WH Smith has self-checkout units in many of their retail locations and today I used one for the first time. The experience is as you would expect – the same as we have with our supermarkets in Australia. I purchased a newspaper and found the multiple steps tedious. However, it was faster than the line for human service at the counter. But then the human service is what retail is all about. The smile, comments extra help are what differentiate shopping with us from online.
I think we should want to encourage more human interaction and not less. But WH Smith is a massive company with a good track record so for them this must be an appropriate offer for them to have in their shops.
WH Smith appear to manage counter staff allocation as our supermarkets manage human checkout operation – to a minimum.
There must be a point at which a self-checkout terminal is cheaper than human labour. However, I expect this would be years as the terminals are not cheap.
I think we should want to encourage more human interaction and not less.-
I read on here every other day about people doing exactly the opposite to that idea Mark.If we really want to encourage more Human interaction don’t use technology when we don’t have to -go to a shop buy a newspaper say g’day dont download an app and never leave home
I won’t use them at the checkouts. We are only putting more people out of jobs. Do you ever try human interaction with other people in the cue? or on a train? People hide from interaction behind papers, phones and tablets however I usually manage to get a conversation going.
I also refuse to use the self checkouts (be it at Coles, Woolies, Big W, K-Mart, Bunnings, Masters or anywhere else)
Why should I help big greedy corporations like Wesfarmers and Woolies put hard working checkout staff out of a job?
It’s all just change. The future is the future because it’s different from the past. Don’t forget that newsagents used to employ lots of kids delivering papers on bikes and changed to a few adults in cars. Those business owners that don’t embrace change will be left behind by those that do
Not hard to confuse the auto checkouts, I screwed a couple up in masters one day and had everybody lined up waiting for a human to fix it. Give it a go when you bored lol
I heard recently from a manager of a Woolworths in our area that the least expensive item (brown onions) is also the most scanned. I’d suggest that they are taking quite a loss through customer theft.