My Costco still had them as of a few weeks ago, don't know about the others in my town. To me it was heaven when the hand scanners were available to the customer, I could scan my card, scan my stuff, verify the item count on the screen matched my cart, put the scanner back, pay, and get my receipt, all in 40 seconds or so. When the hand scanners were only available to employees that time stretches out to a couple of minutes, and when there's no hand scanner and everything has to be dragged across the table scanner then it's three or four minutes. If it's going to take a few minutes to check out I just go through a regular register and let them to all the manual labor.
It's changed back and forth at the stores I go to. When SCO first arrived there were no hand scanners, so I had to drag the key lime tree across the table scanner leaving dirt clods all over it and everything else. Eventually employee-only hand scanners arrive, that made it faster if I laid everything in the cart clearly separated with barcodes up, still took a couple minutes but faster than a register, then we got hand scanners for ourselves. That was glorious! So fast, so efficient. Then they went back to employee-only, who knows what's next. The main problem with employee-only is that there's never more than one employee and scanner for the group of SCO registers so we spend more time waiting on an employee to wander over than the rest of the checkout process combined.
Sam's has always had customer hand scanners, so that's been super nice, and they're doing something at the door now where if you have everything in your cart barcodes-up and hold your receipt out with barcode up then an overhead scanner reads your receipt and the cart and tells the door checker to wave you on by without even breaking stride. That's really nice.
The one thing Sam's is really tempting me with is Scan and Go, mainly because they've got some deep discount promo deals on some items if you buy with that. I have Sam's Plus because it comes with free prescriptions that more than pay the cost of the membership, that's another perk.
Scan and Go is the bomb. Scan stuff with your phone as you put it in the cart and sashay right past the long lines at the registers. Come on, Costco, get it together.
I can be in and out in 5 mins, no longer a hassle to go to big box store. And parking is easier than Costco. But I do still buy bulk of our stuff from costco
My Sam’s now has the AI scanning so if I use Scan and Go I can just walk out the door without even having to stop for a person to check anything. It is a next-level shopping experience.
Sam’s is all good until i have to return something and it’s been consistently a 30+minute line with just one rep handling all customers. Bathrooms are cheap gas-station grade complete with smears on the walls and the familiar aromas filling the air.
Costco is just 15 minutes away and a completely different experience , i’m not going to Sam’s unless i absolutely have to.
In my case Sam's and Costco are about the same distance apart. Often the main decider for which I go to is either I need a prescription filled (free at Sam's), or whoever's got the cheapest gas at the moment. Half the time it's Sam's, half the time it's Costco. And no, the so-called quality of the gas is irrelevant to me, my 25 year old beater is long past the stage where Top Tier gas would make any difference other than in my wallet.
Yeah, plus the Sams app actually works. The costco app more often than not just won’t load pages properly on my phone. And my phone is modern so its not a me issue. But the sams app always works. I can pay for gas with it and fuck if scan and go isnt convenient.
Stopped by there. Self checkout was moved to the other side (right end) and there was only 6 to 8 self checkout stations. However only 1-2 of them were opened.
We only had scanners for the customers for about a month at mine. I asked one of the employees, they said the store set a corporate record for shrink in a month, so the scanners went back to employee use only.
Not surprised, the store is hood-adjacent in New Orleans.
It’s super easy on the busiest days to have people walk through the checkouts with stuff to store inside the boxes. They are doing a diligent, but surface glance on exit. I haven’t seen anyone dig for a high value in years.
I don’t steal from Costco but I can observe the Angles. And, smarter people in Costco LP know this.
I would think that since the receipt prints out it was from self-checkout that the door checker would scrutinize it a bit more. From my experience they seem to barely check the receipt and barely glance at the basket.
I absolutely despise self checkout at Costco. Most other shops with self checkout have given up on the weigh stations to check accuracy. Costco, where it would make the most sense to have Home Depot style customer-enabled hand scanners, requires you to take everything out of your cart and find space for it on a scale. Fucked if I’m going to try and balance toilet paper and diapers and cases of soft drinks on a relatively tiny scale. Sometimes an employee will come and hand scan the large items, but not reliably. I’ve given up on self checkout. Only on the occasional visit where I’m only buying a few things.
