[syshum]

Most Self Service Kiosks in stores are not designed for User Experience or Efficiency in mind, that is way the fail

They are designed with Loss Prevention in mind, so they end up treating every customer that walks up to them as a criminal looking to steal something.

This is one of the reason I still use a human checker when I go to the grocery, it is far more efficient and takes less time than the Self Checkout.

Now if they ever perfect what Walmart has been working on, either the "Check out as you shop" system where you scan items with your smart phone as you shop, or the RFID based system where you push your entire cart into a large RFID reader and it scans everything in a matter of seconds... that might get me to use those systems

[ghshephard]

I guess it depends on where the Self Service Kiosks have been deployed - I can Scan, Bag, Pay, leave in < 60 seconds with 6 items in my basket. Honestly, the hardest part is opening a hole in top of the bag that I can put stuff in.

Concur - if I have a cart, probably would use a checkout person - but, when you get used to buying stuff from the store 1-2x a day, you rarely have a large load.

[syshum]

>- I can Scan, Bag, Pay, leave in < 60 seconds with 6 items in my basket.

Yea if you only have 6 items sure... I never go to the store when I am only buying 6 items.... If I only need 6 things it can wait until I need more

I go to the store 1 or 2 times a month, not everyday

[thenomad]

The UK has had the "check out as you shop" systems for a while in most major supermarkets. They work very well.

[aninhumer]

Indeed. When I was living near one, I could walk in, fill my own backpack with stuff, pay in a few seconds and walk out. Another advantage is that I could see that discounts had processed properly, instead of having to check the receipt.

But once I moved away, I started using home delivery and it's even better. My shopping now consists of ~15mins browsing a website, and ~15mins receiving and unpacking bags, and I only need to do it about once a fortnight.

[terryf]

Yes, 100% yes - I now only shop at the supermarket that gives you scanners. The system is genius, works like this:

  - swipe loyalty card, get a hand-held scanner
  - walk around the shop, scan items as you put them in your bag
  - when walking out, stick the scanner back into the holder
  - swipe your loyalty card, pay with card, leave

It's unbelievably convenient, mostly because you only have to put items in your bag once, when you're picking them up from the shelf, not twice when you have the usual self-serve kiosks.

Obviously it's trivial to steal items and they randomly sometimes check the bag contents on checkout, but this is extremely rare.

Basically, they're assuming their customers are not aholes. And it works beautifully.