News

Do retailers, customers agree on self-checkout?

June 8, 2003

AUSTIN, Texas -- Retailers are buying into the idea of letting customers ring up their own purchases, but not all customers are sure about the technology, according to an article in the American-Statesman.

The article used as an example Nancy Sullivan, an engineer. Sullivan is technologically savvy. She would seem to be a natural convert to the self-checkout machines proliferating in grocery, discount and other stores. But Sullivan isn't sold, the article said.

"They're a pain in the butt," said Sullivan, as she fumbled her way though computerized beeps and prompts on a busy Friday afternoon at a Home Depot.

"I'm an engineer. I'm smart, and I still don't like them. If it scans wrong or you can't find the bar code, you sit and wait (for an attendant's assistance). See how long I'm waiting here? I could have been in a normal line," she told the newspaper.

But self-checkout is here to stay. In 1999, only 6 percent of grocery stores had self-checkout systems, which let shoppers scan, bag and pay for their own purchases, according to the article. Now, nearly 30 percent of food retailers do, according to the Food Marketing Institute, a trade association. Companies that had been testing the technology are rolling it out nationwide.

One billion retail self-serve transactions were made at grocery and other stores in the United States last year, nearly double the number just a year earlier, the article said. Although big-box retailers are the primary users of the systems now, one manufacturer already has designed models suitable for convenience and drug stores. See related story, "Self-checkout gets small for space-starved retailers."

The systems can save customers time and retailers money. Retailers see them as an antidote to one of their customers' biggest gripes, long waits at the cash register, and thus a way to attract more shoppers, according to the article.

Skeptics wonder whether self-checkout systems mean that human cashiers will go the way of gas station attendants, a relic of times past. But some analysts say it's unlikely that self-checkout will ever completely replace human cashiers, the article said.

"I don't think they'll overtake manned checkout lanes for quite some time, if not forever," said Christopher Boone, program manager for retail industry research at IDC, a market research firm based in Framingham, Mass. "I guess that's always a possibility, but that's such a huge cultural shift. Even if you look at ATMs as a model, it was a pretty large time span before they became as ubiquitous as they are today."

But retailers are sold. Big-box retailers such as Home Depot Inc. are leading the way; the home improvement chain plans to have the systems in half of its stores by the end of the year, the article said.

Most Wal-Mart stores are equipped with self-scan machines. At Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which has self-checkout lanes in most of its 3,000 U.S. stores, "we're less concerned with the cost savings than the added benefit of increased sales," spokesman Tom Williams said in the article. "Anything to increase the shopping experience is going to increase sales."

Target Corp. is one retailer that hasn't jumped on the bandwagon, the article said

"We follow the technology and its use very closely, but we have elected not to adopt this approach at this time," said Douglas Kline, a Target spokesman. "We feel the model we have now, with our emphasis on speed and guest service, is best served by our cashiers who are always helpful at the checkout lane."