New Self Check Out Register = 1 Less Cashier

I LOVE THE SELF-CHECK OUT!!! I avoid the long lines and can pack my groceries the way I want. Frozen foods all together and bread and eggs in a separate bag, cans in another. It's what I want when I want it! I love self check out!

I know that many jobs are cut out because they have self check-out registers but they do have a position for someone that stands in front of the machines and watches a computer screen. Anytime an error occurs with the system or it malfunctions, they are there to help solve the problem. So a job still does exist for the self check out area.

I agree that it is a way of eliminating people from job and cutting costs. Too many companies are doing this now. If they keep doing this the whole economy will collapse because there will be no one earning money to buy their products. It is a worry. They are talking about doing it in my country as well. It does seem odd though, apart from eliminating jobs how are they going to be sure that people will not just walk through and not pay? If there is no one operating the register and no one watching it then how do they know you will pay. How can they know you will pay the right amount? After all only the cashier knows how much cash is in her drawer. I suppose they would have to make it credit only or something. hmmm now couldn't people ruin this new system by getting away with goods and not paying, or not paying the full amount. Would that not make them re-employ cashiers?

yep thats exactly what they are there for.. technology makes things easier but with it takes the place of people and personal contact.. of course everywhere right now is trying to find new places here and there to cut back and still function.. i heard walmart is trying to make its employees majority part time.. how can it function well when no one is there all the time???

Definitely have. I am just amazed that technology is going to take over all of our positions eventually and we are letting it happen. The economy is rough enough and we don't need to make it worse by eliminating jobs. I don't like it and always refuse to give in to it. I have very limited technology in my house. I like the old fashioned things and many of the items in my house are from the 50's and before. That is the only thing I appreciate, hard work.

I wish to God we would have them at Walmart. They keep taking all the sales people off the floor to run registers when we get busy instead of schedualing more cashiers. I certainly don't want to replace workers, but if they are going to have the workers anyway, then they might as well put in self service registers so that us sales people can be on the floor to help customers and take care of our areas so they aren't looking like a tornado flew through it.

We have only one self=checking register in our Superstore and none at Walmart, but we have numbers flashing and the checkers arranged so that we all get out faster. And I do think every self=checking is a way to eliminate a cashier. Oh and you do not need to get self-checking registers to eliminate cashiers, just eliminate the sections and put less cashiers on. I do not know what they did at Walmart, but with arranging the cashiers, there are more working instead of less. I do not know how it is in the States though.

I work late and make use of a couple of the nearby town's supermarkets offering 24 hour opening when I get finished..It's usually a day off next day,so I can take my time exploring the place for offers,and it doesn't resemble a trolley demolition derby with the competition coming around the corners at You! Shopping on my own for a bagful of groceries,I don't mind using the self check out-there may be ONE checkout operator around (this is after 11pm,usually),as most staff are restocking shelves..The store I go to most often has the same Guy looking after the self checkouts nearly every time I've been in there-He's very helpful! If I was shopping for a family sized load,I do think I'd prefer having a checkout operator there,though..unloading and reloading a trolley load is a pain!

relundad yes its possible given how greedy some companies are that having a self check aisle would eliminate a worker. I really dislike the things myself and relish the human touch. with so much electronic garbage now days its hard to' talk to a human on the phone anymore so dont take my grocery store checker away from me. Humans answer our questions much better than stupid robotic devices on the phones. So lets hear it for our grocery checkers may they survive/

another way to look at this is that with having less human checkers, price of a lot of things can come down, requiring fewer working hours per family just to get by...allowing more hours to spend at home with our families...maybe families can afford soon to have a stay at home parent once again... i do understand the feelings about loss of worker positions - i personally have my own business, and would dearly LOVE to get to a point where i can afford at least one employee - i would no longer have to work 12 hours per day, and i would be helping one more person get ahead...

I have often thought about this regarding self check out. This is the same affect of ATMs. Ever notice how few checkers there are at the bank? First they touted it as the most convenient thing. Said that it would keep costs down. Now they charge you for using the ATM not in your network. Half the time, the self check out is down in the grocery store I usually go to. Even so, they only have one or two lines open.

I was reading this and thought to myself that when our store added the self-checks, they didn't take away any of the regular checkstands at all, they just added the self-checks at the end of the regular check-outs. So in reality, at our store, two new jobs were CREATED. We started out with maybe 8 checkstands, and now we have 18 regular, good old-fashioned check-outs, with real people at them, and 10 self-checks. So the truth of the matter, is that we created several new positions, not the reverse. You are not gypping any of us out of a job by using the self-checks. I LOVE the self-checks, and use them all the time, because I can bag my groceries exactly how I want them, and go the speed I want to go. I agree that lots of technology is pushing people out of work, but even the self-checks have to be manned by personnel. Otherwise dishonest customers use that as an opportunity to steal the store blind. So none of us is put out of work. As I mentioned before, if anything, the new self-checks have created jobs. I was the recipient of one of those positions.

We only have one grocery store in this area that has them. The again the have the cart wheel locking system for when you try to remove a cart from their property. This is one of the more expensive grocery stores in our area so its on the auto ignore list for us. I guess it would remove tellers but this store has at least 20 checkouts in addition to the self checkouts. What I find much more disturbing is the cattle herding stations at WalMart. You know the ones with the PA Speaker cranked to 11 saying "Please go to checkout X" every time another customer is served. You can here this message blaring throughout most of the store. Maybe its just in our area as we seem to be a testbed for this kind of technology.

Its true that businesses will do anything to save a buck. They don't care if they're putting people out of work. It is terrible. However, the self check outs were already put in and him not using them isn't going to make Krogers get rid of them.

How wonderful that someone cares and will stand up for the principle. I was working as a cashier when this concept was first introduced. My first question was "What will happen to the operators?" The answer was that they would be absorbed into the company. This is bs as the cashiers are at the very bottom of the totem pole. Like self serve fuel eliminated driveway attendants and ATMs eliminated bank tellers so self serve checkouts will eliminate cashiers. We are being replaced by machines as was foretold in the sixties (or thereabouts). Small business is being eaten up by huge corporations and little by little the machines will take over...wages are the biggest expense a company has.

Yes I have, some want everything done so quickly and with machinery that they hardly give a thought about jobs being loss and food being taken out of someone else mouth. While I do understand these conveinces are suppose to speed up the process and save money, rightly as your Dad is saying, 2 was more than enough, now having 8 a lot of people are left without a job because a machine took over.

There's a chain of grocery stores in my neighborhood that has these self-checkouts. From the first day I found out about them, I have refused to shop there. The economy destroys lives every day, as more and more people lose their jobs. I will not participate in making it worse, if I can help it.

I guess also apart from elimating cashiers from a job it is also because they are short sraffed and it makes the cashier's job easier,,but I don;t like the idea and much prefer to go to a cashier..littleowl

that cuts down the jobs.

The self checkouts are definitely eliminating job positions. I mean yeah it may be convenient, when they work right, but it eliminates the need for cashiers. The economy is slow and people are struggling to make it. Then, they go and take jobs away for so called convenience. More often than not when I have used a self check out, which I have a few times, it doesn't work right and a cashier ends up having to come over to the register anyway. So, why not eliminate the convenience and just let the cashier do what she is there to do.