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every supermarket in Venezuela has security guards at the exit, checking your receipt.
But then, this is Venezuela!
Supermarket self checkouts, not such a great idea after all?
- Thread starter SandwichShortOfAPicnic
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- food in the news
But then, this is Venezuela!
The way Kroger does it is easiest for me - nearly all produce has a sticker on it; every apple, every onion, etc. Get what you want and put it in a bag.
When you get to the self-checkout, scan the barcode on the sticker, and it’ll either ask how many you have, or it’ll ask you to weigh it. Do that and it charges you appropriately.
Meijer’s version is horrible, enough to keep me from shopping there. You manually enter the code at a scale in the produce section, enter the number of items or weigh them, then it spits out a sticker you then scan at checkout…so scanning twice for the same thing. Nope!
I know the last time we were in London, the Tesco Express had little gates at the exit, sort of like a turnstile, and you had to scan your receipt to get it to open. I’ve seen that in other shops in Europe, too.every supermarket in Venezuela has security guards at the exit, checking your receipt.
But then, this is Venezuela!
Imagine my surprise the first time, when I’d done the usual American thing and tossed my receipt in the trash the moment it spit it out!
Look at the photo or type in the first few letters of the name, and then choose a photo. You can also type in the 4-digit code on the sticker if it has a sticker.
However, if you have expensive organic lettuce, and choose regular cheap lettuce, nobody will know. That's one way stores lose money. Everything needs to have a bar code for the charge to be right every time.
CD
Not at my Kroger. A lot of produce has no sticker, and if it does, the scanner will read the barcode, not recognize it, and you have to wait for an employee to come fix the problem before you can resume scanning.
CD
I don’t have that problem at all. I use the self-checkout enough that I know most of the produce codes by heart.
I used to love their old scan-and-go program - scan your produce with the app while you’re shopping, when you’re done in produce, go scan a scale and then app would direct you to weigh your pears…then your potatoes, and when everything was weighed, that was it. Simple.
I don’t have that problem at all. I use the self-checkout enough that I know most of the produce codes by heart.
I used to love their old scan-and-go program - scan your produce with the app while you’re shopping, when you’re done in produce, go scan a scale and then app would direct you to weigh your pears…then your potatoes, and when everything was weighed, that was it. Simple.
What was to keep people from using scan and go to steal, by just not scanning every item? Seems like someone from Kroger would have to verify what you scanned against what was in your bags. I tend to believe that is why Kroger killed scan and go. People would scan 20 items, but leave the store with 30.
It appears people are doing something like that with self-checkout.
You would have to check EVERY cart against the receipt at the door to be sure nobody is stealing anything.
I like self-checkout, but I can understand why retailers might be turning against it. There are a significant number of people in the world who, given the opportunity, will take stuff without paying for it, and feel zero guilt.
CD
Sort of related, and it’s just meant to be a funny little story:
My favorite self-checkout guy at Kroger is a fellow named Andy. I love him because about 15 years ago, I was in Kroger, in a bad mood, and I was looking for a little sewing kit, and I couldn’t find it.
I strongly disliked the store manager at the time, and that’s who was working customer service, so when I asked and she was less than helpful, I wasn’t surprised, but it ticked me off even more.
I went grumbling away, and there was Andy, on his first day of real work, all of 16 or 17, croaky puberty voice, scrawny, pimples, and bubbling with enthusiasm.
“Sir! Sir! I…I…I know whe…whe…where those are,” he stuttered, so excited I’m surprised he didn’t pee himself, “Fa…fah…follow me!”
Away we went, and he led me right to them, end of an aisle, all the way on the bottom shelf.
“I like this kid, he’s all right,” I thought, and from then on, whenever I saw him, I’d tell him hi and call him by name.
Nowadays, he’s over 30, has a junk food belly, and is perpetually seething. My assumption is that he’s watching his life go by, still stuck in the same job, and his whole day is spent going over and clearing errors and putting in birthdays for alcohol purchases on self-scan machines.
I see him twice a week, and this is how it goes, every time:
“Hi Andy! How’s it goin’ today?”
