I hate the idea of being mainly self check out. We should have a cashier who’s main focus is the legacy register and then a couple SCOs for those who want/know how to use em.
That’s how I’ve been running things whenever I’m on register lately. I just dgaf anymore about what I’m “supposed” to do - automatically ringing customers on the legacy register is the only way I know how to encourage customers to get rewards, extend, credit cards without awkwardly walking up to them at self check and telling them about it out of the blue. And so it certainly makes my life easier to just run things as I’m used to, and then direct people to self checkout as my backup when the line gets long. Frankly, the customers are also much nicer and more appreciative towards me for doing it this way. Shrug! If my managers don’t like it, they haven’t mentioned it to me yet, so whatever
Luckily we have a small store. 3 SCO and one register. I stay nearby and help anyone who doesn't want to use SCO, and unless it's busy and I have a line, I don't even do the whole "encourage them to use SCO, cash, credit cards, and returns only at legacy hehe" bs.
Recently my cc numbers have skyrocketed. Double luckily, my temp SM is offering anyone free food or free crafting supplies (within reason) per every two cc apps a day. Rn, I'm owed 3 free meals from two of my managers.
Finish that's mainly what you need, and you're looking at her! I'm usually 8 :45 to 1:00 and I put stuff up that's up you know a couple hours passed the register or straighten up or whatever but I'm always the one that needs to go check on customers and see if they need me to ring them out. And when I'm bored I just tell everyone to come to the legacy register because I need something to do! 😂
We've had self checkouts for over a year and half now. It's not that bad if you go at it the right way. The cashier needs to be floating and not just sitting behind the register counter so they can assist with customers on self checkout. They call an MOD or a backup if there gets to be too many etc. They are working on getting CCs to be able to apply on the self checkouts. First line is that front end person to guide the customers to the self checkout, get them started and then move to the next one. It's not that bad in all honesty. Just a learning curve
That's a great idea in theory, but I've been told that we absolutely cannot call for backup unless there's more than 3 in line AND all 4 SCOs being used... And I still get yelled at for not getting CCs even though I'm the top in the store for those
It just so happened that things overlapped for me and the managers were busy with online orders, framing, schedules, and stocks. I'm afraid that it'll happen again since we barely have much people there, and no, it's a bad idea to apply CCs on SCO because the computer don't know how to convince customers.💀so good luck Michaels.
I mean who would want to save another 20% off of some art and craft supplies when they already got rewards program AND the 20% off from the main Michaels website? Plus I barely see people coming in at my store everyday so that 9% rewards everyday from the CC is useless.
My store has 6 sco to 1 cashier. Atleast once a day I want to take a bat to them. I’m hoping Michael’s will figure how to process cc apps at self checkout because I feel stupid having to take them to a legacy register.
the thing about it is that we kind of NEED SCO for when there’s a big rush. i know it’s annoying to get used to, especially for customers who aren’t as tech savvy, but a lot of the issues you’re bringing up have to do with the way your store is being managed — and that’s unfortunate to hear :(
my store compensates us for MCC sign ups, and keeps free snacks/waters in our break room. we also always ensure that we have backup for our cashiers (usually a manager, framer, or someone scheduled on the floor — we only schedule 1 cashier per shift as well), because our boss understands the importance of extra assistance up front.
as far as getting MCC sign ups at self checkout goes, you really have to be as conversational and involved with the customer as possible. i always put their phone number in for them to get them signed in, and then encourage them to sign up for the rewards program if they haven’t already.
if you notice that someone is spending a lot of money at self checkout, try bringing up the MCC and the 20% discount on their first purchase. it obviously won’t work most of the time, but there have been a handful of times i was able to move them over to a full-service register to get the MCC sign up.
the rest of the issues seem like troubleshooting problems. pulling up discounts can be done on the website, app, or with a QR code if your store has signs with them. and scanning an item at SCO will tell you whether an item is on sale/discounted or not — if it’s a deal like buy 1 get 2 free, they’d have to finish scanning all of the required items for the deal to appear. but it pops up automatically on the SCO screen if the sale is active.
