It depends a lot on the specific store, but I don’t usually have to wait in a line longer than about 3 people and it moves quick.
On one hand, I agree with the video that the system doesn’t solve the problem of lines at the supermarket. It was fairly obvious that they never anticipated queuing because there’s never a dedicated section for where to stand while you wait for the next available terminal, so the line often spills into the end of some aisle and blocks all the cross traffic trying to navigate to the other end of the store.
On the other, it’s not like we’re going to go back to not having to stand around and wait if we get cashiers back filling the old school checkout lines.
IMO, the way forward is going to be to eliminate pay stations altogether and do either RFID tags on all the items so you are just charged for what you take while walking out of the store, or you have a scanner in the cart so you can total up all your purchases as you shop, reducing friction at checkout.
It depends a lot on the specific store, but I don’t usually have to wait in a line longer than about 3 people and it moves quick.
On one hand, I agree with the video that the system doesn’t solve the problem of lines at the supermarket. It was fairly obvious that they never anticipated queuing because there’s never a dedicated section for where to stand while you wait for the next available terminal, so the line often spills into the end of some aisle and blocks all the cross traffic trying to navigate to the other end of the store.
On the other, it’s not like we’re going to go back to not having to stand around and wait if we get cashiers back filling the old school checkout lines.
IMO, the way forward is going to be to eliminate pay stations altogether and do either RFID tags on all the items so you are just charged for what you take while walking out of the store, or you have a scanner in the cart so you can total up all your purchases as you shop, reducing friction at checkout.