comment: >
  
  I don't have a strong opinion, all I can say is I really really like self-checkout much more. I know for a fact I can scan my stuff faster than them because I do it in a rush with the gun without taking anything out of my cart sometimes and just walk my cart to my car after haha. The places I shop always have seas of self-check out so I just walk right up to one and leave. The whole process is faster for me personally and I can avoid one interaction (sounds bad but I am on a mission when I shop haha).
context: /u/DJJazzay (OP) has awarded 3 delta(s) in this post.
  All comments that earned deltas (from OP or other users) are listed here, in /r/DeltaLog.
  Please note that a change of view doesn't necessarily mean a reversal, or that the conversation has ended.
  ^Delta System Explained ^| ^Deltaboards >
  
  Failure for whom? Most people don't care about bagging their own stuff, and the stores can operate with minimal employees. In what way is it a failure? >
  
  I definitely prefer bagging my own stuff. >
  
  I like self checkout. I really like scan and go, like Sam's Club has. 
  Sometimes there's a line for the self checkout while the manned checkout is free so I guess a lot of people prefer self checkout. >
  
  What’s scan-and-go? I’m from outside the US. >
  
  There's an app, you scan the barcodes with your smartphone as you shop, at the end after you pay it gives a QR code that the checker at the door scans, they count your stuff and scan a couple to make sure you aren't cheating, off you go. It's great. No lines or having to pull all your stuff out of the cart to scan. >
  
  Ah, I’ve seen that! In terms of theft reduction, does it seem substantially different from self-checkout? >
  
  I don't know. It's at a membership store, so there's a threat of losing your membership if they catch you stealing, which regular stores wouldn't have. And they do count your stuff as you leave. But there have been times when I missed scanning something (accidentally) and they didn't catch it, and other times they did catch it. So, idk, maybe about the same.
  I'm not sure it would work at a non-membership store though. Walmart has a Scan & Go option too but you have to be a Walmart + member so that probably helps. >
  
  If that's the case why do you think stores keep adding more self checkouts and not removing them? >
  
  One of two things, IMO: they are under the impression that the general public will get better at operating self-checkout kiosks than they are now, and/or they’re under the impression that there’s no relationship between self-checkout and the massive increase in theft they’ve been loudly complaining about very recently. >
  
  
  the general public will get better at operating self-checkout kiosks than they are now
  
  You don't think that's true? >
  
  Self-checkout is very much a success for the stores. They have to pay less in staffing costs.
  It might be worse for the customer, but unless it's so much worse that the customer stops going to the store, why should the store care? >
  
  I don't even think it's worse for the customer.
  I have two grocery stores fairly close to my house. One is about a mile further than the other, so the round-trip drive ended up being about 2 miles longer round trip.
  For a long time, the one that was further away had self checkout, the closer one didn't. I like to do my shopping on off-peak hours, so they typically aren't staffing for a rush when I get there. Typically, both stores would have two cashiers working - the one with the self checkout would have one cashier lane open and one cashier manning the 4-lane self-checkout, and the other store would have two cashier lanes open.
  Now, the more distant grocery store has better produce, a better deli counter, and a better meat counter, so when I'm in for a big shopping trip, I always go to that one. But a lot of times when I just need one thing, it's tempting to go to the closer one. The problem with that was that if I went to the closer one at the same time a few other people were checking out, I might get stuck in line behind someone with a cartload of groceries and end up waiting 10 minutes to check out. At the one that had a self-checkout there were 4 lanes, so in off-peak hours they're never full and never had to wait in line. I might spend 50% longer at the register, but I'd spend less time waiting over-all since I never had to wait in line.
  A couple years ago the closer store added their own self-checkout. Now they get all of my "I just need one thing" business because it's closer and I know I'll never have to wait to check out. >
  
  There are two possibilities:
  
  Companies are losing money by doing self-checkout, but continue it anyway
  Companies are saving money by doing self-checkout, so they continue it on purpose
  
  Does the first one really sound more plausible to you? >
  
  The problem is that groceries are inelastic goods (you need to buy them no matter what, like gas) and that affords the owners some latitude in how they run their business.
  The setup I typically see is "One human overseeing 4-6 self checkout kiosks" so the store is saving between 3 and 5 employees (between 7 and 11 employees if each cashier gets a bag boy) worth of insurance, benefits, pay, etc.  They also never take breaks, never get hurt, and never sue the store for whatever reason.
  Not only that, they're ALWAYS there and ALWAYS* operational.  Is it slow?  You've got 6 points of sale.  Is it slammed?  You've got 6 points of sale.  They never call out and they never get salty when you say "Hey you can go home we don't need you."
  They also don't steal and they don't give wrong change.
  Not only that, but there's a huge segment of people who would rather not interact with a person.  Are you buying personal items like laxatives or condoms or Lotromin?  This is stuff many people aren't comfortable telling a doctor, let alone random strangers.
  Is it mildly inconvenient?  Sure.
  But from a business standpoint, it's streets ahead of having humans run things. >
  
  If you have to ask you’re streets behind >
  
  Isn't self-service the helpful step between no touch check out that Amazon and others are working on right now? 
  Self service is a shift towards trust less transactions which is the required cultural shift to  walking out of the store without even going through checkout >
  
