To fully understand the function of the automated self-checkout, or Semi Attended Customer Activated Terminal (SACAT), we must first understand the dilemma it was intended to solve and how its properties make it uniquely suited to solve that dilemma. In order to get there, we must understand the history of service in the grocery sector over the course of the past century.
The “traditional” grocer is barely recognizable when set up beside the modern supermarket. The ubiquitous shopping carts, customers perusing aisles of products, and the lanes of checkout machines would be unimaginable at the time. The traditional grocery store acted as a middleman between the wholesaler and the customer, with the clerk as the expert in gathering and measuring goods needed by customers. We can compare this to the full-service gas stations which are now almost completely eliminated in most areas. A customer would provide the clerk with a list of items, and the clerk would, some time later, return to the counter with what was needed. The clerk would weigh, package, and calculate the price of goods as well, meaning he had to be proficient at using the appropriate tools to the task (this was before UPCs and scanners). The drawbacks to this system should seem obvious, especially from the perspective of efficiency of labor. Under the traditional model, one worker could help one customer for however long it took to gather all items on a list. In the meantime, the customer waited. With a maximum of two or three clerks, he wait time for customers not being helped could get quite long.
The first self-serving grocery store opened in Memphis, Tennessee in 1917. The front counter was replaced with multiple registers, as customers were now free to fill baskets as they gathered their own items from shelves. This first step towards a more efficient checkout experience drove wait times down and began the trends of shifting responsibility onto the customer and deskilling the grocery clerk, as more of his previous tasks were no longer necessary. The responsibilities of the cashier were further reduced in the 1970’s, as Universal Product Codes and scanning technology took on the task of pricing and inventory control. The new layout of grocery stores and the introduction of barcode scanning allowed a greater selection of merchandise and increased efficiency by eliminating the need for the 1:1 ratio of clerk to customer.
The first self-checkout machines were designed and patented in the 1990’s, but grew to prominence in the early 2000’s. Conceived as a cost and time saving alternative to manned checkout lanes, they allow one employee to supervise several kiosks at once as customers scan their own items, weigh produce, input coupons, pay for their transaction, and be on their way. The new systems utilize the aforementioned barcode technology, combined with a touchscreen interface, pre-recorded voice commands, and a system of scales to manage potential thefts. The motivation behind the implementation of these systems was efficiency, as they promise a fast and simple alternative to employee-operated checkout lanes.
The “traditional” grocer is barely recognizable when set up beside the modern supermarket. The ubiquitous shopping carts, customers perusing aisles of products, and the lanes of checkout machines would be unimaginable at the time. The traditional grocery store acted as a middleman between the wholesaler and the customer, with the clerk as the expert in gathering and measuring goods needed by customers. We can compare this to the full-service gas stations which are now almost completely eliminated in most areas. A customer would provide the clerk with a list of items, and the clerk would, some time later, return to the counter with what was needed. The clerk would weigh, package, and calculate the price of goods as well, meaning he had to be proficient at using the appropriate tools to the task (this was before UPCs and scanners). The drawbacks to this system should seem obvious, especially from the perspective of efficiency of labor. Under the traditional model, one worker could help one customer for however long it took to gather all items on a list. In the meantime, the customer waited. With a maximum of two or three clerks, he wait time for customers not being helped could get quite long.
The first self-serving grocery store opened in Memphis, Tennessee in 1917. The front counter was replaced with multiple registers, as customers were now free to fill baskets as they gathered their own items from shelves. This first step towards a more efficient checkout experience drove wait times down and began the trends of shifting responsibility onto the customer and deskilling the grocery clerk, as more of his previous tasks were no longer necessary. The responsibilities of the cashier were further reduced in the 1970’s, as Universal Product Codes and scanning technology took on the task of pricing and inventory control. The new layout of grocery stores and the introduction of barcode scanning allowed a greater selection of merchandise and increased efficiency by eliminating the need for the 1:1 ratio of clerk to customer.
The first self-checkout machines were designed and patented in the 1990’s, but grew to prominence in the early 2000’s. Conceived as a cost and time saving alternative to manned checkout lanes, they allow one employee to supervise several kiosks at once as customers scan their own items, weigh produce, input coupons, pay for their transaction, and be on their way. The new systems utilize the aforementioned barcode technology, combined with a touchscreen interface, pre-recorded voice commands, and a system of scales to manage potential thefts. The motivation behind the implementation of these systems was efficiency, as they promise a fast and simple alternative to employee-operated checkout lanes.
The history of the grocery checkout process is one of the deskilling of the grocery worker. A century ago, the employee would need to be an expert in all products, understand the weights and measures, be able to manually enter prices, and to be the “face” of his shop. Today, most grocery store workers are working for the minimum wage, with far fewer expectations of expertise. At the same time changes in technology and procedure have given the shopper far more responsibility, as more is expected of him.
A parallel history to that of the shifting of skills and responsibilities is that of the increasing isolation of the shopper as getting groceries has become a much less social activity. The traditional grocery store was one based on interaction between clerk and customer, as communication was essential to ensure an accurate order. As the checkout lanes and aisles appeared, shoppers had less incentive to teat shopping as a social activity beyond exchanging niceties with the clerk during checkout. “Please,” “Thank You,” and “Have a Nice Day” may be the extent to which some communicated verbally with the employees at the grocery store. The self-checkout lane has no expectation of socialization with the customer, as all of its responses are preprogrammed and only responsive to the inputs of the customer.
Sources:
https://www.few.vu.nl/en/Images/werkstuk-horst_tcm39-91361.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Product_Code