Think this will be an Improvement?

I don't like self-checkout either. I think the bot will know the store better than half the employees, but I'd rather ask an employee because we need all the jobs we can get.
 
This is a maybe yes maybe no deal, I am as friendly as the next guy, but if these bots will let go to Lowes and get what I want without 15 employees asking me if they can help me...lol...then I am all for it...there is such a thing as too much customer service, and mine lowes they just bug you to no end. I know they are just trying to help, but if I am walking and I don't make eye contact and don't ask you for help...that means I don't need help I know what I want and where it's at, and asking me every other isle by every employee in the store, probably not going to change that...bring on the bots they probably won't bother me unless i show them something and ASK for help...but that's just me
 
Unless it can tell me that the 1/4 - 2 1/2"- 20 hex-head bolts are in aisle 8, bay 4, bin 3b, with 13 available I'll settle for one of those twenty-three employees who are looking to please....their boss

LOL Mark, I almost get a complex of "do I really look that lost" with the way they come at you from all corners of the store...that is until you'd like one, anyone, to stop and offer help digging thru the 3/4 mdf 4x8 sheets for one without damaged corners lol
 
Well....I love self check-out. Better than trying to get the full attention of the clerk who is busy relating personal drama to another employee while handling my purchase.

The 'bots are here and we are already paying for them in the overhead, so that's a mute point. They are only as good as the information that gets programmed into them. Which means no better than the memory of a clerk making $8 an hour.

Improvement? Maybe not so much, but a sign of the times. As for the jobs issue? It what it is and a person preparing for life with minimal skills is shooting self in the foot. One cannot expect getting paid based on personal needs. One gets paid according to a very arbitrary declaration of worth. Right or wrong. I have no control over that.

Bottom line. Getting a knowledgeable clerk willing to help is still going to be a crap shoot, no matter what color the blog sign is. :twocents:
 
I guess a robot doesn't matter anymore. Very few people talk anymore they are too busy on their super phones, whatever they are called. Who's the robot, the machine in the store or the humans walking around with their eyes on a phone screen while they are texting. They probably haven't uttered a word for hours...... I go to the store, because employees are forced to speak.... Ahhh, I feel better, I needed that rant. Thanks..
 
Last edited:
I have been known to leave a shopping cart full of stuff in the middle of the isle near the checkout when there are no manned REAL people at the register and only the self checkout is open.

NO - I do not like that stuff.

Point is - i do not get a discount to use those automated gadgets.

The stores see it as a money savings thing --- well what about the customer???
 
Put me in the camp that prefers human beings to robots. They have a place but not in this location. Especially if the big box store websites are a sample of what the bot will be using to look up the part. As for self checkout I cannot stand them. Wish they would do a survey and find out how many people actually do. I am in Leos camp and refuse to use them.
 
Bots are/will be cheaper than People. End of story. As labor costs rise, expect more self checkouts, kiosks, customer service bots, etc.
 
With health care, employee's glued to their phones, etc. I can see Robots being cheaper, but it won't mean they are better.
They might be then some, but how are you going to explain what something is you need, without the name and have the robot tell you what it is and where to find it.
I don't use the self checkout and was directed to it once. The employee ended up doing it after I asked where do I enter the employee discount for doing their job. They are also typically cash or check friendly (yes I still use both of those). And in some cases, they are not designed for mixed transactions (buying something tax exempt, while part taxable, etc).
 
OK, another self-checkout person checking in. I almost always go to self-checkout. It is so much faster and so much easier.

Please send some of those surplus clerks down here. Finding a clerk in Lowe's, Home Depot, Walmart, Target, etc. is like finding the teeth in a chicken (Yeah, I know that expression is older than I am---However, it is so appropriate so often.). If a robot can get me back out of the store sooner, I will thank it.

If the robot is as screwed up as the web sites for HD and Lowe's --- Hummm, let's see is there a law about robotcide?

If the robot works, it would be a great improvement over the 4 big box Home stores that I use (2-Lowe's and 2 HDs). For a period of time we had a lady boss for the north HD store. It was fantastic, that place hummed. She was on the floor a lot of the time. She was a magnet that drew-in customers with questions---and, glory be, she knew the answers. If she was taking me to a spot for something, clerks would come up and ask a question, get a fast, coherent answer and be on their way---and all without disturbing us. The staff were alive and alert. I just cannot say enough; that store became "My store." It was my "go to" store. I do not know what that lady had---but WOW did she have it. She would get a quick take on the ability of the person who asked the question and she would answer them at their level.

Sorry about that. I got carried away by some very pleasant memories created by an awesome boss.

Enjoy,
JimB
 
Last edited:
Another self checker-outer here. :wave: I'll typically just pick whichever has the shortest lines, either full service or self checkout is fine by me.

Regarding the robots, I'd definitely want to try them, and if they seemed useful, I'd use them as much as I could. I agree with the first of these comments from Carol, and disagree with the second:

They are only as good as the information that gets programmed into them. Which means no better than the memory of a clerk making $8 an hour.

I'd wager that in general, the average robot programmer has far more data available to him (and thus made available to the robot) than the average minimum wage clerk.

As far as robots putting people out of work, the folks designing, building, programming, testing, deploying, and maintaining the robots might disagree with you. ;)
 
I won't use those self checkouts either Charles.

Those people need jobs too.

Wait till some hacker gets a hold of those Robots--it will be one giant Robot Army descending on civilization-lol.
 
