How do self checkouts at stores save money?

[paul cottingham]

Oh, I hate pumping gas, too.

[Jim Rimmer]

I like the self check outs and use them every chance I get. However, it's amazing how the retailers have "trained" the public. Forty years ago when you went into a grocery store you loaded your cart with goods, rolled it up to a cashier and they took it from your cart, rang it up, someone bagged and carried it to your car. First they put in the conveyors and trained customers to take the stuff out of the cart and put it on the conveyor. The the baggers disappeared and the cashier would have to stop checking people out and bag the stuff so the customer started helping with the bagging and there was no one to help carry to out to your car. Now they have us checking it out, too. Pretty good job of eliminating jobs and saving money. All they had to do was train us to do things they used to pay people to do for us.

[Larry Browning]

I remember years ago when even fast food restaurants cleared and cleaned the tables. When they started providing trash cans by the door with signs that read "Put Trash Here" or something similar, my father said they would never get people trained to do that.

[David Weaver]

I think labor laws have wiped out a lot of the stuff like young gas station attendants, table wipers and grocery store baggers.

[Brian Elfert]

I like the self check outs and use them every chance I get. However, it's amazing how the retailers have "trained" the public. Forty years ago when you went into a grocery store you loaded your cart with goods, rolled it up to a cashier and they took it from your cart, rang it up, someone bagged and carried it to your car. First they put in the conveyors and trained customers to take the stuff out of the cart and put it on the conveyor. The the baggers disappeared and the cashier would have to stop checking people out and bag the stuff so the customer started helping with the bagging and there was no one to help carry to out to your car. Now they have us checking it out, too. Pretty good job of eliminating jobs and saving money. All they had to do was train us to do things they used to pay people to do for us.

Forty years ago I was just a baby. I don't remember cashiers actually unloading carts, but I didn't start buying my own groceries until 1990 or so. Grocery items used to not have bar codes and it took even more cashiers to check people out.

I am happy that stores are saving money with fewer employees even if the prices don't go down. The extra profit they get from fewer employees means prices don't have to go up for them to make more money. I've also heard that self checkouts don't really save money as they are expensive to buy and require expensive repair calls.

[John Coloccia]

I like the self check outs and use them every chance I get. However, it's amazing how the retailers have "trained" the public. Forty years ago when you went into a grocery store you loaded your cart with goods, rolled it up to a cashier and they took it from your cart, rang it up, someone bagged and carried it to your car. First they put in the conveyors and trained customers to take the stuff out of the cart and put it on the conveyor. The the baggers disappeared and the cashier would have to stop checking people out and bag the stuff so the customer started helping with the bagging and there was no one to help carry to out to your car. Now they have us checking it out, too. Pretty good job of eliminating jobs and saving money. All they had to do was train us to do things they used to pay people to do for us.

The small market up the street from my house does all of that. No conveyor. You pull up the cart, they ring up and bag, and if you want they will help you to your car. They have a small army of youngsters in the evenings, and you never have a line that is more than one deep because as soon as a line fills up one of the kids runs over and practically begs to ring you up.

They are a little more expensive than the supermarket. Notice I said a LITTLE. This isn't a foo-foo, boutique market. You won't buy a 20 pack of paper towels there, but the food is excellent, everything is FRESH, much of it is locally grown when they can get it, the meat is far better than I can get at a supermarket...etc etc etc. I go there often for things I need on the way home. Maybe a piece of meat for dinner....some snacks....bread....beer...etc. I go to the supermarkets for toilet paper, frozen items, and other things I can get a bit cheaper.

Point is, though, that you CAN have a market like that, and you can do it without making everyone who shops there go broke. Ditto for Trader Joes. I don't have one that's convenient anymore...nearest if 30 minutes away....but I used to shop there all the time when I had one close.

[Anthony Diodati]

I like self check outs because I can bag the things the way I want to.
A lot of times they make me mad the way they bag things.

