When you’re doing your grocery in a big retail store you’ll find yourself stuck at the cashier lane for hours waiting for your turn to be assisted. For years this has been the experience of a lot of customers especially if that specific store does not have enough lanes open at the checkout.
This is why a lot of retail stores are finding innovative ways to make it easier for the customers and considering the rising price of wages, they have added self-checkouts to make the shopping experience much smoother and time-effective for customers.
One of the retail stores that tried the self-check station was one of the world’s largest retailers Walmart. However, after adding a lot of self-checkout stations, Walmart then announced that they will no longer add its number and that they’re about to introduce another way to make it easier for the consumer.
Watch it here: Digital Dictionary/Youtube
And here’s the reason why.
The reason why Walmart introduced self-checkout to their customers is that they want their customers to save more time and for them to save a lot of money instead of hiring more cashiers. At first, the idea was great, they thought that the customers would feel and think the same too. However; it’s the opposite one. They started to receive a lot of negative comments from the customers, Walmart who already has a bad reputation when it comes to customer service even worsen after the self-checkout station was introduced. What they hoped would change their customer’s narrative towards their customer service didn’t happen.
The customer felt that Walmart is using them to save a lot of money from hiring workers and additional cashiers. This made Walmart realize that their Scan-and-Go stations are not working as they expected and are wildly unpopular and that customers can’t be expected to do extra work just because Walmart doesn’t want to hire more people.
This made Walmart announce that they will no longer add more Scan-and-Go stations but instead will focus more on hiring cashiers. This only means that the Scan-and-Go stations are a huge failed experiment, still, customers would prefer to wait on the lane and be assisted by a human than having them do the labor that the stores are responsible for. The main cause of all of these is the rising cost of labor, businesses would prefer to use robots to fill the traditional employees to save a lot of money.
Aside from Walmart, it’s still unclear if other retail stores would realize the same if they will continue to use the self-checkout in order for them not to lose their customers. This will boost public opinion and probably lead to increased business. If people feel that they are being treated well, they will have a better shopping experience and will be more likely to return.
Sources: Sharesplosion, Corporate Walmart, Vox
Patience is a virtue. When customers get accustomed to the use of scanning wands and self service and short waits to check out, they will change their minds. I certainly have, but it tool a little getting used to the new, better way!