Archived Self-Checkout coming soon!!

[stateoftarget11]

For me I would be worried about dishonest guests passing stuff to themselves. Example, scan one dvd, put 2 in bag.

I really don't see this being much of an issue.... if a guest is going to steal, the self checkout is not going to be a deal maker or breaker. If a guest is intent on stealing, they will find a way to do it regardless of if a store has self checkout or not....

 

[commiecorvus]

I know this is unlikely but can you imagine a future where all cashiers are outsourced to something like this?

http://www.dailyfinance.com/on/bank-of-america-atms-teller-assist/

 

[buliSBI]

I can't wait for the Self Service Express Lanes to start getting yelled at for not getting Green for Red Card Conversions.

 

[BullseyeSighting]

Screw self-checkouts. Come on Target, be more innovative than that and get some RFID action going on.

(can't wait till they come out with that everywhere...)

It's so expensive. Not even Walmart could do it. It requires large overhauls to inventory systems both from retailer and vendors.

 

[buliSBI]

I can see them being used during store hours when sales are not dramatic. I remember one of my stores didn't have cashiers on Sundays until 10am-11am. Guest service did all the returns and sales transactions. Then another store only had one cashier until 10-11am on Sundays. It usually made taking breaks a hassle because by the time you hit you break time. There would be made rushes, and you wouldn't be able to go.

It would be great to see salesfloor backup calls being stopped with the installation of the self check outs.

But honestly, I can see this being a test run at smaller stores. What else can we at Target cut. I know Cashiers...Why have cashier shifts when you can have just one GSA/GSTL manage 4 Self checkout registers.

 

[doxie71]

I would love to have one to two of these at my store. But back at the mall entrance so I don't have to struggle with a pile of stuff at the electronics boat. Not. Fun.

 

[go ahead]

United States as a whole is behind the times of what European and Asian countries have in terms of technology acceptance. Sure we have cool technology here but we don't accept newer payment methods and ways of doing things here very quickly as they do in Japan and some European nations.

 

[HardlinesFour]

United States as a whole is behind the times of what European and Asian countries have in terms of technology acceptance. Sure we have cool technology here but we don't accept newer payment methods and ways of doing things here very quickly as they do in Japan and some European nations.

Sad but Beyond True...

 

[mrknownothing]

Screw self-checkouts. Come on Target, be more innovative than that and get some RFID action going on.

(can't wait till they come out with that everywhere...)

My other job uses RFID technology instead of barcode reading. The RFID reader is a peripheral device just like a barcode scanner, but rather than having a laser read a barcode, the reader "senses" the information from a transponder placed close to it. The RFID readers take a few seconds to read the transponders, so one by one it's actually slower than scanning barcodes, but you can process multiple items at the same time. Example: If it were BTS season at Target, you would put, say, a stack of notebooks onto the reader. Instead of having to scan the notebooks one by one, the reader would detect the item IDs from all the notebooks at the same time.

Even if we did use a RFID-based system instead of scanning barcodes, you'd still have to key in PLUs for produce and watch out for items that require ID. Plus, every item would have to be packaged with a RFID transponder (if it was in/on the box, there would be a lot of empty packages), and EVERY. SINGLE. TRANSPONDER. would have to be encoded - a very time-consuming process.

 

[daemon]

mrgeorge, I believe since they require a credit card, it gives us their personal information should we discover through cameras that they did indeed steal.

 

[HardlinesFour]

mrgeorge, I believe since they require a credit card, it gives us their personal information should we discover through cameras that they did indeed steal.

One could just pay cash...

 

[HardlinesFour]

My other job uses RFID technology instead of barcode reading. The RFID reader is a peripheral device just like a barcode scanner, but rather than having a laser read a barcode, the reader "senses" the information from a transponder placed close to it. The RFID readers take a few seconds to read the transponders, so one by one it's actually slower than scanning barcodes, but you can process multiple items at the same time. Example: If it were BTS season at Target, you would put, say, a stack of notebooks onto the reader. Instead of having to scan the notebooks one by one, the reader would detect the item IDs from all the notebooks at the same time.

My library has 3M Self Checkout machines. You don't have to scan anything besides your card. Just place all the books on the top, and it scans them all at once It's so cool. I'm pretty sure it's a RFID System, but I'm not completely sure. Definitely a time saver.

