Coles’ selfserve checkouts are the stupidest idea ever
Some supermarket innovations have definitely made a positive impact on the shopping experience.
Electronic conveyor belts meant customers didn’t have to waste time moving their groceries forward and instead could perve on women or read magazines while they waited to be served.
Coin operated trolleys meant that people had a financial incentive to bring them back to the trolley bay, which in turn meant you didn’t have to walk halfway around a carpark trying to find a trolley. Or have some clown leave their trolley in the carpark and then have the wind smash it into your car.
And then there were the computer checkouts, gone were the days of stupid little yellow price stickers on every item in the store.
These all had some what of an impact on how we shop, and mostly for the better. Ok so it’s annoying when the electronic conveyor belt topples over your carefully stacked display of groceries, the trolley spits out your coin with such force that it goes flying and you have to chase it or when you’ve waited in line for 15 minutes and then the checkout breaks down;
…but that’s nothing compared to using a self serve checkout.
I don’t know when my local Coles got their new checkouts but it must have been within the last month or so. Ever since Costco opened I’ve been doing most of my shopping there and have only ventured into Coles when I’m feeling lazy or it’s late.
The first noticeable change seems to be the removal of dual entry points. Prior to the self serve checkouts you could enter the store from both ends of the registers, now if you enter from where I usually walk in you have to walk half a km to the other side.
Most people now just walk through a register line to get in, myself included. How’s that for functional design.
I hadn’t used a self serve checkout before so I wasn’t sure what to expect. All the express lines were closed though so I didn’t have a choice. There was one employee ‘manning’ the area and it was pretty quiet so I figured I could take my time if it didn’t work out.
When I hit the start button on the touch screen and then ‘I have my own bag’ I was told to put my bag in the bag area on the left hand side. Immediately after doing that my machine started making loud alarm noises and told me to wait for a service operator.
It was like a pokies machine going off after a jackpot.
‘Uh… hi, the machine told me to put my bag down and then this happened.’
‘Yeah you’re not supposed to put your bag down, put it on the floor’
‘Well, what bag am I supposed to put there then?’
‘A shopping bag’
‘How am I going to have a shopping bag if I haven’t finished shopping yet?’
‘…’
The assistant reset the machine and I placed my pannier on the ground as there’s no bench space on these stupid machine and continued.
After scanning my first item I was again asked if I had my own bag. I pushed ‘yes’ and scanned a few more items. Each time I scanned something the machine asked if I had my own bag and each time I hit yes.
After scanning the fourth item and hitting yes to the bag question, the pokie sounds and lights came on again and I was hit with the message along the lines of ‘too many items in customer bag, please wait for assistance’.
‘uh hi again, I’m putting stuff in my own bag on the ground and it’s still not happy.’
‘Ah sorry you have to put your items here on the left and your bag on the ground. You can’t pack your bag until after everything is scanned.’
‘wow that’s going to save time.’
Again the assistant reset the machine and I emptied my pannier onto the left side shelf. Continuing on my next hiccup was in trying to scan multiple items. I had four tins of pineapple pieces to scan and for the machine doesn’t let you scan the same item twice unless you wait 15-20 seconds or so.
This I presume is to stop the same item being accidentally scanned twice but in reality it means that if you’re trying to scan four or five of the same article you’re standing there like a moron for 2-3 minutes.
The next hiccup was trying to buy discounted price milk. 2L Big M Iced Coffee had been discounted so I picked up 2 of them and yep, you guess it after scanning them I was hit with the pokie experience again.
Discounted items cannot be manually scanned and the assistant has to manually punch in the price and then reset the machine, this is again yet another waste of time.
Thankfully the payment process was straight forward although there does seem to be an excessive amount of payment options (seriously there was like 15 buttons to choose from). Surprisingly cash was one of them and I don’t see how that’d work on a self serve machine. I guess if you hit cash the pokie lights come on again and you have to wait for an assistant to take your money and give you change.