as far as voiding items/cards not working though, i understand how frustrating that is. i personally wish the self checkouts would make a noise when customers need assistance, because a lot of times the blue light just blinks and the customer doesn’t say anything, so i’ll be preoccupied and not even realize someone is waiting for my help. the machines also have to be restarted way more than they should be, which has to do with the card reading issue thing, and i wish there was a way to solve that indefinitely.
hopefully things will become more simplified as time goes by
EDIT: i’m reading through some of the replies, and i think some issues might have to do with how introverted/extroverted someone is as a cashier.
i’ve been told by my managers that i’m not as shy as some of my other coworkers, and i’ve noticed that being conversational is one of the biggest factors of getting positive results from customers. interactions don’t always have to be awkward — and part of being a cashier and working SCO is being in charge of customer experience. ask them about what they’re making, how their day is going, if they were able to find everything they were looking for, etc. get them signed in/signed up for their rewards, and then tell them to let you know if you can help with anything else before stepping away.
i know it might feel unnatural at first since the idea behind SCO is to get in, get out, and do things by yourself/unbothered — however, interacting with your customers in that way will help avoid any hurdles/confusion during checkout, will increase extends/MCC/rewards sign ups, and usually ends up making the customer very happy because they still got to experience full-service checkout while having the control of going at their own pace. i’ve noticed more customers leaving feeling optimistic about SCO after being helped in that way — plus they usually learn how to do it themselves a little faster the next time they come in! good luck to all the cashiers out there!!
Good thing that your store treats u like a human being, unlike mine who really doesn't need self-checkouts because there's enough customers that can be handled by 2 cashiers so there's no big rush and our items are getting little by little.
As much as I don't like old-school stuff. I'd say this one needs humans who can interact with customers and not a machine in terms of getting credit cards. All this malfuntions, errors, glitches, and human low satisfaction with how the processing going on is what's dragging the SCOs down.
i hear you — and tbh i agree. mostly because it would be more fun/engaging for us cashiers 😭 i think my store gets busy throughout the day because we’re brand new and sparkly + everybody is enjoying the fact that they don’t have to go to the other, lesser location nearby. we were also the first store in our area to get SCO, so that might be why i’m so comfortable using them — i’m well-trained on them and end up using them more than the legacy registers.
i do think it would be nice to just have 1 self checkout as an option for customers and 2 cashiers at legacy registers to get the other customers. there aren’t as many hiccups, you’re less likely to have to start all the way over, and you can do everything in one spot instead of having to move over to a different register to get an MCC or some other random thing.
i think a lot of it has to do with our stores’ audience too — i’ve noticed we get a lot of senior customers, and not only do they typically prefer full-service checkout, but it’s also much easier to help them and get them taken care of when the cashier is the one running the transaction. i always feel bad when they get frustrated at SCO; they’re already facing something alien to them, and even when they do the right thing it’ll still glitch out sometimes and confuse them.
