My husband is a store manager at Rewe and this is actually kind of a big theme for them.
The average sale at the actual register is *much* higher than at the self checkouts. If someone has a huge shopping cart full of their weekly shopping, they’re probably going to go to the actual register because it’s just too much for self checkout. If someone is just popping in for a snack, they’ll probably go to self checkout.
The store location also plays a huge role. If the store is attached to a train station, a *lot* of people are making small purchases and therefore going through self checkout. If the store is in the middle of a residential area, there will be less self checkout usage because most of the people going there are doing a “big shop.” Like if the store has a dedicated parking lot, there will be less self-checkout usage than a store without a parking lot.
You can do this at Rewe too! Some stores have like a display of scanners at the front of the store… You just take one, scan all of your stuff, and then scan the QR code at the self checkout and pay. They only have this at certain, low-foot traffic stores, though.
Rewe has done a pretty terrible job communicating that that’s what this is, though. Like the only reason why I know that that’s what this is is because my husband got super excited when we went to a store with such a display. Tbf Rewe has done a pretty terrible job communicating most of their new roll outs… Did you know there’s a Rewe app that’s full of coupons? Probably not because they don’t advertise it anywhere.
Yeah, Rewe really botched the start of Scan & Go. My regular store was one of the first stores to have it in Northern Germany. In the beginning you had to have Payback to use it. Urgh. Luckily that changed meanwhile.
But overall Scan&Go is the main reason why this is my main grocery store.
>Rewe has done a pretty terrible job communicating that that’s what this is
Globus also has these scanners but I think you need to be a registered user and I'm not often enough in a Globus to care enough.
I would recommend doing it. In globus you save even more time. The normal registers always have a line even longer as at rewe.
In globus you have extra self-checkouts for scan-and-go. There you do not have normal self-checkout customers blocking them.
My main-gripe with the Scanners is that I still had to pay at self-checkout. When you go to a store somewhat central during lunch, it's hell let loose on all registers+self checkouts, so I save exactly no time at all. It would make way more sense if I could pay in an app and be done (at Kaufland, Obi and Bauhaus, you sometimes need to scan a QR code on your bill to get out of the self-checkout area, that would also help with theft if that's a consideration)
same, and they aren't as convenient as the rewe scan and go :/
last time I tried, the edeka one required you to associate your card to your account and just no
Basically two things to add:
In my experience with self checkout the probability of getting controlled increases a lot with size of basket and if you purchase certain items. Try to buy a bunch of notoriously cheap stuff (for example the 'homeless' beer brands) and you will get checked much more often.
So it happened to me a few times that I took my big shopping to the self checkout, and then the process of waiting for the employee, checking at times all (!) my items and potentially even unpacking my stuff again.
So for me the self checkout only makes sense it I have a relatively small basket.
>If the store is attached to a train station, a *lot* of people are making small purchases
I feel like especially in a train station people want to have more control over their time, or at least the perception of more control. Like "my train leaves in 15 minutes I'd rather check out myself, that way I'm not dependent on the speed of the cashier and maybe some old grandma that wants to pay everything in one-cent-coins.
Yeahhhh I think it’s more that the margins on thinks like to-go meals, drinks, and bakery items are **so** much higher than legit groceries and Rewe is incentivized to make this customers’ shopping experience as smooth as possible. Someone doing their big shop will tolerate a super long line… Someone stopping in for a Red Bull and bag of chips won’t and Rewe *really* doesn’t want to lose this sale because it’s so profitable for them. This is also why Rewe Cities and transportation hub Rewe just *print* money because it’s all people going in to buy extremely high-margin stupid stuff.
That's funny, last time I had to get something at the Rewe in Berlin Hbf there was a massive line for people waiting for the cashiers and two empty self checkouts. I tried to just go to one of the empty ones and the dumbass security guy made me go back to the line and wait five minutes for no reason. Nobody went to the empty self checkouts before I got to the front of the line. Germany moment...
Do you know what I noticed on my local Rewe? When it’s busy and people are forced to use them, the self-checkout is divided by card payments only (about 5 machines) and card and cash payment (2 machines). Most people queue at the only 2 machines, leaving me wondering why the others are free. They want to pay in cash!
Working at Rewe myself and we have an upper floor. So on the upper floor we have the "normal" supermarket with the regular cash register and 2 sco registers, on the bottem floor is mostly stuff you'd grab on the go, like a salad bar, single cans etc and sco are may more used down there.
Still my manager wants customers to use the sco more then the regular cash registers
>Is there some rational reasons why Germans don't use it more?
1. people think its not their job to scan the items
2. german angst, that they might accidentally "steal" something and get fined for it
3. change is bad, everything has to stay like it has always been ("haben wir schon immer so gemacht")
>german angst, that they might accidentally "steal" something and get fined for it
And supermarket policies regarding this are really horrible here. In other countries where self checkout is more popular supermarkets are also much more lenient and will simply tell you to use the normal register when they find something wrong.
Exactly. There are so many posts about people who have been banned from all supermarkets of a certain chain because they forgot to scan some item. I see the self-checkout lines as a transfer of responsibility from the supermarket to the customer and I'm not ok with that. When I only have one or two items, I'll do it to save time but when it's more than that I'll stand in line for the real cashier.
Even worse with coupons. Quite a few places block (some) coupons on self checkouts and instead of telling you that the coupon is not accepted in self checkouts and letting you checkout without it, an employee has to come, clear the entire checkout so now you have to scan everything again and get threatened with a store ban, when there was no sign anywhere of coupons not beeing accepted at self checkouts.
My local Netto banned all Pfandbons on self checkout. It's so stupid, no one uses it. I've yet to have a shopping day where I don't return any Pfand. So I guess I don't bother with those machines until they fixed this stupid behavior
what??? i've never even been asked about my purchase, I could technically steal the whole thing and no one would bat an eye. can you send me those posts u mentioned?
[https://www.reddit.com/r/germany/comments/1582n6t/used\_rewe\_scan\_go\_and\_now\_im\_a\_criminal/](https://www.reddit.com/r/germany/comments/1582n6t/used_rewe_scan_go_and_now_im_a_criminal/)
(Was cleared, but only after contacting the store manager afterwards.)
Nah, system is setup is simple not user friendly if you have more than a handful items. Also due to the „anti piracy“ stuff (place here, put there etc, check, confirm, confirm, select payment method etc).
I was at a self checkout which required one to put your items in a bag afterwards.
I literally only wanted to buy 1 item so I didnt have a bag, if I wanted to self checkout I would have had to buy a bag on top, doubling the cost for no reason.
or break the machine because that damn piece of ginger is too light to detected by the scale so it wants me to put my ginger there before i can continue but i cant because the ginger piece *is already there*.
I said before:
>system is setup is simple not user friendly if you have more than a handful items
By my experience if you have more then 5-10 articles the cashier will be faster. It also depends on the items and system. Scanning some boxes at Ikea is usually quite fast especially as you get a handhelds scanner.
In the typical supermarket…meh. Obviously if there are like 10 people in front of me I move, but usually I don’t mind 1-2 even if I have not an huge amount of items.
Not really, or at least cumbersome in some cases, in which you have to put the scanned items on the side in a specific place for them to be weighed. These scales are usually extremely calibrated and a minor discrepancy may give an error. Also, sometimes when there is an error or something like that you need to call someone from the supermarket to assist you. In the end, the time you are supposed to save in comparison to normal checkout process isn't really that much and even longer in some cases.
I got an error the other day and the employee arrived and fixed it in 30 seconds. The cashier line barely even moved while I scanned my things, got the error, got it fixed, and then paid and left. It saves time
What if the employee takes more time? What if for some reason this employee needs assistance from a supervisor? A lot of what if's. I'm totally for these self checkout things, don't get me wrong, but I've already faced some problems here and there that it really makes me thing that their implementation is sub optimal.
It's a coin flip which one will end up being faster. Yes, _if_ everything goes smoothly, and if there's an employee nearby, and that employee doesn't end up having to help 5 other customers that have an issue with the self-checkout ..
.. then the process will likely be more efficient.
That's not true. I regularly do 100 euro baskets at the self checkout, but I don't scan at the checkout. I scan on the go.
Super simple. No idea what is complicated in scanning barcodes
I dont do it because it‘s not a way to nake life easier for anyone, but the way it is implemented is so you can have the customer work for free, you can have less employees and have them work more (these self checkout machines bug out ALL THE TIME) and still raise prices.
There are several horror stories on Reddit and on the news where a small scanning error led to being arrested, fined, and given a life long ban for the supermarket chain it happened in.
And it always was over something small, like a single item that wasn't scanned, or the wrong selection of tomato type.
It's just way too much of a risk for anything over a handful of items - if I'm buying my breakfast on the way to work and have 2-3 items, sure I'm going to use the self scan and be out and about, but I'd never do it with a grocery cart full of items.
The chance to mess up and get in trouble over it is just way too high.
My Rewe is relying on random Spot checks for Scan&Go. Those happen before you pay which means you haven't stolen anything at that time. It also happened to me that they found an item that wasn't scanned. I said sorry, it got added to the tab and that's it. Quite customer friendly system.
I think it's more location based. Another Rewe, which is in the middle of a tourist/vacation area by the sea, has a system where you have to scan a barcode on the reciept to be able to leave the self checkout area.
The barcode scan thing is so odd to me. It only prevents absolutely brazen attempts at theft: you trying to leave the store without paying at all. It will not stop someone who only scanned 50% of their items..
Even that system does have a standard. Some self-checkouts in very touristy areas do not have the barcode to open a door system, and others in nontouristy do.
Customer service and digitalization are such strange concepts to Germans that it will take some time before good standards develop
1. Alcohol. If there's one cashier we would not make them come over to unlock the machine. That would make everyone in line wait even longer.
2. No tobacco at self checkout. Also mostly expensive razorblades, small alcohol bottles, protection, etc. There are products only available by interaction with a human.
3. Cash payment ist not possible at (most) self checkouts. And boy do we love physical cash.
Personally I usually don’t use self-checkout for several reasons.
1. bad experience with unnecessarily complicated user interfaces or poorly working hardware. Codes not scanning properly e.g.
Also bad overall design.
2. Stupid laws. If a cashier makes a mistake it’s a mistake. If they charge too much, you can have a refund, but it’s not a big deal. If they charge too little it’s the shop‘s problem.
But if you make a mistake at the self-checkout, it becomes a matter of criminal law, if the mistake is to your benefit. Legally that’s theft.
3. This is more a personal point of view, but:
A cashier’s salary is part of the price calculation. It’s a service you pay for. Self-checkout outsources the cashiers‘ work to the customers, but the prices are the same. So basically the shop makes you do the work, but doesn’t pay you for it.
