Self-checkouts getting second think from retailers

Well, we’ve seen a backlash to these checkouts and having to do your own groceries and work for the big store. Large Canadian retailers may be having some buyer’s remorse after spending years outfitting stores with automated self checkout machines. Some of the stores reportedly removing the machines from at least some locations include Canadian Tire and Giant Tiger. Meanwhile, as 680’s Richard Southern told us back in 2021, Walmart had started testing self checkout only stores in Canada. They’ve been a bit old school. I don’t know, but whether you like them or you hate them, you got to get used to the self checkouts if you shop at Walmart. A pilot that has since been scrapped. Daniel Chai, an adjunct professor with the University of Toronto, has been watching the trend and says the retailers were caught by surprise. They were trying to cut back on labor cost, but they found out that a lot of people were stealing. The best solution to that is to have more human staff and stop treating your customers like they work for you. Looking back, did we see this coming or or has this been a surprise for us? Well, The thing is, these big chains didn’t see it coming because they’re used to an oligopoly. These companies kind of became myopic. They lost sight of what really comes first, and that’s the consumer. I saw a commercial at a movie theater 1520 years ago. It was a a man who looked like he was robbing a grocery store. He was putting items in his jacket and then he walks out of the store and you know you, the viewer of the commercial thinks he’s stealing and it turns out he wasn’t stealing. It was just the automated grocery store where you could take and walk out and it knew how to bill and what to bill and who to bill Forgot your receipt. The self checkout, Is it going to turn into that one day where you just walk out and everything knows The technology is already there, so artificial intelligence has already reached the stage where they can link in security cameras with your consumer buying behavior. I like it for sure. I like them, I find them convenient. It’s fun, more entertaining. My grandma would be very mad, but I like them. Why would your grandma be mad? Because she is totally against them. I I I do automation for a living. So I like. I like robots. But I’d prefer to have a person. If I get stuck, they can help me and I can talk to them. We reached out to most of the big retailers, Giant Tiger, confirming the removal of the machines at their Stratford location, saying in writing our local franchise, in a testament to our customer centric approach, informed us that his customers prefer the interpersonal experience offered at cash registers with staff. They added there are no plans to remove self checkout lanes completely across the chain. Meanwhile, Sobeys telling us they’re sticking with several checkout formats, including in some markets something called slow lanes, something Chai says has been picking up steam. In other markets like Australia. That is where you can still go in. And if you want to have a nice chat with the cashier, you can do that. And they found that Ashley incentive increased sales. For City News. I’m David Zura.