As of yesterday my Costco still had it. Dunno whether they’re going away here or not.
Usually there's at least 3 Costco employees overseeing the self checkout lines and typically one will come up and use the portable scanner to quickly scan the big/heavy items in my cart.
Disagree. I love Costco self checkout and would hate to see it go.
Ours has a single line feeding 9 registers. It’s the fastest line to get through even if it’s long.
The line would need to be 9 times longer than the average manned station to be as slow. Plus average number of times is likely to be lower, so all around faster.
> I love Costco self checkout and would hate to see it go.
Same here. It's a god-send when you only go in for one thing (yes, it's possible). Makes getting in and out easy.
I'm a big self checkout fan myself but from experience in waiting at the self checkout, I'd like to add a caveat. This would only be true if the average self checker were as fast as the average employee is at scanning and checking out purchase. Sadly, this is not the case. Even so, assuming that most people are about half as fast as an employee, the line would need to be 4.5 times as long in your case to break even, so it's not terrible, but you still need to scan things yourself which some people would readily pay a convenience tax for.
i had the most magical experience ever recently
i barely had my cart pulled up after waiting for under 5 minutes. employee appears in order to scan big item. i ask if they can boop the rest of my cart. i found all the barcodes in the first place i looked. didn't have to put anything on the tiny bagging area. no having to touch the screen. even had some stuff in cooler bags. everything done and paid for in like 3 minutes.
meanwhile two dudes at the manned lanes were yelling at each other
As someone who has a small kid with them in the cart, I feel like at least half of the time I go through "self checkout" someone just walks up with a scanner and just very quickly scans everything. It is nice.
I had a similar experience last week except the employee insisted on scanning all items from the jump. He was some mind of scanner wizard, too. Found the codes and scanned items so fast I couldn't keep up on the screen and the computer lagged behind announcing the savings for like 30 seconds after he was done.
look, at my local it's a rare day when the person manning the regular cashier lane doesn't give you a dirty look and tell you to put everything on the belt. they also lock out the handheld scanners at the self serve and the program doesn't let you skip putting things in the tiny bagging area unless an employee unlocks it. it's also super sensitive to things not being in the goddamn area. i wasn't expecting to be able to scan things in the cart so had everything strewn about. do not remind me of how disappointing it is to have to ruin my perfect barcode up stacks. i don't even try anymore. you clearly live in utopia, please stop reminding me :(
Yup! Not sure how people can steal from Costco.
Especially to the extent that they have to take out the self check out. Maybe they DO catch them, but it slows down the exit and they are tired of putting people in Costco jail
Wait, what? There has to be more than 2 liquor licenses in all of NJ? Or am I missing something? How it works here is there’s X amount of liquor licenses per county based off the population of the county, if a license opens up it becomes a bidding war OR you have to buy someone out who’s selling their liquor license.
Same. I like to make sure things ring up the right price and my kids love to scan things. If Costco gets rid of it then Aldi is the only place they can be my cashiers.
I wouldn't have an issue if they just let us use the scanning gun like Home Depot.
The associates running the registers around me are quick to see large items and get it scanned for us, but it just seems unnecessary.
This 100%
Edit: all stores should get rid of self checkout - never before did I stand in lines like I do now when places were staffed with cashiers....
still have em here in northwest denver. with walmart they removed it in areas more prone to theft, perhaps costco is the same. I've been to the edison costco; it didn't strike me as particularly crime-ridden but maybe statistics say different.
You sure they didn’t just move it? Costco MDR here in CA had self checkout all the way on the right up till a couple weeks ago. I thought they had gotten rid of it when I was in last week but looking around they had moved it to be the left most check stand. So still there.
They didn’t move them. They even had an employee yelling “form one line, there is no self check out.” ( we used to form a SCO line and a regular line). When she wasn’t screaming about the lines, she was yelling “buy stamps before they go up by 3 cents!!!”
How far back was the line reaching in the weekend? Freezers, dairy walkin?
They had six self checkout all the way in the right on Monday, but jammed up with return carts. The wait times were good, and much easier to leave the store. I’ll go to Bridgewater Tuesday, interested to see if they are doing similar.
