I have always been "afraid" to try it, one of these days I will put on the courage cap and give it a try
I haven't seen it at Migros yet, either. Maybe an excuse to go there tomorrow to check it out.
But taking out half the registers doesn't seem that odd, how often do they have all of them staffed, anyways?
In our last station of call we lived 5 minutes from an Ikea so I was there often enough to get storage boxes and the like. I LOVED the self serve lines as they were sooooo much faster. Although you could only use a card to pay and inevitably you would get all those Germans wanting to pay cash who would then be escorted to a normal check-out line.
Every 3M Migros I’ve been in on a Saturday has every till open (30 or more) and queues waiting to get through. Carrefour used to be the same when they had stores here. Also quite often on a Friday evening the 2M Migros in Murten will have all the tills open for late evening shoppers as it’s a busy time then.
How on earth did you get banned in Delhaize? We used to use them there all the time and they were great. Much more user friendly than the Carrefour version.
It was a bit of a pain if you got randomly chosen for a 'control' but at least in Delhaize they went for the partial control where they just scanned a few items at random and assumed that if you'd scanned those you must have done everything. Carrefour used to make you offload everything and then repack it all which was much more annoying.
There were always a couple of cashiers on hand for controls or other issues but in general I think there was quite a reduction in total staff numbers.
I have never tried the coop ones either as there's rarely a long queue at coop, I don't shop there very often and can't be bothered with the pre-registration thing.
In my limited experience of othe Migros stores I get the impression that it's a pretty new thing. Given all the fanfare going on about it here I get the impression they're pretty proud of it.
It is one of the ones where you scan all your items as you shop and then just pitch up and pay at the terminal and they have installed about 20 terminals so in theory if people use it the waiting time at the checkouts should be eliminated completely.
It's exactly the same in our local Migros which is a 3M one. Now not only have they taken half the tills away but they have done away with the 'basket only' ones which were pretty handy if you only popped in for a couple of things.
Yeah, it’s really annoying that the basket only tills are disappearing. They’re quite useful when you only have a few items. Of course, sometimes there are longer queues on those than on the ordinary tills.
And then there’s always the full trolley idiot who insists on using a basket only till because there’s no queue.
OH and son tried it yesterday and were actually very impressed.
It was incredibly easy to use, fast and efficient. It was even easy to use coupons/double points vouchers/ cumulus rewards and the like.
It seems they are operating both systems here. You can either take a scanner and scan all your items as you shop and just pay at the end or you take a basket and scan and pay for your stuff at the end (hence the lack of basket tills)
You need a cumulus card for the first option but not sure about the second.
I used to use them in the UK, and it was really difficult to use my own bags, machine kept saying 'please place the item in the bagging area' which I already had, plus little one used to 'help' which caused 'unexpected item in bagging area' alerts, then something wouldn't scan, or I'd buy something that required 'please wait for approval' so in the end it would take me longer, wouldn't be able to do a big shop, and I'd have to have the person 'manning' the selfservice checkouts with me half the time anyway. Plus, they didn't do cashback which is very annoying.
All in all, a PITA, but at least I didn't do anyone out of a job.
I like the idea of the scan as you go thing, reminds me of when I was planning the wedding and we went round Debenhams. It was one of the most fun things about getting married, although, of course, we didn't have to pay for those things then.
I *wish* the stores near us had self-checkouts or even the scan-as-you-go setup. We usually buy just a handful of items and it would be so much faster for us instead of standing in line behind the old lady with a cart full of stuff that wants to gossip with the cashier about the weather.
I find the Migros self scanning system great. It saves me from unloading all the stuff onto the counter and then back into bags. I can also get my stuff much better organised into bags as I shop than quickly at once at the counter - so unpacking at home is much easier too.
In addition, I can see right away if I overlooked which item is reduced.
For some, an extra benefit could be that budgeting is easier as one can check the total and maybe put back one of those 99CHF/KG prosciutto if the total is too high. However the same person would not do the same at the counter out of shame.
BTW. Thanks for the tip with kids pushing the + button
Do you have a link with the comparatives? Genuinely interested - although because Migros is more vertically integrated than other supermarkets it wouldn't surprise me at all (they get both the supermarket and the manufacturers margins).
I am loving the self scan option at Sihl city now as no one else seems to use them so no queue. I have notice though that it does not appear to be weighing the item after scanning so might be wide open to fraud. I think the UK ones are using approx weight as a check after it is scanned.
They do, yes, so it's always a good idea to put the bottle of single malt on the scales near the fruit and veg to get an accurate reading before buying that dummy 800g bag of carrots.
Interesting you mention that. Saw a documentary about how U.S. self-scanning systems are becoming more sophisticated to try and thwart such tactics, which are apparently very common. The weight system was just the first part. Now there are cameras that can look at what you pass by the scanner and determine if you're really scanning carrots or single malt.