So independent kiosk are trending and being called a failed experiment. I disagree and have no problem pointing out that the complete opposite is true. So here is a quote from The Atlantic.

The checkout kiosks bleat and flash when you fail to set a purchase down in the right spot. Scanning those items is sometimes a crapshoot—wave a barcode too vigorously in front of an uncooperative machine, and suddenly you’ve scanned it two or three times. Then you need to locate the usually lone employee charged with supervising all of the finicky kiosks, who will radiate exasperation at you while scanning her ID badge and tapping the kiosk’s touch screen from pure muscle memory

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/10/self-checkout-kiosks-grocery-retail-stores/675676/

So basically, nothing changed at the grocery store, but instead of small talk with the local elementary school drop out, that has a criminal record and is now a tax break, thanks to Obama, that can’t scan the code right, you get the luxury of doing it yourself. Yeah, that sucks so bad!

Table tasting had this to say

self-checkout systems more than double the rate of theft in stores.

Read More: https://www.tastingtable.com/1366529/reasons-self-checkout-failed-time-to-move-on/

https://www.tastingtable.com/1366529/reasons-self-checkout-failed-time-to-move-on/

Ok, for one, there is no evidence to support this claim. A machine going off due to a misplaced item is automatically seen as theft. This is the kiosk equivalent of the “teen pregnancy rates are down” because abortions don’t count toward that total, which is bullshit. Pregnancy is pregnancy and carried to term or not didn’t stop it from developing. Same here, More bleeping is not more theft. Look at California, where theft is out of control at the moment, what independent kiosk caused that?

Let’s look at this argument. People claiming it cost jobs. The same was most likely claimed about the fork lift, but today, many men and some women, still man the docks of a store and take items off the back of the truck. In fact, one argument back then in favor of the switch to a fork lift was probably, less people on the truck, less likely to get stolen. There is a reason “it fell off the back of a truck” has always been a figure of speech that meant stolen.

Independent kiosk are effective, efficient and helpful to strengthen and streamline the shopping process. Besides, when 90% of shopping is done online at Amazon, why would you want more chasiers working over glorified welfare? Some of these arguments could of held some truth over 20 years ago, when they first started popping up, but the landscape has changed and millennials are more mad about doing this as a chore, while sounding like out of touch, middle aged, fuddy duddies.

In the long run, these automated machines will continue to make the little bit of real world shopping, far easier than ever. Independent kiosk are here to stay!