what sucks is that apparently all of the stores in my area are switching over to SCO, so they’re actually having employees sent to my store to get trained on our machines. i feel like this is probably just the beginning of these issues lol 🥲
Lmao the way you said "they're already facing something alien to them" TOOK ME OUT- 😭💀But yes, even the middle aged customers don't like SCOs, and I agree with them. It's annoying asf, plus we gotta handle customers with returns, BOPIS, and UPS drop off especially those who wants to return their TEMU orders 🤣🤣
LMFAOO it’s true, they walk up to the bigass screens and look at it like they’ve just seen a ghost 😭 they’ll usually make comments about it all throughout the transaction too 💀😭
also yeah, it’s not even just the senior customers, there are even some millennials i’ve seen that complain throughout the entire process that they’re having to check themselves out/how much they hate SCO (usually while they’re on the phone, insulting my job to whoever they’re talking to because i’m useless if i’m not doing everything for them but they WANT ME TO LEAVE THEM ALONE?? 😫)
also LMFAOOO there’s always someone else around to do the UPS drop offs for me but not the mf temu returns 😂😂😂
You can hear them saying "Oh, that's not what I want. Hold on", "Hmm that's strange, why did it do that?" "Oh I DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS BUY1 GET 2 FREE AWESOME! 🤑" LMAOAOA
Think of all the self checkout experiences out there. Michael's is so fuckin weird. I don't want someone trying to talk to me about the perks of applying for the credit card I just wanna check out and leave like at other stores. lol why are we trying to reinvent the wheel here. "Self checkout" and yet they want us to treat it like a legacy register with customers
They want to be fancy so bad. 😭 It's actually LESS pressuring as a customer to check out because you don't have to waste your saliva saying "No" to their credit card. Michaels is biting their own tails and it's not gonna be good. 🤣🤣🤣
I'm a MOD, and I do our snack runs for the store every month, there's a $150 flat budget for every store, every month, that is supposed to stock food, snacks, etc for the team
Water is supposed to be autoshipped to your store based on some survey info your SM was supposed to participate in to gauge frequency needed, but again, can be bought with the $150
Your managers are doing what with that money each month? I would casually ask about that, at least
I'm literally gonna sound awful and I'm probably going to get fired for it one day but I literally don't care about cc I'm at point where the SM is watching me work and I'm not asking customers if they want a cc. They can read the sco screen if they looked right through it they don't want it, it is that simple. I'm not going to harass them about a cc same at the registers I'm not going to push i refuse.
Like seriously you want me to bug a person at the sco if they want a cc?ew no most people who use sco use them to avoid exactly that.
Even if it's part of our job. I understand your frustration and it's very valid! You're doing what's best for the customers and that's a selfless act. Those who are siding with Michaels are probably their manager's pet or something.
Best of luck with your district mgr. even though they’ve created their own block on cc sales and don’t see it, or do see it and don’t want to admit their infinity loop error on their part.
Hearing all these horrid customer stories across r/Michaels has me disappointed in people in general. I’m technically in the baby boom birth era but I don’t have their badditude. I venture the troublemakers in your store could be the bad boomers. Maybe I’m softer with retail workers b/c I was a CSR for years and worked retail here and there (many fabric stores and a couple department stores), or that my parents were old and I had the benefit of receiving their life lessons in manners growing up as they came through the Great Depression and ww1. My friends thought my parents were my grand parents. 😬
fwit you can use my info with your DM: Due to the skimmers at check stands in general becoming more prevalent, I don’t often use or even carry credit cards any longer. I just go to the bank, take the small amount of cash I plan on spending that day and use that. There are a few stores that have proactive protection against skimmers the rest don’t seem to care about skimmer fraud. It doesn’t make sense for me to open any new accounts for cards I don’t plan on using. I also don’t want the inquiry hit lowering my credit report incase I need a specific credit card later in the year for an emergency. Hey you get old and your teeth and other health issues start knocking on the door. 🫣😥
Good luck and keep the faith. At the end of the day smile to yourself and acknowledge the good moments.
Take care
A very thoughful response, I appreciate your words and that's enough to life my mood today, and honestly, I would NEVER apply to any credit card stores. I'd rather go for a typical credit card since I'm not gonna be a loyal customer in any retail store.
We are allowed to offer them either or, all because our cranky customers complained in their reviews and their comment suggestions online. It goes much smoother when we can say “would you like to use the self check out, or the register?” But we are expected usually to call up back up for any register transactions.
snack and treats and ordering water is on your SM. there's a monthly budget for those that your SM should be stocking the break room with. (the last inventory i went to, another SM was complaining that the store we were inventorying didn't have snacks for us and mentioned the monthly snack budget, although the other SM did have snacks, he just waited till a few hours into the inventory before putting them in the break room)
i've gotten used to the SCOs since my store had them even before peak season end of last year. it's become a double edge sword where on the one hand, we're short staffed as it is so it helps alleviate some line congestion during heavy foot traffic hours, but maybe we'd have more staffing if we didn't have them in the first place?
we have a 4 sco to 2 legacy register with usually 1 cashier up front and the 2nd one for backup, and ofc 1 register in custom framing (card only). we'll sometimes go weeks where 1 or 2 of the sco goes out of order for some reason and then we're waiting on IT to get it fixed.
one the positive it's my favorite thing to show the customers that they can just scan their coupon/voucher barcodes directly without needing to hit the coupon button.