After paying by debit card the final insult was when I started packing my pannier with my items. After about ten seconds or so the machine started flashing it’s lights and shouting at me to ‘PLEASE TAKE MY ITEMS!’
Not only would it not let me pack directly into my pannier but now it was going to try and hurry me along for it’s inefficient shortcomings. The shouting continues about once every ten seconds until you’ve finished packing and then it smugly wishes ‘you a great day’.
I had eleven items in my basket and this entire ordeal took over fifteen minutes, instead of the thirty seconds it normally takes at an express checkout.
At the end of the ordeal I was ready to smash something with a sledgehammer.
Needless to say I’m going to avoid these stupid self serve checkouts like the plague in the future. God help you if you try to use one during peak hour.
One thing I didn’t quite understand was, what’s the deterrent to stop people stealing stuff. I mean presumably Coles are recording the self serve checkout area but surely they aren’t going to catch everything.
The shop assistant is so busy running around resetting machines she’s certainly not going to catch you if you choose not to scan something.
Personally I don’t like being given this responsibility. I’m not about to start shoplifting but I’m not naive enough to think this will carry over to everyone else. Once Coles roll this out to Melbourne’s dodgy outer suburbs they’re going to find every second person is “forgetting” to scan their most expensive items and trying to walk out.
The machine certainly doesn’t know any better and if you’re quick it’s not like anyone’s going to stop you.
I can see this being a problem in the future and honestly I’d rather not have the assumption that I’m using the self serve to try and steal stuff placed on me.
On the other hand if Coles are trying to cut down on staff costs as much as possible and think I’m going to waste fifteen minutes of my time every time I shop there, my sympathy isn’t all high for them.
Hopefully we’ll see the return of the express lanes soon.
October 25th, 2009 at 11:53 am David(Quote)
Well, its all about saving money nowadays, and wages in Australia is one of the more expensive in the world, hence the popularity of these self service check outs.
As for customer service.. unless they notice a significant drop over time in sales which can be directly attributed to self-service… they don’t care=P
October 25th, 2009 at 1:39 pm Suzie(Quote)
Thank you for this expose. You’ve convinced me they’re a bad idea and something to be avoided. I also don’t want to be involved in reducing job numbers.
October 25th, 2009 at 7:24 pm motiv8dan(Quote)
i myself use them and find them quick and easy, most of the time, it beats the times when your in the 8 items or less lane behind someone doing their weekly shop ( do they ever enforce the amount of items in these lines?).
I admit they did take a bit to get used too, as to your question on security, the place where you put the scanned items actually weighs the item/items in your bag to make sure it adds up. ie- if you pull a swifty and place an item in your bag without scanning it, the computer knows the weight of the items in your bag is too much.
I take it you couldnt use your specific bag as the system cant possibly know the weights of all bags that people carry. I think from memory they only work with plastic bags and the re-usable green ones that they sell i think.
McDonalds are testing this similar system in drive – thrus to make sure that all items are in the bag before the employee hands it out the window.
October 26th, 2009 at 11:52 am anewman13(Quote)
They actually can use any bag – hence why it ask’s you if you are using your own bag, it should tare it off to zero when the bag is first placed on and you choose yes.
Than from there it is weighing as you place each item in the bag – one would imagine with a small margin of tolerance. Smaller items that weigh very little can cause these machines grief.
I find the Self Serve at Big W are much quicker than checkouts, as for Coles probably only be quicker for small shops maybe 2 or 3 bags MAX as the limited space to place your items really slows it down.
As for plenty of payment options that is a plus and there is normally a cash dispenser/vending type system that takes all notes and coins and spits out the correct change.
Great idea, maybe could be better implemented with your own small conveyor or at least bench space.
As for stealing, probably no easier or harder than the people who are pocketing stuff previously. Might even make people more aware that they are being watched at checkout stage.
October 26th, 2009 at 12:14 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
Yeah this is what I did and the silly thing had a whinge at me!
I reckon there must be a weight limit or something to stop you putting items there to fool the scales before you’ve scanned anything.
