Retail self-checkout options are increasingly becoming a “go-to” option for busy shoppers.
Self-checkout terminals now account for 55% of all consumer payment station interactions according to VideoMining, a retail performance analysis company based in State College, Pa.
DON"T MISS: Costco Stock Breaks Out
Overall, self-checkout customer usage has risen by 53% since 2017 and self-checkout registers comprise 48% of all checkout registers as of December, 2022, VideoMining reported.
Customers seem to like the speed advantages of using self-checkout terminals. 70% of shoppers “didn’t have to wait at all” in using the payment option. That’s up from 19% of shoppers who didn’t wait in 2017.
As usage increases, it’s also becoming clear some retail self-checkout experiences are better than others.
Take big box retailer Costco, which resumed using self-checkout machines in 2019 at select store locations after eliminating them in 2013.
“At Costco, we strive to offer the best shopping experience for our members,” Costco stated on its website. “We've found that most of our members purchase an average of sixteen items per visit, which would mean that, on average, the express aisle would be the least used of all our registers. That's why we made the decision not to include express lanes—at least for now.”
“However, we have implemented the use of self-service lanes at select locations and may expand to more warehouses in the future,” the company noted.
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Yet a growing number of shoppers are gathering on Reddit to complain about the Costco self-pay experience.
Take Reddit user @Stranger_Dangus who used the r/Costco subreddit on June 19 to describe a recent Costco self-checkout experience.
"Today I went in and had about seven items, several being larger items,” the shopper said. “I used the hand scanner and got down to my last two items (steaks) and a lady approached me saying I need to use the actual table scanner for my steaks," they wrote. "I told her I only have 2 items left and I scanned one of the packages and she yanked the hand scanner out of my hand and told me I had to use to table scanner."
Over 1,600 Reddit users commented on the thread, many of them with similar frustrations.
“I Will agree that Costco employees have seemed especially short-tempered and frustrated lately, especially in self-checkout,” another Redditer commented.
Costco staffers are weighing in on the issue, as well.
“There's a weight limit on the scale,” said JennLegend3, a self-described Costco employee. “If you put too much stuff on it, it will stop you from doing anything else. You have to take everything off to continue. It's not the most common thing but I've seen that happen 3 times and it's a big hassle for the member.”
Even 1,600 Reddit users don’t make a “cased close” on the entire Costco self-checkout experience.
But they certainly seem to be leaning in one unhappy direction.
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