(One) Walmart Kills Self-Serve Checkouts

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(One) Walmart Kills Self-Serve Checkouts

Postby jon » Mon Jul 11, 2011 9:01 pm

I don't know if this is a "one off" or a widespread change, but my local Walmart just removed all of its self-serve checkouts.

Admittedly, some other retail chains seem to be making "per location" decisions on self-serves, presumably at the Store Manager's discretion. But this is the first I recall where self-serve checkouts were removed.
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Re: (One) Walmart Kills Self-Serve Checkouts

Postby Jack Bennest » Tue Jul 12, 2011 8:18 am

Must be a bit dull in the radio category today. :oops:
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Re: (One) Walmart Kills Self-Serve Checkouts

Postby slowhand » Tue Jul 12, 2011 8:35 am

Jack Bennest wrote:Must be a bit dull in the radio category today. :oops:

No need to apologize, Jack. Like you, we all have our days when we are a bit dull :dontknow: in the radio category of our brains. :toothy10:
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Re: (One) Walmart Kills Self-Serve Checkouts

Postby Jack Bennest » Tue Jul 12, 2011 10:27 am

Me apologize?

Moi? :sign5:
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Re: (One) Walmart Kills Self-Serve Checkouts

Postby drmusic » Tue Jul 12, 2011 12:25 pm

Well, I like them, mainly because I don't have to wait in line to use them. :)
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Re: (One) Walmart Kills Self-Serve Checkouts

Postby Buckley » Wed Jul 13, 2011 12:16 am

I'm not a fan of them anyway... if I wanted to work at Wal-Mart, I'd apply. There's one thing I try not to do and that's make fun of other people's jobs, because without them I'd have to do all the work myself and I don't want to. When the self checkouts first came out, I thought "Ok, so maybe they can just stick a mirror at the front door so I can greet myself, leave out the keys to the stock room so I can go replace any items I purchase on the shelves, maybe leave a broom at the end of the aisles so I can sweep up a bit, and then I can use the self-checkout, they can call the whole experience the 'Wal-Mart Minimum Wage Fantasy Camp', and charge me $15 for entry!"
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Re: (One) Walmart Kills Self-Serve Checkouts

Postby PMC » Wed Jul 13, 2011 9:27 am

Jack Bennest wrote:Must be a bit dull in the radio category today. :oops:


It is a puzzle to me why the removal of self serve checkouts at a Walmart is considered `Computer & Technology News'

Is this an `in' thing that only the participant knows ?

Read this for serious wifi details http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/0 ... from-hell/ and is CT news
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Re: (One) Walmart Kills Self-Serve Checkouts

Postby jon » Wed Jul 13, 2011 12:39 pm

A popular topic of long-standing in some Technology circles is the abandonment of supposedly entrenched, supposedly labour-saving technology for the technology and methods they replaced. This seemed to me like a very good example.

Personally, I find such material much more interesting reading than stories on the death of technology that never quite made it in the first place, like the Internet-connected Toaster. I was going to say Thermostat, but Honeywell recently came out with yet another attempt to flog the Internet-connected Thermostat/Humidistat. Yet, the Technology Press still seems to cover such still-born technologies.
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Re: (One) Walmart Kills Self-Serve Checkouts

Postby PMC » Wed Jul 13, 2011 1:47 pm

jon wrote:A popular topic of long-standing in some Technology circles is the abandonment of supposedly entrenched, supposedly labour-saving technology for the technology and methods they replaced. This seemed to me like a very good example.

Personally, I find such material much more interesting reading than stories on the death of technology that never quite made it in the first place, like the Internet-connected Toaster. I was going to say Thermostat, but Honeywell recently came out with yet another attempt to flog the Internet-connected Thermostat/Humidistat. Yet, the Technology Press still seems to cover such still-born technologies.


Only a fool would consider buying/using an internet accessed toaster... accessing a home thermostate could be useful, although there are better `pre-programmed' alternatives available. Removing Walmart self checkouts says more to their business operations not about using the technology.... someone probably figured out a way to beat it, similar to how professional shoplifters know how to beat the door product scanners using aluminum foil lined shopping bags.

