied with their supermarket experience when they used traditional cashier-staffed lanes.
Maybe I’m just a weirdo, but I vastly prefer the self-check lanes to dealing with those staffed by cashiers.
I tend to do my grocery shopping in small, frequent chunks, and that probably works better for the self-check lanes than if I had to ring out a huge shopping cart filled with stuff and then bag it all myself. Additionally, a significant part of the appeal of the self-check lanes is that there is almost always at least one totally open, whereas the cashier lanes tend to have lines.
Mostly, I think it would be a shame if store eliminate the option due to the technological aversion of some of their customers.
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