I wonder if the human staff will teach the robots to pretend they don't hear you when you're looking for help or if the robots will learn that on their own.

One advantage I see to the robots over the $8/hr employee is the robot is built to remember mundane things and we aren't.

A sweet young lady saw me (and my gray hair) in a long checkout line one day, suggested I use the self-check line. When I politely declined, she offered to show me how to do it. I told her I knew how, I just chose not to. I'm old fashioned, I know, but when I spend my money at a business, I like for someone to say "thank you", but that's just me.

Occasionally we go to Walmart and I sit and watch people while LOML shops. Where I normally sit is across the aisle from the self-check area. Usually, there are always at least 2 employees going from register to register helping customers, clearing errors, and answering questions. Looks like there would be fewer errors if they just manned a checkout lane.

I saw an experiment in a grocery store. Every item had an RFID chip on it. When you put it in the basket, it rang up automatically and you just rolled up to the checkout lane and paid. That makes more sense to me.

Went to Chili's the other day. They have some little screen things on the table that will take your order, play games with you, and let you pay with your credit or debit card. The server handed me my bill and this screen and left. A few minutes later, she came by the table and we were still sitting there. She looked puzzled and I asked her where I put cash in this machine. She got so confused.

Old people are devious, have time on our hands, and are not afraid to use that time messing with the minds of the young.
 
In Sams Club, I am a devoted self-check out person. I don't have to unload my cart. I can scan one gallon of milk 3 times, instead of moving all three to the belt for the checker. I can be out of the store FAR faster.

At a regular grocery store, I prefer a professional checker who already knows that bananas are 2211 and Roma tomatoes are 3824 and can whip through the checkout far faster than I can.

In both cases, we are using bar codes - I am old enough to remember when they were introduced, and "old people" didn't want to shop in a store that used them. They were sure they would cause major unemployment for the armies of people who mispriced the items as they loaded the shelves, and were sure stores would be out of stock of critical items since managers would no longer look at the shelves to see what had to be ordered.


As for the robots... my last trip to Home Depot, the guy with the orange apron didn't know what I was talking about, so I had to give him key words to type into his inventory computer (I didn't know what the item was officially called, but I had the leaky one in my hands). He was amazed to find what I was looking for in stock, but he could not find it on the shelves. Finally he called a manager who walked both of us to the item. A robot would have been easier.
 
This is a maybe yes maybe no deal, I am as friendly as the next guy, but if these bots will let go to Lowes and get what I want without 15 employees asking me if they can help me...lol...then I am all for it...there is such a thing as too much customer service, and mine lowes they just bug you to no end. I know they are just trying to help, but if I am walking and I don't make eye contact and don't ask you for help...that means I don't need help I know what I want and where it's at, and asking me every other isle by every employee in the store, probably not going to change that...bring on the bots they probably won't bother me unless i show them something and ASK for help...but that's just me

Unless it can tell me that the 1/4 - 2 1/2"- 20 hex-head bolts are in aisle 8, bay 4, bin 3b, with 13 available I'll settle for one of those twenty-three employees who are looking to please....their boss

LOL Mark, I almost get a complex of "do I really look that lost" with the way they come at you from all corners of the store...that is until you'd like one, anyone, to stop and offer help digging thru the 3/4 mdf 4x8 sheets for one without damaged corners lol

Don't know what big box store you guys are frequenting, seems like when I walk in, employees are more like roaches... run in all directions and hide...

I worked for a local Lowe's for a short time and actually got called down for "spending too much time with a customer"... he had an empty cart when he approached me with questions about a project... by the time we finished talking (about 30 minutes) he had over half of his cart filled with project supplies...

I didn't see this happen myself, but one of the persons I worked with at the big box store was telling the story that she was in a Wal-Mart and saw a couple approach the self check out with two full carts of items... according to her story, about every other item went through the scanner... I don't know how vigilante the persons are that oversee the area but I can see potential for a lot of scamming with the self check out.
Never use them myself... if I have to pay for the items, some one at the store needs to check me out.
 
As far as robots putting people out of work, the folks designing, building, programming, testing, deploying, and maintaining the robots might disagree with you. ;)

Back in the early 1970's when TWA was going computerized, all the agents in the SF office were up in arms (maybe the rest of the company, only knew about SF) that with the coming of the computers half the staff would be laid off... turned out that the computers didn't and don't take people away... because of the way the program was written and implemented, it actually took 4 persons to enter an airwaybill, where pre-computer one person could do it with a typewriter and it was ready to go.... it actually takes more people to run a computerized operation... as Vaughn points out the designers, builders, programmers, etc.... and we're no more efficient than before.
 
Self checkouts. Don't like them. I do use them occasionally - like when I've only bought one or two items at Sam's Club, and the checkout lines are long

At Home Depot and Lowes, I only use the regular checkouts because it takes a real person to authorize my 10% Military discount.

At the grocery store, I absolutely refuse to use self-checkout.

My theory is that ANY self checkout is eventually going to cost somebody their job. In the case of the grocery store, maybe even two jobs - cashier and bagger. There are already too many folks out of work. We need more available jobs, not fewer.
 
Even if the robot was as smart as some of the clerks in my local BORG it wouldn't work. I don't mean that it would not work well; I mean it would refuse to work. In order for the robot to emulate the current humans in my BORG or the websites thereof it would have to break the first law of robotics:


  1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.


and we all know that robots just won't do that ;-)
 
Top