Shoppers upset over lack of cashiers as self-checkout use soars | CBC News

Dont forget the fact most stores refuse to hire the staff needed to run the place smoothly. Why pay eight cashiers hourly wages when you can just have two cashiers?

I actually prefer self checkouts. It's a simple task and going grocery shopping is one of my moments of solitude in the week, I don't wanna talk to anyone that I don't have to.

I find cashier lines to be too slow because of the socialization so I always go to the self checkouts.

A lot of old ladies will go to cashiers and have ridiculous questions and requests and you're standing there with your 3 items dying inside.

Speaking as someone with a physical handicap, self-checkout can be very difficult.. especially with a larger amount of items or heavy things

Even opening finicky bags causes me a lot of frustration, because my dexterity is bad some days. Continuously bending down to lift, bag, & load stuff into the cart? Very very bad.

Local grocery stores in my area have been cutting back on cashiers, and it is really causing me issues.

I've seen old ladies struggling a lot, too! They probably have it much worse than I do! It's probably a thing they so they don't have to pay more workers, but those workers are sorely needed!

Do I get a discount for checking myself out? Unless it's 1-2 items and the normal line is full - it is cashier every time for me.

I love self checkout, at least when it's implemented well.

I'm a huge self checkout fan, but I think we need more perspective on how shitty ours is sometimes. Loblaws and all of them are way behind on how it should work. Look at the Netherlands and how it's often done there, you walk around with a scanner so you can scan as you go and quickly pay at the end.

Or even better, look at how Uniqlo is doing it. It's all RFID, so you just drop your basket on the checkout, and it scans it all for you basically instantly.

The problem isn't self checkout, it's that the grocery stores are using it to purely cut costs and don't actually care if it's better for the consumer in any way. But hey, at least it's easy to "accidentally" not scan something right now.

I like self-checkout especially when there's lot of people and you have 1 or 2 items, it's convenient, for me. But as written in the article, someone in need like this woman, needs a cashier lane. I'm not against self, but all stores should have at least one lane with cashier, always, for people in need.

This commercial was made at least 17 years ago. This is what we need. We have the technology. We just need the price to come down.

I don't appreciate stores trying to force me to do the cashier's job.

I also don't appreciate them trying to pull the rug out from under the economy. If there's one thing my country does not need, it's millions more homeless people.

I try to do self checkout whenever i can. Cashier is one of the most soul crushing jobs, no one needs to be dealing with food shoppers

If self check is too hard to use, just take the items for free

I got into a situation where a cashier came to debug an issue and she wasn't able to.

It just ended up with her letting me go with the item for free because ''she isn't paid enough to fix this shit''

I don't mind there being a self-checkout, but for the love of everything good in this world, these companies need to stop asking 21 questions when you use one! "Do you want to apply to a credit card?", "Do you want to donate?", "Did you want a receipt emailed?", "Did you want to fill out a survey?", "How many bags did you use?", etc.

And if it's a self-checkout at Walmart, expect to have 10 available, but only 2 working and three staff overlooking them...

I always use lines with cashiers because:

1. their jobs will evaporate if people don't use them

2. self checkout means that you're doing that job FOR FREE for the company

My insistence on paying cash for in-person purchases means that I can't—and won't—shop at a store that only offers self-checkouts. I haven't come across any yet in this neck of the woods that don't have at least one cashier, but if I did, chances are good that I'd put the goods down and walk out without buying.

I do understand, however, that most people aren't willing to make that level of sacrifice just to keep the credit card companies from tracking part of their purchase history.

Most self-checkouts range from mildly annoying to downright unusable. Except Home Depot. Home Depot self checkouts are wonderful.

I prefer self checkout if I have a few items but it can be a pain the more items you have. There isn't a lot of room in the bagging area and I have to fight with the machine freaking out over unexpected items in the bagging area 🙄

Most stores near me don't let you use the self checkout with more than a basket, but then they will not have anyone at any of the normal checkouts while having 3-4 employees just chilling "watching" the self checkouts.

I don't mind self-checkouts, though I will admit most of those systems are utter garbage. What I hate is a worker telling you that "hey the self-checkouts are open here". If I wanted to do self-checkout I wouldn't be waiting in that line. Had some even bait saying "i'll serve you here, but then they just lead you to self-checkout". Their managers should be fired.

If I have just a handful of items it's convenient. But one in 20 times I seem to find a way to screw it up - like trying to scan the loyalty card as an item...

Any more than 8 items I'd rather just use a cashier to scan the items for me. But places (like shoppers) don't make it easy at all.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

CBC News interviewed several people who said during recent visits to major retailers, they were frustrated to find cashiers weren't available — only self-checkout.

Valcov says he stopped shopping at his local Canadian Tire in June, following several store visits where only the self-checkouts were open and no staff members were available to help him.

VideoMining, a U.S. market research company, analyzed shoppers' checkout habits during 1.2 billion trips to more than 1,000 U.S. grocery stores in 2022.

Sharma says retailers like self-checkout because it reduces labour costs, and that customers are increasingly drawn to the machines to avoid long lines at the cash register.

Retailer Loblaw, which owns pharmacy chain Shoppers Drug Mart, says its policy is to offer customers both self-checkout and cashier options at all times.

In an email to CBC News, Loblaw offered Rayman and Winterburn an apology, and said that it has contacted their local stores to resolve the problem.

I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Maybe it's just me, but everytime I use a self checkout I end up doing something wrong and have to wait for an attendant to help me. I usually try to just skip the first few steps and just go right to the cashier.

The faces of the execs when 'shrinkage' goes up: :O

I never use self checkout, if lineups are too long i leave everything and go to another store.