Self Serve Nerd
Ok so this post will show how much of a nerd I am.Recently The Husband, Bubby and I went to shop at the newely extended shopping centre in the middle of the city. While there to escape the heat (I think it was forcast to be 36C/97F that day) we went to investigate the new Big W.
Well that is not the nerdy thing. We picked a few things to purchase (some t-shirts for bub, and a DVD for us) then headed down to the checkouts.
They had self serve checkouts!!!!! COOL!!!!!
Well we thought it was cool anyway. You can still pay by any method you want - cash, eftpos or credit. You scan the items then put then in the bagging area - apparently this second part is essential (see here) as it accounts for the items you scan (perhaps a security measure). So this is a great option for people who hate waiting in long queues only to hear the dreded "price-check" call that signals a lengthy wait for someone to respond to the call and find a price. Of course you have to make sure that all your items have tags/barcodes.
The amusing thing with our experience was that we still had to wait for a check-out operator to complete our transaction,. You see we paid by credit- and the machines aren't quite intelligent enough to be able to check a signature- it still has to be sighted by a human. They had someone dedicated to the task so it did not take too long and we were done.
I suppose some people will say that it is too impersonal, or has the potential to put people out of a job- but it was cool!!!!
posted by Capital Mum @ 9:55 AM
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