Self Checkouts - Supermarkets

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whenever i've been in tesco without my clubcard it just stops me buying loads of items...
same at morrisons though when I see "buy 2 for XX"

30% of the population is single they likely have no need for buy 2 offers... no other business would alienate 30% of their customer base
Surely you have your phone on you? Clubcard app on the phone and just scan at at the self checkout.

I much prefer self checkout, you don't have to go through the small talk with the random check out person who knowing everything you have bought, also the people in the queue behind you watching. It drives me bonkers.
 
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Amazon are working on completely automating supermarket checkout I believe which I suspect will then be rolled out across other supermarkets. That's the next step, completely automate it. Fill your basket/trolley and walk out of the shop and will be auto-billed via Debit/CC/Paypal etc
There are places like this in Singapore. Not surprising considering how tech and futuristic Singapore is.


 
Soldato
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Here here - only need to access the bank from home, if at all, these ideas of micromanaging budget are similar to managing calories or exercise routine, all of questionable merit.

I don't see Amazon go as a disruptor, in our cambridge JS handheld scanners don't seem to have even caught on, just the reserve of retiree generation who think it is some kind of status symbol to show their mastery of technology, but not genz/millenials.

If either tech sees the demise of the checkout , I think that will be to the detriment of shop employee job satisfaction, at least the Aldi employees get some interaction with the public at the till, which must be more fun than the mundane stock refilling, just like working from home in perpetuity would be soul destroying.
 
Caporegime
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Self checkouts are great, they allow you to make your own discounts ;)

LOL anecdotally I've noticed that in recent weeks in my local Tesco, it happened a couple of times in a row a week ago!

I suspect scan as you go provides further opportunities though I guess it has the spot checks and I suspect that they might need to be careful with how many features they make use of to trigger checks as there are some obvious ways the algorithm could learn to become "racist" etc..

The fully automated no scanning needed solutions seem to be the way forwards - the issue there is that you'll be able to easily exclude people, every town has a bunch of known smackheads/regular shop lifter types who are ridiculously prolific and end up getting banned from all the main stores in town (yet still come in). With this sort of tech where you need an account then it's pretty hard to steal to begin with and if you do manage it (perhaps not having sufficient credit then legging it out with a load of packs of meat regardless) then the company could simply ban your account from every store in the chain and the door just won't open for you.

Eventually, you could end up with a subset of the population who can't go to any Tesco or any Sainsburys etc.. in theory, a teenager who gets caught shoplifting once could be banned but I suspect they'll end up having some system where that sort of thing expires - the regular smackheads though could be stumped save for borrowed/stolen cards/phones. Might well get politicians putting limits on how stores can exclude people etc..

Posh shops could check credit rating, exclude people etc.. - exclusion already occurs in high-end fashion boutiques where you have to push a buzzer and be let in by an assistant (a friend of mine uses them and she's dragged me along before, some of it does seem a bit like that scene in the film Pretty Woman) I wouldn't be surprised at all if someone created an app that gives you some sort of membership of a bunch of shops/boutiques based on credit/wealth or social media presence.

Similarly, I wonder if places like Cornwall would have demand for special "locals only" apps for a network of local stores to facilitate discounts perhaps.

Lots of Black Mirror type potential for shops in the future.
 
Soldato
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JS handheld scanners don't seem to have even caught on

naive, but hadn't appreciated the side gig for scanners.

Billed as Covid-safe shopping to avoid the checkout, scanning your own groceries is adding an average 12 per cent to your supermarket spend, according to research from the University of Bath School of Management.

Studies of consumers found a surge on spending from between nine to 38 per cent, and it was shoppers with a firm budget plan that were behind the overspend.

Researchers found that using a handheld scanner gives people a sense of control and a more enjoyable shopping experience. They spend more time in the supermarket, look at a wider array of products and make 14 per cent more impulsive, unplanned purchases.

Essentially shoppers are spending more time touching products while they look for barcodes and that builds a greater sense of desire. People feel more impulsive and they start to enjoy their shopping trip and feel happier. Interestingly they also make healthier choices in what they put in their trolley, as their shopping trip becomes a more conscious process and 5 per cent more of their selected products are healthy,
 
Caporegime
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naive, but hadn't appreciated the side gig for scanners.
Man humans really ARE stupid then!

If you have a budget, and you are using a device that literally shows you how close you are to your budget, and you STILL over-spend, then there is no hope for you. :D
 
Soldato
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Surely you have your phone on you? Clubcard app on the phone and just scan at at the self checkout.
Even better is an apple watch with something like stocard installed, you can scan that rather than having to get your phone out.

 
Soldato
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Man humans really ARE stupid then!

If you have a budget, and you are using a device that literally shows you how close you are to your budget, and you STILL over-spend, then there is no hope for you. :D
Or use a calculator on phone. Even my first brick phone back in 1998/9 had a calculator on it.

There's nothing worse than to behind a customer - cashier scanned £60 of shopping and customer has only £40 cash on them. So spending time seeing the cashier voiding things off, customer removes from bag(s). Or the supervisor saves transaction for cashier to able to serve customers in queue.

The latest thing is now customers transfer funds from one account to the account attached to card at the till on banking app on phone. Due to the nature of supermarket buildings, wifi is hit and miss. Or ring partner "transfer £30 babe".

People need to know their PINs. Every so often, the bank requests the payment to go through chip n pin. The number of customers I have seen in my job and when shopping "I don't know what my PIN is". You are not forced to use the PIN randomly allocated by your bank. You can change it to whatever you want at any ATm - it used to be only your bank's ATM. Don't change it to 1234 or single number such as 2222. Chose something you remember - childhood phone number, eldest (grand)children's birthdays in month, parents' wedding anniversary etc.
Also please sign the back of your card as on very rare occasions it asks for a signature. This is an embarrassing situation which could have been saved by spending 1 second signing the signature strip.
 
Soldato
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What happens if the app for the scanning of items goes down???
I'm not sure what you mean? There is no app for scanning items? You just take something off the shelf and leave...
As I said earlier in the thread they are no where near ready for mass adoption. Shrinkage is off the scale for these stores and the setup costs are astronomical but you don't hear about that in the marketing blurb :p
That's not what I've been led to believe by someone setting it up in one of the major UK supermarkets. They're 99% accurate, which is much higher than self scanning options at the moment.
 
Soldato
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I'm not sure what you mean? There is no app for scanning items? You just take something off the shelf and leave...

That's not what I've been led to believe by someone setting it up in one of the major UK supermarkets. They're 99% accurate, which is much higher than self scanning options at the moment.
These unstaffed supermarkets I have seen clips - you scan a QR code on your phone to allow entry.
 
Soldato
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Oh okay, that's not what you asked though... you asked about scanning items.

I don't know what would happen if the app won't open. It's not really something you need to worry about though. It's probably much less likely to happen than tills going down in a supermarket...

If there was ever an issue, there might be a different way. You just need to verify it's you, so maybe they have a terminal for emergencies, you log in on that.
 
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