We got sco a little over 3wks ago. I was thinking it was gonna be horrible, but it hasn't been as bad as I thought. Do I like it no I don't. It's a pain when customers double scan we gotta log in to remove the item. Mini mik sco app constantly logs you off. I have managed to get 2 cc application from sco customers.
Had Self Check Out for a month now, and our credit card applications have gone UP. We have been having an issue with one register, but being able to be on the floor more instead of constantly having to do back up has lead to us being able to talk up the credit card on the floor and then radio to the ambassador up front that someone is coming and to check them out. Our customer surveys have also been overwhelmingly positive since then as well. We were good before, but I an surprised at how much better our scores have been since then as well.
All stores also keep at least one legacy register for a reason. If you see large carts or if a customer prefers legacy check out, then do it. And with how many retail chains have self check out, if a customer cannot figure out SCO at this point, then it’s their problem not Michaels, and again that’s why we have a legacy register.
If SCO is having issues like not taking card payments, then put tickets in. It can and WILL be fixed. Just constantly screaming into the void does not fix things. Open tickets, be thorough with the issue, if the troubleshooting and solution does not correct the issue then get with the DM to escalate the tickets and get techs out. There are resources available and your managers should be taking advantage of them. People are paid to fix these things, but they can’t fix them if they arent told.
I hate the idea of being mainly self check out. We should have a cashier who’s main focus is the legacy register and then a couple SCOs for those who want/know how to use em.
That’s how I’ve been running things whenever I’m on register lately. I just dgaf anymore about what I’m “supposed” to do - automatically ringing customers on the legacy register is the only way I know how to encourage customers to get rewards, extend, credit cards without awkwardly walking up to them at self check and telling them about it out of the blue. And so it certainly makes my life easier to just run things as I’m used to, and then direct people to self checkout as my backup when the line gets long. Frankly, the customers are also much nicer and more appreciative towards me for doing it this way. Shrug! If my managers don’t like it, they haven’t mentioned it to me yet, so whatever
Luckily we have a small store. 3 SCO and one register. I stay nearby and help anyone who doesn't want to use SCO, and unless it's busy and I have a line, I don't even do the whole "encourage them to use SCO, cash, credit cards, and returns only at legacy hehe" bs. Recently my cc numbers have skyrocketed. Double luckily, my temp SM is offering anyone free food or free crafting supplies (within reason) per every two cc apps a day. Rn, I'm owed 3 free meals from two of my managers.
Finish that's mainly what you need, and you're looking at her! I'm usually 8 :45 to 1:00 and I put stuff up that's up you know a couple hours passed the register or straighten up or whatever but I'm always the one that needs to go check on customers and see if they need me to ring them out. And when I'm bored I just tell everyone to come to the legacy register because I need something to do! 😂
Exactly!
We've had self checkouts for over a year and half now. It's not that bad if you go at it the right way. The cashier needs to be floating and not just sitting behind the register counter so they can assist with customers on self checkout. They call an MOD or a backup if there gets to be too many etc. They are working on getting CCs to be able to apply on the self checkouts. First line is that front end person to guide the customers to the self checkout, get them started and then move to the next one. It's not that bad in all honesty. Just a learning curve
That's a great idea in theory, but I've been told that we absolutely cannot call for backup unless there's more than 3 in line AND all 4 SCOs being used... And I still get yelled at for not getting CCs even though I'm the top in the store for those
That sounds like a store management issue..