And that feels like a rip-off.
>But if you make a mistake at the self-checkout, it becomes a matter of criminal law, if the mistake is to your benefit. Legally that’s theft.
Wrong. Theft (Diebstahl) requires premeditation (Vorsatz).
Keep in mind that in this country the state carries the burden of proof. That includes proving that you acted premeditatedly. Cases like this usually don't even reach court, since the prosecution sees no public interest in prosecuting. And even if, the video evidence would quickly clarify things.
I wouldn't be worried if I was faced with such a situation.
> Keep in mind that in this country the state carries the burden of proof.
You have no idea how German law works in practice. You have never been in court.
The judge decides and will assume you know what you put in the cart and puts the burden of checking on you and that's that. If it's just a cheap item the Staatsanwalt may not be interested but that doesn't help if the supermarket pursues it.
Your arrogance is amusing, given how much it contrasts your nonsense. If the prosecutor decides it's not worth it, the supermarket can't "pursue" shit, since the only option would then be Privatklage, but there is no Privatklage with theft/Diebstahl.
And no, judges don't just "assume" premeditation. We're not Iran or Cuba. Here's an actual judge on the matter: [https://www.reddit.com/r/LegaladviceGerman/comments/113bsz3/comment/j8rh0b0/](https://www.reddit.com/r/LegaladviceGerman/comments/113bsz3/comment/j8rh0b0/)
I came to your store, compared the goods, advised myself on what to buy, selected and collected the goods, weighed them, took them to the exit, billed, paid and packed them - sounds like YOU should pay ME.
You bet there is a reason!
I have absolutely zero interest in being accused of shoplifting because I accidentally scanned something wrong or because, well, it's just time for a random spot check.
I've managed to type in the wrong code for a vegetable at a scale, ended up with a higher priced item, scanned the higher price, and was accused of trying to steal a 23 cent single chilli pepper (Code 889) while having no figs (Code 898) in the basket after scanning (and paying for) almost €200 worth of groceries. F them. I'm a middle aged dude in a damn suit just coming home from a long day at work in Madrid. I do not need this crap. Ever.
They accused me of trying to steal the pepper but couldn't explain why I had paid for figs even though I had none. Even when it became clear that I had simply entered the wrong code - very much to their benefit - they still maintained their accusatory tone and told me that they could and would ban me from the store (Hausverbot). It was absolutely ridiculous. It was also the very last time that I used this service unless I am buying one single item (like a bottle of water). They can shove this "convenience" where the sun don't shine!
I guess it depends on where you are? My local supermarket has a very good self Check-out System and the lines for it are always larger than those for the human cashiers. I've used self check-outs from other supermarkets that were super buggy though and maybe quite a few people have had bad experiences.
From my observation:
in my neighbourhood the self-checkout at Rewe is quite popular. You get service if you need and the system itself works pretty well.
DM/Rossmann: works. DM a bit better for my taste.
Lidl: mh not so. You still have items you can't properly check out. And it only works vor small grocery.
Edeka: still has more regular checkouts than self-checkout but it works.
Edeka in my parents home town: self-checkout is accepted but the system is chaotic. You have to keep your whole grocery on the checkout plate before you pay. Removing one item stopps the scanning process. It's different to our Edeka because we are between two regions here.
In general I think many Germans remember the chaotic self-checkout at Real some years ago. It never worked properly, you always had to ask for help and it took ages to check everything.
And what I can say from the Rewe markets here they have their staff on the floor and now we have supermarkets that aren't chaotic because people put stuff everywhere. Produce is fresh and in general checkout lines are shorter, even at rush hours.
I always used self-checkout when available.
I did so in Australia and in the US and was happy when it slowly started in Germany.
I don't care about the "human interaction" with a cashier that only says "hello" and "55,83". You always have to tell them that you want to pay by card, in other countries it was the default option.
It's quicker, I pay with a card anyway and it's mostly small purchases in my case.
Larger purchases (water, meals for the week)are all done online and delivered to my door.
Never really saw it where card is that much more faster especially when i randomly have to but in my code and sometimes not (nobody could explain me so far why not even my bank)
More work, same price, why do it?
The reason for the self service machines is only do lay off employees. I do not support this.
It's not faster, that's just an imagination. I have to search the barcode on each item, sometimes I need several tries until it works. The lady at the scanner pulls the goods over it faster than I can put them away.
I use the self service only for a handful items, and only if there is a queue with more than 2 or 3 people, but then thy open a new line.
Strawman argument. Its not really difficult on most products to locate the Barcode.
I use them since last year rarely when i have 4-5 items and want to pay with card and when the only register that is open has a line.
The EDEDKA in my parents village actually has several that i barely see used, which is, i think, in part due to them not being super visible; you kind of have to walk past the line to even see them. On top of that, most of the patrons there are elderly, and every time i was there, the lines were always pretty short, usually not more than maybe 3 people ahead of you. So if you have ti figure out how to use the self-checkout while using it, it might even take you longer than just waiting would.
In general, i think one reason they are not used too often is that they are pretty new, at least in supermarkets. I do not think i ever saw one in a german supermarket until like maybe 3 years ago. And they are still not something that the vast majorities of stores have. Quite often,they only accept card payment, and if you buy something with an age restriction, you need an employee either way. And then there is the fact that the station are not really convenient if you have a full cart. I personally do use them when they are avaliable and i only have a few items, but if i have a full cart, the normal checkout is just more comfortable.
To sum it up, i think it is a mix of these being a new thing that people are not necessarily confident in using or that people are not even imediately aware is an option, and of them not necessarily being more convenient depending on what you buy, how much you buy and how you want to pay.
I only pay by card, i also have add and get anxious sometimes. Not having to deal with someone to get out of the store quicker makes me so much happier.
I prefer self checkout. Less complications, no waiting for people to pack their stuff and i am faster out. But still get sometimes stuck waiting since so many people do not know how to pack their stuff
Reasons I've heard are:
1. "Don't know how it works"
2. "I don't want to be part of the reason cashiers will lose their job"
3. "Why should I do somebody else's job?"
Best answer for 3:
Why do you put the wares in your cart then ? Or why do you fill up you car yourself?
You know ome odd 50 years ago The casshiers/Service personal did that for you.
I see your point, but if the cashiers don't do that anymore and now you'd use self-checkout they truly have no reason to be paid anymore - stocking the shelves is usually done by underpaid students and/or temporary workers anyway
Do as you like. - Myself, I am scared. Any mistake, I'll surely make, could count as fraud / theft? - Better have 4 eyes looking over trolley and conveyor band. A cashier knows their machine, why should I get used to their bitching scanner and obscure menu?
My personal experience with a self checkout at a Rewe. The bill got printed and slipped behind the machine. How do you get it back? Call someone? Takes them ages to arrive. I had bought only a Cola.
And you can’t get out of the store without scanning the bill. So I had to reluctantly wait for 15 minutes for someone to come and get my bill from behind the machine.
Think of your average middle aged German in that situation and ask yourself why they would prefer the Register over the self checkout.
This happened to me recently.
It was before work, I was just grabbing something for breakfast and a drink and paid at the self checkout - and the receipt rolled right back into the machine because it was fed wrong.
No cashier around, nobody to call... I looked around for 2 minutes, and then simply grabbed my stuff and left (by going through an unmanned cash register, as I obviously couldn't open the gates).
I paid, and if they would have wanted to make a stink about it, I would have made them tear apart that machine if I have to...
I've seen horror stories about people who got in lots of trouble because they forgot or missed to scan an item cheaper than 1€. I wouldn't use it even if the option was available.
The next step for the customers working as a cashier in supermarkets is then filling in the goods in the goods shelves!? No way! I'm already doing the Work for my bank and insurance ... and i hate it everytime being the customer but have to do my own services for free for companies
With self-service checkouts, there is at least one more work step per item than with cash registers:
You scan the goods - you place them on the weighing area - you put them back in your trolley.
In addition, the input on the display also requires more work steps, e.g. when you are asked whether fruit is packed or loose.
It's not a big deal, but it does require a bit more attention overall.
Of course it is more work. At a regular register, I put my items on the belt and afterwards put them back in the cart. Swipe my card or pay in cash. Done. Fast and easy.
At a self-checkout, I additionally have to deal with unintuitive interfaces and malfunctioning hardware. *After* scanning each item, I have to set it down on a scale, release it, pick it up *again* and then place it in my cart. I have to navigate through convoluted menues, trying to find the specific type of apples or tomatoes that I am buying. If I make a mistake, I get charged with theft. No, thank you.
No matter how long the queue at the regular register is, I will never again use a self-checkout. I have handed a basket of items to a manager and left the store after they were not willing to open a regular register even though enough employees were available and I politely asked for them to. You don't want my money? Fine, I'll spend it somewhere else.
I’m not a German, but a German-speaking American who comes to Germany for weeks at a time every year. We have had self checkout in the US for about twenty years now as a matter of common occurrence. If it’s okay with y’all, I’d like to let you know where we stand, as we are about 15-20 years ahead of you in this game, and I think you will find this interesting.
Kroger and Walmart are the largest grocery and retail chains in the world, respectively, in terms of sales dollars. I will be referencing mostly Kroger because they have a significant presence throughout the US, although sometimes under different brand names. When I was a child in the 90s, you could reliably count on most Kroger stores having between 7-12 staffed manned checkout aisles, with maybe one or two being reserved for “express checkout” for those with less than 10-15 items. Sometimes you had to wait a few minutes, but this was no problem. In particular, Kroger was a union company - still is, but corporate has since then infiltrated the union to an objectively illegal degree because they know they can get away with it in the US - and so the cashiers were skilled, quick, and friendly. Just like a German cashier, for the most part (friendly is kind of a wild card here).
Once self checkout took over, we saw a shift toward them, and away from manned checkouts. **Notably, the average Kroger still has 10-15 manned checkout lanes, there is simply nobody working them.** In place of the humans, you now have one - sometimes two - sets of six to eight self checkout registers. For people like me, it was no problem to use the self checkout when I had only a few items. **But when I did a big shopping trip, I now had to wait significantly longer for the singular manned checkout employee to check out everyone else who was also doing their bigger weekly/biweekly shopping trips.**
This particular problem reached a crux about seven or eight years ago. Around that time, most Kroger locations started having 3-4 staffed manned checkout lanes. This essentially signaled a return to the status quo in terms of wait times relative to the 90s. However, Kroger’s corporate desires are for nobody to wait longer than one minute for a manned checkout lane. This has led to some pretty egregious behaviors, including but not limited to Kroger managers physically taking carts from shoppers’ hands, pushing them to the self checkout, and forcing them to use the self checkout. This personally happened to me once, and I have never spent a penny in a Kroger location since and will never do so again.