October 26th, 2009 at 5:01 pm weez(Quote)
I won’t use the effin’ things on principle. It takes people to run a business and people helping a biz make money should be paid. You’re not getting a discount for scanning your own purchases, are you? No- and you’re helping working people into the dole queue when you support this nonsense.
Self-service might work at a petrol station where you mainly purchase one item, but a grocery or department store is a different animal, as you’ve found. I’m quite happy for a checkout person to scan stuff and bag it for me, thanks.
October 26th, 2009 at 5:04 pm Roly(Quote)
Personal peeves.
Conveyor belts. I have yet to see one of these properly engineered with soft-start. Not hard. Just can’t be bothered.
EFT-POS. Swipe. Swipe. SWIPE! Swipidyswipeswipe. (some time later) enter PIN (session timed out). Loop.
Meanwhile there is a fuming buyer of a single liter of milk who want to use high-speed, accepted everywhere, CASH, the correct money even. But no, the (ho ho) ease of your banking comes at my expense. Cash-only lanes, NOW! And more than a billion on miki-mouse? Shhhheeee-it
Capitalism is about Freedom of Choice, right? The consumer is King and what the customer wants the customer gets, right? Suuuure.
Ex1 – I still shoot 35mm film, a fair bit of it actually, and get it burned directly to CD-R, and this process well suits my needs. Now Coles has decided not to carry film any more blah blah digital blah. Yet right next door the film processing machine is going flat out and I have to wait.
Ex2 – I’m using a prepaid internet ISP account which again fits well with my needs. Suddenly the product isn’t on the terminal at the newsagent, or anywhere else I could find, yet their helpdesk knows nothing about it. They tell me to just buy whatever voucher of theirs I can, and they will transfer it. Do so, then have to explain at length to the new helpdesk operator what is wrong with THEIR system.
Many companies have managed to build a communications wall around themselves. I’ve put in several comment forms at my local Coles complaining about spruking, giving all my contact details, and boldly ticked the “I want a response” tickbox. Nothing. Signs, electrodes, air-driven bear traps, have not daunted the posters of their marketing flyers in my letterbox, but can I get even so much as a pro-forma “thank you for your feedback, bugger off” from them?
Overall the general store revamps have opened up entranceways, created a market feel with the (cynical?) switch to CFL lighting and exposed roof and specific product stalls, PIR-controlled frige display lights, but the overall *range* of goods has reduced, brands and lines dropped all over the place, 20-30% I’d guess. Since the revamp I’ve had to go elsewhere more often to complete my shopping. Meanwhile kilowatts of area lighting blazes away outside all day.
But you wait until everything is RFIDed and your shopping is talking to your car or Miki. This car refuses to unlock if you are carrying alcohol, aspirin, condoms, or any meat product (you bought the Family model, not the Sports model). Years ago I suggested the Moral Fridge. You’ve had too much beer/pizza/icecream and I’m not opening until you get over this lot (and take a long jog, your GPS-cellphone will see you don’t cheat).
October 26th, 2009 at 6:39 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
This is a major gripe of mine too. Jesus Christ you stack your groceries so that the hot woman behind you can unloading her basket and then KABOOM.
Stupid conveyer thing moves and my grocery tower comes crashing down. Now of course I only buy big manly solid items so naturally these crush her tampons, organic yoghurt and grapes. Then she’s all mad at me and the train bound for striking up a conversation pulls out of the station leaving me on the platform.
Please don’t take this the long way but don’t ever get into politics or the electronics industry (if you’re already in either of these resign immediately). Your innovating ideas scare the crap out of me
.
October 27th, 2009 at 3:08 pm Roly(Quote)
Electronics design (rtd.)
You know how there is now talk of pro-rata car registration? A friend and I invented this 20-some years ago, and it got filed (literally) in a Black File which is still held safe. Didn’t need GPS and seemed pretty fair to us (mindgaming “user pays” to logical conclusions). I only talk about such ideas *after* they emerge elsewhere.