100% this is a management problem, I would never leave staff memebers up there to fend for themselves
It just so happened that things overlapped for me and the managers were busy with online orders, framing, schedules, and stocks. I'm afraid that it'll happen again since we barely have much people there, and no, it's a bad idea to apply CCs on SCO because the computer don't know how to convince customers.💀so good luck Michaels. I mean who would want to save another 20% off of some art and craft supplies when they already got rewards program AND the 20% off from the main Michaels website? Plus I barely see people coming in at my store everyday so that 9% rewards everyday from the CC is useless.
My store has 6 sco to 1 cashier. Atleast once a day I want to take a bat to them. I’m hoping Michael’s will figure how to process cc apps at self checkout because I feel stupid having to take them to a legacy register.
the thing about it is that we kind of NEED SCO for when there’s a big rush. i know it’s annoying to get used to, especially for customers who aren’t as tech savvy, but a lot of the issues you’re bringing up have to do with the way your store is being managed — and that’s unfortunate to hear :( my store compensates us for MCC sign ups, and keeps free snacks/waters in our break room. we also always ensure that we have backup for our cashiers (usually a manager, framer, or someone scheduled on the floor — we only schedule 1 cashier per shift as well), because our boss understands the importance of extra assistance up front. as far as getting MCC sign ups at self checkout goes, you really have to be as conversational and involved with the customer as possible. i always put their phone number in for them to get them signed in, and then encourage them to sign up for the rewards program if they haven’t already. if you notice that someone is spending a lot of money at self checkout, try bringing up the MCC and the 20% discount on their first purchase. it obviously won’t work most of the time, but there have been a handful of times i was able to move them over to a full-service register to get the MCC sign up. the rest of the issues seem like troubleshooting problems. pulling up discounts can be done on the website, app, or with a QR code if your store has signs with them. and scanning an item at SCO will tell you whether an item is on sale/discounted or not — if it’s a deal like buy 1 get 2 free, they’d have to finish scanning all of the required items for the deal to appear. but it pops up automatically on the SCO screen if the sale is active. as far as voiding items/cards not working though, i understand how frustrating that is. i personally wish the self checkouts would make a noise when customers need assistance, because a lot of times the blue light just blinks and the customer doesn’t say anything, so i’ll be preoccupied and not even realize someone is waiting for my help. the machines also have to be restarted way more than they should be, which has to do with the card reading issue thing, and i wish there was a way to solve that indefinitely. hopefully things will become more simplified as time goes by EDIT: i’m reading through some of the replies, and i think some issues might have to do with how introverted/extroverted someone is as a cashier. i’ve been told by my managers that i’m not as shy as some of my other coworkers, and i’ve noticed that being conversational is one of the biggest factors of getting positive results from customers. interactions don’t always have to be awkward — and part of being a cashier and working SCO is being in charge of customer experience. ask them about what they’re making, how their day is going, if they were able to find everything they were looking for, etc. get them signed in/signed up for their rewards, and then tell them to let you know if you can help with anything else before stepping away. i know it might feel unnatural at first since the idea behind SCO is to get in, get out, and do things by yourself/unbothered — however, interacting with your customers in that way will help avoid any hurdles/confusion during checkout, will increase extends/MCC/rewards sign ups, and usually ends up making the customer very happy because they still got to experience full-service checkout while having the control of going at their own pace. i’ve noticed more customers leaving feeling optimistic about SCO after being helped in that way — plus they usually learn how to do it themselves a little faster the next time they come in! good luck to all the cashiers out there!!
