This article appears in Dec 6-12, 2007.
Scandalous
What is it with people who do their weekly grocery shopping and go through the SELF-SCAN with FULL CARTS? The self-scan is meant to be a quick alternative to standing in line for a cashier. I’m so sick of going to pick up lunch on my 30-minute lunch brea
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I’m not so sure that the self scan are express lines(15 items or less). What pisses me off is the arbitrary nature of the lines that form around these things. People pretty much make up their own rules.
Nothing worse than people who can’t understand what 1-10 items means in the express lane and the cashier not kicking them out of line as well. People, please open your wallets and purses before the cashier tells you the total. Don’t wait and then take 10 minutes to find your wallet/purse. You’re buying groceries, so get your $$ ready!
Don’t be surprised when you see as little “human” contact at the grocery store as you see at gas stations now. These devices are job robbers and some may think it’s not a big deal, but for a struggling student …..
i avoid them completely. I feel the same way as “bj”.
I totally agree with bj, every one of those machines means someone doesnt have a job
I’ll have to disagree. Automation is a better way of increasing efficiency. Maybe the cashiers can be trained to do something else instead of standing there all day. The store could expand other sections and have these people work there instead of boring cashier work? I’m all in favour of anything that speeds up my check out through the grocery store.
I’m responding to Mike. I signed up for this purpose alone! You obviously have never worked for a grocery store, or if you do, then you’re definitely a manager. Automation is BS, it DOES take away jobs, and these damn machines cause much more trouble than they’re worth. Lots of wasted time and effort. If more self checkouts replace checkers, then those employees get FIRED, not moved to other positions. There are other people already working in said positions, fearing loss of their jobs as well.
Tim, you have obviously never worked anywhere that required efficiency have you? If the automotive industry was like the grocery store, you’d never be able to afford a car. Other businesses would grind to a halt as well (moving vans, trucks, anything that came off an assembly line). Customers are not there to subsidize others (paying for jobs that aren’t required). Less manual labour would result in more savings, and hopefully lower prices at the checkout. Lower prices means more customers, which means more sales, which results in expansion. That leads to hiring of more staff. If the cashiers fear for their jobs, then they should ask management for transfers to new positions or training so they can take on other responsibilities. So if they ever laid off staff, the trained ones will be absorbed into other positions. The ones that had no motivation or will, well, they’ll have to be let go. There’s no such thing as job security so don’t act like everyone’s entitled to a job. You get what you earn.Don’t fear innovation (change). Fear being stagnant and inefficient. If you’ve travelled, you’ll know that all the major chains in the USA use the automated checkouts. These are multi billion dollar operations that dwarf their Canadian counterparts.
haha mike, thanks for the reply. actually i worked at a grocery store in the states for 4 years before moving up here. they DID have self checkouts at safeway for a bit, but moved away from that as it was “more trouble than it was worth.” anyways, the point here is that those things do take away jobs. you can’t just move to another position because other people have those jobs. and the lines suck … again, because those self checkout machines suck.
If you haven’t noticed, the self-scan checkouts at Superstore do not increase efficiency. I used to work at Sobeys and I could scan groceries there a whole lot faster than what I can at the self scan checkouts. The one person who oversees them is constantly running to help the people scanning their own groceries. It is a way to eliminate cashiers, hopefully they soon realize it doesn’t work as well as cashiers do!
If you haven’t noticed, the self-scan checkouts at Superstore do not increase efficiency. I used to work at Sobeys and I could scan groceries there a whole lot faster than what I can at the self scan checkouts. The one person who oversees them is constantly running to help the people scanning their own groceries. It is a way to eliminate cashiers, hopefully they soon realize it doesn’t work as well as cashiers do!