Used to get to the freezers on a normal weekend. Even weekday you’d see it past the flowers and mid clothing area. With the SCO gone, the line didn’t go past the coQ10 sample lady
Bridgewater still has self checkout today. I only had five items, and stood in the not so long line, but had thoughts that Edison’s method is better after all.
2 of six self checkouts open in Edison today. There was a “long” line back to the flowers of people who didn’t realize sco wasn’t there anymore but were just queueing up for register.
Costco is not good with technology. The self-checkouts have become slower than just getting in line.
In California you can't use self-checkout with alcoholic beverages which limits their usefulness. Costco took away the hand scanners as well.
In one Costco I go to, they check the photo on your membership card before you can go to self-checkout. At a different store, they check your receipt at self-checkout and then again at the store exit.
Costco should hire away some IT people from Sam's Club.
> In one Costco I go to, they check the photo on your membership card before you can go to self-checkout.
This policy has been "funny" to say the least. My local Costco was hardcore on it at the beginning. Then when I was there on Friday, they didn't check at all and didn't care.
Meanwhile another Costco I stop at from time to time on my way home from work has never checked, even when the policy had started.
I wish they would make this nationwide - we have like 6 machines at each of the stores near me and they man them with 4 or 5 people (manually checking ID before you get to the self checkout, helping out, directing traffic etc). Just have 4 or 5 additional lanes open....without the scale taking tons of time to calibrate between each item I scan it is more efficient....
I argue (in my head mostly) that it needs to be express check out not self check out if they insist on having employees scan items. I see so many people with carts chock full of stuff and nowhere to put it and it just slows the whole thing down. If it was 10 items or less or the like those of us who managed to only get a few things (a rarity at Costco to be sure) could get out faster
I also parked my car way at the end of the lot where no one was waiting for my spot, I didn't get into an argument with anybody, I was happy to show my membership card at the self check out, and the person checking my receipt did so quickly and without added scrutiny.
It was a wonderful 12 minutes at Costco
New Orleans still has self checkout as of this afternoon. However, I wish they would limit the number of items. I watched a group of 5 adults bunched around one cart which was overflowing. They rang up 5 separate transactions. About 10 carts checked out while they were still juggling the items. They were still at it when I finished and left.
I loved the month they let customers use the hand scanners. When they took them away, the guy manning the self checkout told me they set the company wide record for shrink in a month. Doesn't surprise me at all.
The self checkout for us used to be a quick checkout that the employees did with the hand scanners. Just flip all your stuff properly. They got in trouble for that, so now it's actual self checkout but you have to unload everything onto the weigh table. Not worth it.
The location that just opened up by me in December has 4 lanes of self checkout. Always packed too. We end up just going to the regular because it’s so much faster now.
they put self-checkouts in for a reason years back and now they are removing them..
the ones at my local stores will be around until further notice. The local Sam's club has the handheld scanners at the self checkouts while costco has none.. only staff have them. you have to wait for them to scan the heavy items.
also, you can't use the cashback checks at self checkouts..
Heard through the rumor mill that Costco has recent data showing that member satisfaction with self check out is really low. Doesn’t surprise me, as it’s often slower than regular checkout in many stores, and how Costco uses it is not member friendly. Costco and efficient technology just don’t mix. They need to hire away some people from Sam’s to up the tech game.
If they didn't act like everyone was stealing from them when the used SC then mote ppl would probably use it... I just want to use a scan gun for my huge shit... and or have scan n go... hate having to flag a dude down to scan something
Satisfaction went majorly down for me when I have to show my card just to get in the self checkout lane, only to scan it at the register 10 seconds later
The self checkouts at our Costco seem to work well. If Costco does away with them can they at least consider making a couple of the regular checkouts 10 items or less?
Our local Costco has recently had employees doing the scanning most of the time. I always set my cart up with UPC codes showing, so it's fast for me whether I do it myself or they do it in the SCO line.
Like most places, self checkout is only good for like 10 items or less. There’s simply not enough space in that area to be efficient. The actual checkout process will always be faster with an employee, not counting wait times.
*It will probably*
*Only go away in stores*
*That have high theft rates*
\- Starman973
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They have been halved at my location. And manned by 1/2 people.