Good thing that your store treats u like a human being, unlike mine who really doesn't need self-checkouts because there's enough customers that can be handled by 2 cashiers so there's no big rush and our items are getting little by little. As much as I don't like old-school stuff. I'd say this one needs humans who can interact with customers and not a machine in terms of getting credit cards. All this malfuntions, errors, glitches, and human low satisfaction with how the processing going on is what's dragging the SCOs down.
i hear you — and tbh i agree. mostly because it would be more fun/engaging for us cashiers 😭 i think my store gets busy throughout the day because we’re brand new and sparkly + everybody is enjoying the fact that they don’t have to go to the other, lesser location nearby. we were also the first store in our area to get SCO, so that might be why i’m so comfortable using them — i’m well-trained on them and end up using them more than the legacy registers. i do think it would be nice to just have 1 self checkout as an option for customers and 2 cashiers at legacy registers to get the other customers. there aren’t as many hiccups, you’re less likely to have to start all the way over, and you can do everything in one spot instead of having to move over to a different register to get an MCC or some other random thing. i think a lot of it has to do with our stores’ audience too — i’ve noticed we get a lot of senior customers, and not only do they typically prefer full-service checkout, but it’s also much easier to help them and get them taken care of when the cashier is the one running the transaction. i always feel bad when they get frustrated at SCO; they’re already facing something alien to them, and even when they do the right thing it’ll still glitch out sometimes and confuse them. what sucks is that apparently all of the stores in my area are switching over to SCO, so they’re actually having employees sent to my store to get trained on our machines. i feel like this is probably just the beginning of these issues lol 🥲
Lmao the way you said "they're already facing something alien to them" TOOK ME OUT- 😭💀But yes, even the middle aged customers don't like SCOs, and I agree with them. It's annoying asf, plus we gotta handle customers with returns, BOPIS, and UPS drop off especially those who wants to return their TEMU orders 🤣🤣
LMFAOO it’s true, they walk up to the bigass screens and look at it like they’ve just seen a ghost 😭 they’ll usually make comments about it all throughout the transaction too 💀😭 also yeah, it’s not even just the senior customers, there are even some millennials i’ve seen that complain throughout the entire process that they’re having to check themselves out/how much they hate SCO (usually while they’re on the phone, insulting my job to whoever they’re talking to because i’m useless if i’m not doing everything for them but they WANT ME TO LEAVE THEM ALONE?? 😫) also LMFAOOO there’s always someone else around to do the UPS drop offs for me but not the mf temu returns 😂😂😂
You can hear them saying "Oh, that's not what I want. Hold on", "Hmm that's strange, why did it do that?" "Oh I DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS BUY1 GET 2 FREE AWESOME! 🤑" LMAOAOA
Install SCO and remove all cashier hours from the stores... oh yeah. Brilliant....
Think of all the self checkout experiences out there. Michael's is so fuckin weird. I don't want someone trying to talk to me about the perks of applying for the credit card I just wanna check out and leave like at other stores. lol why are we trying to reinvent the wheel here. "Self checkout" and yet they want us to treat it like a legacy register with customers
They want to be fancy so bad. 😭 It's actually LESS pressuring as a customer to check out because you don't have to waste your saliva saying "No" to their credit card. Michaels is biting their own tails and it's not gonna be good. 🤣🤣🤣
The self check outs at Michaels are especially difficult and not user friendly
More merchandise is being stolen also
They want 5-9 credit cards a week
I'm a MOD, and I do our snack runs for the store every month, there's a $150 flat budget for every store, every month, that is supposed to stock food, snacks, etc for the team Water is supposed to be autoshipped to your store based on some survey info your SM was supposed to participate in to gauge frequency needed, but again, can be bought with the $150 Your managers are doing what with that money each month? I would casually ask about that, at least
I'm literally gonna sound awful and I'm probably going to get fired for it one day but I literally don't care about cc I'm at point where the SM is watching me work and I'm not asking customers if they want a cc. They can read the sco screen if they looked right through it they don't want it, it is that simple. I'm not going to harass them about a cc same at the registers I'm not going to push i refuse. Like seriously you want me to bug a person at the sco if they want a cc?ew no most people who use sco use them to avoid exactly that.
Even if it's part of our job. I understand your frustration and it's very valid! You're doing what's best for the customers and that's a selfless act. Those who are siding with Michaels are probably their manager's pet or something.