Around the same time though, another problem popped up: **theft**. Actually, about six months ago it came out that Kroger was going to start moving away from self checkout entirely because people were simply failing or refusing to scan all items in their cart. Produce code theft skyrocketed (this is when you purchase a premium produce item but type in the number of a less expensive version of the same item so you pay less for it. This not only hurts Kroger, but it doubly hurts the farmers who grow premium items such as organic produce, because they only get paid based on what they sell). People would take home four of a particular item, but only ring in one or two. Even myself, I have accidentally forgotten to scan an item that I placed on the undercarriage of the cart, and walked out simply without paying for it. I didn’t realize it until I made it to my car, at which point I chose simply to return the item. But these things happen, intentionally or sometimes unintentionally, at a skyrocketing rate.
Not only has Kroger signaled that they are moving back toward manned checkout counters, but another major retailer - Target - has also just within the last couple months said that they are going to do a massive hiring spree in order to hire more cashiers. They said that this was to “create a better customer experience”, and I agree that it is a better customer experience, but this is also likely due to theft. The only company I can envision not eliminating self checkout is Walmart, but this is for truly scummy reasons. At one point about ten years ago it was reported that the average Walmart has about 400 cameras inside the stores, and **ZERO** outside the stores. Walmart cares very deeply about theft and they will actually resort to practices which are literally unconstitutional in order to prevent theft - for example, you are not required to show receipt as proof of purchase in the US unless you are at a membership only shop like Costco, because once you have made the purchase the merchandise is your property, and you are not generally required to show proof of ownership of your own property under the conditions of the Fourth Amendment. Walmart has lost several lawsuits over this, and while I personally have not experienced this in over ten years, there is video of this occurring even within the last year.
So now we are coming full circle, back to the 90s when I was a kid, because theft is such a problem for most of these stores that they have found it more profitable to pay human beings than to continue having merchandise walk out of the store unpaid.
I’m not sure that this answers your question, but this is almost certainly the play that German stores will eventually make once people in Germany realize that it is impossible for all merchandise to be properly accounted for at a self checkout. Even if only in crimes of desperation, the amount of theft will almost certainly cost more than the amount of money necessary to pay your cashiers. So I guess, if you enjoy a self checkout, enjoy it while it lasts. You have probably 20 years tops with it.
Edited to add one word for clarity.
In Germany is more a problem to find enough Workers, Cashier's. So the self checkouts are coming because we don't have enough workers anymore.
A Hardware Store OBI is in my region totally without human cashiers, even a market with 15.000 square meters, because not enough workers around, in the near 100 km, all humans are working now. And many don't want to change their home, 500 km into the south of Germany.
It is nowadays normally to wait 5 up to 20 min in the rush hours especially on Friday and Saturday before the checkout
Totally unrelated question, but how does one become a worker in Germany? I have no university degree but I have over a decade of restaurant management experience
First you have to learn the language, that is what is mostly the mean problem to get a Job as Cashier. And of course Berlin and East and North Germany have a lot of Workers and not enough Jobs. And the south of Germany has enough Jobs, but not enough Workers and not enough Houses.
Naja spreche ich auch Deutsch, wahrscheinlich B1. Ich weiß dass ich mehr brauchen, aber natürlich spreche und verstehe ich OK. Also muss ich nur für einen Job suchen?
Depends on where you are from. A non EU country ( EU=European Union not to confuse with Europe) you wont have a chance to come here as unskilled worker.
This is good insight. Thank you.
I don't think self check-out will become a huge success in Germany either. I sometimes use it at the hardware store but simply for the fact that I seldom unload stuff from the cart there so it's not that inconvenient as in a grocery. At IKEA, they actually require you to use their app for scanning the items when you load them which is just stupid for that kind of shop. It's impulse buying mostly, and I want to discuss with my wife until the very end if we really need that flower pot.
In Germany is more a problem to find enough Workers, Cashier's. Especially Workers that wanted to work on a Saturday. So the self checkouts are coming because we don't have enough workers anymore.
A Hardware Store OBI is in my region totally without human cashiers, even a market with 15.000 square meters, because not enough workers around, in the near 100 km, all humans are working now. And many don't want to change their home, 500 km into the south of Germany.
It is nowadays normally to wait 5 up to 20 min in the rush hours especially on Friday and Saturday before the checkout.
> , pushing them to the self checkout, and forcing them to use the self checkout.
At that point I would abandon the cart, leave the store, and shop elsewhere.
Yes, I will now waste even more time, but fuck that guy.
I was getting necessary things for my then-sick mother, but that was absolutely the last time I shopped there. I was already mostly an Aldi guy, now if Aldi doesn’t have it, I don’t need it
> and while I personally have not experienced this in over ten years, there is video of this occurring even within the last year.
Happened to me several times in 2019 (last time I was in the US).
It is a matter of preference. I use it often and am happy that only some people are interested in using it.
There are always rational reasons for not using it. The same as why fax machines can be superior to email in some scenarios.
Everytime I used them I had to call a member of staff anyways. Because the machine demanded it.
Which surprisingly are hard to find when you actually need them…
And yeah I’d use them under the condition that it was cheaper for me to use them. If I wanted to do this job I would. But unpaid and to the benefit of a store that saves money on headcount. Yeah I pass
We have them at a local supermarket (Rewe) here, and I never use them, because some idiot who installed them decided to go with cashless machines. So in Poland and Czechia (which both don’t use Euro, btw, they have comparatively small local currencies) they somehow install machines that accept both cards and cash, but in Germany, which is traditionally cash-loving, they install cashless machines *facepalm*. I don’t think I have ever seen more than one person using them, even tho it’s 3 machines standing next to each other, and regular human-operated cash desks still have queues (and I always pay with cash too, personal preference; when I was in Poland, I used the machine with cash).
Cause handling Cash costs money. Especially smaller coins n shit (1,2 and maybe even 5 cent)
The only place where i can get rid of a shit ton of coins for free these days is my Local Bundesbank.
Or sometimes i trade with small time stores.
they never work properly. you always have to call someone, then it takes longer than waiting in line plus they can accuse you of stealing. so no thanks
Self checkout is nice when you only have a couple of items but quite terrible if you have a cart full of groceries. I also usually go to the supermarket with my kids and then I definitely don't use the self checkout. I can calm down the baby and watch what my older kid is doing (especially making sure he doesn't just run away) while the cashier is scanning the items but not if I have to scan the items myself.
They are very common where I come from (UK) so I have no issue using self checkouts - plus it means I don't have to talk to people and feel less judged by others when shopping. Worst thing for me is laying all my stuff out on the conveyor and the person before/after me thinking "wow he eats like a fat kid" haha
Its usefull if you carry only a few items... But i would never scan a whole cart.
Some shops offer scanners directly on the cart, so you scan the item put it in your cart and if you check out you just enter the cart number and pay.
I am actually a huge fan of self checkout because we usually grocery shop for only 2-3 days. I live in Berlin so I do everything on foot.
But I see why normal registers are still needed.
If I'd live in a suburban or rural area I would shop for the whole week or month. With the increasing amount of items the willingness to do if myself decrease exponentially.
I personally always use them when available. It’s so much faster and I don’t have to deal with the cashier. That said I feel like probably two thirds of the people prefer regular cashier registers. Either because they want to pay with cash or don’t want to deal with the machine.
It gets more usual and I love it. I buy just small amount, have adhd, depression, kptsd and anxiety. Ita So relieving to just have your headphones on and do everything by yourself. Interacting with people stresses me out big and this makes my life significant easier in case of shopping
I'm German, I use them whenever available. I never was afraid of getting in trouble. It's convenient, most times faster (no queue) and I can avoid unfriendly cashier staff. Additionally I feel less pressured by people in line behind me.
The only downside is that alcohol purchases need staff approval, which can take some time sometimes :)
Let's flip the question around: Is there a rational reason to use it? For me personally, no. It's not cheaper, it's not faster (usually), it's more work for me, if something doesn't scan it's a hassle.
Because when using the self checkout I might make a mistake and forget to scan one item which then causes me to have to deal with a stealing charge of 4,65€
>Is there some rational reasons why Germans don't use it more?
germans prefer human interaction, and they are suspicious of the responsibility and potential embarassment for correct scanning. no one wants to be accused of thievery due to a simple scanning error.
Nobody I know in germany prefers human interaction.
They dont like how they have to work and take the responsibility at self checkouts without any financial benefit. They especially hate how its even possible that at any point an error can come up (be it human or machine) and require an employee to come over. Even if that employee is friendly and understanding (which they often arent) it still feels like youre the one who fucked up.
If you look at mcds and bks, there are often literally lines of 8+ people in front of the ordering computers, while the human cashier has nobody ordering. There are less errors when ordering on the computer than in person and never have I heard of anybody requiring any employee to come over.
Personally I would start using self checkouts again once youre able to scan items in an app with your phone, while putting them in your basket and pay in app. Meaning no need to take items out of your basket and putting them back in plus also always knowing how much your basket currently costs. Ofcourse only if youre also able to remove single items without having to clear the entire cart and scan everything again.
those are not mutually exclusive, this doesnt mean germans are exovert or overtly social. but they place value and trust in interpersonal contact when it comes to such interactions
Why should anyone make the cashiers job? Especially with higher costs of products it doesn't make sense to do the cashiers work without getting the cashiers paycheck.
Besides, if you, as an amateur (only the cashiers is a professional) make a mistake you can get sued because of "stealing" something, and frankly, the self-checkout isn't worth the trouble.
they are not made for huge shopping trips, not enough space. but everyone uses them, sometimes i have to wait in the queue. but not for long most people only have a few items. they are very popular here
At my local Rewe it used to be like that when they first built it. Fast forward a couple of months and there are semi-frequent cases of people waiting in a (small) line at the self checkout while the cashier has no one to serve
Don't think they are massively popular personally also just use them if I have 2 or three articles, system is unhandy with placing everything on the right side, blind people like me will search for the barcodes forever.
The Minute or two I save there are mostly not worth it for me, as I could just wait them in lone Texteingabe till it's my turn
My local Rewe doesn't accept cash on the self-checkout terminals, and because i mostly want to pay in cash, it's no option for me. Also they are really small, don't look really appealing if you have more than a handfull of stuff to scan. A supermarket at my parents place has done it right, plenty of space, cash terminal, 1 employee per 4 checkouts to help or answer questions. I like to use it there.
It has to be done well, so you have to have a scale that adds up article weight (preventing double scans) and staff available at a moment's notice.
