One of the nation's major grocery store chains is eliminating self-checkout lanes in an effort to encourage more human contact with its customers.And it also means more hours for people to stand in lines to buy a few items. Bad choice, Albersons. I often run in there to grab a few things and can get out via the self-checkout very quickly. Frankly, I don't want to talk to anybody, I just want to get my stuff and leave.
Albertsons LLC, which operates 217 stores in seven Western and Southern states, will eliminate all self-checkout lanes in the 100 stores that have them and will replace them with standard or express lanes, a spokeswoman said.
"We just want the opportunity to talk to customers more," Albertsons spokeswoman Christine Wilcox said. "That's the driving motivation."
Wilcox said the replacement of automated checkout lanes with human-operated lanes likely would mean more hours available for employees to work.
If talking to employees and having more work hours is the goal, we could always go back to the original grocery store system in which customers handed their shopping list to a clerk who then gathered all the stuff for them.
Taking a step backwards is not progress.
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4 comments:
Where's the fire, Rick? Aren't you retired? Are our grocery store lines really all that long? Compared to what? We're so spoiled.
Take a little time to talk to the check-out clerk. They'd probably be glad to talk to a personable guy like you. Consider it a new ministry opportunity.
How about we wait and see how other people like it? I'm sure Albertson's will be watching closely.
Lets keep the jobs. Self check puts people out of work. I wish all stores would return to the old ways.
Spoken like a true Luddite, Anonymous (or perhaps just a union shill). Maybe we should go back to the days when customers handed their shopping list to the clerk who then had to fetch all the items? Wouldn't that add jobs?
This will backfire on Albertson's when customers decide not to shop there any longer because of long lines to buy a handful of items. Those jobs will be lost.
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