Archived Self-Checkout coming soon!!

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HardlinesFour

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About time, Target catches up with the times :p

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I do feel bad, I mean, I know this is just a excuse for them to give Cashiers less hours, but, d***it it's handy when you just need one or two things. Or when the Line at FA is a 20 people long and you just wanna pay for the frozen sandwich from the cooler..
 
Did the company that makes these have to weigh every item that Target sells?
 
I'm surprised...it's harder to pester guests about the REDCard if they don't go through a human cashier.

This. Unless they have a dozen annoying popups that piss them off until they click accept.

If they are express only then I don't mind it, but if it doesn't have an item restriction I could see these being a ridiculous pain in the ass.
 
Most people don't use self checkout when they have more than a few things. I think this really only replaces express lanes. Do people really get redcards on express lanes, anyway?

I wish my store had self checkout. It'd be so much easier to checkout with the lunchable or whatever I buy when I forget to bring lunch than to stand in a line and it takes away the mini-embarrassment I feel when I'm buying the cheapest lunch item I can find with ebt.
 
I am here because spot took our express lanes. This is a good thing, as A tm is there to help the guest.
 
Usually they'll have 1 TM overseeing 4 or more self checkouts. At Target it will probably be the GSA, mark my words.
 
Usually they'll have 1 TM overseeing 4 or more self checkouts. At Target it will probably be the GSA, mark my words.

Could you imagine a GSA trying to clear 2 Errors on Machines, while struggling with calls from other cashiers... What a headache.

You really need a dedicated TM to manage the self checkouts (a Service Desk TM would be ideal). Guests are stupid and need to be babysat. Also if there isn't someone there to fix it for them right away, they tend to spazz (from what I've observed while shopping lol).


EDIT: Signing people up for REDCard on express is a bad idea unless you have your GSTL ring up the people behind that person. If I was checking out at express and someone started signing up for a REDCard, I'd be pretty pissed too.
 
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Guys, I hate to say this, but let's not kid ourselves. Several posts above essentially are saying "Don't worry.... cashiers won't lose hours (or their job) because of this... because of X"

In my city, damn near every store *except* Target has self checkouts. That includes all general merch stores and grocery stores.

In those stores, this is the setup. 1 employee for every 4 to 8 self checkouts during busy hours. That employee is often times also pulling duty as the cart attendant or whatever that companies equal to a GSA/GSTL is. Furthermore, at these stores during slow hours (early mornings, late nights, etc) they don't even have anyone watching them. Just the front end manager who comes out occasionally when they get an alert that some kind of error happened.... which, from my own personal use and observation, is incredibly rare.

The fact is, these machines are pretty much problem free these days.... and when they do have a problem, it usually takes an employee literally about 5-10 seconds to resolve it. These machines have also been around for the past few years.... most people these days know how to use them. Yes, even grandma.

If you are a cashier and you hear that your store is getting these, you need to be the first one in line to transfer to another job in the store or cross train out of the front end ASAP. Yes, these machines will slash a substantial amount of hours for cashiers, and yes, it will reduce the number of cashiers your store needs to keep on the payroll to begin with.

Something else to keep in mind.... these machines are designed to replace cashiers. Each of these machines basically *is* a cashier. If you are at a store that usually has 1-4 cashiers scheduled at a time.... you are essentially no longer needed. The GSA/GSTL can handle any issues, and can easily call the salesfloor for backup if needed.

And before anyone says I am paranoid.... consider this last fact. As far as STL's/ETL's are concerned, payroll is priority number 1. They don't care about feel good arguments like "Oh, guests will miss talking to cashiers" or "oh guests will have to bag their own stuff". When your store is cut so slim on payroll flow can't even finish trucks, salesfloor has no one to work the floor, and the DTL is threatening leadership's jobs.... what is a smart STL/ETL going to say?

"Gee... the DTL is about to write me up for payroll. We don't have enough payroll as it is for the rest of the store. I basically have 4 robotic cashiers up front... Gosh, should I allocate 20 hours to human cashiers or send those hours to flow/salesfloor/pricing/plano and let the GSTL/GSA handle the self checkouts with no cashiers?"

It's the truth people.
 
SOT, I wish I could find something to quibble about in your post but I'm afraid it's pretty much bullet proof.
I try too hard to find the best side of things and by doing so usually shoot myself in the foot.
I'd like to say that in the long run people will just go online for their shopping or use Peapod if they get used to having to check out everything themselves but who knows.
 
There are barely any cashiers anyway. I'm always up for backup so idk what hours cashiers even have to hold onto. And I feel like all those "came in for one thing but I ended up with a full cart! Hahahahaha" people won't use self checkout. Self checkout is a pain in the ass when you have a lot unless it's a store that has a belt at their self checkout. one of my grocery stores does. We use it if there's a line at the regular lanes. I don't feel bad. They turn them off sometimes and they still have the same 3 cashiers but now one of em watches self checkout. When I'm shopping myself (without my mom) I'd never use self checkout unless I'm buying embarrassing personal junk or for lunch if we had them in the store. I'm lazy. I stood in line at home depot for two keys.
 
When the grocery store I worked at in college got these, 1/3rd of the cashiers were let go. I'm not pleased to see them, and I hope my store doesn't get them for a long time.
 
For me I would be worried about dishonest guests passing stuff to themselves. Example, scan one dvd, put 2 in bag.
 
For a while, that's why Walmart was backing off from them, because the shrinkage these things cause is amazing. These are the same guests that all need their hands held to print out a simple picture from the photo kiosks...so a lot of them will need help (the number of guests who don't understand the concept of a barcode astounds me). We generally don't have more than two cashiers at a time anymore, anyway....so I can't see how we'd cut back much more, though I'm sure Target will try. Hopefully this won't be coming to a store near me.
 
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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...)
 
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...)

Is that the phone app scan and pay set up?

Are these self checkouts in Canada or a recently opened US store?
 
RFID is like mastercard's paypass. A lot of Android phones have the technology to use it as well, although carriers have blocked Google Wallet use (they have a competing nfc payment service coming). In some countries, they're already using rfid/nfc to make payments, for passports, etc. In nyc, they use it for some of the public transportation passes.


A friend of mine from college used to use Ikea's self checkout to steal. Scan a bunch of little stuff, walk out with the little stuff and some furniture.
 
Honestly I think they would be helpful for back-ups and it would eliminate taking sales floor people off the floor. I do not know how many times we are taken from the floor call buttons are going off we are short handed needless to say those self-check outs would be so helpful! I have also been in situations on my break and all I have is a soda and a candy bar and food avenue is crowded so I have to use the front lanes they are busy so yes the self-checkouts would be helpful in those situations as well.
 
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