The 'robot' isn't the problem. This design is intentional and human made. Here in the Netherlands self checkout is the norm, even in very small grocery stores. However, it's super easy and not frustrating at all, because the stores TRUST their customers. The self checkout is super simple, you scan a product and put it on your bag, or backpack or whatever you have. No need to weigh the scanned products or anything. Nothing overcomplicated.

Now there are some control measures, but they are designed in a way to not be too intrusive or create unnecessary frustration: First, most places have a gate at the exit that only lets you leave by scamming your receipt (or if you go paperless, you scan your membership card on your phone). Also, some places do random inspection. But that's frustration free too - a worker comes up to you with a hand scanner, scans like four or five random items of yours and leaves. Boom, done.

This isn’t about the weight sensors, it’s using “computer vision” to detect you didn’t scan something and forces employees to get involved.

All the Walmarts I’ve been to have the bagging area weight sensors turned off. It seems the local grocery store finally turned theirs off because using a reusable bag used to set it off.

Honestly, those weight systems are so easily defeated, I don't even get the point. Anything that is measured by unit vs weight can easily be stolen.

I use reusable bags. I have to be very slow and deliberate getting the bag ready in the bagging area or it'll flag me.

Maybe it's just Colorado but the only store I've been to that had weight verification was a King Soopers (Kroger in other states)

Unless they're stealing guns or ammo.

I wouldn't say anything. Not because I care about "muh poor people" but because I actively mind my own business. I would behave the same way if I saw someone steal from a small business as well.

The employees can potentially get fired.

I feel like it depends. Stealing is morally wrong no matter what. But I'd probably act as if I saw nothing if someone just stole a sandwich or similar. I'm not sure I'll act the same if I see a teenage girl of a family that is obviously very well off steal things like makeup (that one literally bragged about it in front of her parents during a dinner where I was invited).

As long as it's just "shoplifting". Where I'm at, people will come in on a bike with a trash bag, load it up, roll out, and go to the next town over and sell the stuff on the street in the ghetto.

Since you kids are so sheltered you don't believe anything like this happens, here it is on video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=f8JLIWxxya4

Also https://www.ktvu.com/news/where-is-sfs-boosted-merchandise-being-fenced-police-say-check-your-local-flea-market

Tell your moms I said hi, suburb kids

This is the way.

Ew Gross. Way too many diseases.

The grocery store in my city became straight dystopian. It was always a sort of sketchy area but nothing that bad. After the pandemic, they added a second armed, vested private security in black, one-way turnstiles going in and out, increased cameras with screens on every aisle that showed you with the words "RECORDING IN PROGRESS". They even added locks to the frozen section, so you had to get an employee to help you buy ice cream. The police and security would tackle clearly unwell people who were shoplifting food, face pushed into the concrete type of thing.

I'm surprised it locked up like that. About 15 years ago I was a frequent customer in a store that had these and I never encountered any problem with it, nor did I hear of anyone else encountering a malfunction while using them.

That store implemented those locks because they were the closest supermarket to a college campus. Some students were taking the carts back to their dorms and chaining them up to a tree with bicycle chains. They would also use those carts to go shopping in a nearby supermarket of another store chain.

Different continent though, so it's probably not entirely the same technology. People like reinventing the wheel.

I always try and smash my cart into the gates extra hard every time I go through

Hackers messing with those anti-theft wheels: https://invidious.flokinet.to/watch?v=fBICDODmCPI

I've had too many incidents with spoiled or opened food to ever use curbside pickup.

Hostile to the point of attacking the employees?

I’m sorry but I don’t think that makes very much sense.

Retail theft is a real problem for a company’s bottom line. Enough so that Target is pulling out of San Francisco, IIRC. And self-checkout is one of the easiest ways to pull it off.

Why would a corporation frantically seeking quarter over quarter growth spend money to “prove a point” about control?

Those free plastic bags deteriorate into toxic materials that are presently all over the inside of your body. You had to wait in a slow line for people to bag the wrong things together and sometimes scan the same thing twice. Now I have my own canvas bags that last forever, I never scan my things twice, and my shit is bagged with the right things together based on where they go in my home.

I can’t remember the last time I let someone ring me up at Walmart. Self checkout was always faster because most of the attended registers were closed. Most of my adult life I’ve bagged myself and idk if I’d want to go back tbh. The tech is annoying to deal with though

If you are going to go on the day before, I'd recommend doing your shopping at 5:00am and be done by 06:00 am. That's when the day shift comes in. I wouldn't bring a cartful of groceries to the check stands before that time though, nite crew will be stressing out.

They even used to bring your groceries out to your car, put them in your trunk, and return the cart for you.

