[tbrownaw]

> 60 percent of respondents state that long wait times to check out are a major concern while shopping in a store. The report also revealed that 80 percent of retail executive respondents believe that smart checkout is one of the most important solutions to invest in over the next five years.

The local Kroger instances here have these handheld things you can use to scan items as you put them in your cart rather than at a checkout station.

I don't exactly see a large number of people using them. Like, I think I might have seen one, once?

[ALittleLight]

Walmart+ app allows you to scan items with your phone as you pick them up. Then, when you reach the self-checkout, you just scan a QR code and you are "checked out". I wish you didn't need to do the self-checkout thing, and could just finalize the transaction entirely from your phone, but other than that it is pretty good.

[judge2020]

When this was piloted years ago at Sam’s Club (subsidiary of Walmart Inc) it was possible, but only because their door team was able to scan it before you walked out.

[daveoc64]

This is extremely popular in the UK - all of the major supermarkets offer it.

Some of them also let you use your own smartphone to do the scanning.

It became more popular in the pandemic, as only interacting with your own device reduces the amount of contact you have with other people and things they have been touching.

[wenc]

> I don't exactly see a large number of people using them. Like, I think I might have seen one, once?

It's the wrong UX. I'm not sure I would scan my cart items -- that's making me do extra work.

[sdoering]

> 60 percent of respondents state that long wait times to check out are a major concern while shopping in a store.

There is an easy fix: hire people to ensure that wait time is minimal by opening as much checkout isles as possible. But in the economists wet dream the automated, humanless solution wins by being cheaper.

> The report also revealed that 80 percent of retail executive respondents believe that smart checkout is one of the most important solutions to invest in over the next five years.

Absolutely, because you have no need to pay additional squishy meat sacks when people/shoppers can do the work themselves with self checkout. Externalise the cost onto the customer.

[vladvasiliu]

> But in the economists wet dream the automated, humanless solution wins by being cheaper.

Because the consumers will, usually, choose to go to the cheaper store.

> Absolutely, because you have no need to pay additional squishy meat sacks when people/shoppers can do the work themselves with self checkout. Externalise the cost onto the customer.

As opposed to the "squishy meat"'s salary, which is paid by... whom?

Also, I'd say that the actual scanning is not the most "labor-intensive" / annoying part of the checkout process, but moving the products out of the basket, onto the cash register, back in the bag. And even with regular checkout, the customer does that. With self-checkout, you can actually do the scanning while moving the product from the basket to your bag, which means handling it only once.