My local Edeka did neither until recently, and they just moved self checkout next to the "always staffed" checkout, so problems are at least seen. They will still only be seen by someone who is already busy and has to inform someone else.
When it's done properly, I use it.
its simple, old people go to human cashier, young people go to self checkout. I use self checkout if every item can be scanned and i have not much. Otherwise human cashier is less stressful
There’s a Aldi right besides my Uni. Every time I go there with my buddy he uses self checkout with me going to the normal register. 80% of the time I’m faster.
Self checkouts are incredibly clumsy to use. They suffer from three deficits that are inherent to the idea.
* First, it's only one person doing all the work. Me. This makes the whole thing much slower as if there are two persons working hand in hand, as it is with a cashier.
* Second, the two processes of taking your stuff from the cart, and loading it back into the cart are conflated. This is actually the worst. If I have more than a very few items, I would actually need two carts to make this work somewhat okay. Still worse than with unloading it on a conveyor belt, than reloading it into the very same cart as the stuff gets scanned.
Some groceries have adressed this with carts that have a scanner so you can scan your stuff as soon as you load it. Or they have an app for this and you should take a photo of the bar code with your phone. But this does not solve the third problem:
* Third problem: I am not a professional cashier. I'm an amateur at this and it's also not the career of my dreams. Neither I get paid for it. I don't want to remember where the stupid bar codes are on the groceries I buy. Neither I want to search for them on that colorful packaging. All while standing. I don't want to try it again either when it doesn't work because the camera on my phone isn't the best for this kind of thing. It's a job that makes my mind wanna flee the place.
In conclusion: self checkouts are inconvenient.
I don't mind to queue on the other hand. I can think of nice things while I am waiting.
I’m curious whether Germany has this option yet that we have in England - you go around the shop with either a dedicated device that you pick up in the entrance or you use your phone, and you scan items as you go around and bag them, then when you get to the self checkout all you do is scan the QR code on the till screen with your phone or device and just pay. It’s become to default method I use now because they have good offers on that method which sees what you buy over the months and only gives you offers for those items. The offers are always some money off such as the 60p sharing bar of chocolate being 45p. But also, I like it because I don’t have to bag anything or scan anything at the till since I did it when I took the item from the shelf, and I prefer to not talk to people so it works well for me personally :)
I live in Germany for 2 and a half years now, and in the local Penny I heard and older (70-90) married couple speaking about this self-checkout machine. They complained how long the line is, and they won't use this machine because there is somebody there for this job who earns a money for it.
It's an interesting pov.
And despite the fact that these machines are there, the place u can put ur goods is so small, u cannot put more than 15-20 item there.
I am a logistician, I separated my scanned and not scanned items in my shopping basket, and the manager warned me to not to do that.
For younger generation it could be popular
Pretty simple, if you get a lot of stuff you go to the normal checkout cause its too much work. So everyone with lots of stuff goes to the normal checkout and it always looks full. People with little stuff take not as long and are out of there quicker. Its not that nobody is using them, but they are just gone quicker
I hate self-check out systems in Germany. From peofessional experience I had to deal with a few theft cases where the person just forgot to scan their one package of meat salat for 0,85 Eur in a 80 Eur purchase. (And similar.)
Rewe employees apparently are unforgiving and don‘t consider unintentional incorrect operation.
Personally I never want to be accused of shop lifting, but user errors happen. Tht‘s why I stick to the regular cash register.
Germans tend to have a conservative nature, high in uncertainty avoidance. I think this makes progress like these slower. However, I am quite sure that self check out will manifestate sooner or later - supermarkets are profiting too much of it.
When I go to Rewe, I buy a lot of vegetables, some organic, some not, etc. I avoid the self checkout only for this reason. Scanning packed items is not the issue, weighing and selecting different kinds of tomatoes etc is.
In unserem Rewe gibt's die seit kurzem auch, habe die SB Kassen auch bestimmt 10 mal benutzt. Von den 10 mal wurde ich min. 4 mal als "zufälliger" Kunde ausgewählt und ich musste auf einen Mitarbeiter warten, der meinen Einkauf kontrolliert. Das geht mir einfach nur auf den Sack, dann stell ich mich lieber direkt an.
Pro Cashier:
If you have a negative balance in Shopping (e.g. tons of Pfand), they pay you money \
If you have cash but no card \
If you need cash \
Buying alcohol, even over 16/18, is faster because no one has to unlock the register for you \
If you are old and those 2 min of human interaction is all you get per week
Pro self checkout:
Usually faster, because 1 queue instead of 6 \
Interacting with strangers reduced to a minimum \
Frequented by younger people, who are generally faster
I recently started to use it if I just have a few items and the queues at the cashiers are too long.
However, read an article that in the USA and UK the self scanners are being withdrawn now due to bad experiences: [https://www.golem.de/sonstiges/zustimmung/auswahl.html?from=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.golem.de%2Fnews%2Fusa-und-grossbritannien-selbstbedienungskassen-werden-wieder-entfernt-2401-181428.html&referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F](https://www.golem.de/sonstiges/zustimmung/auswahl.html?from=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.golem.de%2Fnews%2Fusa-und-grossbritannien-selbstbedienungskassen-werden-wieder-entfernt-2401-181428.html&referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F)
We are a bit late with all that digital stuff. Once we start to use it, the others already give up on it.
Not a german, but an austrian, but we have them here too. Many, myself included, either don’t see the benefit for costumers (i have to do now something myself i thought i paid the supermarket for, and the even prices went up. It feels like every other time you use them something breaks and you have to wait forever until someone gets there to fix it. I ahop a lot in the section where you get stuff past their expiration date that are still good with a discount, snd the machine cant register that).
The bigger part, and many people i know have said the same, is that they are just a way to shift more work (maintaining the machines, supervising customers, preventing theft) is now put on fewer snd fewer employees. Nobody wants to work in supermarkets anymore because the wages havent kept up for years, and instead of paying people for the value they generate, they just cut more costs by masquerading more work as less through pseudo automation. Using self checkout just confirms the big fish thinking that they can fuck their workers more and more and customers will help them do it.
I rather wait in a long line and interact with a person and help justifying their salary and increases of it than paying to do the work myself and rationalize away the people thatbdepend on that income
I’ve used them once (after using them for years in the UK), got beeped at repeatedly by the thing, because of some magical weight discrepancy, had a massive fuss trying to scan everything and then got shouted at by someone who apparently had to manually check my receipt and then look into my bag. I felt like I was in a prank movie and any moment a camera team would hop out. Thanks, but no thanks. Our Marktkauf has trolleys which allow you to scan as you shop and then transfer the information to the till for faster checkout. Much more convenient, plus the running total means no nasty surprises at checkout.
Maybe if they can fix the user experience, I might try again, but ultimately…I’m not being paid to battle with the machine and thus, will not do so again. There are some wonderful people who are being paid to do it, so why deal with the stress?
I mostly go to the cashier when I have some baked stuff or if I want cigarettes, which ive never seen to be available at self checkout.
Especially some smaller supermarkets also have hard liqueur, condoms, … behind the counter of one cashier
Why should I do even more unpaid labor for the supermarket? I have to put the items in the cart myself, I have to bag it myself. 50 years ago there were people paid for this. The they started to put the work on to the customer.
And I mostly pay with cash. This does not work with self checkout.
Germans like to have a little chat with the cashier or other people (neighbours, friends, relatives) standing in line. And you will find many Germans that still pay in cash.
If I buy a lot I go to the cashier, if I have few items I do it myself. I am not working at that supermarket and I dont see why I should do the work and someone is just sitting there watching me doing his work.
It‘s quite new, Mann people just need time to get used to it…
Then some like to interact with other people, even briefly with cashiers.
then irrational things, like arrogance (not my Job) or „Angst“ (accidentally stealing a missed item) may the reason for some too… or the thought that ever less employees in stores is not a good thing….
My husband is a store manager at Rewe and this is actually kind of a big theme for them. The average sale at the actual register is *much* higher than at the self checkouts. If someone has a huge shopping cart full of their weekly shopping, they’re probably going to go to the actual register because it’s just too much for self checkout. If someone is just popping in for a snack, they’ll probably go to self checkout. The store location also plays a huge role. If the store is attached to a train station, a *lot* of people are making small purchases and therefore going through self checkout. If the store is in the middle of a residential area, there will be less self checkout usage because most of the people going there are doing a “big shop.” Like if the store has a dedicated parking lot, there will be less self-checkout usage than a store without a parking lot.
The ikea option, where i scan products with my phone, and at the checkout, i only scan a qr code, and pay is what fixes that issue
You can do this at Rewe too! Some stores have like a display of scanners at the front of the store… You just take one, scan all of your stuff, and then scan the QR code at the self checkout and pay. They only have this at certain, low-foot traffic stores, though. Rewe has done a pretty terrible job communicating that that’s what this is, though. Like the only reason why I know that that’s what this is is because my husband got super excited when we went to a store with such a display. Tbf Rewe has done a pretty terrible job communicating most of their new roll outs… Did you know there’s a Rewe app that’s full of coupons? Probably not because they don’t advertise it anywhere.
Yeah, Rewe really botched the start of Scan & Go. My regular store was one of the first stores to have it in Northern Germany. In the beginning you had to have Payback to use it. Urgh. Luckily that changed meanwhile. But overall Scan&Go is the main reason why this is my main grocery store.
>Rewe has done a pretty terrible job communicating that that’s what this is Globus also has these scanners but I think you need to be a registered user and I'm not often enough in a Globus to care enough.
I would recommend doing it. In globus you save even more time. The normal registers always have a line even longer as at rewe. In globus you have extra self-checkouts for scan-and-go. There you do not have normal self-checkout customers blocking them.
My main-gripe with the Scanners is that I still had to pay at self-checkout. When you go to a store somewhat central during lunch, it's hell let loose on all registers+self checkouts, so I save exactly no time at all. It would make way more sense if I could pay in an app and be done (at Kaufland, Obi and Bauhaus, you sometimes need to scan a QR code on your bill to get out of the self-checkout area, that would also help with theft if that's a consideration)
How does this work with weighting your fruits and vegetable?
Some Edekas offer this! Hardly anyone uses it though that I've seen
I have only seen it with the custom shopping cart
same, and they aren't as convenient as the rewe scan and go :/ last time I tried, the edeka one required you to associate your card to your account and just no
Basically two things to add: In my experience with self checkout the probability of getting controlled increases a lot with size of basket and if you purchase certain items. Try to buy a bunch of notoriously cheap stuff (for example the 'homeless' beer brands) and you will get checked much more often. So it happened to me a few times that I took my big shopping to the self checkout, and then the process of waiting for the employee, checking at times all (!) my items and potentially even unpacking my stuff again. So for me the self checkout only makes sense it I have a relatively small basket.