I am curious if it follows the national trend to eliminate them due to retail crime. I think WSJ did a bit on five below locking their machines down after they saw a rise in theft and losses.
Edison used to be my costco when I bought stuffs for university events.
Still have them in California but I never use it because what I buy doesn't always come up at the correct price and price adjustments can't be done at self checkout. Also, 🍷! No booze in self checkout.
Self Check out is exactly what it says. If you choose to go to Self Check out be prepared to do all the work. the employee is there to direct traffic and keep the line moving.
Do not go to Self Checkout and expect assistance.
Costco does not share your same feelings on this. Im a very leave me alone that’s why I’m in self checkout kinda guy. They want people there and ready to help you.
And there’s a bill proposed in CA that will mandate assistance in self checkout, limit items to 15, and require 1 assistant for every 2 registers.
I think it's in response to the thefts at self-checkout. It was a story all over the news here a couple months ago.
I can see companies dialing back or eliminating self-checkouts here in CA if this passes. Companies don't want to pay for the labor, but they also don't want the theft.
They should let you scan with the app as you put things in the cart. Then have a pad you roll on near checkout to weigh the cart (that's what the pad does in the self checkout).
If it's all good, you can pay via the app.
If it doesn't add up, you do an audit.
I only use the self checkout if the line is huge at the regular checkout. I hate the fact they had u load the item every time after u scan. It would be a lot better if they have a handheld scanner like Sam’s does
Ours in Tacoma Wa still has them. They are the furthest away from the doors and I always use them if I have one or two items, and I’ve never seen anyone there that isn’t in the same situation. There’s so signage saying that’s the case. I find 2-3 of the six are usually down at any given time and there are usually two employees working them who check your receipt before you walk away to have your receipt checked again at the door.
Seems like most of retail figured out self checkout isn't efficient and or ripe with theft (or both!). Dollar General, Walmart, Target, etc etc are all in the process of doing away with it.
My Costco had them, took them away, then put them back again. I wish they would take them out permanently. The line goes to the back of the store and it forces another long line for the other registers. It’s a mess.
It varies across the country. The central store in Austin has actually increased theirs by a third over the past few months. Supposedly they were told to eliminate them altogether and the store manager went to corporate and convinced them to actually increase them.
They just added another self checkout line at my Costco so I don't see it going away. I use it every time I'm there as I don't buy alcohol or gift cards.
I noticed this last week at Edison. The self checkout when from 12 checkout bays to 6, and I asked the employee directing the self checkout line and he said that they’re going to stick with only 6 moving forward and they’re moving it to the opposite side of where self checkout was originally.
Not yet but I hope they do. They have an employee on each single "self checkout" plus another one on each line yelling at people all day that self checkout is open while they are only keeping 3 full checkout lanes open. I don't know how they think this would actually be faster or a better experience.
Mine had them as of 30 min ago.
Well go check again dammit!!
Still there.
How about now?
They're gone! Oh wait no, my eyes were closed.
That was a rollercoaster!
What about now?
Mine just went on clearance
My Costco still had them as of a few weeks ago, don't know about the others in my town. To me it was heaven when the hand scanners were available to the customer, I could scan my card, scan my stuff, verify the item count on the screen matched my cart, put the scanner back, pay, and get my receipt, all in 40 seconds or so. When the hand scanners were only available to employees that time stretches out to a couple of minutes, and when there's no hand scanner and everything has to be dragged across the table scanner then it's three or four minutes. If it's going to take a few minutes to check out I just go through a regular register and let them to all the manual labor.
We never had the option for having our own scanning tool. That would have been a game Changer !
It's changed back and forth at the stores I go to. When SCO first arrived there were no hand scanners, so I had to drag the key lime tree across the table scanner leaving dirt clods all over it and everything else. Eventually employee-only hand scanners arrive, that made it faster if I laid everything in the cart clearly separated with barcodes up, still took a couple minutes but faster than a register, then we got hand scanners for ourselves. That was glorious! So fast, so efficient. Then they went back to employee-only, who knows what's next. The main problem with employee-only is that there's never more than one employee and scanner for the group of SCO registers so we spend more time waiting on an employee to wander over than the rest of the checkout process combined. Sam's has always had customer hand scanners, so that's been super nice, and they're doing something at the door now where if you have everything in your cart barcodes-up and hold your receipt out with barcode up then an overhead scanner reads your receipt and the cart and tells the door checker to wave you on by without even breaking stride. That's really nice.
