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r81984
Fair and Balanced
Premium Member
join:2001-11-14
Katy, TX

r81984 to Mele20

Premium Member

to Mele20

Re: [Rant] Stop and Shop

said by Mele20:

Our Wal-Mart does not have self check. They did several years ago and those were so hated by customers that they removed them.

I really find this hard to believe as self checkout are extra lines open in addition to the regular registers.
So only those who like them or with few items used them when it was quicker than the regular registers.
If you did not like them no one forced you to use them.

I guess you live in an area where walmart was always out of stock so people were using rain checks constantly then I guess I could see how the self checkouts could be slow, but usually they have 1 worker for several self checkouts to handle those kind of things.
said by Mele20:

We simply have about 20 checkout lanes and several of them are quick check lanes. "Quick check" does not mean lanes where folks can write checks to pay as you can do that in any lane in any store although not many do anymore. "Quick check" lanes are those that are "quick" to get through because they limit the number items to 10 or 5 maximum. But you can write a check in them if you want.

Normally people call those the "10 items or less" lane.
said by Mele20:

Self check at Safeway is always requiring intervention and there is only one clerk on it so it takes a lot longer than standing in the quick check lane (but in Safeway the quick check lanes are not open all hours as they are in other grocery stores). Besides, those self check lanes you can't use your rainchecks and I have NEVER shopped in Safeway where I did not have to get a bunch of rainchecks. You probably don't even know what a raincheck is....my mother had never heard of one but she lives on the Mainland. In Hawaii rainchecks are daily fact of life and everyone carries around a bunch of them for grocery stores, drugstores, target, etc.

Self check is not for small purchases as those are probably because you had to go back in the store a week, two weeks, three weeks, whatever later to get maybe one of your raincheck items and then go back the next day for another one. You get in the store and learn that the Thursday produce load was late to be delivered on the barge from Honolulu to Kona side of the island and so instead of being out in the store by 2PM (and you have to get there by 3PM otherwise it frequently be sold out) it won't be put out until about 8PM. So, you go back Friday afternoon and it is gone or you learn there it never arrived and you have to get a raincheck. Next produce load comes on Monday afternoon but when you get there Monday you learn the Big Island Safeways were shorted out because not enough came into Honolulu on the Friday before (barge takes three days from Honolulu) to Kona side and then a two hour drive to Hilo side. This is a regular weekly occurrence at Safeway for produce and any popular meat, bread, frozen food, etc that is on sale that week.

Then you want frozen petite peas that are on sale...well, there never are any when on sale so you get the raincheck. The Matson container load that has frozen food is unloaded on Friday nights and put out by Saturday afternoon so you have to go back again that Saturday just to get your frozen peas. So, lots of trips for one or two items and on rainchecks and you must stand in line for a cashier for those items. A lot of the rainchecks read something like Open Nature organic shoulder lamb chops at Safeway card club price of $5.99 per pound. So, Safeway gets some in finally...a month after you got the raincheck, you pick up a package at $7.99 per pound. You must take it to a cashier...not self check and the cashier has to spend time figuring out the difference between the current price and the raincheck price which is complicated by the fact it is a per pound price not per item price and then the computer won't accept it and a manager has to be called. This happens VERY FREQUENTLY in Safeway and the other stores also but they don't have a charade of having self check lanes that are worthless in Hawaii with all the rainchecks and couple that with buying healthy which means many items (if not all) will need weighing so no courtesy desk checkout...those self check lanes are dumb ...at least in Hawaii.

I used to work at walgreens. I gave out rainchecks all the time on coupon items when we were out of stock.
I think everyone knows what a raincheck is.

I never had a problem at self checkout at safeway.
Sometimes even if i had a cart with like 10 bags worth, I will use self checkout as all 4 are empty and long lines at the registers. I can scan items faster than any of the cashiers working there. Also, I never had a error on their registers yet that required an intervention from an employee to fix, even with so many items and key in/weigh items.

As for self checkouts, in your situation it does not seem to be a self checkout problem. It is a Hawaii/stores never have enough stock problem.
scross
join:2002-09-13
USA

scross

Member

Our local WalMart's had self-checkouts for a while (maybe a year), but then they disappeared. At first these were supposedly going to be replaced with a "new and improved" system, but when these never turned up I asked around and was told they wouldn't be coming, because "nobody liked" the self-check. As far remember the original worked as well as any other self-check, which is to say that it wasn't without its problems, but newer systems have tended to be less finicky.

