Self-checkouts vs. cashiers: Which is better? (CBC Marketplace)

this is your marketplace I hate this with a passion fed up with self check out these sweet fruity and why what I do and self-service page remember who's really being served I see this big word called sucker you're working for free and I don't know what mixed recycling means but let's hope it's getting recycled we're back on the case has takeout coffee cleaned up its act do you recycle coffee cups no one done they'll tell you they do but you didn't see the CBC marketplace page then leaned for a like come down here there you go damn Kody Turner is a photographer though alright pop that collar up that's what the hair like that with skin but he moonlights as a banker a barista and a ticket agent to name a few Bonnie banks is supposed to be retired thank you but she's now working as a gas bar attendant a sanitation engineer and a whole lot more than that neither one is getting paid for all that extra work and both would have a hard time quitting so they're teaming up with marketplace to look at self-service and asked with so many companies making us do so many jobs for free who's really being served bonnie prefers to spend her days making miniatures I still have the chairs to build she says corporations have bigger designs on our time people that are thinking up these ideas are the ones that are making the big bucks but they're expecting us to do it for nothing and I don't think that's right those big ideas include making you pump your own gas I hate this with a passion the gas companies were very sneaky about the whole thing they gave us a discount for pumping our own gas we got paid for being trained into doing it ourselves and then they took away the incentive and now we have no choice that's how bonnie sees it and she sees a similar future at the checkout stand so she's on a crusade against self-checkouts every time she goes to walmart excuse me do you like working for Walmart for free you do as soon as you use that machine because you're doing the job of the cashier when the cashiers are gone there'll be all kinds of lineups just think about it on the flip side Kody Turner prefers the do-it-yourself like having 24/7 access to his money and the banks like it - if Cody went inside to check his balance an American study estimates it would cost the bank just under $1 40 if he uses the ATM it cost the bank about 60 cents and online that transaction cost the bank less than a dime that's why they like it and Cody likes the convenience and control it's easy I have a list of all the names there every day all the bills I have all the companies that I can use and it's just their quick click of a button the money is sent you share other ways that businesses outsource work to all of us I'm went from Belle River Ontario I'm here getting our mail are at our community mailbox that's here for footy lay off baggage tags using the self-checkout of a public library in a marketplace survey you tell us that like Cody you love online banking selecting your own seat spur of X and finding your own flights without a travel agent but like Bonnie you hate clearing your own tables at restaurants scanning your own groceries and assembling your own furniture to see where all this self service is getting us we're heading to Boston to meet an expert and doing double-duty along the way you enter six characters are 10-digit you've seen them self checking machines like this are popping up everywhere okay PZ let's make our 4-h member one complaint about self-service technology is that it's never the same from one machine to the next you have to learn what's expected of you on the spot d09 or m1 oh then I don't know what's do okay but airlines like getting you and me to do the work they eventually want to make us do the entire check-in and boarding process ourselves save them as much as 1.6 billion dollars a year for us the benefit is not so obvious I think I'm gonna have to go to an attendant I need an attendant to figure it out my ticket is now printing success walking's huh oh the Freedom Trail down in Boston we step back in time and meet up with Craig Lambert on a walking tour shouting the British are coming the British economist Paul Revere never would have said the British come soon Lambert is an author with a doctorate in sociology from Harvard he's not trying to turn the clocks back on technology-rich rickles but is sounding the alarm if you're a business owner and you have the option of instead of paying salary and benefits to a staff person to do a job you can instead have your customer do the job for free well wouldn't you say yes I mean how can you say no to the proposition I'm getting free work from your customer Lambert calls it shadow work unpaid tasks that fill up our day and steal our time the modern retail experience is one where there's no salespeople anymore right you go into a big big-box store and there's no one there to help you hello hello hello anybody here you know and there isn't anybody you're your own salesperson and then he says you hit the self-checkout and become your own cashier only problem is the people in front of you waiting to use the self-serve checkout are amateurs are you ready time for a showdown may the best shopper win get our newsletter your cheat sheet to the news you need marketplace we never