Coop self service

Today when I went to Coop to buy some groceries I got surprised from the new self service stations for paying the food. Of course I had to try it!

These self service counters are for people with 15 or less items to pay for. For most people it will be slower than taking the regular old style human controlled lines, especially in the beginning, but soon people will get used to it and know which buttons to press and it will be quite effective.

As you see in the picture to the right, you put your basked with groceries on the left side. In the middle you have the automatic scanning device for scanning bar codes and a scale for weighing food like potatoes. To be able to pay for stuff with no bar code, like potatoes and onions, you use the touch screen to tell the machine what you just placed on the scale. Then you are supposed to put the groceries in a bag on the right side. When you are done you must pay. You do that either by cache or card the usual way, except that now you do all the work yourself of course.

I guess this will tempt a lot of people to not pay for some things they take from the store. They will probably deal with this by have some random controls, or maybe they have calculated this possibility and see that they will have to live with this loss for the sake of saving a lot more by not needing as many persons working in the store.

I am not sure what I think about this new self service. I don't like the idea of tempting people to being dishonest but I like the idea that I might not have to stand in line sometimes when I can take one of these self service stations. In the end I guess it is good that they give the consumer more options. It is all about to please the customer... and make more money.