Lydia DePillis at WonkBlog says that self-checkout at the supermarket is great.
I say “meh.” It is faster to use a real person.
Lost in the Supermarket
20 thoughts on “Lost in the Supermarket”
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Leave saving the world to the men? I don't think so.
Apt. 11d 
“I say “meh.” It is faster to use a real person.”
Oh man, wrong. But maybe you don’t have the self-service scanners, too. With the self-service scanners, I bring reusable bags (or more often use the plastic bags because I’m an idiot) and scan my items as I put them in the bags. It takes a way shorter time to check out.
I am a big believer in grocery store hacks. I even arrange my shopping list in the order that I walk around the store. I hate grocery shopping so much.
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Me too. I also hate grocery shopping so I organize. I know what items come from which store, arranged by aisle. I am in and out.
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Never get in a self-checkout line behind anybody over 50.
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I also avoid men over 60 in the airport security line-ups – ALWAYS with the forgotten spare change and keys.
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Gah, my husband is under 50 and he already does this.
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hey.
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Sorry. That may be specific to local conditions. They’ve only had them here a year or so.
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Interesting. They take them away here after people stop using them. I wonder if the volume of the shopping is the key? I don’t think any of our regular stores even have a self check out lane.
Or maybe our checkers are better trained? They are way faster than me.
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I prefer the self-scanners and self-checkout. The checkout clerks are not fast.
Do the express checkout lanes make things faster, overall? I think reserving one lane for small orders slows things down, because that cashier doesn’t do anything for larger orders.
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Not in my local supermarket, it ain’t faster to use a real person.
This was one of the case studies discussed by Tyler Cowen in “Average is Over.”
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FreshDirect is fastest of all, for NYC areas. Laura, doesn’t it extend to your neck of the woods as well?
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Don’t have the self checkouts in anything but the largest grocery stores here in Vancouver. Home Depot has ’em but they also have a permanent staff member right.there as there usually is a problem each.time.
Not so efficient.
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They’re great if you have two adults and you can bag your stuff as you like. They are terrible when you have a toddler who you have to keep track of and a baby who is desperately trying to reach anything outside of the cart…and only 2 of the 20 regular lanes are open. Both those lanes have lines 3 carts deep (usually older folks who would rather wait in line than try out the new technology), but the self checkout has several available spots.
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No self-checkout at our local stores but I’m a big fan of grocery store clerks. Most of them know their job and are on top of matters.
Until she went away to university, Eldest worked in our local supermarket at the checkouts. She had memorized all of the produce and bakery codes and was one of the fastest clerks in the weekly stats reports, all while maintaining a straight-A average. Still didn’t stop a dad one day from telling his tween to stay in school or “You’ll end up like this, stuck at the grocery store.”
The observation in the article you linked, that it’s because self-checkouts are underused that they’re faster, tells you a lot about the real problem!
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I’m wondering if grocery checkout lanes are another thing that’s terrible in the east coast, and maybe not for a completely unrelated reason (i.e. the jobs are no longer held by otherwise capable folks who find the job reasonable employment, either temporarily or for other reasons).
I cannot imagine how I’d be as fast as the folks at our check out lanes, since they would use the same equipment I would, but with more practice. So, the benefit has to be the lack of checkout lanes or an less than competant workforce.
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The benefit is to the store – they only need 1 person for several lanes (to monitor or enter the booze code etc.), instead of 1 per lane. I don’t think the store cares if they are faster or not.
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“I’m wondering if grocery checkout lanes are another thing that’s terrible in the east coast, and maybe not for a completely unrelated reason (i.e. the jobs are no longer held by otherwise capable folks who find the job reasonable employment, either temporarily or for other reasons).”
Very likely.
I remember how TERRIBLE the CVS checkers were in Washington DC. Likewise, the college maintenance office was terribly disorganized and needed repeated reminders to fix stuff, although the frontline maintenance people weren’t that bad. In the lower tier jobs in Washington DC, it’s often exactly how JFK described DC long ago–northern charm and southern efficiency.
One of the first things I noticed after we moved to Texas was how GOOD the college maintenance people were, compared to in DC (and they were demographically fairly similar people)–efficient, task oriented, respectful, etc. They didn’t even blink at putting in a new dishwasher or a new water heater. We had a brief blip of TERRIBLE moonlighting repair people when we rented from the Muppet Baby Landlords here last year, but now that we are homeowners and are paying reputable companies, we’re seeing competent, respectful, efficient tradespeople. The cleaning company that we use here also has what seem to be 100% native English-speaking crews (white, black and Hispanic), which you wouldn’t have seen in DC.
I think it’s easier to fill lower level jobs with higher quality people in lower cost-of-living areas. That probably has some relationship with the What’s-Wrong-With-Kansas stuff from Laura’s other post, although I’m not sure exactly how to phrase it. Maybe that life is easier and more equitable in lower cost of living areas and average people feel and are more prosperous than they would with the same jobs in coastal areas.
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Oh man, I am having a flashback about shopping at CVS in DC. Seriously, the worst service ever, anywhere. Not a problem in my rural area, where some Hy-vee employees have badges that note they’ve been there for 20+ years; that’s the lane you want to be in.
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“I think it’s easier to fill lower level jobs with higher quality people in lower cost-of-living areas. ”
We’re not really in a low cost area, but of course, nothing compares with NYC, and, we may still benefit from the grandfathering of having previously been a fairly low cost area.
But, the ease is simple economic math — if a salary pays 2X the cost of an apartment, it’s obviously going to be easier to place capable people in the position; you can live on that amount of money, without feeling constant deprivation (say, unlike the McDonald’s budget).
We also have unionized workforces in our supermarkets, mostly.
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Oregon has one of the highest minimum wages in the country and a relatively low cost of living, even in Portland, and my experience is that most people in low paying jobs are good at their jobs and generally have a good attitude. At the Safeway near my childhood home, I know many of the checkers by name. Employees at the local Oregon DMV are practically a delight to deal with, and same with the local post office. At the CVS by my apartment in Chicago, by contrast, I’m pretty sure all the employees are either high or in withdrawal. Usually shelves are empty, they’re out of any useful item, and if they do have it, there are stacks merchandise piled in front of it and it’s unaccessible. I once went there for lightbulbs, toilet paper, and bandaids, and came up empty. Only the pharmacists seem to not actively hate life. In fairness, I too am sapped of the will to live when I step foot in there, so having to spend 8-10 hours a day in there might make me turn to meth or crack as well.
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