Grocery Self Serve Cashiers

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Long lines at Christmas Fairs, grocery and department stores as we rummage for Boxing Day sales, that come before Boxing Day.

Many big grocery stores have the self-serve option. Take your shopping basket to the machine and follow prompts. The first one is START NOW. Bad news for people looking for work even if it’s minimum wage jobs. Replacing humans with machines in not new. It’s the capitalist way.

Self-serve cashier machines are not born equal. Some are user friendly with simple instructions in English. I assume machines in Poland, France, Germany and all of Europe have simple instructions in their languages.

However, and a big however, stores have a staff member on stand-by who helps customers at self-serve cashier machines. In one store, they reduced cashiers from 7 to just one. That’s the person who comes to you when you press the HELP button.

The problem at these machines is assumption. They have icons everybody understands, like the Wi-Fi icon. That’s an assumption, right there. Not necessarily. The sun and moon are common icons, not icons that warn you the phone battery is running low.

Another assumption are loyalty or points cards. The store cannot assume everyone waiting in line for a self-serve cashier understands what an optimum card is. Pressing that accidentally holds up the line. That’s why stores have those stand-by workers.

Having said that, cashing out your own groceries is the best way to avoid long lines during the holiday season, especially if you have a few items in your shopping basket.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.

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