 

[daemon]

mrgeorge, I believe since they require a credit card, it gives us their personal information should we discover through cameras that they did indeed steal.

One could just pay cash...

I dont see any way you can pay cash.

 

[FlowMonkey]

mrgeorge, I believe since they require a credit card, it gives us their personal information should we discover through cameras that they did indeed steal.

One could just pay cash...

I dont see any way you can pay cash.

To the bottom right of the scanner bed looks like a cash intake, and the center under the scanner bed looks like a coin return

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Hl4, any ideas on which spot had those lanes?

 

[insiteful1]

Screw self-checkouts. Come on Target, be more innovative than that and get some RFID action going on.

(can't wait till they come out with that everywhere...)

It's so expensive. Not even Walmart could do it. It requires large overhauls to inventory systems both from retailer and vendors.

Yet, JCP and Nordstrom have figured out how to do it. It's not the cost. It's Target's inability to incorporate REAL store level ideas at a corporate level. Instead we spend billions buying out a unionized company in Canada and introduce how to treat a guest the way a guest should be treated anyway (VIBE). itouch's start arriving in select stores next month, so it will be very interesting to see the functionality. I have a funny feeling that they will be no more than a device to run the Target app. That would be a huge fail.

Target should spend about a billion bones on a new IT team and create a network that actually works. Instead we have a network that is so broken, it is a running joke at the defcon hacking convention year after year. When the food BP's disappear from districts at the end of the year, do you think that payroll savings will remain in the district? Heck no. Canada has Target buried right now. Silly hinge heads.

 

[BullseyeSighting]

Screw self-checkouts. Come on Target, be more innovative than that and get some RFID action going on.

(can't wait till they come out with that everywhere...)

It's so expensive. Not even Walmart could do it. It requires large overhauls to inventory systems both from retailer and vendors.

Yet, JCP and Nordstrom have figured out how to do it. It's not the cost. It's Target's inability to incorporate REAL store level ideas at a corporate level. Instead we spend billions buying out a unionized company in Canada and introduce how to treat a guest the way a guest should be treated anyway (VIBE). itouch's start arriving in select stores next month, so it will be very interesting to see the functionality. I have a funny feeling that they will be no more than a device to run the Target app. That would be a huge fail.

Target should spend about a billion bones on a new IT team and create a network that actually works. Instead we have a network that is so broken, it is a running joke at the defcon hacking convention year after year. When the food BP's disappear from districts at the end of the year, do you think that payroll savings will remain in the district? Heck no. Canada has Target buried right now. Silly hinge heads.

No disrespect here, but go ahead and remind me how JCP is doing. I'd rather work at Target than be at JCP right now... They are struggling pretty bad because of their debt.

 

[BullseyeSighting]

Screw self-checkouts. Come on Target, be more innovative than that and get some RFID action going on.

(can't wait till they come out with that everywhere...)

It's so expensive. Not even Walmart could do it. It requires large overhauls to inventory systems both from retailer and vendors.

Yet, JCP and Nordstrom have figured out how to do it. It's not the cost. It's Target's inability to incorporate REAL store level ideas at a corporate level. Instead we spend billions buying out a unionized company in Canada and introduce how to treat a guest the way a guest should be treated anyway (VIBE). itouch's start arriving in select stores next month, so it will be very interesting to see the functionality. I have a funny feeling that they will be no more than a device to run the Target app. That would be a huge fail.

Target should spend about a billion bones on a new IT team and create a network that actually works. Instead we have a network that is so broken, it is a running joke at the defcon hacking convention year after year. When the food BP's disappear from districts at the end of the year, do you think that payroll savings will remain in the district? Heck no. Canada has Target buried right now. Silly hinge heads.

I would also like to point out that a large part of the expense is put on the vendors, requiring them to put RFID tags on all products. Which will make all items inflate in price. Target also buys from some surprisingly small companies, so requiring RFID might actually be a breaking point for some of them, making Target cheapen the products. For all the shit we give Target, I don't want it to be Wally World in terms of product quality. Target definitely needs to update its network, I just don't think RFID is cheap or easy enough yet.

 

[HardlinesFour]

Now, I had briefly heard things about Self Checkout, from fellow AP at other stores, but I had never seen one, until I was forwarded a picture from a friend.

