People grumble about everything online and self-service checkout is a popular target. It's not uncommon to see a post that says some variation of “They should pay me if I'm supposed to do the cashier's job for them.”
Well, to borrow a phrase from Joni Mitchell (and Cinderella, for that matter), you don't know what you've got ‘til it's gone. Big box retailers like Walmart and Target are scaling back the use of self-serve checkouts for the same reason they installed ‘em in the first place: to save money.
Turns out, the relative chaos of the format has led to enough theft (and items people have “forgotten” to scan) to overcome whatever’s saved in the reduction of employee hours.
Based on recent visits, self-checkout is sometimes open at the Walmart on Trop and Ft. Apache. Sometimes it’s not, forcing me to wait in line to face a real-life human being while holding little more than a bag of dog food and a box of trash bags.
I returned a few days later for something I forgot: a small bottle of allergy medication (‘cause … well, you know). Despite a meager $6.98 price tag, the generic bottle of Loratadine was locked behind plexiglass with more expensive items. It took a few minutes for an employee to return with a key, remove the medicine, and put it in a smaller plexiglass case for me to carry around before getting in the dreaded “full-service” line, where the cashier seemed confused and had to fetch a manager to track down a tool to unlock the item.
I understand the concern over theft, but these megamarts have lost what made them most appealing in the first place: quick and easy convenience. It’s enough to make you shop elsewhere.
But it's too late. Try Googling “convenience store Las Vegas” and see if anything remotely resembling an independent mom-and-pop store shows up. We sacrificed them for the promise of discounts, speed, and ample parking. And just like mankind blowing up the Earth in “Planet of the Apes,” we did this to ourselves. “We finally did it!”
For now, I’ll enjoy self-checkout when and where I can. The joy of a kiosk quickly becoming available. The satisfaction of bagging things the way I like. Paying without a middle-man. Marching out while others linger in line.
It’s not so bad. You don’t even have to pay me 🤑
