Home Depot stores and products

[peter d]

I used to avoid them but my local one recently upgraded them. Now there are more stations and they are a pleasure to use. They use the same wireless scanning guns that the regular checkouts use and the same touch screen terminals.

Guess it makes a statement about their employees when anybody can do what they pay their cashiers to do. :lol:

-Hal

It's all about cost savings. Employees cost money - lots of money these days. Machines don't call out sick or take vacation or need expensive healthcare plans.

 

[kwired]

It's all about cost savings. Employees cost money - lots of money these days. Machines don't call out sick or take vacation or need expensive healthcare plans.

Well the machines usually don't call in sick when they break down, they just suddenly refuse to work. I guess some employees do that at times too though

 

[hbiss]

It's all about cost savings. Employees cost money - lots of money these days. Machines don't call out sick or take vacation or need expensive healthcare plans.

My point was that the customers are using the same equipment as the store employees. Customers have no training so that tells you the level of brain power required to be a cashier. As far as I'm concerned, make them all self service and save the money.

-Hal

 

[JFletcher]

My point was that the customers are using the same equipment as the store employees. Customers have no training so that tells you the level of brain power required to be a cashier. As far as I'm concerned, make them all self service and save the money.

-Hal

Self-service checkouts are being abandoned here left and right. It is too easy for thieves to bypass this, and every single time I use the self-service checkout, I wind up having to get cashier assistance for a coupon, sale item, item in the bagging area not registering on the scale, item with a handwritten ticket like a cut length of chain, etc.

Peter D is correct in that self service requires no labor, other than the $150 an hour tech that has to come fix them when they break. As far as loss prevention goes, self-service checkouts probably cost the store more money than a cashier... Even if someone is not intentionally trying to steal, items that do not scan correctly may just get bagged without the customer paying for them. To catch that, you need more people in loss prevention looking at cameras...

 

[kwired]

Funny thing is we have some "farmers markets" scattered around the countryside that are unattended most of the time. Sales are completely on honesty, take your items and drop your payment in a drop box. I'm sure they do have a certain amount of items that leave unpaid, or people decide to pay what they want to pay instead of asking price, but the owners also figure they would lose more spending their time there or for paying a cashier.

What if big box stores had such arrangement? Bet they see a lot of losses in comparison.