Same, self checkout is just 9 times out of 10 the most convenient option for people who don’t buy a cart full of stuff.
It’s not like stores are hiring people just to man the registers either… They hire X amount of people and if they need to open another register that’s someone who has to stop doing something else in the store, so self-checkout just lets them always have a bunch of registers open with only one employee overseeing them all and helping people out.
At least this is how it works in sweden, maybe in the US stores do it differently since they seem to have great difficulty making something as basic as scanning a barcode work.
In my experience with the US the strategy is to minimize cashiers, ideally have one person running a full service lane and managing the self checkouts between their customer line. Oh and they can handle returns and exchanges too. And online order pickup. Oh and also “frontline” customer complaints. $10 an hour should cover this.
The stocking crew is separate and it’s a 50/50 chance if they’re trained on registers.
Edit: this obviously depends on the store and staff size, but this seems to be the procedure for most big box retailers.
From what I’ve seen in stores and job applications, the checkout clerks do have a separate job position, but if needed other people will stop what they’re doing and help.
Most IT systems work as expected here, except sometimes it misses discounts even from their stupid apps (“digital coupons”) and mysteriously some stores like Walmart, who should be technologically flawless, end up charging more at the register than was listed in the aisles.
Same, self checkout is just 9 times out of 10 the most convenient option for people who don’t buy a cart full of stuff.
It’s not like stores are hiring people just to man the registers either… They hire X amount of people and if they need to open another register that’s someone who has to stop doing something else in the store, so self-checkout just lets them always have a bunch of registers open with only one employee overseeing them all and helping people out.
At least this is how it works in sweden, maybe in the US stores do it differently since they seem to have great difficulty making something as basic as scanning a barcode work.
In my experience with the US the strategy is to minimize cashiers, ideally have one person running a full service lane and managing the self checkouts between their customer line. Oh and they can handle returns and exchanges too. And online order pickup. Oh and also “frontline” customer complaints. $10 an hour should cover this.
The stocking crew is separate and it’s a 50/50 chance if they’re trained on registers.
Edit: this obviously depends on the store and staff size, but this seems to be the procedure for most big box retailers.
From what I’ve seen in stores and job applications, the checkout clerks do have a separate job position, but if needed other people will stop what they’re doing and help.
Most IT systems work as expected here, except sometimes it misses discounts even from their stupid apps (“digital coupons”) and mysteriously some stores like Walmart, who should be technologically flawless, end up charging more at the register than was listed in the aisles.