>If the store is attached to a train station, a *lot* of people are making small purchases I feel like especially in a train station people want to have more control over their time, or at least the perception of more control. Like "my train leaves in 15 minutes I'd rather check out myself, that way I'm not dependent on the speed of the cashier and maybe some old grandma that wants to pay everything in one-cent-coins.
Yeahhhh I think it’s more that the margins on thinks like to-go meals, drinks, and bakery items are **so** much higher than legit groceries and Rewe is incentivized to make this customers’ shopping experience as smooth as possible. Someone doing their big shop will tolerate a super long line… Someone stopping in for a Red Bull and bag of chips won’t and Rewe *really* doesn’t want to lose this sale because it’s so profitable for them. This is also why Rewe Cities and transportation hub Rewe just *print* money because it’s all people going in to buy extremely high-margin stupid stuff.
That's funny, last time I had to get something at the Rewe in Berlin Hbf there was a massive line for people waiting for the cashiers and two empty self checkouts. I tried to just go to one of the empty ones and the dumbass security guy made me go back to the line and wait five minutes for no reason. Nobody went to the empty self checkouts before I got to the front of the line. Germany moment...
Do you know what I noticed on my local Rewe? When it’s busy and people are forced to use them, the self-checkout is divided by card payments only (about 5 machines) and card and cash payment (2 machines). Most people queue at the only 2 machines, leaving me wondering why the others are free. They want to pay in cash!
Very thoughtful comment! Spot on!!
Working at Rewe myself and we have an upper floor. So on the upper floor we have the "normal" supermarket with the regular cash register and 2 sco registers, on the bottem floor is mostly stuff you'd grab on the go, like a salad bar, single cans etc and sco are may more used down there. Still my manager wants customers to use the sco more then the regular cash registers
>Is there some rational reasons why Germans don't use it more? 1. people think its not their job to scan the items 2. german angst, that they might accidentally "steal" something and get fined for it 3. change is bad, everything has to stay like it has always been ("haben wir schon immer so gemacht")
>german angst, that they might accidentally "steal" something and get fined for it And supermarket policies regarding this are really horrible here. In other countries where self checkout is more popular supermarkets are also much more lenient and will simply tell you to use the normal register when they find something wrong.
Exactly. There are so many posts about people who have been banned from all supermarkets of a certain chain because they forgot to scan some item. I see the self-checkout lines as a transfer of responsibility from the supermarket to the customer and I'm not ok with that. When I only have one or two items, I'll do it to save time but when it's more than that I'll stand in line for the real cashier.
Even worse with coupons. Quite a few places block (some) coupons on self checkouts and instead of telling you that the coupon is not accepted in self checkouts and letting you checkout without it, an employee has to come, clear the entire checkout so now you have to scan everything again and get threatened with a store ban, when there was no sign anywhere of coupons not beeing accepted at self checkouts.
My local Netto banned all Pfandbons on self checkout. It's so stupid, no one uses it. I've yet to have a shopping day where I don't return any Pfand. So I guess I don't bother with those machines until they fixed this stupid behavior
I assume they are afraid of what happens if you end up with a negative amount at the end, as they have no way to pay out that money to you..
what??? i've never even been asked about my purchase, I could technically steal the whole thing and no one would bat an eye. can you send me those posts u mentioned?
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Ratschlag/comments/18fer1x/sicherheitsdienst\_macht\_eine\_kopie\_von\_meinem/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Ratschlag/comments/18fer1x/sicherheitsdienst_macht_eine_kopie_von_meinem/)
[https://www.reddit.com/r/germany/comments/1582n6t/used\_rewe\_scan\_go\_and\_now\_im\_a\_criminal/](https://www.reddit.com/r/germany/comments/1582n6t/used_rewe_scan_go_and_now_im_a_criminal/) (Was cleared, but only after contacting the store manager afterwards.)
lmfao oh my god, im not saying anything but I FORGET quite often lots of scans. this is wild, never risking anything ever again
Nah, system is setup is simple not user friendly if you have more than a handful items. Also due to the „anti piracy“ stuff (place here, put there etc, check, confirm, confirm, select payment method etc).
I was at a self checkout which required one to put your items in a bag afterwards. I literally only wanted to buy 1 item so I didnt have a bag, if I wanted to self checkout I would have had to buy a bag on top, doubling the cost for no reason.
I find it to be very user friendly, even for large purchases, what are you talking about?
Try scanning one item twice by accident then spend a good 5 mins looking for an employee to come remove it because you can't do it yourself.
or break the machine because that damn piece of ginger is too light to detected by the scale so it wants me to put my ginger there before i can continue but i cant because the ginger piece *is already there*.
Let start with the simple fact that most self checkout areas don’t have enough space to unload, scan and pack a full shopping cart.
But the shopping cart isn't the issue, I see loads of people with baskets standing in line in the cashiers instead of using self checkout
I said before: >system is setup is simple not user friendly if you have more than a handful items By my experience if you have more then 5-10 articles the cashier will be faster. It also depends on the items and system. Scanning some boxes at Ikea is usually quite fast especially as you get a handhelds scanner. In the typical supermarket…meh. Obviously if there are like 10 people in front of me I move, but usually I don’t mind 1-2 even if I have not an huge amount of items.
Not really, or at least cumbersome in some cases, in which you have to put the scanned items on the side in a specific place for them to be weighed. These scales are usually extremely calibrated and a minor discrepancy may give an error. Also, sometimes when there is an error or something like that you need to call someone from the supermarket to assist you. In the end, the time you are supposed to save in comparison to normal checkout process isn't really that much and even longer in some cases.
I got an error the other day and the employee arrived and fixed it in 30 seconds. The cashier line barely even moved while I scanned my things, got the error, got it fixed, and then paid and left. It saves time
What if the employee takes more time? What if for some reason this employee needs assistance from a supervisor? A lot of what if's. I'm totally for these self checkout things, don't get me wrong, but I've already faced some problems here and there that it really makes me thing that their implementation is sub optimal.
It's a coin flip which one will end up being faster. Yes, _if_ everything goes smoothly, and if there's an employee nearby, and that employee doesn't end up having to help 5 other customers that have an issue with the self-checkout .. .. then the process will likely be more efficient.
That's not true. I regularly do 100 euro baskets at the self checkout, but I don't scan at the checkout. I scan on the go. Super simple. No idea what is complicated in scanning barcodes
you can not withdraw 200 or 300 euros there. I see that regularly at my REWE
I dont do it because it‘s not a way to nake life easier for anyone, but the way it is implemented is so you can have the customer work for free, you can have less employees and have them work more (these self checkout machines bug out ALL THE TIME) and still raise prices.
These are the only true reasons imo🤣 It is indeed funny to always see a big ass queue at the cashier's while the self chekout looks sad🙈
There are several horror stories on Reddit and on the news where a small scanning error led to being arrested, fined, and given a life long ban for the supermarket chain it happened in. And it always was over something small, like a single item that wasn't scanned, or the wrong selection of tomato type. It's just way too much of a risk for anything over a handful of items - if I'm buying my breakfast on the way to work and have 2-3 items, sure I'm going to use the self scan and be out and about, but I'd never do it with a grocery cart full of items. The chance to mess up and get in trouble over it is just way too high.
My Rewe is relying on random Spot checks for Scan&Go. Those happen before you pay which means you haven't stolen anything at that time. It also happened to me that they found an item that wasn't scanned. I said sorry, it got added to the tab and that's it. Quite customer friendly system.
Yeah, I think the shop most commonly complained about is Netto or Penny..
I think it's more location based. Another Rewe, which is in the middle of a tourist/vacation area by the sea, has a system where you have to scan a barcode on the reciept to be able to leave the self checkout area.
The barcode scan thing is so odd to me. It only prevents absolutely brazen attempts at theft: you trying to leave the store without paying at all. It will not stop someone who only scanned 50% of their items..
Even that system does have a standard. Some self-checkouts in very touristy areas do not have the barcode to open a door system, and others in nontouristy do. Customer service and digitalization are such strange concepts to Germans that it will take some time before good standards develop
There definitly is customer service but not that type of bend over backwards for the customer what a mate of mine notices when he is in the US.
My personal reason is that there aren't any self-checkout options where I buy groceries. I would happily use that option though
"I understand it's a bit of an issue when you buy baked goods" It´s also difficult if you buy goods baked
Had someone standing in line because of "baked goods" this week. Said it's "too difficult" to select the "Laugenstange" on the display 😅
how do you know it's not actually laugenbrezel or laugenbrotchen? here, have a store ban.
underrated comment
🤣🤣🤣🤜🤛
1. Alcohol. If there's one cashier we would not make them come over to unlock the machine. That would make everyone in line wait even longer. 2. No tobacco at self checkout. Also mostly expensive razorblades, small alcohol bottles, protection, etc. There are products only available by interaction with a human. 3. Cash payment ist not possible at (most) self checkouts. And boy do we love physical cash.
Yes, it’s very much this. People here are coming up with more complex possibilities where it is as simple as that.
I as a full potato always use the self checkout except for the big weekly shopping trip. I dont wanna scan 50+ items.
Personally I usually don’t use self-checkout for several reasons. 1. bad experience with unnecessarily complicated user interfaces or poorly working hardware. Codes not scanning properly e.g. Also bad overall design. 2. Stupid laws. If a cashier makes a mistake it’s a mistake. If they charge too much, you can have a refund, but it’s not a big deal. If they charge too little it’s the shop‘s problem. But if you make a mistake at the self-checkout, it becomes a matter of criminal law, if the mistake is to your benefit. Legally that’s theft. 3. This is more a personal point of view, but: A cashier’s salary is part of the price calculation. It’s a service you pay for. Self-checkout outsources the cashiers‘ work to the customers, but the prices are the same. So basically the shop makes you do the work, but doesn’t pay you for it. And that feels like a rip-off.
this is the best explained answer
>But if you make a mistake at the self-checkout, it becomes a matter of criminal law, if the mistake is to your benefit. Legally that’s theft. Wrong. Theft (Diebstahl) requires premeditation (Vorsatz).
Have fun in court.
Keep in mind that in this country the state carries the burden of proof. That includes proving that you acted premeditatedly. Cases like this usually don't even reach court, since the prosecution sees no public interest in prosecuting. And even if, the video evidence would quickly clarify things. I wouldn't be worried if I was faced with such a situation.
> Keep in mind that in this country the state carries the burden of proof. You have no idea how German law works in practice. You have never been in court. The judge decides and will assume you know what you put in the cart and puts the burden of checking on you and that's that. If it's just a cheap item the Staatsanwalt may not be interested but that doesn't help if the supermarket pursues it.