My local Autozone briefly had a self-check kiosk. It supposedly took cash but that never worked, although the credit card scanner did. I got to use it maybe once before they took it away.

The key to beating the lines at my local Walgreen's is to checkout at the makeup counter (never busy); the second choice is the photo counter (rarely busy). I assume you could checkout at the pharmacy in the back, too. But the lines at the two cashiers are rarely long anyway, and the cashiers who work them tend to hustle.

r81984
Fair and Balanced
Premium Member
join:2001-11-14
Katy, TX

r81984

Premium Member

When I was living in Canada, their walmart has a one line for 4 register system.
You stood in the one line and the register number would flash on one of the 4 registers when they were ready for the next person. It was pretty damn efficient.
They still had normal register lines also.

The best thing for a company with the self checkouts is you could have 1 or 1/2 a person tied to multiple registers.
You get more throughput with less employee costs.
I remember when self checkout first came out at walmart and they always had errors. It seems they made their systems less sensitive over the years, but I no longer shop at walmart as their prices are mostly higher than other places except on a few key items.

As for the safeway self checkouts I use them all the time and never had a glitch or employee intervention yet. So their brand of self check out system works.

Subaru
1-3-2-4
Premium Member
join:2001-05-31
Greenwich, CT

Subaru to scross

Premium Member

to scross
said by scross:

My local Autozone briefly had a self-check kiosk. It supposedly took cash but that never worked, although the credit card scanner did. I got to use it maybe once before they took it away.

Oh shoot don't get me started with Autozone.. the one here in Stamford, CT is piss poor.. I've seen countless people with just one item just walk out because you stand in line for like 5-8 min because you never have anyone working the register they are all doing the part look up thing.

Advance is not that much better.

I know a lot would love a self-check out.. me included.
scross
join:2002-09-13
USA

scross

Member

said by Subaru:

said by scross:

My local Autozone briefly had a self-check kiosk. It supposedly took cash but that never worked, although the credit card scanner did. I got to use it maybe once before they took it away.

Oh shoot don't get me started with Autozone.. the one here in Stamford, CT is piss poor.. I've seen countless people with just one item just walk out because you stand in line for like 5-8 min because you never have anyone working the register they are all doing the part look up thing.

Advance is not that much better.

I know a lot would love a self-check out.. me included.

Yes, they can be problematic. Somewhere on here I have a rant about some of my last purchases there, which took something like 20 minutes to complete, when it should have taken only a couple. But ... I have two AZs within spitting distance of me, their only competitor nearest to me closed up shop, and their HQ is local and I know people who work there, plus I occasionally go there for user group meetings and such. So far I've held my tongue and given them the benefit of the doubt (they have been and continue to be a well-run organization, and quite profitable, too), but if this crap keeps up then I may have to give them a piece of my mind!

On the walking out thing: Not too long ago I was in an auto parts store (not AZ but a competitor, whose name I won't mention) and the line was long and moving very slowly, so one of the customers got fed up and just walked out - with the merchandise! He set off the shoplifting alarms and everything, but most of the employees pretended not to notice, and the one who did just said something like "Well, there goes another one!" Now I was shocked that the customer did this, and shocked at the employees' reaction (or lack thereof), but I guess I shouldn't have been because just a minute or so earlier someone else had done pretty much the same thing (they hadn't bothered waiting in line, though), and the employees had reacted pretty much the same way. Except for that one employee, who'd muttered a racial slur. Needless to say I won't be going back there anytime soon; needless to say they probably won't be in business too much longer; needless to say that part of town isn't what it used to be and is going downhill fast!

Subaru
1-3-2-4
Premium Member
join:2001-05-31
Greenwich, CT

Subaru

Premium Member

Wow the Autozone in both locations (16 mi) from another operate the same slow way.. you have a bunch of joking around or a super long wait.. I would love to attend one of those meetings at the HQ..

And wow so that store just allowed them to walk right out.. that's crazy that's a hint that people wont deal with slow service
scross
join:2002-09-13
USA

scross

Member

Well, at my AutoZones the checkout is usually pretty fast. What takes time (and took a lot of time in my case) was their having to deal with a "new and improved" but very finicky computer system (I have much to say on that matter), plus their not knowing how to handle special orders, plus their not being able to find their own merchandise. In one case they searched and searched but never found what I needed (a small item), which the computer said was in stock, so their inventory count may have been screwed up. My special order item was expensive but very large and hard to miss, and after repeated visits from me and much searching, someone finally found it sitting in a trash bin or something! So either somebody got very sloppy and careless, or maybe somebody was trying to sneak it out the back door, neither of which would surprise me much these days.