  There are definitely some innovations that seem more likely to genuinely reduce costs and/or improve customer experience, but how do you think self-checkout is a necessary step for that? Not sure I follow the relationship there. >
  
  Self-checkout is proof of concept. Every technological example needs a proof of concept and if you went back 5 yrs, how would you validate the customers would accept this shift before investing in the technology? Self-checkout proves there is a sufficient portion of the market that prefers self service. >
  
  Self-checkout goes so much faster than having another person do it. They squeeze a dozen self checkout machines in the space of 2-3 normal cash registers. As someone who only buys food for 1-3 days at a time, it's really smooth to be able to immediately check out my own stuff, instead of waiting in line for minutes. Sometimes many minutes. Self-checkout counters very, very rarely have any queues at all.
  If the self-checkout counters have long queues, the store has done a really bad job of setting those up.
  I rarely use the regular staffed checkout registers nowadays, and whenever I do, it's a bit of a pain because there's almost always a queue.
  It's such an incredible convenience for the customer that it's really something where automation is worth the few jobs that are lost. If any are at all. >
  
  Bill Burr, is this you? >
  
  i think it’s great because my total is always less than it should be hehe >
  
  It's cheaper for stores than paying an employee and all the benefits an employee needs to get. So it's actually a grand succes. >
  
  If de-automating the checkout process is beneficial, would removing bar codes and digital cash registers be the next good step?
  Self-checkout is one of hundreds of automated processes along the farm-to-table chain. At best, targeting self-checkout is arbitrary and ineffective. The same goals for that can be better attained with better social safety net programs. >
  
  Self-checkout isn’t an automated process, though. It’s as manual a process as existed a decade ago. There’s no functional difference except that they’ve downloaded the labour onto unpaid, wildly unskilled workers: their own customers. 
  Am I missing something here? Is there some technological innovation within self-checkout that would have made it impossible to do ten years ago! >
  
  There's a lot to it, and the tech has evolved significantly in the last 15 years. The biggest tech challenge was (and still is) counting the checked out items. Cashiers do this manually by line-of-site. Automated checkout systems use a scale. 
  Another innovation is in handling cash. Cashiers take it by hand, self-checkout systems require AI to interpret what comes into the feed.
  The goal of the anti-self-checkout movement is valid. We want high-paying service sector jobs. Banning these devices is a misguided path toward that goal. >
  
  Most places I go to have both, and I use different options for different types of trips. If I do a full grocery run, I usually go to the normal checkout line, where like you say I benefit meaningfully from a conveyor belt and multiple people helping bag stuff while I pay. But if I go to the store and I only have a bag or two's worth of stuff, which is most of my trips, the self checkout line is waaay faster and it's not really even close. >
  
  ∆ Fair enough - I suppose just offering the flexibility for people with fewer items to quickly bag their stuff is helpful. My issue might be coloured more by local stores which drastically reduced in-person cashiers, such that they really aren’t a great option anymore. >
  
  Confirmed: 1 delta awarded to /u/themcos (269∆).
  ^Delta System Explained ^| ^Deltaboards >
  
  The issue I see with self checkout, a least at Walmart, is the size of the station. They are for small shopping trips. It's almost comical to see some with a full cart do self checkout, there just isn't the space for it all >
  
  
  It was more efficient. The lines moved faster. Cashiers get really good at what they do over time. They’re faster at scanning and faster at bagging items than some guy. Especially when that guy has to scan, then bag, then pay, when much of that was once done simultaneously.
  
  Self-checkout lines typically move faster than full-service checkout lines. Not because any individual station is faster (it's not), but because the store can put more stations in a smaller space, at less cost to them. >
  
  I've seen some kind of new self checkout model where you literally just place your stuff on a platform with a camera and it automatically detects your items, presumably based on weight and looks. I've never seen it get anything wrong, and it's very convenient. I propose that the claim you make in the OP is too general to work universally. >
  
  With self checkout there can be 20+ checkout lanes instead of 5.
  I checkout SIGNIFICANTLY faster from stores that have self checkout.  Honestly I am very discouraged from going to stores that lack this feature.  It's just too slow.
  Ideally more stores will go even further and let you scan items with your smartphone as you shop and pay online. This way we can get rid of checkout lanes all together.
  Also. Check out Amazon prime stores which can keep track of what you shop for automatically.
  It's pretty clear that human cashiers will be phased out more and more. >
  
  
  It’s also not as though consumers have seen a reduction in grocery bills, while these stores drastically reduce their labour costs.
  
  Self-service checkouts weren't adopted all at once, their adoption probably wouldn't result in a huge reduction in labor costs, and labor costs aren't the only costs the store has. As such, it's totally possible that the adoption of self-service stations has simply caused prices to grow less rapidly than they otherwise would have, rather than actually decreasing. >
  
  I personally love the self checkouts. I have noticed that elderly people don't use them that often and normal checkouts are full in lines. It's just so much more convenient to go to the self checkout and be in and out easy and fast. Love it. >
  
  I've never had less efficiency doing it myself than going through a checkstand, but that's because when I use it I don't have 40+ items
  If you're trying to buy $200 worth of groceries, it makes sense to go through the human checker, if not, you're better off not being a lazy bum and just doing it yourself