The Walmart here is pretty good, but this is a small city/large town where most of the local businesses have gone, so we have to rely on the Walmart a lot of the time. They keep it clean and well-stocked. They even usually have a couple of checkout lanes open.

But Walmarts are generally awful from what I understand.

Have they choked out all other options in the vicinity?

I give 60 seconds for someone to come fix the self checkout when it fucks up. If no one is available, I'm taking my shit and leaving. I tried to pay, fuck you I don't have time for this.

Companies only want to shift to self checkout because they think they'll make more money.

It's all about profit.

I was fooled, I thought it was going to be better for me. And it was for awhile, because I can check myself out faster than the average employee.

However, the average customer sucks at checking themselves out. So the line for self checkout sucks. Stores use scales to make sure you're scanning the right number of things, but that means that I have to put everything down on a tray, and then put it back in my cart after.

Worst of all, I check out so fast that I regularly get stopped because I guess I look like a thief. No, I didn't steal anything, I just don't want to waste any more of my precious time in this depressing fluorescent establishment.

This is the store policy making the experience suck.

Random checks at Kaufland (European supermarket chain) only require the employee to visually inspect your cart to see if you scanned everything and they only need to rescan like four items, to verify the employee actually took the time to check instead of just waving you through, so it's all very fast.

Also, all employees can clear restricted items, so that's fast too. My only gripe is that alcohol-free beer also triggers the age verification, but that's a minor issue.

I love the hand scanners since thanks to them wonky scales and weight limits are a thing of the past. They really make checkout faster, as long as the store isn't using them in a boneheaded way.

I ran 8 of the damn things a decade or so ago and I was damn fast. I feel really let down every time I check out with one both with how none of the problems have been resolved and also with how the operators seem to be sleeping with their eyes open.

Yeah in most places I've shopped they don't even have staff covering the self checkouts so they obviously don't care that much.

It really is stupid cause literally every business accepts NFC payments now. Even gas pumps. But not Walmart.

I left my cart in the checkout lane once because of this. I forgot my wallet, but had my phone with my wallet app. They are actively refusing to implement tap to pay in order to drive people to their app. Not happening.

They want you to use Walmart Pay in the Walmart app. That's the only contactless way you can pay there. It's not horrible but you need have an Internet connection to use it.

They were never intended to have 100% of the teller/check stands open.

It’s for surge and holidays, if you go in on Black Friday or other super busy times, you’ll see a vast majority opened.

It also makes counting easier, if 1 person uses a drawer and it’s off, it’s easier to hold a person accountable, rather than if 5 people used it

Abolish the minimum wage laws.

Computers are cheaper than employees, so this is where we have come.

Based on nothing but the people I have seen at Walmart, I would assume there are more people with a convicted criminal history shopping at Walmart than Target.

A key to success in business is knowing your customer base.

"Raise the price for everyone who doesn't use self-checkout? Sure thing!"

I need to know the reasoning the person who downvoted you uses...

You're stealing?

normal checkout, which had the problem that my steaks had already been scanned

Lol, that meat had a serial number.

Dang, from one 'local' establishment to the next.

And I bet you're paying more, too.

That has to be a location specific thing, because I've gone to dozens of different Krogers and I've never had that issue with the self checkouts. The worst that happens to me is the scales will get twitchy sometimes and think I doubled up on something, and won't let me continue scanning till an employee resets it. But even that's a pretty rare occurrence.

They also have random items that will ALLWAYS trigger the "You need to get an employee" alarm.

Like goddamn, I just want some fucking oatmilk.

I've only seen that pop up when I go to pay. Never when just scanning. What's weird is it's not consistent, even at the store I frequent. Sometimes I get it and sometimes I don't. Last time they had canned soup on sale I bought like 30 and didn't get any messages.

and finding another store that doesnt make you bend over backwards to pay for your shit.

Not so easy in a small town where the big box stores have killed local business.

The only real outcome from that is to make underpaid employees have to put all your shit back.

The store has chosen to save money by pushing work onto customers via a buggy robot overlord.

Employees are the only person you can complain to.

Just more billionaires making things shitty for everyone.

What regular checkout? Around here they are all closed down and only self checkout is available.

I would LOVE to go through a regular check out! If only we still actually had more than 2 open in a full supermarket. It's not about time taken, though, it's about the sheer level of inconvenience that it's become. It's an active pain in the ass to have to do the job that used to be done by employees, with shitty machines that yell at you every few minutes, while actively being recorded and treated like a criminal, and have to go through another checkpoint where they're going to once again actively treat you like a criminal and look through your receipt. Or I can spend like, 30 minutes in line at one of the two open cashiers.