“Helloooo,” sort of a tired sing-song voice.
<scan…scan…beep!…here comes Andy>
“Yeah, it thinks I didn’t scan that, but I-“
“goddam stupid piece of goddam crap stupid goddam machine!” - all mumbled just under his breath, like Fred Flintstone when he used to mumble “razzle fratzen…” in the cartoons.
<presses some buttons>
“There you go…all cleared…thanks!…” - same faux cheerful sing-song voice as before.
For some reason, I’m genuinely fond of him, yet I take some delight that life has kicked him in the teeth a little, just like the rest of us, and if I’m here another 20 years, I look forward to seeing 50-something Andy, all bald with stiff knees, working a virtual register, or whatever we have by then.
My favorite self-checkout guy at Kroger is a fellow named Andy. I love him because about 15 years ago, I was in Kroger, in a bad mood, and I was looking for a little sewing kit, and I couldn’t find it.
I strongly disliked the store manager at the time, and that’s who was working customer service, so when I asked and she was less than helpful, I wasn’t surprised, but it ticked me off even more.
I went grumbling away, and there was Andy, on his first day of real work, all of 16 or 17, croaky puberty voice, scrawny, pimples, and bubbling with enthusiasm.
“Sir! Sir! I…I…I know whe…whe…where those are,” he stuttered, so excited I’m surprised he didn’t pee himself, “Fa…fah…follow me!”
Away we went, and he led me right to them, end of an aisle, all the way on the bottom shelf.
“I like this kid, he’s all right,” I thought, and from then on, whenever I saw him, I’d tell him hi and call him by name.
Nowadays, he’s over 30, has a junk food belly, and is perpetually seething. My assumption is that he’s watching his life go by, still stuck in the same job, and his whole day is spent going over and clearing errors and putting in birthdays for alcohol purchases on self-scan machines.
I see him twice a week, and this is how it goes, every time:
“Hi Andy! How’s it goin’ today?”
“Helloooo,” sort of a tired sing-song voice.
<scan…scan…beep!…here comes Andy>
“Yeah, it thinks I didn’t scan that, but I-“
“goddam stupid piece of goddam crap stupid goddam machine!” - all mumbled just under his breath, like Fred Flintstone when he used to mumble “razzle fratzen…” in the cartoons.
<presses some buttons>
“There you go…all cleared…thanks!…” - same faux cheerful sing-song voice as before.
For some reason, I’m genuinely fond of him, yet I take some delight that life has kicked him in the teeth a little, just like the rest of us, and if I’m here another 20 years, I look forward to seeing 50-something Andy, all bald with stiff knees, working a virtual register, or whatever we have by then.
That, I don’t know. I do know, when they first rolled it out, they said they had security measures in place to foil that, but that they couldn’t reveal them, for obvious reasons.
Before Covid, you did have to go through cursory check on the way out the door. In the early days, you had to pay at a kiosk - scan with your phone, bag as you go, then scan a kiosk with your phone, and it would transfer your purchases to the kiosk and you’d pay as you normally would.
I hated that, because it meant I couldn’t skip the kiosk line, but after about a year, they upgraded it to where you could do everything on your phone, and when you’d pay, it would generate a code to show the self-checkout worker.
What was supposed to happen at that point is that they’d look on their handheld, see your code, and clear it and let you go.
They never did that, though. The workers knew less about it than I did, and I’d show the code and they’d just wave me through.
After I did that about 10 times, it locked me out of the program, because I wasn’t being cleared correctly, and it took a solid month to get unlocked, because no one in the local store knew about it, and no one at Kroger tech support knew much about it.
Once I got it worked out, I had one of the kiosk guys (Ted, Doctor Who fanatic) show me the steps to clear it on his handheld, and if he wasn’t around and someone else tried to wave me through without clearing me, I’d say, “No, you gotta grab that and enter 4, then Y, then 2, then Y and then I can go.”
They used to refer other customers to me if they were having problems with the system.
SandwichShortOfAPicnic
Forum GOD!
The “till shrink” ie theft they refer to in the article is the motivation for removing them. Corporations have never given a sh*t about the human experience unless it impacts sales.