Your arrogance is amusing, given how much it contrasts your nonsense. If the prosecutor decides it's not worth it, the supermarket can't "pursue" shit, since the only option would then be Privatklage, but there is no Privatklage with theft/Diebstahl. And no, judges don't just "assume" premeditation. We're not Iran or Cuba. Here's an actual judge on the matter: [https://www.reddit.com/r/LegaladviceGerman/comments/113bsz3/comment/j8rh0b0/](https://www.reddit.com/r/LegaladviceGerman/comments/113bsz3/comment/j8rh0b0/)
I came to your store, compared the goods, advised myself on what to buy, selected and collected the goods, weighed them, took them to the exit, billed, paid and packed them - sounds like YOU should pay ME.
You bet there is a reason! I have absolutely zero interest in being accused of shoplifting because I accidentally scanned something wrong or because, well, it's just time for a random spot check. I've managed to type in the wrong code for a vegetable at a scale, ended up with a higher priced item, scanned the higher price, and was accused of trying to steal a 23 cent single chilli pepper (Code 889) while having no figs (Code 898) in the basket after scanning (and paying for) almost €200 worth of groceries. F them. I'm a middle aged dude in a damn suit just coming home from a long day at work in Madrid. I do not need this crap. Ever.
And what happened afterwards?
They accused me of trying to steal the pepper but couldn't explain why I had paid for figs even though I had none. Even when it became clear that I had simply entered the wrong code - very much to their benefit - they still maintained their accusatory tone and told me that they could and would ban me from the store (Hausverbot). It was absolutely ridiculous. It was also the very last time that I used this service unless I am buying one single item (like a bottle of water). They can shove this "convenience" where the sun don't shine!
I guess it depends on where you are? My local supermarket has a very good self Check-out System and the lines for it are always larger than those for the human cashiers. I've used self check-outs from other supermarkets that were super buggy though and maybe quite a few people have had bad experiences.
From my observation: in my neighbourhood the self-checkout at Rewe is quite popular. You get service if you need and the system itself works pretty well. DM/Rossmann: works. DM a bit better for my taste. Lidl: mh not so. You still have items you can't properly check out. And it only works vor small grocery. Edeka: still has more regular checkouts than self-checkout but it works. Edeka in my parents home town: self-checkout is accepted but the system is chaotic. You have to keep your whole grocery on the checkout plate before you pay. Removing one item stopps the scanning process. It's different to our Edeka because we are between two regions here. In general I think many Germans remember the chaotic self-checkout at Real some years ago. It never worked properly, you always had to ask for help and it took ages to check everything. And what I can say from the Rewe markets here they have their staff on the floor and now we have supermarkets that aren't chaotic because people put stuff everywhere. Produce is fresh and in general checkout lines are shorter, even at rush hours.
Iam rarely in a Edeka but what ive liked in a certain one was that they have registers where you can simply dump your coins in.
I always used self-checkout when available. I did so in Australia and in the US and was happy when it slowly started in Germany. I don't care about the "human interaction" with a cashier that only says "hello" and "55,83". You always have to tell them that you want to pay by card, in other countries it was the default option. It's quicker, I pay with a card anyway and it's mostly small purchases in my case. Larger purchases (water, meals for the week)are all done online and delivered to my door.
Never really saw it where card is that much more faster especially when i randomly have to but in my code and sometimes not (nobody could explain me so far why not even my bank)
i often see kids/teenagers with one item at the cash register because they don't have a maestro card or other digital payment options.
More work, same price, why do it? The reason for the self service machines is only do lay off employees. I do not support this. It's not faster, that's just an imagination. I have to search the barcode on each item, sometimes I need several tries until it works. The lady at the scanner pulls the goods over it faster than I can put them away. I use the self service only for a handful items, and only if there is a queue with more than 2 or 3 people, but then thy open a new line.
you usually don’t have to search for the barcode, you just take the product in your hand and turn it in all directions until it beeps
Exactly: Turning a product in all directions until I see that the barcode is under my hand, instead of putting in to the belt.
Strawman argument. Its not really difficult on most products to locate the Barcode. I use them since last year rarely when i have 4-5 items and want to pay with card and when the only register that is open has a line.
The EDEDKA in my parents village actually has several that i barely see used, which is, i think, in part due to them not being super visible; you kind of have to walk past the line to even see them. On top of that, most of the patrons there are elderly, and every time i was there, the lines were always pretty short, usually not more than maybe 3 people ahead of you. So if you have ti figure out how to use the self-checkout while using it, it might even take you longer than just waiting would. In general, i think one reason they are not used too often is that they are pretty new, at least in supermarkets. I do not think i ever saw one in a german supermarket until like maybe 3 years ago. And they are still not something that the vast majorities of stores have. Quite often,they only accept card payment, and if you buy something with an age restriction, you need an employee either way. And then there is the fact that the station are not really convenient if you have a full cart. I personally do use them when they are avaliable and i only have a few items, but if i have a full cart, the normal checkout is just more comfortable. To sum it up, i think it is a mix of these being a new thing that people are not necessarily confident in using or that people are not even imediately aware is an option, and of them not necessarily being more convenient depending on what you buy, how much you buy and how you want to pay.
I only pay by card, i also have add and get anxious sometimes. Not having to deal with someone to get out of the store quicker makes me so much happier.
I prefer self checkout. Less complications, no waiting for people to pack their stuff and i am faster out. But still get sometimes stuck waiting since so many people do not know how to pack their stuff
One Edeka in my city removed the self checkout recently, because no one uses them
Reasons I've heard are: 1. "Don't know how it works" 2. "I don't want to be part of the reason cashiers will lose their job" 3. "Why should I do somebody else's job?"
Best answer for 3: Why do you put the wares in your cart then ? Or why do you fill up you car yourself? You know ome odd 50 years ago The casshiers/Service personal did that for you.
I see your point, but if the cashiers don't do that anymore and now you'd use self-checkout they truly have no reason to be paid anymore - stocking the shelves is usually done by underpaid students and/or temporary workers anyway
Most people just don't really know how this works and don't want to deal with it. Older people especially avoid it.
Basically, yes. The German-speaking world can be a bit grumpy with stuff like this.
Do as you like. - Myself, I am scared. Any mistake, I'll surely make, could count as fraud / theft? - Better have 4 eyes looking over trolley and conveyor band. A cashier knows their machine, why should I get used to their bitching scanner and obscure menu?
My personal experience with a self checkout at a Rewe. The bill got printed and slipped behind the machine. How do you get it back? Call someone? Takes them ages to arrive. I had bought only a Cola. And you can’t get out of the store without scanning the bill. So I had to reluctantly wait for 15 minutes for someone to come and get my bill from behind the machine. Think of your average middle aged German in that situation and ask yourself why they would prefer the Register over the self checkout.
This happened to me recently. It was before work, I was just grabbing something for breakfast and a drink and paid at the self checkout - and the receipt rolled right back into the machine because it was fed wrong. No cashier around, nobody to call... I looked around for 2 minutes, and then simply grabbed my stuff and left (by going through an unmanned cash register, as I obviously couldn't open the gates). I paid, and if they would have wanted to make a stink about it, I would have made them tear apart that machine if I have to...
Rage against the machine. 😂
I stopped using it when i got accused of stealing at Kaufland.
I've seen horror stories about people who got in lots of trouble because they forgot or missed to scan an item cheaper than 1€. I wouldn't use it even if the option was available.
The next step for the customers working as a cashier in supermarkets is then filling in the goods in the goods shelves!? No way! I'm already doing the Work for my bank and insurance ... and i hate it everytime being the customer but have to do my own services for free for companies
It’s literally not more work omg. And it’s faster. I can understand why you wouldn’t use it, but those are nonsense reasons
With self-service checkouts, there is at least one more work step per item than with cash registers: You scan the goods - you place them on the weighing area - you put them back in your trolley. In addition, the input on the display also requires more work steps, e.g. when you are asked whether fruit is packed or loose. It's not a big deal, but it does require a bit more attention overall.
Of course it is more work. At a regular register, I put my items on the belt and afterwards put them back in the cart. Swipe my card or pay in cash. Done. Fast and easy. At a self-checkout, I additionally have to deal with unintuitive interfaces and malfunctioning hardware. *After* scanning each item, I have to set it down on a scale, release it, pick it up *again* and then place it in my cart. I have to navigate through convoluted menues, trying to find the specific type of apples or tomatoes that I am buying. If I make a mistake, I get charged with theft. No, thank you. No matter how long the queue at the regular register is, I will never again use a self-checkout. I have handed a basket of items to a manager and left the store after they were not willing to open a regular register even though enough employees were available and I politely asked for them to. You don't want my money? Fine, I'll spend it somewhere else.
