Check Yourself
On a recent trip to Woollies, with a weekly shop-laden trolley, it seemed to take longer than usual to find the checkouts. I’m easily confused, though to be fair, eggs have been moved three times in the past few weeks. But where were the checkouts?
It wasn’t my imagination. The store had undergone a secret checkout expansion program which was tacked on to their recent refurb. There are now has just four (yes FOUR) staff assisted checkouts. And sixteen self-checks. I gloomily joined the long queues along with everyone else pushing their own full trolleys.
For most of us, grocery self-checking is either a helpful convenience or a malfunctioning irritant that takes jobs away from actual humans and puts the onus back on the shopper, without the reward of a pay packet.
We get it, of course. So much more efficient (read: cost effective) for there to only be four checkouts, i.e., four checkout staff – maximum. Spare a thought for the solitary Woollies worker in high vis, flat out shuttling up and down the expanded self-check area, rectifying unexplained items in the bagging area and confirming shoppers aren’t nicking things thanks to the eagle-eyed AI technology.
Of course, self-check is fab in many ways. If you’re only grabbing a few things and you don’t have time to queue there’s almost always one free, or at least a short wait.
But it’s oh so bad if you’re doing a big shop. You can’t use cash - many pensioners prefer to pay this way - or if you do it’s fiddly and awkward; you can’t take cash out; you can’t swap your SodaStream cannisters; you can’t do part card/part cash payments; there’s not enough physical space for your trolley, causing you to ram your neighbour; you can only scan one item at a time which takes forever to load them in and out. And since space is at a premium, there’s only room for one bag at a time.
Supermarkets are also laying themselves wide open to social media rants, which funnily enough side with the grumpy shopper rather than a seamless stress-free process. Stores directing staff to check receipts (because the AI tech has spotted your handbag in the trolley) are walking on thin ice. ‘You can either trust me to self-check, untrained, or put your own cashiers back to do their jobs… don’t audit me for a position you’ve stopped employing,’ tweeted one furious shopper.
Coles have a better idea. As well as a large self-check area they’ve got actual self-check checkouts, where you can unload all your goods onto the conveyor, scan and pack your bags arrayed along handy hooks, thereby not mixing the bleach with the fresh fish, or piling your tinned tomatoes on top of the grapes. Or there’s the Scan ‘n’ Go system currently operating in selected Woollies stores (not Lane Cove unfortunately). You scan the items using a special app and load them in the trolley, giving you a running tally and the ability to pay online at the end. Better still would be the UK based Aldi system, which automatically scans your items as you load them, monitoring your every move and billing you once you leave. There are sadly no plans to roll it out in Oz, but we’re more liable to forgive Aldi for an edgy shopping experience because of the cost savings.
With smartphone penetration at 90% in Australia, harnessing technology is definitely the way forward. But what about the way back? Those of us currently living on Planet Earth for whom this is not convenient? People who are vision impaired, or prefer using cash to manage their budget, or don’t have smart phones, or do have smart phones but don’t trust mobile banking, or are just not confident using the self-check? The new wave of technology is supposed to ‘open up options for shoppers, providing an additional option to checkout service, home delivery and direct to boot.’ But the reality is it’s leaving many (loyal, long term) shoppers behind.
I reckon there’s a place for going back to basics – having a human checking out your groceries, another bagging them and a third taking them to your car. It might be more expensive but it’s all down to consumer choice.