Increasing security at the self check outs and the new large AI facial scanning at some of them with your face on a large screen staring back at you is not my idea of a pleasant shopping experience. I do use the self check outs but invariably something doesn‘t scan or there’s an ‘unexpected item in the bagging area’ that leaves you standing like a lemon waiting for the lone employee manning the whole bank of tills.
karadekoolaid you have to try and see past your distaste for a particular publications slant and pick out the actual information thats useful or interesting. The Guardian does publish both useful and interesting information for free.
I read most papers, even occasionally the Daily Fail because you get a much better view of the way things are and whats going to happen if you check the different attitudes to a topic.
What I’m really not looking forward to are the unmanned petrol pumps.
Increasing security at the self check outs and the new large AI facial scanning at some of them with your face on a large screen staring back at you is not my idea of a pleasant shopping experience. I do use the self check outs but invariably something doesn‘t scan or there’s an ‘unexpected item in the bagging area’ that leaves you standing like a lemon waiting for the lone employee manning the whole bank of tills.
karadekoolaid you have to try and see past your distaste for a particular publications slant and pick out the actual information thats useful or interesting. The Guardian does publish both useful and interesting information for free.
I read most papers, even occasionally the Daily Fail because you get a much better view of the way things are and whats going to happen if you check the different attitudes to a topic.
What I’m really not looking forward to are the unmanned petrol pumps.
- Joined
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Believe it or not, the Grauniad used to be my go-to newspaper. I had a subscription in Venezuela well into the 90s. And then, I began to detect (IMO) a whingeing, whining, complaining, dystopian trend in their reporting. Articles became positively esoteric. Now it's very clear to me that anything that doesn't fit into their very left-wing view is criticised, pooh-poohed,belittled and generally dismissed.
Before firewalls, I read the whole gamut, from the Grauniad, the Times, The Telegraph and the Mail, just to get a good idea of what was going on.
PabloLerntKochen
Veteran
I love the idea of going into a shop and leave it in minutes. Feels like a storage room you have to pay for so you don't end up thinking about what you really need right now and what can wait for later or what can be shared with others
badjak
Forum GOD!
Believe it or not...
We still got shops where you go to the counter and you just tell the person there what you want. They grab it, pack it for you and you just pay.
The self service ones often check your receipt at the exit and I almost always can't find it anymore
We still got shops where you go to the counter and you just tell the person there what you want. They grab it, pack it for you and you just pay.
The self service ones often check your receipt at the exit and I almost always can't find it anymore
- Joined
- 4 Aug 2021
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- 9:27 AM
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- 11,347
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- Caracas, Venezuela
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Yep,so do we. And local minimarkets (more like old style grocery stores) where the owners will stand there and chat with you for five minutes, or go back into the warehouse and pull you out the very freshest lettuce they've got..
From an article on CNN.com...
Retailers report that shrink increased 19% in 2022 to $112 billion and has nearly doubled from pre-pandemic levels. They blame shoplifting and organized groups stealing merchandise from stores to resell online for the rise in shrink. (Shrink also includes employee theft, damaged products, administrative errors, online fraud and other factors.)
And also this gem of wisdom from Best Buy, which has low levels of shrink in their stores...
Best Buy has been able to stave off shrink and competition from Amazon with strong customer service support for would-be electronics buyers, analysts say, and that requires well-trained and well-staffed stores. More retailers should adopt these practices to deter shoplifting, crime prevention experts say.
CD
Retailers report that shrink increased 19% in 2022 to $112 billion and has nearly doubled from pre-pandemic levels. They blame shoplifting and organized groups stealing merchandise from stores to resell online for the rise in shrink. (Shrink also includes employee theft, damaged products, administrative errors, online fraud and other factors.)
And also this gem of wisdom from Best Buy, which has low levels of shrink in their stores...
Best Buy has been able to stave off shrink and competition from Amazon with strong customer service support for would-be electronics buyers, analysts say, and that requires well-trained and well-staffed stores. More retailers should adopt these practices to deter shoplifting, crime prevention experts say.
CD