On those walkouts: Most of the employees were white and/or older and/or female and/or small in stature, while many of the customers were none of these things. The two guys who I saw walk out with merchandise were both types that you wouldn't want to tangle with unless you had plenty of backup, so I can see their not wanting to confront them directly, but to just ignore them or shrug it off did surprise me. One of the employees (the one who commented on it) did take a few steps towards the door after the second guy walked out, but then he stopped himself and turned back. At many stores these days, following a shoplifter out like that will get you fired, unless maybe loss prevention is your main job.
Mele20
Premium Member
join:2001-06-05
Hilo, HI

Mele20 to r81984

Premium Member

to r81984
said by r81984:

I really find this hard to believe as self checkout are extra lines open in addition to the regular registers.
So only those who like them or with few items used them when it was quicker than the regular registers.
If you did not like them no one forced you to use them.

I guess you live in an area where walmart was always out of stock so people were using rain checks constantly then I guess I could see how the self checkouts could be slow, but usually they have 1 worker for several self checkouts to handle those kind of things.

Normally people call those the "10 items or less" lane.

I used to work at walgreens. I gave out rainchecks all the time on coupon items when we were out of stock.
I think everyone knows what a raincheck is.

I never had a problem at self checkout at safeway.
Sometimes even if i had a cart with like 10 bags worth, I will use self checkout as all 4 are empty and long lines at the registers. I can scan items faster than any of the cashiers working there. Also, I never had a error on their registers yet that required an intervention from an employee to fix, even with so many items and key in/weigh items.

As for self checkouts, in your situation it does not seem to be a self checkout problem. It is a Hawaii/stores never have enough stock problem.

Wal-Mart tried to force people to use them just as K-Mart did on the other side of the island. They went over ok at K-Mart but not at Wal-Mart.

You live in Hawaii, you acquire the local lingo usually..."10 items or less lane" is a mouthful..."quick check lane" is easier to say. However, I still call the thing I push around and put items in a "cart" but here it called a "wagon" never a cart.

Yes, the stores are perpetually understocked or if fully stocked understocked quickly again. It is difficult to predict, even for sale items, how much the store should order and since most things come via ship container (three weeks) to Oahu and then to the neighbor islands via barge that takes several more days...it is a frustrating situation for both customer and store. I went in Safeway about 3:30PM today to get Rainer cherries on sale and black plums on sale. They were out of both so I had to get rainchecks. Yet, this Safeway when it opened a little over a year ago was the flagship store for the entire Safeway chain. The Safeway CEO at the grand opening ceremonies said that the computerized ordering and tracking system (as well as the lighting system) was state of the art and superior to all other Safeway stores anywhere and that the Hilo store would no longer experience so many and so often out of stock problems. Hmpf. The store is absolutely gorgeous and absolutely gigantic and the lighting is very sophisticatedbut I don't like it because I don't like shopping in a cave, but others do, but we still have the terrible and very frequent out of stock problems for all catergories of items...but frozen, meats and produce are the worst. Plus, they have no way to know what exactly is on the next expected container load so they can't give any idea when the item will be stocked again (all the stores are like this).

I also returned some organic yogurt (big container) that I opened earlier today to find was very thin and runny. I had to stand at the courtesy desk for almost 20 minutes. The clerk was trying to figure out how to let the man she was helping when I walked up return something that he had two coupons he used for and he needed the return on his electronic food stamps card. It took three managers to finally figure out how to get this sort of unusual (because of the coupons I think) return processed correctly. There are two other terminals at the courtesy desk but no one at them. Finally, someone walked to the second terminal and asked me if I needed help. I explained and he looked at the yogurt and said "ugh...I see what you mean". Then instead of processing my return...he points at the clerk with the managers hovering about still trying to get the man's return processed and said "she'll help you" and he walked off! I had to wait another five minutes before she was able to help me.

I would not have had to wait anywhere near that long in other stores. Safeway courtesy desk is mediocre at best. But the store is gorgeous and there's a Starbucks in it and free wi-fi so it attracts crowds.
scross
join:2002-09-13
USA

scross

Member

I get the "we don't know when the next shipment is coming in, or even what will be on the truck" a lot here on the mainland, too. From an information perspective, in this day and age I simply find this to be unconscionable, but there very well may be valid business reasons for keeping people in the dark (potential theft issues and so on) - even their own employees.