[baggachipz]

> Imagine if each grocery store self-checkout required a human staff member to scan items, re-arrange things, and confirm checkout.

They always have at least one person going between each self-checkout kiosk helping confused and upset customers. Meanwhile, 1 traditional checkout lane is open with a long line. Self checkout is great to use if you know how and have a handful of items, but it sucks with a full cart due to space constraints and the bag scales being finicky.

[reaperducer]

Meanwhile, 1 traditional checkout lane is open

I wish. The Wal-Mart near me no longer has staffed checkouts between 6am (opening time) and 8am. That's two hours in the morning of robots-only. I don't know about in the evenings.

traditional checkout lane is open with a long line.

I use the traditional check-out line whenever I can because where I live, the self-check line is almost always longer. It's not hard to keep an eye on the last person in the self-check line when you go to a real register to see which is faster.

I'm not a fireman on call. I'm OK spending an extra 45 seconds in a traditional line to keep a low-skilled human being employed.

[ryandrake]

I don't even think it's about going faster. In my experience, a traditional checkout staff is much faster than the self-check out. First of all, it's fantastically batched and pipelined. While the person in front of me is being checked out, I load all of my groceries onto the conveyer. Then, when it's my turn, the clerk does one motion over and over very quickly, and puts it on another conveyer that whisks it out of the way. When there's dedicated bagging staff, it's even more parallel.

Contrast that with self-checkout: There is no conveyer. You have to reach into your cart, grab one item, run it across the scanner, and place that item in a bag, then reach back over into the cart, grab one item, and so on. No pipelining at all.

I go the traditional staffed checkout route for the speed.

[jerlam]

This probably doesn't work for groceries, but Uniqlo (a clothing retailer) tags all their items with RFID. You put all your items in the "checkout box" at the same time and just pay, no scanning required.

Here's a video of it in use: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqPfYnVKwGI

[dwd]

Australia has had self-checkout in supermarkets and larger retailers for nearly 2 decades now.

Usually you will have a single staff member responsible for 4-10 checkouts to override the machine when your product doesn't register a weight, or you move items off the scale too quickly, and it wants them to check it.

It generally just works and is a lot quicker if you're just scanning a few items; surprised it hasn't really taken off in the US.

Most of the issues these days are when they introduce new features like less tolerance on the weight (sometimes adjusting already scanned items trips an error) or auto-scanning fruit and vegetables.

[wildzzz]

I think the major difference is whether or not the machine weighs the bagging area. When it's not weighing it, you can scan fast and any weirdness is ignored. If it does check the weight, you have to not only deal with wrong weights in the system but also moving anything around or very light items will trip the alert. Generally the nicer the neighborhood, the better chances you'll have finding a non-weighing self-checkout.

I'm not stupid, I know why these measures exist but there's likely a smarter way to let the small things go. Find a way to add percentages to the alerts so that it won't trigger if I rearrange the bags. Factor in the price of an item as well so that it's triggering on meat that doesn't weigh right versus a can of beans.

[Izkata]

Depends on the location. My grocery store has had self checkout for a decade or so and I'd say more than half of people use it.