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> I haven't talked to a cashier at a grocery store in years. It's all self-checkout

That’s at least one trend I’ve seen reversed. All the self checkouts around where I am have been removed because the stores realized that the self checkouts and honesty system only works when the times are good.



The reversal of self checkouts has been one I've seen spottily, but I do totally agree. I've seen some Walmarts close their self checkout while others keep them open. I guess each store may do their out loss calculations and take action based on that.

I personally like self-checkout a lot. At the grocery store I used to go to, I swear I could get my stuff scanned and bagged in half the time as the cashier, and that's not counting the time waiting in limited lines (since there are usually way more self checkouts so the time-to-first-scan is also lower). Very slow and they seemed to hate small talk (also a let down, because the only redeeming part of a manned line to me is casual conversation with the cashier and those in line).


Video surveillance and facial recognition is in use here to prevent that kind of thing.

You should see what target does to all their stores…


Only works when the times are good though. If you’re getting 50-100 people a day trying to steal, the cops aren’t coming


Someone still has to show up to deal with the perp. And the cops have been ‘quiet quitting’ for awhile.


In stores I’ve been in the highest density of cameras is directly above the checkouts.




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