In the U.S., some stores are considering “phasing out self-service checkouts”.

From my experience with self-checkout counters at grocery stores, I found them to be confusing.  The line-ups were long and didn’t move any faster than those with cashiers were.  Often, I would find myself in need of help from an employee when operating the machine; hence, I would rather go to a counter with a cashier. At least with a cashier, the only things I really have to pay attention to are just the prices and the balance.

Self Serve Checkouts

The concept of self-service seems like a good idea; after all, we have self-serve gas stations, which people enjoy using. So, why wouldn’t the concept work for grocery stores? Furthermore, the grocery store can hire fewer cashiers, reducing its expenses. It also adds value to some customers by offering them another checkout option.

Unfortunately, a grocery store contains more items to process compared to a gas station, which means that the self-service checkout has a higher chance of making pricing errors. Pricing errors happen, even with a human cashier; however the cashier being already familiar with the cash register can easily fix the problem.