[Mike Henderson]

I think labor laws have wiped out a lot of the stuff like young gas station attendants, table wipers and grocery store baggers.

Just interested - what labor laws would wipe out those kinds of jobs? Minimum wage? Or some other laws?

My assumption has always been that the elimination of those jobs were simply to cut labor costs. If you can get the job done with less people, you'll make more money.

Mike

[Joe Angrisani]

A) Why are you being so condescending, Joe?.....
B) I think we all understand the way our investments works......
C) Also, they're not "public corporations". Some are, and some aren't. Many are privately owned, like the Big Y I mentioned. Wegmans is family owned. Publix is privately owned. In fact, quite a few markets are privately owned, and it may actually be that most markets are privately owned.....
D) I don't know where you're getting this "evil" stores thing. You're tilting at windmills. I think we're just having a conversation about self checkout lanes and you're trying to turn it into a defense of capitalism.....

Sorry John. I wasn't avoiding you. Just missed your response. I'll try to respond in order.

A) First of all, I wasn't trying to be condescending. My apologies if inflections are lost and it seems that way. T'was supposed to come across as dry humor.

B) But I FIRMLY believe we do NOT, as a society, understand our investments. It's arguably THE MOST IMPORTANT thing in our lives, especially in this age of providing for ourselves in retirement, and it slips by the wayside for most. People throw money into this mutual fund or that index fund, and have little to no idea what they are doing. Most will admit they don't like the subject and would rather "leave it up to someone else". Five hours a week following your favorite team or Fanasty Football card is fine (studly, no less), but five hours a week improving one's future is somehow a waste of time in our society. Makes me cringe.

C) Even the private corporations work like the public ones: Profit for shareholders. So the self-checkouts don't go in unless they make sense fiscally.

D) And the evil stores thing is taken from reading the comments from David D., Gary and Paul. And on other threads in the past. No tilting here, Cervantes. Just making reference to others' comments.

[Gary Hodgin]

I didn't mean to suggest that these stores are evil. My point was that if the stores want to encourage more people to use self-checkout (allegedly to reduce costs) they could provide a positive incentive, such as a discount that only applies to those using self-checkout. An overall reduction in prices due to lower labor costs benefits all customers but doesn't encourage customers to use self-checkout at least in terms of price differentials.

Some people may use self-checkout for other reasons but it seems a lot don't like it. I use it when cashier checkout lines are long relative to self-checkout, but if no one is in either line, I'll choose the cashier every time.

[Brian Elfert]

I've noticed that younger generations seem to have no issues using self checkouts while older generations have a devil of a time with them. Young generations have used computers their entire lives so they are used to dealing with computers.

I'm not convinced self checkouts really lower costs. Most grocery stores have four to six self checkouts manned by one cashier. These same grocery stores often had only one express lane open before self checkout. The cost to repair the new registers probably exceeds $100 an hour when they break. I think that self check attracts shoppers who like the ease of checkout. I will choose a grocery store with a self checkout over one without them.

[Chris Padilla]

Lowes, Home Depot, and Safeway (my local grocery) all have self-checkout and all of them work very well and I use them in most cases. Further, each bank of 4 has 1 employee most of the time. Often, there isn't anyone around. I like 'em! Just make sure your items have a bar code on them!!

[paul cottingham]

Evil stores? Did I say that and missed it? Was I asleep?

[Chris Padilla]

Oh, I hate pumping gas, too.

Oregon is your state! New Jersey was like that...not sure it that is still true.

[Joe Angrisani]

Evil stores? Did I say that and missed it? Was I asleep?

I (apparentlly mistakenly) took it from your "never been in a Walmart, never shop online" comment. The comment doesn't read as if you're a fan of the big stores, but I must have taken it incorrectly. Sorry.

Apologies to Gary, too. I clearly jumped the gun in reading into people's comments. But past threads repeatedly harp on the Walmarts and Home Depots and such, dispite the fact they exist because society has moved en masse to them. Guess I thought it was going down that road.