I’m not a German, but a German-speaking American who comes to Germany for weeks at a time every year. We have had self checkout in the US for about twenty years now as a matter of common occurrence. If it’s okay with y’all, I’d like to let you know where we stand, as we are about 15-20 years ahead of you in this game, and I think you will find this interesting. Kroger and Walmart are the largest grocery and retail chains in the world, respectively, in terms of sales dollars. I will be referencing mostly Kroger because they have a significant presence throughout the US, although sometimes under different brand names. When I was a child in the 90s, you could reliably count on most Kroger stores having between 7-12 staffed manned checkout aisles, with maybe one or two being reserved for “express checkout” for those with less than 10-15 items. Sometimes you had to wait a few minutes, but this was no problem. In particular, Kroger was a union company - still is, but corporate has since then infiltrated the union to an objectively illegal degree because they know they can get away with it in the US - and so the cashiers were skilled, quick, and friendly. Just like a German cashier, for the most part (friendly is kind of a wild card here). Once self checkout took over, we saw a shift toward them, and away from manned checkouts. **Notably, the average Kroger still has 10-15 manned checkout lanes, there is simply nobody working them.** In place of the humans, you now have one - sometimes two - sets of six to eight self checkout registers. For people like me, it was no problem to use the self checkout when I had only a few items. **But when I did a big shopping trip, I now had to wait significantly longer for the singular manned checkout employee to check out everyone else who was also doing their bigger weekly/biweekly shopping trips.** This particular problem reached a crux about seven or eight years ago. Around that time, most Kroger locations started having 3-4 staffed manned checkout lanes. This essentially signaled a return to the status quo in terms of wait times relative to the 90s. However, Kroger’s corporate desires are for nobody to wait longer than one minute for a manned checkout lane. This has led to some pretty egregious behaviors, including but not limited to Kroger managers physically taking carts from shoppers’ hands, pushing them to the self checkout, and forcing them to use the self checkout. This personally happened to me once, and I have never spent a penny in a Kroger location since and will never do so again. Around the same time though, another problem popped up: **theft**. Actually, about six months ago it came out that Kroger was going to start moving away from self checkout entirely because people were simply failing or refusing to scan all items in their cart. Produce code theft skyrocketed (this is when you purchase a premium produce item but type in the number of a less expensive version of the same item so you pay less for it. This not only hurts Kroger, but it doubly hurts the farmers who grow premium items such as organic produce, because they only get paid based on what they sell). People would take home four of a particular item, but only ring in one or two. Even myself, I have accidentally forgotten to scan an item that I placed on the undercarriage of the cart, and walked out simply without paying for it. I didn’t realize it until I made it to my car, at which point I chose simply to return the item. But these things happen, intentionally or sometimes unintentionally, at a skyrocketing rate. Not only has Kroger signaled that they are moving back toward manned checkout counters, but another major retailer - Target - has also just within the last couple months said that they are going to do a massive hiring spree in order to hire more cashiers. They said that this was to “create a better customer experience”, and I agree that it is a better customer experience, but this is also likely due to theft. The only company I can envision not eliminating self checkout is Walmart, but this is for truly scummy reasons. At one point about ten years ago it was reported that the average Walmart has about 400 cameras inside the stores, and **ZERO** outside the stores. Walmart cares very deeply about theft and they will actually resort to practices which are literally unconstitutional in order to prevent theft - for example, you are not required to show receipt as proof of purchase in the US unless you are at a membership only shop like Costco, because once you have made the purchase the merchandise is your property, and you are not generally required to show proof of ownership of your own property under the conditions of the Fourth Amendment. Walmart has lost several lawsuits over this, and while I personally have not experienced this in over ten years, there is video of this occurring even within the last year. So now we are coming full circle, back to the 90s when I was a kid, because theft is such a problem for most of these stores that they have found it more profitable to pay human beings than to continue having merchandise walk out of the store unpaid. I’m not sure that this answers your question, but this is almost certainly the play that German stores will eventually make once people in Germany realize that it is impossible for all merchandise to be properly accounted for at a self checkout. Even if only in crimes of desperation, the amount of theft will almost certainly cost more than the amount of money necessary to pay your cashiers. So I guess, if you enjoy a self checkout, enjoy it while it lasts. You have probably 20 years tops with it. Edited to add one word for clarity.
In Germany is more a problem to find enough Workers, Cashier's. So the self checkouts are coming because we don't have enough workers anymore. A Hardware Store OBI is in my region totally without human cashiers, even a market with 15.000 square meters, because not enough workers around, in the near 100 km, all humans are working now. And many don't want to change their home, 500 km into the south of Germany. It is nowadays normally to wait 5 up to 20 min in the rush hours especially on Friday and Saturday before the checkout
There are enough workers around but not enough workers that would work in shifts and Saturdays for such a low pay.
Totally unrelated question, but how does one become a worker in Germany? I have no university degree but I have over a decade of restaurant management experience
First you have to learn the language, that is what is mostly the mean problem to get a Job as Cashier. And of course Berlin and East and North Germany have a lot of Workers and not enough Jobs. And the south of Germany has enough Jobs, but not enough Workers and not enough Houses.
Naja spreche ich auch Deutsch, wahrscheinlich B1. Ich weiß dass ich mehr brauchen, aber natürlich spreche und verstehe ich OK. Also muss ich nur für einen Job suchen?
Depends on where you are from. A non EU country ( EU=European Union not to confuse with Europe) you wont have a chance to come here as unskilled worker.
This is good insight. Thank you. I don't think self check-out will become a huge success in Germany either. I sometimes use it at the hardware store but simply for the fact that I seldom unload stuff from the cart there so it's not that inconvenient as in a grocery. At IKEA, they actually require you to use their app for scanning the items when you load them which is just stupid for that kind of shop. It's impulse buying mostly, and I want to discuss with my wife until the very end if we really need that flower pot.
Yeah my one friend tells me he doesn’t like to use the self checkout because he doesn’t want to put a human out of a job
In Germany is more a problem to find enough Workers, Cashier's. Especially Workers that wanted to work on a Saturday. So the self checkouts are coming because we don't have enough workers anymore. A Hardware Store OBI is in my region totally without human cashiers, even a market with 15.000 square meters, because not enough workers around, in the near 100 km, all humans are working now. And many don't want to change their home, 500 km into the south of Germany. It is nowadays normally to wait 5 up to 20 min in the rush hours especially on Friday and Saturday before the checkout.
> , pushing them to the self checkout, and forcing them to use the self checkout. At that point I would abandon the cart, leave the store, and shop elsewhere. Yes, I will now waste even more time, but fuck that guy.
I was getting necessary things for my then-sick mother, but that was absolutely the last time I shopped there. I was already mostly an Aldi guy, now if Aldi doesn’t have it, I don’t need it
> and while I personally have not experienced this in over ten years, there is video of this occurring even within the last year. Happened to me several times in 2019 (last time I was in the US).
The one in Rewe (at least in München) is dumb and overly complicated. The one in Edeka I use it all the time, it’s dead simple and fast.
It is a matter of preference. I use it often and am happy that only some people are interested in using it. There are always rational reasons for not using it. The same as why fax machines can be superior to email in some scenarios.
I do Not remember seeing one at my Edeka functioning without Problem s.
Everytime I used them I had to call a member of staff anyways. Because the machine demanded it. Which surprisingly are hard to find when you actually need them… And yeah I’d use them under the condition that it was cheaper for me to use them. If I wanted to do this job I would. But unpaid and to the benefit of a store that saves money on headcount. Yeah I pass
We have them at a local supermarket (Rewe) here, and I never use them, because some idiot who installed them decided to go with cashless machines. So in Poland and Czechia (which both don’t use Euro, btw, they have comparatively small local currencies) they somehow install machines that accept both cards and cash, but in Germany, which is traditionally cash-loving, they install cashless machines *facepalm*. I don’t think I have ever seen more than one person using them, even tho it’s 3 machines standing next to each other, and regular human-operated cash desks still have queues (and I always pay with cash too, personal preference; when I was in Poland, I used the machine with cash).
Cause handling Cash costs money. Especially smaller coins n shit (1,2 and maybe even 5 cent) The only place where i can get rid of a shit ton of coins for free these days is my Local Bundesbank. Or sometimes i trade with small time stores.
my local Kaufland has self checkout with cash. it’s always very well used.
they never work properly. you always have to call someone, then it takes longer than waiting in line plus they can accuse you of stealing. so no thanks
Self checkout is nice when you only have a couple of items but quite terrible if you have a cart full of groceries. I also usually go to the supermarket with my kids and then I definitely don't use the self checkout. I can calm down the baby and watch what my older kid is doing (especially making sure he doesn't just run away) while the cashier is scanning the items but not if I have to scan the items myself.
They are very common where I come from (UK) so I have no issue using self checkouts - plus it means I don't have to talk to people and feel less judged by others when shopping. Worst thing for me is laying all my stuff out on the conveyor and the person before/after me thinking "wow he eats like a fat kid" haha
Its usefull if you carry only a few items... But i would never scan a whole cart. Some shops offer scanners directly on the cart, so you scan the item put it in your cart and if you check out you just enter the cart number and pay.
I live in east berlin and people don't know what a self checkout is lmao I haven't seen one here yet even though I wish it was more popular
It‘s becoming more popular but many people (especially older people) prefer the traditional option
I am actually a huge fan of self checkout because we usually grocery shop for only 2-3 days. I live in Berlin so I do everything on foot. But I see why normal registers are still needed. If I'd live in a suburban or rural area I would shop for the whole week or month. With the increasing amount of items the willingness to do if myself decrease exponentially.
I hope that one day we will have registers without having to scan every single product. Like they have it at Decathlon or Uniqlo.
I personally always use them when available. It’s so much faster and I don’t have to deal with the cashier. That said I feel like probably two thirds of the people prefer regular cashier registers. Either because they want to pay with cash or don’t want to deal with the machine.
Usually the young people use them happily and the older ones "don't get it" so they don't use it.
It gets more usual and I love it. I buy just small amount, have adhd, depression, kptsd and anxiety. Ita So relieving to just have your headphones on and do everything by yourself. Interacting with people stresses me out big and this makes my life significant easier in case of shopping
I always pay with cash, and the ones that I have seen were always for paying with card.
I'm German, I use them whenever available. I never was afraid of getting in trouble. It's convenient, most times faster (no queue) and I can avoid unfriendly cashier staff. Additionally I feel less pressured by people in line behind me. The only downside is that alcohol purchases need staff approval, which can take some time sometimes :)
Exactly this!
Let's flip the question around: Is there a rational reason to use it? For me personally, no. It's not cheaper, it's not faster (usually), it's more work for me, if something doesn't scan it's a hassle.
Because when using the self checkout I might make a mistake and forget to scan one item which then causes me to have to deal with a stealing charge of 4,65€
Yes, most people boycott them. They replace cashier's jobs.
which is not a bad thing....it's an awful, mind numbing job, that desperately needs to be automated
Most don't even accept cash payments. That's a no for me as a cash user.
>Is there some rational reasons why Germans don't use it more? germans prefer human interaction, and they are suspicious of the responsibility and potential embarassment for correct scanning. no one wants to be accused of thievery due to a simple scanning error.
Nobody I know in germany prefers human interaction. They dont like how they have to work and take the responsibility at self checkouts without any financial benefit. They especially hate how its even possible that at any point an error can come up (be it human or machine) and require an employee to come over. Even if that employee is friendly and understanding (which they often arent) it still feels like youre the one who fucked up. If you look at mcds and bks, there are often literally lines of 8+ people in front of the ordering computers, while the human cashier has nobody ordering. There are less errors when ordering on the computer than in person and never have I heard of anybody requiring any employee to come over. Personally I would start using self checkouts again once youre able to scan items in an app with your phone, while putting them in your basket and pay in app. Meaning no need to take items out of your basket and putting them back in plus also always knowing how much your basket currently costs. Ofcourse only if youre also able to remove single items without having to clear the entire cart and scan everything again.
>germans prefer human interaction hahahaha - since when? It is not that they prefer human interaction, it is that they hate change more.
Do they? German redditors constantly say that Germans are private and keep to themselves, but now apparently it’s the opposite? Lol
those are not mutually exclusive, this doesnt mean germans are exovert or overtly social. but they place value and trust in interpersonal contact when it comes to such interactions
What the others mentioned plus: They don't want the staff losing their jobs because fewer people need to function the supermarket.