I've been told, that at some of the SuperTarget's that this was tested at, Stores lost multiple lanes in Grocery & Blue Side. A TM was basically watching over 8 Machines at once, with there own special podium that allowed them to see all of the Cameras above the SC machines, along with a computer, that showed them running totals, what was being scanned, and some management features..

Some pilot stores, have little belts that you can place all of your grocery items on, and scan them, and bag them.. Kinda like the Walmart machines, we have here.

If you ask me. I think SC is a added headache for AP. For the most part, Cashiers are honest, and will scan everything properly for Guests. These Machines, have loopholes, that can be utilized accidentally and purposely by guests. Like, if I scan one item, and don't bag it ,then scan another, the machine will NOT scan the other item, and it will not trip the alarm when the Un-Scanned item is bagged. (The weight sensor is supposed to find it, but, it often times doesn't) or one can ring up meat as bananas, and the machine will not know the difference.

I think the majority of the Pilot stores are Regular GM stores, and only have 4 & 8 Lane Setups.

I do apologize, but I don't know a full list of stores that have these on hand..

 

[konk]

I saw those tape handles once, but haven't seen em since.

 

[sher]

Is that what those are, tape handles!? We have a bunch of em. I've never seen anyone use them, though.

Target's mobile apps seem to have great developer teams (the cartwheel and target apps are native on android now... not browser wrappers through most of the app). I feel like they should be fixing the tech problems we already have instead of adding new stuff. RFID inventory systems would probably be fab, especially for loss prevention and all that jazz (here's a vid on it, if anyone wants to see it in action start from 1:00 http://video.motorolasolutions.com/video.aspx/rfid-in-retail-the-challenge/795327376001) but I need to be able to view my schedule and post shifts for swap without going in on my day off. This is more important than any self-checkouts, etc. That's the only thing I really miss about Macy's. Every Sunday the next week's schedule came up and you could pick up extra shift, and put up shifts for swap. And it worked in every browser!

 

[mrknownothing]

My other job uses RFID technology instead of barcode reading. The RFID reader is a peripheral device just like a barcode scanner, but rather than having a laser read a barcode, the reader "senses" the information from a transponder placed close to it. The RFID readers take a few seconds to read the transponders, so one by one it's actually slower than scanning barcodes, but you can process multiple items at the same time. Example: If it were BTS season at Target, you would put, say, a stack of notebooks onto the reader. Instead of having to scan the notebooks one by one, the reader would detect the item IDs from all the notebooks at the same time.

My library has 3M Self Checkout machines. You don't have to scan anything besides your card. Just place all the books on the top, and it scans them all at once It's so cool. I'm pretty sure it's a RFID System, but I'm not completely sure. Definitely a time saver.

It's funny you should say that, because my other job is at a library. Our machines are just all-in-one computers with peripheral RFID readers running Envisionware software (they have a lot of neat concepts, check them out sometime).

Is that what those are, tape handles!? We have a bunch of em. I've never seen anyone use them, though.

What? We use them at my store all the time! They're handy for the big multi-packs of paper towels and toilet paper.

 

[ShopliftersNightmare]

As someone in AP, I don't want to see self checkouts. Yes, someone who is going to steal, will steal. But say you're just a few bucks shy of your purchase? Why not just push out your cart? Also, many shoplifters like to use our bags to blend in, this just gives them an easier access to that. Unfortunately, a lot of AP team members stop watching when someone gets to the lanes, these will cause more unnecessary shortage for stores. I'd say no until stores can get their shortage under control.

 

[forgetfulSDA]

As someone in AP, I don't want to see self checkouts. Yes, someone who is going to steal, will steal. But say you're just a few bucks shy of your purchase? Why not just push out your cart? Also, many shoplifters like to use our bags to blend in, this just gives them an easier access to that. Unfortunately, a lot of AP team members stop watching when someone gets to the lanes, these will cause more unnecessary shortage for stores. I'd say no until stores can get their shortage under control.

Maybe a nice access view monitor for the self checkout cameras could help cut down on shortage somewhat. Remind the more opportunists that they are on candid camera. It would still be a nightmare though.

 

[TeamRed]

I never see them being a problem at grocery stores or other stores you just need someone to watch the area at all times and never leave the area that is how it is handled at some grocery stores.