The `smart' meters are a topic, and the consumer and business does find them useful. Some of the fear mongering has stopped some consumers from appreciating the technology... the fears created about wifi etc.... Global's 16x9 show did a piece that was so full of bias, and lacked logic as example. As I mentioned in another message topic, valid research is done by professionals on what radio waves and/or electrical radiation can and can not do. These research people don't get to demonstrate the reality on shows like 16x9.
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Re: (One) Walmart Kills Self-Serve Checkouts

Postby jon » Wed Jul 13, 2011 2:51 pm

According to this 2009 article, the year of the Internet Toaster was 1990:
It is also the year the first machine to be remotely controlled over the Internet appeared at Dan Lynch's Interop conference. It was the "Internet Toaster," created by the great John Romkey, who was kind enough to share a piece of toast with me. It was an exciting time.

Not to be confused, by the way, with the Internet Toaster of 1996, which was at $500 PC with no hard drive that you connected to a TV set as your monitor; all software was accessed from the Internet. As you might guess, no one ever bought one, though Canadian Utilities locally did try a hybrid approach of having each staff computer run Microsoft Office and other software off the network hard drives rather than the staff computer's local hard drive.

Walmart's approach to self-serve "cash registers" seemed to me to be the most labour-wasting of any of the retailers I have seen. A dedicated person with no other assigned duties. They had gradually scaled back the self-serve hours until it was only "rush hour" in the late afternoon. Compare that to Home Depot where the centre of the self-serves is always staffed by a person who can also provide you with a standard cash register experience from that centre position, as well as managing the self-serves, including the ability to scan an item for any of the self-serves from that central position.
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Re: (One) Walmart Kills Self-Serve Checkouts

Postby Neumann Sennheiser » Wed Jul 13, 2011 3:07 pm

Yes, Home Depot does the self checkout thing better than most.
The whole idea originally, was to provide improved customer service by offering "fully assisted" self checkout to customers who may be in too much of a hurry to wait in line, maybe had only a handful of easy to scan items and felt confident and self-sufficient enough to do some of the process themselves.
It should never be designed to reduce register staff for company economics reasons and ideally the self checkout should be monitored by one of the stores' better, more experienced cashiers possessing a highly developed level of multi-tasking skills. At Home Depot they're mandated to treat the self checkout as if it were a regular full service checkout; sometimes they get slammed with a lot of customers at once but watch how that person gets right in there and does their damnedest to help everyone as quickly as possible.
I don't see that attitude at a lot of other retail stores. Standing behind a podium, monitoring a screen and only assisting when requested to doesn't cut it.
"You don't know man! I was in radio man! I've seen things you wouldn't believe!"
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Re: (One) Walmart Kills Self-Serve Checkouts

Postby Mike Cleaver » Wed Jul 13, 2011 3:37 pm

My favourite amusing experiences have occurred at the "self checkouts" at Superstores.
90 per cent of the people attempting to use them have absolutely no clue as to how they work.
The harried clerk has to instruct them and run from checkout to checkout to help these morons scan their zucchini.
A mandatory education program seems to be necessary before these people are permitted to use these checkouts, otherwise, the lines there are longer than the staffed checkout counters.
Now, in an attempt to move things along, the self checkouts at Superstores are supposedly limited to 25 items but you still can run through as many as you want.
I find them really convenient and super fast, as long as there's no line up.
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Re: (One) Walmart Kills Self-Serve Checkouts

Postby freqfreak2 » Wed Jul 13, 2011 9:50 pm

I puzzles me as to why someone would go through the bother of self-checkout after spending up to an hour navigating Superstore's maze of merchandise.

The few minutes of rest made available while watching someone else total my purchase far outweighs the "convenience" of doing it myself.

And yes, an IQ test should be administered for some of those folk. Which likely explains why Wallymart pulled their devices.
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Re: (One) Walmart Kills Self-Serve Checkouts

Postby RationalKeith » Wed Sep 14, 2011 11:55 am

Well, I accuse other stores of blindly copying WalMart – who don’t always make wise decisions – just because WalMart is successful. *

Another example is video screens on the exit side of the checkout – too late by then, other than to say “Thankyou please come back”. Oh, another WalMart dumb idea was going “green” and “upscale” – a failure. (Just like Sears Canada’s botched attempt to change its clothing lines years ago – ticked off regular customers but didn’t attract many of the new ones it wanted.)

(Yes, some people like self-serve checkouts – IMO geeks who learn them – but I don’t see them useful for commodities like fresh produce.)

* Probably a point there for radio stations who want to copy the latest fad, but I doubt the mentality listens. (They don’t want to put the effort into thinking about essentials of retailing and evaluate changes against those unchanging principles.)
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