keep you waiting we're scanning the world of self-service to find out are you being served thank you for shopping with us it's called retails Big Show in New York City and everyone's here including NCR a leader in self-service technology it's a long way from when NCR made this film on self-service almost a hundred years ago back then the big thing is when stores moved goods from behind the counter told shoppers to get what they want themselves and take it to a cashier these days shoppers are expected to be the cashier next up is the Teddy Grahams should I be getting paid for this well not really because we're actually letting you get out of the store more quickly but itself scanning really any faster we invite Bonnie and Cody to test it at a grocery store in Toronto's East End all right so we're calling this test old-school versus new-school how it's gonna work you're gonna go inside that store pick out the exact same list of groceries once you're done Bonnie you're going to go through the regular checkout line with a cashier my favorite Cody you're going to go through the self checkout why easy any predictions I'm probably gonna win oh I don't know about that I have a lot of faith in the cashiers the trash-talking begin here's your lip oh okay are you ready do it yep let's do it forget it yep oh yeah good luck me the best shopper win we send them on their way with some marketplace staffers to keep an eye on things okay curricular shake em burn the test won't really begin until our shoppers hit the checkout stands once they do our timers will begin to see who finishes first giveaway Bonnie Cody's proving he's got game but Bonnie rises to the challenge Rishi with their 20 items in hand it's time to recheck let us check ready here check and then checkout hi there while Bonnie gets the full-service treatment would you like thanks Cody hits a snag at the self scan please place Bearden on the stand and wait please wait for it dude why would I do continue no I don't fun Oh pray for an intent it's definitely gonna affect my time the attendant helps sort things out but then with the very next item is it six carrots please place the item on the skin and wait please wait for an attending all goodness despite his woes with waiting Cody starts to master the codes I'm gonna hang of this or so he thinks welcome back okay here how'd it go oh very well man we're gonna ask our marketplace timing team who got through the quickest all right so Bonnie got through in two minutes and 53 seconds and and Cody took nine minutes and five seconds Wow so in the Battle of old-school versus new-school the winner is Johnny talked about the experience how was it um the cashier was very knowledgeable and even for something she wasn't familiar with she looked it up like that what about you Cody Oh complete opposite experience every single time I did it at ten in had two comments like please wait for an attendant and listen to this after checking his bill it turns out Cody had more problems than he knew my Brussels sprouts cost $70 $70 the wrong the wrong coat the wrong coat was definitely punched in oh my god it was it was frustrating he was definitely frustrating well my bill came to seventy nine oh nine what's yours one hundred and sixty five dollars and five cents twice as much and it took Cody three times as long back at the big retail show in New York we're talking about our test with NCR's dusty luck his company didn't make the self scanner coding used but say they make two out of every three on the planet what do you think we found so I'm gonna guess that the cashier could actually do the transaction faster than the shopper you've got to look at from the consumers perspective they hate waiting in line even if self checkout takes longer he says people want the control it's part of the unbusy my hands are busy I'm doing things time flies it was also a much more expensive bill for our self checkout tester because he typed in the wrong code there are still some hiccups in the self checkout journey there were actually working on some innovations innovations like this self scan prototype that can tell a bottle of wine from a banana but even lutz admits sometimes he prefers a cashier so it depends it depends on me what is my shopping journey what's gonna get me out of the store quickest but that's what the shopper wants and if the store wants this checkout can convert from self scan to traditional in second and now I'm gonna be that your cashier serving you today depending we suppose on who they want to put to work their employees or all of us are you being served take our market place pull self-checkouts love them or hate them

Channel: CBC News

Views: 1,120,369

Rating: 3.834516 out of 5

Keywords: CBC News, CBCNews, CBC broadcasting media, public broadcasting, news, Canadian News, Canadian Broadcasting Corportation (TV network), CBC News Network, cbc marketplace, marketplace, marketplace cbc, self checkouts, self-checkouts, self-service, self-serve, scanning, groceries, kiosks, convenience, technology, retail, shopping, robots, machines, automation

Id: l0CtmrMtGu4

Length: 14min 1sec (841 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 29 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

Is this a new thing for America or something?

[u/bsd8andahalf_1]

cashiesr can at least smile at you.