Letter of the week, 10/8/07

[David]

Hated cashiers
Editor:
I want to thank Tom Coss of Meriden for his letter in Sunday's Record-Journal (10/7) because by not using the self-checkout lane there is more room for me. I really appreciate the self-checkout lane because they're fast, reliable and convenient. I hate to stand in line when I have two or three items and someone has to write a check for $5.98. I also hate the cashier that feels the need to have a conversation with me about the weather or the most inane topic. I want to make my purchase and go; that's the whole idea behind computers. They make our life easier and we can get things done with less wasted time and effort and move on with our lives.
Tom Coss should get with the 21st century — he wants low prices and a better selection, just like everyone else. Well, how does he propose to do it?
JOHN ANZIDEI, WALLINGFORD

[collie]

Too bad you can't just live with the computer; you seem like a real grouch, antisocial. And in regards to economics - failure to support workers and unions has, I suspect, made it easy for the outsourcing of American jobs and the closure of manusfacturing plants here. Hope you haven't been buying your children or grandchildren any of the recalled toys from China as you peruse the Walmarts, having made money your God and preferring the deadness of a computer as opposed to a conversation with another human.

[Fit 2 Print]

I've been noticing at the grocery store where I shop that they've increased the number of automated lines while decreasing the number of human cashiers for the other checkout lanes.
Although I can't prove it, it seems as if they're trying to "force" customers into using automated lanes by making the waiting lines for a human cashier so unbearably long that shoppers will use them only in desperation.
Although I've very adept at using the automated checkouts, EVERY SINGLE TIME I use them there's some error in processing which requires a human supervisor to straighten it out before check-out can be finalized (for example: I bought some loose garlic and a bunch of unpackaged parsnips -- no codes available for either and the machine simply disallowed the purchase. It took "forever" to get someone there to correct it -- tempers flared with people behind me, but only "silence" from the machine.)
Thanks, I PREFER human interaction!

[catnap]

I like this letter of the week idea...anyway

:( - I prefer a cashier that takes the time to make a friendly comment on the weather or whatnot. Try grocery shopping early in the morning - everybodies mood is much cheerier in the store then.

But this guy is total grouch - and I disagree with the self-checkout lanes - I do use them...but I feel as a customer I should get a discount for scanning, bagging and loading all my own groceries there-by saving the store dollars in labor. Speaking of which - What is the labor unions stand on those self-check out aisle, particularily at Stop and Shop? And I do fear if people keep using them the stores will simply replace the human factor with all self-check-out. They are handy if you just have a couple of items and need to fly out of the store - but people are using them with full loads of groceries.

[Fit 2 Print]

Catnap is on target. It's like being forced to use an ATM when you'd rather deal with a teller -- especially when you have lots of individual transactions and questions on your mind needing personal attention.

[eds]

For me, personally, I used to think that self check out lanes were the worst possible idea. I too felt that if I have to do the job of a cashier I should be paid for it or receive a discount for ringing my own items.

However, on a recent trip to the Big Blue home improvement center, there were four free self-checkouts and only 1 human checkout open. The human checkout was at least 6 deep and no one was using the self-checkouts. Not wanting to wait I reluctantly used the self checkout. I was out of there in less than a minute. I was very happy I did not have to wait very long. The time I saved was worth more money than any discount they could have given me.

Before you go off saying that's what's wrong with this world, everyone is in a rush, think about your own life first. I didn't make this situation and neither did you. We are all being forced to do more with less and in less time. Everyone is juggling multiple priorities. So why not save a little time if you can do it without running stop signs or speeding recklessly down residential streets?

Whether we like it or not, cashiers are going the way of the dinosaur. If you want to spend your time and money on a wasted effort of trying to save their jobs be my guest. When the big box stores simply eliminate cashiers outright, where will you get your supplies?

This has nothing to do with outsourcing. This has to do with automation. Better, faster, cheaper ways of doing the same thing. Like electricity, the car, or the Internet, or the telephone. These things really improve our lives. Like this electronic bulletin board. The reality is that automation creates other jobs like computer programmers, telephone repairmen, electricians, and mechanics.

Outsourcing is sending jobs out of the country to save money. That hurts this country because our intellectual capital is now in the hands of China, Brazil, India, and Russia. There is a net loss of jobs. With automation there is no net loss of jobs. Only repositioning and retraining of the same workforce. The types and kinds of skills always change and workers must keep up with that change.

American workers cannot compete with Habib or Tang who live in squalor making two cents an hour. You can't reposition or retrain yourself to live in a hut on the Ganges River. You have a mortgage to pay for.

[Fit 2 Print]

Perhaps shoppers should write and call managment of these stores to protest machines replacing people?