I think a lot of it has to do with that last part of your comment. The amount of times I've gone to the grocery store to find there's no register open other than the self checks or that there's 1-2 open at a huge grocery store with a 6-8 people in line for them and no self check line... People are being forced into self checking when they don't want to. These people are obviously going to be more easily upset by issues with the self check machines. Walmart in my limited experience (try to never buy anything there if I can avoid it) is the worst offender I've seen.

I never hear the voices from the machines, because I always have my headphones on. Fuck hearing people in the shops.

I'm thankful my grocery stores have a mute button for self checkout. It makes for a much less stressful experience, I don't know why they have it narrate so much junk.

As for your issues with the inability to remove things, I do know the trick. (I can't speak for non-us self check out kiosks) As someone who worked as an attendant for the kiosks, the main cause of setting off the thing is picking your bag up before the scale has settled. The scale isn't just checking that the weight has increased by a certain amount, it's also waiting to make sure the weight is balanced. The issue with that, is the intuitive thing to do when your bag is full is immediately put it in your cart to make space. So the best thing to do is put your item in, wait a few seconds then you're set to move the bag. With the small things not registering, could be uncalibrated scales. I have never ran into the multiply issue, as the ones I've all been to have scan guns and you can just shoot the barcode a bunch.

No we just care less about theft. The German ones are build to maximace speed and therefore usability. This theoretically makes it rather easy to steal.

If this would become to much of a problem they would also reduce comfort to increase security

Same Czech Republic and Slovakia. All the stores have now majority of sell checkout registers. People prefer them. No issues with them.

There is usually one person assigned to 6-8 of these that is watching and making the corrections.

It cut the waiting time significantly.

Some machines use scales to measure the weight of items, scan one item, put it in the "bagging area" (scale), repeat. Many stores have disabled scales because they're buggy and don't catch thieves, who learn that to steal, don't put items on the scale. Now, stores have employees watch and offer "technical support". "Oh, ma'am, I think this item may have been missed. Let's check. Do you need help with how to scan items?" I don't try to steal, so don't find the machines to be a problem.

No, in Germany sellers truly want SCOs, while Wal-mart just doesn't want to pay employees.

I get this is was said playfully. However, you really should not. They always press charges and will advocate for jail time. In some states, that’s a month of jail over something as small as a candy bar.

In my nearest supermarket (europe) it is a pain. You go through self checkout cause it should be faster, but it works like shit, and you have to wait a lot until someone comes to fix the problem. We are civilized, though, we don't cause problems to the shopkeepers. Still a pain, though

I'm in europe and the issues I've had are getting an alert that an employee needs to come to check and sometimes that can take awhile.

One store also has a scanner so you self scan as you go BUT the paying part is at an actual employee instead of a machine. Every damn time they are alerted to randomly pick some items from your cart to check if any weren't scanned. And every damn time they pick the items at the bottom of my basket and damage stuff because of it. Or sometimes there is no one at the checkout so i stand there with my basket/cart and scanner like an idiot for 3-5 minutes for an employee to show up. That might not seem like a long time but it sure feels like it...

Kinda funny how much faster Europe has adopted retail tech lately. Last time I was there 7 years ago they were still mostly using cash for transactions, but now the cashiers get a little buttmad if I don't tap my phone to the scanner immediately. I hardly see anyone using phone payments in the US and I don't understand why it hasn't caught on. At least not where I live. It's about as fast and convenient as it gets.

Or maybe it's just because I'm in a major city right now and kit everywhere in Europe is like this.

Yes. The technology options for self checkout in the US are terrible, so the user experience is terrible. All the horror stories in this thread are true. The stores are terrified of theft but refuse to hire checkers. There's also way too many grocery stores, so there's little money to put into technology upgrades and appropriate levels of staffing. For example, I am less than 5 minutes drive from 9 grocery stores. Extend that to 10 minutes and I've got over 20. Silly.

Perhaps they should be paying the customer with savings since they're saving so much money not paying a full-time checkout attendant per register. The customer is now the employee.

I caught someone stealing a felony amount of alcohol by using their young children(<5) and they acted like I was the wrong one in the situation.

You got caught, accept the consequences of your actions. Nope, I am the bad guy because I recognozed someone who stole a felony amount of an unnecessary product the other week, watched them on the cameras, and called the police station next door to wait in the lot for them.

They also didn't show in court and got a warrant for it.

I don't understand that level of incredulous lack of accountability for your own actions.

I don't shoplift because I'm fairly fortunate to be able to work a job that pays a living wage. Yet every single time I use a self-checkout (not just at Walmart), it flags an employee for something; maybe I left a prescription in the cart (you have to pay for those in the pharmacy). Maybe I'm shopping with my wife and her purse is in the cart. Once it thought I was stealing my own kid.

If you don't trust me to do a thing, don't let me do a thing. It feels like harassment.

The key is to be subtle about it, understand the local laws and keep the thefts under the felony limit.