

Humans 1, Robots 0 - petethomas
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303492504579115310362925246.html

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epaulson
The killer is the machines insists on each item being bagged before moving on
to the next item. If they'd just check the weight at the end the time
difference wouldn't be that big of a deal.

I know the codes for most of the produce I buy, so that's usually not a
problem for me on the items where the sticker's missing. For the ones I don't
remember right away, the set of every item I've ever bought using a code is
pretty small, and since I'm using a loyalty card and the machine knows who I
am, it'd be nice if my frequent items were listed right at the top when I
needed to use a code.

What I really want is a self-checkout app. For the times when I'm just picking
up a handful of items, let me scan them as I'm going through the store. Again,
they know who I am through the loyalty card. If there's some easy and fast way
to weigh my bag on the way out or otherwise tell the store I'm done and
leaving, I'd imagine the loss prevention concerns are minor compared to the
repeat customer traffic it'd generate, as well as the ability to upsell me on
other items.

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jstedfast
Stop & Shop have an Android app (and an iOS app?) so you can use your phone as
a scanner.

The idea of putting your most common food items that require a code in a
toplevel "menu" would be great, though. Maybe you should suggest that to
someone (I just don't know who).

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waterside81
To me, self-checkouts are best as replacements for the express checkout lane.
You've got a few things in your hands, probably don't even need a basket or
cart, and just scan them through, and you're out. When doing a full shop, a
person is preferrable.

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meritt
PLEASE PLACE ITEM IN THE BAGGING AREA.

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jiggy2011
My experience is different, self checkout systems are improving all the time
as the technology gets better and the humans adjust to using them.

The advantage is cost, I don't know the price but I imagine you can get a lot
of self checkouts for the fully loaded cost of maintaining an around the clock
roster for human staffing.

One of my local stores replaced 3 human checkouts with 1 human checkout + 5
self service in roughly the same amount of space. As a result queuing times
have been reduced dramatically.

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6ren
I _far_ prefer self-checkout.

You can take coins, notes, and receipt separately (note have them all forced
into your hand, to be awkwardly separated later). Paying by card would avoid
this, but prefer to stay in touch with my expenditures.

I also find it kind of satisfying, like increasing skill at a game.

The only downside is that if you pause a moment, an over-eager attendant will
push in front of you and start doing it for you - like you're an incompetent
idiot and should be grateful for their "helpful" interference. I'm truly
astounded at this rudeness, but it's becoming less common. It doesn't happen
because they're busy and need you to hurry - it only happens when they've got
nothing to do.

BTW: not all self-checkouts are equal. My local (Australia) Woolworths
machines are frustrating, forcing you to click unnecessarily. The local Coles
are much better - if you mute the annoying voice instructions. I expect there
are still other versions elsewhere.

Also, article is correct that human checkout is faster - partly due to faster
machine calibration. For a big shop, it's probably preferable.

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knappador
It's a matter of time until RFID or other solutions are cost-effective enough
that we just roll our shopping carts through the door and our wipe our NFC
phones across a scanner. Faster still. NFC or some other technology as Apple
is probably sandbagging on NFC until they can figure out a way to offer an NFC
equivalent that requires lock-down opt-in by vendors and they charge for it.
Good luck with that.

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bcoates
NFC seems like a solution in search of a problem to me. What does it
accomplish that QR codes or any other optical scan technology doesn't?

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eurleif
The metro system in the DC area uses NFC (or something similar?) for its
reloadable fare cards. I can just tap my wallet on the scanner, without having
to take the card out. It's very convenient.

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deletes
I think it could be done , but the cost of a machine(+code, +research) would
greatly exceed any reasonable business plan, thus no one does it.