[eds]

We could try to kick it up a notch and just boycott the stores.

Don't shop where you feel that the store does not represent your values. If enough people do that they will change.

It is exactly that method that caused these automated checkouts to come into existence in the first place. People have become more price conscious because everyone is being squeezed tightly financially. The mom and pops are harder and harder to find. Some survive though because enough people value what they offer. The majority just go to the big box store for convenience price and perhaps some satisfaction.

I wouldn't worry too much about the cashier position. The skills required for cashiering involve counting, attention to detail, good demeanor, and some lifting. These skills can be summarized into "customer service" and I think those skills are fairly transferable to other similar positions serving customers.

When you look at it like customer service, the object is to help the customer from entry to the store to exiting the store. Its called the customer experience, and it involves entry, searching, product knowledge, pricing, checking out, loading up the car and leaving. Surely a cashier could be transferred to another position in the customer service experience.

[catnap]

I was at Stop and Shop one day last weekend...I had a few items...went over to the self-checkout - and then noticed about 4 employees standing around shooting the ****...I got out of the self-checkout and into a "personed" line.

ridiculous.

[eds]

catnap, I am confused.

Were the self check lines really long and the human check lines empty? Is that why the cashiers were standing around?

I use Peapod so I almost never have to go into the Stop and Pay anymore. Such a convenience and only $10 per order. Beats having to listen to screaming kids on line or wading through tons of other customers to get to the items I want.

As for the other stores with self-checks I think I have come to realization that for me its all about how to get out of the store fast. What ever line I can use to get out of there quickly is the line I use now.

[Scouter]

Thinking back before the self-checkout lines were available there were only a few registers open at the front of most stores. There were still lines and we would complain that they should hire another person and open another register so that we could save five minutes of waiting.

The self-checkout lines do not appear to be replacing human clerks. At the Stop & Shop off East Main Street most evenings there are four human staffed lanes open and four or five of the self check-out lanes open. At the self check-out lane there is usualy an employee there to correct the user errors that occur when checking out. In reality stores are keeping the same number of lanes open with human manpower and running more lanes that one person can supervise on their own.

I think there is just a perception of speed with self check out. At a Lowes or a Home Depot if you have a few items it's faster to check out in the self-check lanes. If you are at a grocery store and have a half a cart of random yet necessary food supplies I find that it takes MUCH longer for me to check out my groceries at a self check out lane.

Grocery self check out usualy involves scanning, move down the line and push the groceries out of the baggage area so that I can keep scanning, scan some more, load bags, scan some more, push groceries down, bag and then check out. With a human staffed check out line they scan for hours on end and are quick with the process and are also quick at bagging. If the lines at the grocery are not too long a human lane is the way to go. If there are long lines I'd rather do things myself and take a bit longer rather than wait in a human lane even though I know it takes more time... at least I am doing something.

So in the end the consumers are given another option at check out. Before the options were which line is longest, what clerk is scanning the fastest and what person infront of us in the line is going to hold up the flow. Now we have those same concerns but can also add the utilization of self checkout into the equation. More options / features make consumers happy.

[collie]

I don't trust management enough. Bet they wait a few years and the end result will eventually be us, the consumer, bagging and scanning our own groceries. I always pick a real cashier over the machine. Management will be surveying numbers and basing future decisions on those numbers.

[Fit 2 Print]

Silly question, maybe, but:
If you use the self-checkout, how does the machine 'know' if it's scanning an apple or an organ IF the little sticker on the fruit is absent on both pieces? I've noticed that when I buy loose produce, such as ONE potato or one yam, there are NO sticky tags on those pieces. So, how does the scanner determine what it's looking at and how much per pound it should be?

[eds]

It doesn't. It's the honor system. The bagging system uses the weight of each item that you place into the bag to determine if you put the correct items in the bag. But the type of fruit is not known. Just the weight.

If you have a can of beans, and you ring that can up, then you place it into the bag, the machine knows the weight of the can. So if you place two cans in the bag then machine knows you are cheating.

A lot of people "forget" to ring things up, or they accidentally drop something into the bags that are placed back into the cart after they are rung up. It works like this. There is no way to keep all the bags out of the cart until the ringing is done. So when you place the bag into your cart, the item in your hand "accidentally" falls into the bag while the bag is in your cart. Another scam is to tape or print on your computer a UPC Code from a product that is similar to the product being rung but for less money. I am told that works great at home improvement centers where the computer can't tell 3/4 AC ply from 1/2 CD ply. Neither can the cashier. Bar codes are not foolproof.

The cashier monitoring the station should notice some scams but when its busy that rarely happens. The cost of shrink though is estimated to be less than the cost of having a cashier ring up the groceries, so the store expects to loose some merchandise and still be ahead.