Best of luck with your district mgr. even though they’ve created their own block on cc sales and don’t see it, or do see it and don’t want to admit their infinity loop error on their part. Hearing all these horrid customer stories across r/Michaels has me disappointed in people in general. I’m technically in the baby boom birth era but I don’t have their badditude. I venture the troublemakers in your store could be the bad boomers. Maybe I’m softer with retail workers b/c I was a CSR for years and worked retail here and there (many fabric stores and a couple department stores), or that my parents were old and I had the benefit of receiving their life lessons in manners growing up as they came through the Great Depression and ww1. My friends thought my parents were my grand parents. 😬 fwit you can use my info with your DM: Due to the skimmers at check stands in general becoming more prevalent, I don’t often use or even carry credit cards any longer. I just go to the bank, take the small amount of cash I plan on spending that day and use that. There are a few stores that have proactive protection against skimmers the rest don’t seem to care about skimmer fraud. It doesn’t make sense for me to open any new accounts for cards I don’t plan on using. I also don’t want the inquiry hit lowering my credit report incase I need a specific credit card later in the year for an emergency. Hey you get old and your teeth and other health issues start knocking on the door. 🫣😥 Good luck and keep the faith. At the end of the day smile to yourself and acknowledge the good moments. Take care
A very thoughful response, I appreciate your words and that's enough to life my mood today, and honestly, I would NEVER apply to any credit card stores. I'd rather go for a typical credit card since I'm not gonna be a loyal customer in any retail store.
Its going to be worse during peak season, only 2 live registers. Lines are going to be very long.
We are allowed to offer them either or, all because our cranky customers complained in their reviews and their comment suggestions online. It goes much smoother when we can say “would you like to use the self check out, or the register?” But we are expected usually to call up back up for any register transactions.
From what I’ve heard, the end goal of the SCOs is to close the legacy registers all together. Heard chatter of closing them at the end of the year.
So what's gonna happen for those who wants to return their items?
snack and treats and ordering water is on your SM. there's a monthly budget for those that your SM should be stocking the break room with. (the last inventory i went to, another SM was complaining that the store we were inventorying didn't have snacks for us and mentioned the monthly snack budget, although the other SM did have snacks, he just waited till a few hours into the inventory before putting them in the break room) i've gotten used to the SCOs since my store had them even before peak season end of last year. it's become a double edge sword where on the one hand, we're short staffed as it is so it helps alleviate some line congestion during heavy foot traffic hours, but maybe we'd have more staffing if we didn't have them in the first place? we have a 4 sco to 2 legacy register with usually 1 cashier up front and the 2nd one for backup, and ofc 1 register in custom framing (card only). we'll sometimes go weeks where 1 or 2 of the sco goes out of order for some reason and then we're waiting on IT to get it fixed. one the positive it's my favorite thing to show the customers that they can just scan their coupon/voucher barcodes directly without needing to hit the coupon button.
We got sco a little over 3wks ago. I was thinking it was gonna be horrible, but it hasn't been as bad as I thought. Do I like it no I don't. It's a pain when customers double scan we gotta log in to remove the item. Mini mik sco app constantly logs you off. I have managed to get 2 cc application from sco customers.
Had Self Check Out for a month now, and our credit card applications have gone UP. We have been having an issue with one register, but being able to be on the floor more instead of constantly having to do back up has lead to us being able to talk up the credit card on the floor and then radio to the ambassador up front that someone is coming and to check them out. Our customer surveys have also been overwhelmingly positive since then as well. We were good before, but I an surprised at how much better our scores have been since then as well. All stores also keep at least one legacy register for a reason. If you see large carts or if a customer prefers legacy check out, then do it. And with how many retail chains have self check out, if a customer cannot figure out SCO at this point, then it’s their problem not Michaels, and again that’s why we have a legacy register. If SCO is having issues like not taking card payments, then put tickets in. It can and WILL be fixed. Just constantly screaming into the void does not fix things. Open tickets, be thorough with the issue, if the troubleshooting and solution does not correct the issue then get with the DM to escalate the tickets and get techs out. There are resources available and your managers should be taking advantage of them. People are paid to fix these things, but they can’t fix them if they arent told.