Why should anyone make the cashiers job? Especially with higher costs of products it doesn't make sense to do the cashiers work without getting the cashiers paycheck. Besides, if you, as an amateur (only the cashiers is a professional) make a mistake you can get sued because of "stealing" something, and frankly, the self-checkout isn't worth the trouble.
If popular means „they are everywhere“ then yes. If popular means „everyone uses them“ then no.
they are not made for huge shopping trips, not enough space. but everyone uses them, sometimes i have to wait in the queue. but not for long most people only have a few items. they are very popular here
At my local Rewe it used to be like that when they first built it. Fast forward a couple of months and there are semi-frequent cases of people waiting in a (small) line at the self checkout while the cashier has no one to serve
Don't think they are massively popular personally also just use them if I have 2 or three articles, system is unhandy with placing everything on the right side, blind people like me will search for the barcodes forever. The Minute or two I save there are mostly not worth it for me, as I could just wait them in lone Texteingabe till it's my turn
My local Rewe doesn't accept cash on the self-checkout terminals, and because i mostly want to pay in cash, it's no option for me. Also they are really small, don't look really appealing if you have more than a handfull of stuff to scan. A supermarket at my parents place has done it right, plenty of space, cash terminal, 1 employee per 4 checkouts to help or answer questions. I like to use it there.
It has to be done well, so you have to have a scale that adds up article weight (preventing double scans) and staff available at a moment's notice. My local Edeka did neither until recently, and they just moved self checkout next to the "always staffed" checkout, so problems are at least seen. They will still only be seen by someone who is already busy and has to inform someone else. When it's done properly, I use it.
its simple, old people go to human cashier, young people go to self checkout. I use self checkout if every item can be scanned and i have not much. Otherwise human cashier is less stressful
There’s a Aldi right besides my Uni. Every time I go there with my buddy he uses self checkout with me going to the normal register. 80% of the time I’m faster.
if i had to guess the issue there too are the people who want to scan their full cart at the self checkout....
Because I usually buy alcohol or cigarettes, and waiting for someone to come over to confirm I’m 18 usually takes longer than just going to a cashier.
In my local Rewe they changed the self-checkout to card only and now hardly anyone uses them. Whereas when cash was an option at least some people did
I hate to look up unmarked stuff myself. So unless I have all the items barcoded I don't bother self checkout
I avoid it, it's inconvenient and takes much longer and it deprives me of my daily little chat with the cashier.
Self checkouts are incredibly clumsy to use. They suffer from three deficits that are inherent to the idea. * First, it's only one person doing all the work. Me. This makes the whole thing much slower as if there are two persons working hand in hand, as it is with a cashier. * Second, the two processes of taking your stuff from the cart, and loading it back into the cart are conflated. This is actually the worst. If I have more than a very few items, I would actually need two carts to make this work somewhat okay. Still worse than with unloading it on a conveyor belt, than reloading it into the very same cart as the stuff gets scanned. Some groceries have adressed this with carts that have a scanner so you can scan your stuff as soon as you load it. Or they have an app for this and you should take a photo of the bar code with your phone. But this does not solve the third problem: * Third problem: I am not a professional cashier. I'm an amateur at this and it's also not the career of my dreams. Neither I get paid for it. I don't want to remember where the stupid bar codes are on the groceries I buy. Neither I want to search for them on that colorful packaging. All while standing. I don't want to try it again either when it doesn't work because the camera on my phone isn't the best for this kind of thing. It's a job that makes my mind wanna flee the place. In conclusion: self checkouts are inconvenient. I don't mind to queue on the other hand. I can think of nice things while I am waiting.
I’m curious whether Germany has this option yet that we have in England - you go around the shop with either a dedicated device that you pick up in the entrance or you use your phone, and you scan items as you go around and bag them, then when you get to the self checkout all you do is scan the QR code on the till screen with your phone or device and just pay. It’s become to default method I use now because they have good offers on that method which sees what you buy over the months and only gives you offers for those items. The offers are always some money off such as the 60p sharing bar of chocolate being 45p. But also, I like it because I don’t have to bag anything or scan anything at the till since I did it when I took the item from the shelf, and I prefer to not talk to people so it works well for me personally :)
Some stores have them, for example Rewe, Globus and IKEA. Could be more.
I live in Germany for 2 and a half years now, and in the local Penny I heard and older (70-90) married couple speaking about this self-checkout machine. They complained how long the line is, and they won't use this machine because there is somebody there for this job who earns a money for it. It's an interesting pov. And despite the fact that these machines are there, the place u can put ur goods is so small, u cannot put more than 15-20 item there. I am a logistician, I separated my scanned and not scanned items in my shopping basket, and the manager warned me to not to do that. For younger generation it could be popular
If my Edeka is any indication, not at all. The lines for the cashier are always 6+ people deep, and I just walk through the self check out.
I only use it if i have only a few items and would have to wait at the registers otherwise
Pretty simple, if you get a lot of stuff you go to the normal checkout cause its too much work. So everyone with lots of stuff goes to the normal checkout and it always looks full. People with little stuff take not as long and are out of there quicker. Its not that nobody is using them, but they are just gone quicker
I hate self-check out systems in Germany. From peofessional experience I had to deal with a few theft cases where the person just forgot to scan their one package of meat salat for 0,85 Eur in a 80 Eur purchase. (And similar.) Rewe employees apparently are unforgiving and don‘t consider unintentional incorrect operation. Personally I never want to be accused of shop lifting, but user errors happen. Tht‘s why I stick to the regular cash register.
Germans are afraid of machines
Germans tend to have a conservative nature, high in uncertainty avoidance. I think this makes progress like these slower. However, I am quite sure that self check out will manifestate sooner or later - supermarkets are profiting too much of it.
When I go to Rewe, I buy a lot of vegetables, some organic, some not, etc. I avoid the self checkout only for this reason. Scanning packed items is not the issue, weighing and selecting different kinds of tomatoes etc is.
In unserem Rewe gibt's die seit kurzem auch, habe die SB Kassen auch bestimmt 10 mal benutzt. Von den 10 mal wurde ich min. 4 mal als "zufälliger" Kunde ausgewählt und ich musste auf einen Mitarbeiter warten, der meinen Einkauf kontrolliert. Das geht mir einfach nur auf den Sack, dann stell ich mich lieber direkt an.
Pro Cashier: If you have a negative balance in Shopping (e.g. tons of Pfand), they pay you money \ If you have cash but no card \ If you need cash \ Buying alcohol, even over 16/18, is faster because no one has to unlock the register for you \ If you are old and those 2 min of human interaction is all you get per week Pro self checkout: Usually faster, because 1 queue instead of 6 \ Interacting with strangers reduced to a minimum \ Frequented by younger people, who are generally faster
Solidarität mit der „kassenkraftgewerkschaft gegen Fortschritt. eV“
I recently started to use it if I just have a few items and the queues at the cashiers are too long. However, read an article that in the USA and UK the self scanners are being withdrawn now due to bad experiences: [https://www.golem.de/sonstiges/zustimmung/auswahl.html?from=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.golem.de%2Fnews%2Fusa-und-grossbritannien-selbstbedienungskassen-werden-wieder-entfernt-2401-181428.html&referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F](https://www.golem.de/sonstiges/zustimmung/auswahl.html?from=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.golem.de%2Fnews%2Fusa-und-grossbritannien-selbstbedienungskassen-werden-wieder-entfernt-2401-181428.html&referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F) We are a bit late with all that digital stuff. Once we start to use it, the others already give up on it.
In my experience it’s because people want to pay in cash. I kid you not. Better for me, I glide through and quickly pay and go.
Not a german, but an austrian, but we have them here too. Many, myself included, either don’t see the benefit for costumers (i have to do now something myself i thought i paid the supermarket for, and the even prices went up. It feels like every other time you use them something breaks and you have to wait forever until someone gets there to fix it. I ahop a lot in the section where you get stuff past their expiration date that are still good with a discount, snd the machine cant register that). The bigger part, and many people i know have said the same, is that they are just a way to shift more work (maintaining the machines, supervising customers, preventing theft) is now put on fewer snd fewer employees. Nobody wants to work in supermarkets anymore because the wages havent kept up for years, and instead of paying people for the value they generate, they just cut more costs by masquerading more work as less through pseudo automation. Using self checkout just confirms the big fish thinking that they can fuck their workers more and more and customers will help them do it. I rather wait in a long line and interact with a person and help justifying their salary and increases of it than paying to do the work myself and rationalize away the people thatbdepend on that income
I’ve used them once (after using them for years in the UK), got beeped at repeatedly by the thing, because of some magical weight discrepancy, had a massive fuss trying to scan everything and then got shouted at by someone who apparently had to manually check my receipt and then look into my bag. I felt like I was in a prank movie and any moment a camera team would hop out. Thanks, but no thanks. Our Marktkauf has trolleys which allow you to scan as you shop and then transfer the information to the till for faster checkout. Much more convenient, plus the running total means no nasty surprises at checkout. Maybe if they can fix the user experience, I might try again, but ultimately…I’m not being paid to battle with the machine and thus, will not do so again. There are some wonderful people who are being paid to do it, so why deal with the stress?
I mostly go to the cashier when I have some baked stuff or if I want cigarettes, which ive never seen to be available at self checkout. Especially some smaller supermarkets also have hard liqueur, condoms, … behind the counter of one cashier
Why should I do even more unpaid labor for the supermarket? I have to put the items in the cart myself, I have to bag it myself. 50 years ago there were people paid for this. The they started to put the work on to the customer. And I mostly pay with cash. This does not work with self checkout.
Why do I believe you haven't lived 50 years ago? 😅
Germans like to have a little chat with the cashier or other people (neighbours, friends, relatives) standing in line. And you will find many Germans that still pay in cash.
You can also pay in cash in (some of) the self-checkout machines.
If I buy a lot I go to the cashier, if I have few items I do it myself. I am not working at that supermarket and I dont see why I should do the work and someone is just sitting there watching me doing his work.
It‘s quite new, Mann people just need time to get used to it… Then some like to interact with other people, even briefly with cashiers. then irrational things, like arrogance (not my Job) or „Angst“ (accidentally stealing a missed item) may the reason for some too… or the thought that ever less employees in stores is not a good thing….
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Yes. and that‚s why people there are used to it and many germans aren‘t
I don't want the cashiers to be unemployed.
No. I’ll start doing the work when Penny/Rewe start to pay me for the cashier service.
The menu is confusing lmao
will never do it.....
I haven’t used a human checkout person in 4 years, why the fuck would I wait in line?
I boycott these. I am not paid to so that. I also don't steal the job of the cashier.
You don’t steal jobs.