The day after I saw my first photocopier (wet process, three step, sensitised sheets producing rapid-fade sepia copies) I invented the office FAX machine. Already knowing about wirephotos and modems this darkroom in a box made a “remote photocopier” practical. Took it to management and was told the idea was “stupid” and “useless, who would want that?” TRIH. Then there was the Islamic Alarm Clock, but that’s a whole other saga.
I did work in various fields, so I ended up working for companies who were directly competing, and it was normal to get pumped over lunch about what the opposition was up to. At some point I would say, “if I tell you about them, then you have to assume I will tell them about you”. New topic. So there are quite a few very minor things I am still not ethically free to talk about. Lawyers, doctors, cops, journos, engineers, techs, and many others need to be careful of their sources.
Once it was just cash and a brown paper bag, or even newspaper for fish, but now you try taking each of the elements and put them together Leggo-like.
Digital watches were quickly adapted as bomb timers in Ireland, cellphones since all over the place.
The supermarket has (or had) film and digital cameras that are easy to automate, combine with batteries from the next aisle and a motion detector from the hardware section and you are ready to vid-bug the girls toilet at school.
I ain’t no Mcivor but even with my chemistry I could build three different bombs right off the shelves.
What happens when you give several million hormonal teenagers cellphones with cameras built-in? Well a very large number of them take pix of their private bits and post them on the net.
The UK now has some uncountable bazillion CCTV cameras, but what amazes me here are the *hidden* cameras I discover. Get in a taxi? Smile. Sign in to a NSW RSL Club? Smile while you sign. ATM? Smile.
If it runs on electricity you can get it to Twitter you, or you it, for that matter. The Internet fridge had to be the most impractical idea, yet here was the basis for another Black idea, Moral appliances. This gets a new edge as the populace is pressured to reduce medical costs by becoming more healthy. A friend had six months with a breath-tester interlocked to his car ignition. Think about smoking and babies, and where that could go. A cheap Gas Chromatograph using a silicon nose like an electronic clothes brush that will detect consmetics on a suit, aftershave on a dress, and for teen underware…
It also comes from a joke, now only five minutes into our future.
Bloke is running late for work, finds that the smart fridge is still ordering skim milk instead of full cream, which is vital to a good first coffee, so he slams the door and gives the fridge a mighty kick, and stomps off to the fully-auto Family model they got instead of the semi-manual Sports model, and sets the DrivePak for work.
No coffee, gridlock traffic on the ironically-named SuperWay that would “Fix Melbourne’s traffic snarls once and for all”, he finally gets to work and parks, gets all his stuff out and goes to the waiting lift and gets in. “Third floor” he says, and the lift duly closes its doors and moves upward.
Between the 2nd and 3rd floor it slides to a halt and the light goes out.
“THIRD FLOOR I SAID!”
The lift intoned in a sweet feminine voice,
“This is to teach you for kicking the fridge.”
When e-tags were introduced there were problems with multi-billing, and we can expect the same in spades with Miki, but it will be harder to detect.
But what is really concerning me with its techno-infatuation at the moment is the myopic concentration on using the cellphone system as the basis for community bushfire warnings.
There is all sorts of detail, but the exclusive experience of the past forty-odd years has been the same. A disaster, an upgraded “disaster-proof” radio network, which is the first thing to fail come the next disaster. Not just a few, but *every major bushfire event*.
And post Black Saturday we have been hearing more of the same ol’ (I could set it to music). What we have not heard is that (e.g.) Ham Radio volunteers (WICEN) did more hours as backup CFA operators than in all the disasters before that combined.
There is a massive shortfall in required skills.
They dumped the CADMAS project after Ash Wednesday when they could now have real-time battle maps, resources and hazards, available at all levels. The pilot in Knox worked well, then we were between bad fire seasons and the wick in the engine went out (Thanks Race).
The lost map is the last straw, Rees must go.
The CFA – “Lions led by Turkeys”
October 29th, 2009 at 9:57 pm Tim(Quote)
I am an employee at Coles and have been actively involved with the Self Checkout (SC) machines throughout their implementation.
