CVS and Self-Service Checkout: Full Steam Ahead

Checking you out. CVS cites speed, savings with self-service terminals, but for some stores, it doesn’t register. (Boston Globe, 12/9/2011)

Excerpt:   The trend toward self-checkout lanes is more than a decade old, led at first by supermarket chains like Stop & Shop, which introduced the machines in 1999 and now has them in 85 percent of its stores.

But some stores have reconsidered. Big Y Foods Inc., which has 60 stores in Massachusetts and Connecticut, began removing all of its self-service lanes this fall after internal research found that customers preferred a friendly cashier - and after employees complained that the machines were confusing and created more work.

“What we were hearing from our store associates was, ‘We can do this quicker and faster if we do it ourselves,’ ’’ said Big Y spokeswoman Claire D’Amour-Daley.

Related posts:
Grocery stores continue to rethink self-service. (9/27/2011)
Albertson's removes self-check lanes in all of its stores.  (7/10/2011)
Technology evolution @ the Marathon County Public Library.  (6/29/2011)
HedbergLibrarian sets Greg Peck straight.  (5/20/2011)