When did you first use a self-service checkout?
Do you like them?
A lot of retail and grocery stores are putting in self-checkout stations, and many of them now have more of these than regular, human-manned checkout aisles. Grocery stores used to be just the opposite of what they are now. In the 1800s and through the beginning of the 1900s you didn’t shop for your own groceries. Instead you made a list of what you wanted (with amounts) and you gave that list to the store owner. The owner would go into the store and gather the items for you, bag them, and tell you what the price was going to be. You can see this in practice if you watch some movies or television shows depicting those times.
All of that changed with Piggly Wiggly.
Piggly Wiggly was billed as America’s first true self-service grocery store. It got its start in Memphis, Tennessee in 1916 when Clarence Saunders completely redesigned the way we get groceries. He thought it would be faster and cheaper (for him at least) if he opened the store for the shopper to get their own items. When his store opened it had things shoppers had not seen before: shopping baskets and open shelves. People would pick up a basket and fill it with whatever they liked, and only when they were ready to leave did they meet someone who helped them pay for the goods.
Self service was born. And it became so popular that this was the de facto way we bought groceries and then other retail items. The last link in the self service chain was the checkout process. Stores still had to have people employed to tally up the expenses of each item you brought to them and manage the transaction for purchasing. But that changed too over the years. It used to be that store clerks would add the prices themselves as you checked out to give you the total. Then computers came along and the values were typed into a machine. Later the technology allowed people to scan the bar codes that were on each item to get the price. And finally, the innovation of self checkout came to be. Instead of an employee scanning items, the work shifted to the customer. Now, self-checkouts are used by 96 percent of major grocery chains.
Self-checkout stations aren’t easy or cheap to install (I read where a 4 lane setup can cost the store owner $125,000). And they have to be maintained. Software has to be installed and updated. And you still need some employees nearby to help shoppers if they need it. So why would a retailer put in a self-checkout station? The answer is money of course. When Clarence Saunders created the concept of having shoppers get their own goods the driving force was lower expenses for him. Why waste time (and therefore money) getting people’s goods when you can make them do it? Self checkout is not much different in terms of monetary motivation. If more people can checkout faster themselves you can get more people buying things, and you may have to pay for a reduced workforce if you can make the shopper do some of the work themselves.
If I have only a few items to purchase I like using self-checkout stations. It is quick and relatively painless for me. But if I have a lot of items I find it takes more time than the traditional way for me to checkout. And I avoid these stations like the plague if I have “complicated” items to buy, like things with no price tag on them or things that require ID. Other negatives include social pressure. If you are the one responsible for getting the transaction finished, then you determine the speed of that transaction. What if there is a long line behind you and you are having trouble scanning everything in a timely manner? You may start to feel pressured to get the checkout done, since now it is all up to you.
And then there is shoplifting. Studies show that self-checkout stations are more likely to encounter theft vs. one run by a cashier. In fact 1 in 7 shoppers admit intentionally stealing something in a self-checkout station, which accounts for $10 billion in lost revenue per year. There is also unintentional shoplifting where you simply make a mistake and forget to scan an item in your cart.
But I don’t like self-service for another reason. To me the whole thing becomes a bit impersonal. You don’t have to interact with anyone anymore. Some would say this is a good thing but I am not so sure. Relationships is what Christianity is all about and I don’t care for a system that takes an opportunity to build a relationship away from me. Let’s look at famous people of the bible when they were left alone. Here is an incomplete list of some people who found themselves alone at some point:
Adam
Joseph
Moses
Jesus
Paul
The unclean in society
And look at Elijah. After his famous showing up of false prophets he found himself alone and afraid.
Elijah 19:1-5
19 Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done. He told her how Elijah had killed all the prophets of Baal with his sword. 2 So Jezebel sent a message to Elijah. She said, “You can be sure that I will kill you, just as I killed the other prophets. I’ll do it by this time tomorrow. If I don’t, may the gods punish me greatly.”
3 Elijah was afraid. So he ran for his life. He came to Beersheba in Judah. He left his servant there. 4 Then he traveled for one day into the desert. He came to a small bush. He sat down under it. He prayed that he would die. “Lord, I’ve had enough,” he said. “Take my life. I’m no better than my people of long ago.” 5 Then he lay down under the bush. And he fell asleep.
How sad is that? People aren’t meant to be alone. We need social contact. That is why solitary confinement is such a tough punishment in prison. Here is a list of things that solitary confinement can create, according to Dr. Sharon Shalev, the author of the “Sourcebook on Solitary Confinement” in 2008:
- anxiety and stress
- depression and hopelessness
- anger, irritability, and hostility
- panic attacks
- worsened preexisting mental health issues
- hypersensitivity to sounds and smells
- problems with attention, concentration, and memory
- hallucinations that affect all of the senses
- paranoia
- poor impulse control
- social withdrawal
- outbursts of violence
- psychosis
- fear of death
- self-harm or suicide
Our faith depends on relationships. It is meant to be shared.
As a side note, it is funny how the latest innovation in retail shopping is the delivery option where you order what you want online and drive to the store parking lot. The store employees put together bags full of everything you ordered and bring it to your car. We have come full circle with this.
God Bless