A lot of customers find it hard to understand as to why they have to put their items on the scale, why they cant remove products etc.
The primary reasons for this is it prevents you from double scanning. For some unknown reason, a lot of people who use the SCs fail to look at the screen, so they scan the product….scan again….not realising that the little indicator lights are Red, suggesting that the product needs to be placed on the scale BEFORE it will allow you to continue – hence, ensures that you cant double scan an item.
I dont know why the operator told to you put your bag on the floor…whilst many bags don’t fit within the standard plastic bag weight margine, all she would have had to have done is login to Store Mode which would temporarily disable the scale, put your bag on, then continue in Shopping mode. What store where you in? I would be happy to pass on a message to notify them of your complaint.
In regards to your comment on not being able to scan the same product twice; yes you can, you just need to place each scanned item on the scale before continuing – just as with any other product.
The discount issue is a problem and has been resolved. As of next week all markdowns will be an automatic process rather than manual – I know it was a problem and probably frustrating for most, but that was the only way to could effectively manage markdowns until we implemented the new system.
I will pass on your comment to our SC team in regards to the time it took between packing your bags and the machine asking to “Remove your products”.
I have witnessed many customers use them, and use them efficiently and with minimal assistance. I encourage you to try it again – whilst the first time may have been a long a potentially painful process, I can assure you that the second time round, when you understand how the scale works and how to scan items, it’ll probably quicker than waiting for a manned checkout.
The self checkouts weren’t introduced as a means to save money – on average we still require staff to assist, often just as many throughout the day than that of the manned checkouts, but rather to give you, the customer, another option to purchase your products. Say for example to head into the store just after open. Its still fairly quite, only a few staff are on open registers, and they’re all busy. Yet, there are 7 unused selfcheckouts. For most, this is the easiest and quickest option. We have 7 extra checkouts open, 10 in total, we realistically we probably only need 3 in total to met the demands of early trade.
Like i said, I understand that it may have been annoying to begin with- but all of your interventions with the staff member would have been for a reason. Though I am a little dissapointed that she didnt explain the errors to you in more detail to better your understanding…I will look into it providing you let me know which store this was at.
Thanks for your feedback – I will most definitely pass it onto our SC team.
Tim.
October 29th, 2009 at 10:47 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
Let me just say first up thanks for stopping by, it’s great that companies are listening to feedback about their services.
If there is a weight margin I’d say a bicycle pannier, even when empty (which mine was) is probably outside of the range. On their own I think they weigh 1-1.5kg.
At the registers I’m pretty used to loading groceries off the belt straight into the panniers so the extra step of putting items from my basket onto the scales and then packing my bags after was a bit annoying.
The time wasted there alone was usually how long it takes me to get in and out of the express registers (I never shop during peak times).
As to why the assistant told me to put it on the floor and fill it up after I’d finished scanning I can’t say, maybe she was new. Still, I think my frustration was more that I had to rely on her so many times in using the machine.
I don’t know if my expectations were too high but I imagined in using the self serve checkout I’d have actually had less of a need to rely on staff. Mind you I’m quite technologically proficient in that I worked out what I was doing quickly enough it was just the roadblocks where the machine decided for me that I needed assistance that was frustrating.
I certainly don’t want anyone being disciplined over my experience, I can apprecaite how selfless working in customer service can be.
This is probably what was going on, silly me thought i’d be clever and just do what they do at the registers and save some time by scanning the one tin four times
.
Thanks again for the feedback and suggestions, I’m sure I’ll wind up trying them out again as from memory there weren’t any express registers open at that particular time and the normal registers had trolleys going through.
Is it normal to have the express lanes closed in favour of the SC’s or was I just unlucky? Mind you I didn’t 100% certify there wasn’t one open I just remember not seeing one when I glanced around.
As an aside, how would I go about buying a beer for the person who suggested Coles drop the ‘You’ll love Coles” brand name in favour of ‘Coles”? Seriously that’s the best decision I’ve heard in years.
