Self Checkout Sucks

November 10, 2008 at 10:00 pm · Filed under Usability

Recently in retail there has been a big movement towards self checkout. It makes total sense from a retailer’s perspective; you don’t have to pay a cashier’s salary, it never calls in sick, doesn’t need vacation, and doesn’t sneak extra minutes into its breaks. Hiring woes, personal issues, and employee conflicts are all a thing of the past. That sounds like a lot of headaches solved for your typical retailer, unfortunately those headaches are passed straight on to their customers. 

Let me walk you through my typical experience with a self-checkout register:

1. Push a button on the big fancy touch screen to say that I’m ready to start. 
2. Scan at item. 
   • Pray to God that the item scans, and that I don’t have to enter some type of PLU.
   • If the item needs to be weighed, give up and find a cashier.
3. Wait a few seconds for the system to acknowledge that I scanned an item. 
4. Put my item into the bagging area. 
   • Sometimes, my item doesn’t fit in the bag, so I have to click “skip bagging” then wait for a cashier to approve it.
   • Other times I’ll go a little too fast, and the machine will tell me that “an unexpected item is in the bagging area.”
5. Wait for the system to acknowledge that I’ve bagged my item. 
6. Repeat #2 through #4 until either a) I finish my order and can pay, or b) “something bad happens” and I have to wait for a cashier to come help me. 
7. Scan any “club” related cards.
8. Choose a payment method. 
9. Decide if I want cash back. 
10. Figure out which of the several card slots is most appropriate for swiping my debit card (it’s often the one crudely labelled by store staff). 
11. Figure out which of the many panels will accept my pin number and banking info. 
12. Wait for my receipt to emerge from some mystery location. 
13. Walk away feeling: angry, frustrated, and tense. 

Let’s compare that with your average experience with a cashier:

When self checkout first came on the scene, I was pretty excited. I thought it was a pretty good idea, and it is in theory. The problem is that the machines are so brutally slow, and complex, and the methodology for determining whether or not I have bagged an item flat out sucks. Did the developers of these systems not do any real world testing? Was it all “happy path” development in the lab leading to a product so extremely fragile that you still need a cashier’s help to complete almost every transaction?

*sigh*

What’s more, the elaborate length they go to in order to ensure that I’ve only bagged items which I’ve scanned just scream “WE ALWAYS ASSUME YOU WILL STEAL” to me. You know what? If I wanted to steal, I could do so easily. You’re not making it more difficult for me to STEAL, you’re making it more difficult for me to PAY. Stealing would be as easy as leaving the items in my cart and never scanning them. TADAA. I get that some people do funny stuff like switch PLU’s with cheaper items, etc, but guess what? That exact trick still works with cashiers. You haven’t even come close to prevent theft, you’ve just found a new and elaborate means to punish honest people who frequent your store. Congrats. 

Worst of all, the systems are so prone to failure that the self checkout usually takes way longer than even the longest cashier lines. Especially if you have a non-tech savvy person trying to navigate through the maze to completion. I honestly can’t understand how any store would be willing to implement such a flawed system into their work flow. The immediate capital saving in manpower are going to be far outweighed by the negative experiences of their customers.

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