October 31st, 2009 at 6:53 pm Ryan Hennessy(Quote)
you could of even asked the assistant if he/she could run your groceries through as you dislike using the sc. Being coles they should
October 31st, 2009 at 9:04 pm Tim(Quote)
Hi Ozsapbox,
Yes, believe it or not, there are one of two of us out there who do actually care what people think. And as a GenY myself being internet savvy, I do come across some articles such as this where I can add a cent or two worth =)
I will pass your comment on in regards to your bicycle pannier onto our SC team to have the weight of non-plastic bags increased to cater for those sizes – its a problem which should have been fixed ages ago, and obviously needs a quick reminder.
(For some unknown reason it doesnt seem to like me double quoting so ill just check them in lines, lol)
“At the registers I’m pretty used to loading groceries off the belt straight into the panniers so the extra step of putting items from my basket onto the scales and then packing my bags after was a bit annoying.”
Yeah generally you can do this…but as I said you would need an assistant to add your bag whilst the scale is disabled. If you do try them again, and do have your own bag, ask one of the staff if they can add it on for you (unless I’ve managed to have it fixed by then of course
)
“I don’t know if my expectations were too high but I imagined in using the self serve checkout I’d have actually had less of a need to rely on staff. Mind you I’m quite technologically proficient in that I worked out what I was doing quickly enough it was just the roadblocks where the machine decided for me that I needed assistance that was frustrating.”
I agree with you 100% on that comment – you should require barely no assistance unless your new to the machines. I can assure you we are working hard to make sure this thought is achieved!
And no, as far as I’m aware, the express lanes should be available to be used throughout all hours of trade – introducing SC was certainly not a mean to close express checkouts. And as Ryan pointed out, if you want something, all you have to do is ask and the staff should be happy to do so.
Haha, I wish I knew the person. Although I will miss the corny quotes on the YLC packaging…
October 31st, 2009 at 10:09 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
ARGH THOSE DAMN QUOTES!
I remember the 1kg spaghetti one with that stupid kid, the quote is like ‘i love my mums pasta yay!’ Oh my god I’ve never gotten so much satisfaction from ripping apart packaging before.
I mean seriously did some Coles employee really go around asking randoms for product quotes?! What a job!
April 29th, 2010 at 10:05 pm Jack(Quote)
Glad to have found this site. Let me give you my experience with this kind of dumb machine where it requires human to adjust to a machine rather than cleverly designed (I am a software developers with many years of experience) to adjust & serve human.
The machine has a small table on the left and on the right a kind of weighting table where they have a bundle of plastic bags hanging off it.
To human, when a can of baked bean is priced as per can, why needing to weight it? Only items that are priced per unit of weight needing it. This is human form of deduction and intelligence. Hence as a matter of principle, I scan it by not weighting them. I watched to make sure it registers the scan.
Shopping habit usually leads people to prepare the plastic bag ready to receive scanned items. The minute you ruffles those hard to open up plastic bag, the machine barks instructions to remove foreign items with words to that effect and the machines lock up waiting for operator’s assistance.
Now rather than getting annoy, I begin to apply two tactics, which I encourage others to do: Dumb instructions should be treated verbatim – hence I usually take the whole bundle of the plastic bags off the table. (thanks Coles for supplying me clean plastic bags. When I need any, I just get the machine to tell me to). When the machine is locked it usually pops up the key pad. Help yourself with this amusing game of guessing the pin as it is so inviting. If I pick the right number, I win the bingo and that means I can reset the machine any time. If I lose and if the system is designed using security best practice, it will lock the machine up, preventing even valid entry to be supplied for a cooling off period.
Hence one machine is then preventing from inflicting harm on another human. I have even tried thumping the scale and this some times has the effect of reseting it too.
I am technologically competent human being but intolerant of half-witted dumb machine trying to reduce my level of intelligence to that of a piece of silicon and stainless steel.
I reckon they need to go back to the drawing board.