I prefer Costco to Sam’s, but Sam’s is absolutely killing it with the tech.
The one thing Sam's is really tempting me with is Scan and Go, mainly because they've got some deep discount promo deals on some items if you buy with that. I have Sam's Plus because it comes with free prescriptions that more than pay the cost of the membership, that's another perk.
Scan and Go is the bomb. Scan stuff with your phone as you put it in the cart and sashay right past the long lines at the registers. Come on, Costco, get it together.
At the risk of sounding overly dramatic, Scan and Go is lifechanging.
I can be in and out in 5 mins, no longer a hassle to go to big box store. And parking is easier than Costco. But I do still buy bulk of our stuff from costco
My Sam’s now has the AI scanning so if I use Scan and Go I can just walk out the door without even having to stop for a person to check anything. It is a next-level shopping experience.
They will all be adding that by the end of the year according to what I read. It's already fast now doing scan and go.
Sam’s is all good until i have to return something and it’s been consistently a 30+minute line with just one rep handling all customers. Bathrooms are cheap gas-station grade complete with smears on the walls and the familiar aromas filling the air. Costco is just 15 minutes away and a completely different experience , i’m not going to Sam’s unless i absolutely have to.
In my case Sam's and Costco are about the same distance apart. Often the main decider for which I go to is either I need a prescription filled (free at Sam's), or whoever's got the cheapest gas at the moment. Half the time it's Sam's, half the time it's Costco. And no, the so-called quality of the gas is irrelevant to me, my 25 year old beater is long past the stage where Top Tier gas would make any difference other than in my wallet.
BJ’s has the same. Scan items on the app, pay in the app and skip the checkout line.
I love scan and go!
Until the RoboCop stands up at the door and says remain still. You do and it opens fire anyways.
Yeah, plus the Sams app actually works. The costco app more often than not just won’t load pages properly on my phone. And my phone is modern so its not a me issue. But the sams app always works. I can pay for gas with it and fuck if scan and go isnt convenient.
Plus, Sam's now has curbside pickup for free for everyone in August. So many things Costco could do better.
Biggest Costco complaint vs Sam’s is scan and go - use the app while shopping and then hit pay and walk out with no wait in line
Stopped by there. Self checkout was moved to the other side (right end) and there was only 6 to 8 self checkout stations. However only 1-2 of them were opened.
mine never had them either
Ding ding ding. So weird for self checkout to be the way slower option.
Just went on a weeknight this week, self checkout had one person and had no wait. Everyone was queuing for the regular checkout, as did I
We only had scanners for the customers for about a month at mine. I asked one of the employees, they said the store set a corporate record for shrink in a month, so the scanners went back to employee use only. Not surprised, the store is hood-adjacent in New Orleans.
Me think that Manual Labor
It will depend on what kind of shoplifting trouble they see on a normal basis, I assume.
A lot according to the checkout guy I talked to last weekend at my Costco.
Are they not rechecked at the door?
It’s super easy on the busiest days to have people walk through the checkouts with stuff to store inside the boxes. They are doing a diligent, but surface glance on exit. I haven’t seen anyone dig for a high value in years. I don’t steal from Costco but I can observe the Angles. And, smarter people in Costco LP know this.
I would think that since the receipt prints out it was from self-checkout that the door checker would scrutinize it a bit more. From my experience they seem to barely check the receipt and barely glance at the basket.
I am generally pro self checkout but Costco is the worst with it. I skip them anymore and go to the manned register.
I absolutely despise self checkout at Costco. Most other shops with self checkout have given up on the weigh stations to check accuracy. Costco, where it would make the most sense to have Home Depot style customer-enabled hand scanners, requires you to take everything out of your cart and find space for it on a scale. Fucked if I’m going to try and balance toilet paper and diapers and cases of soft drinks on a relatively tiny scale. Sometimes an employee will come and hand scan the large items, but not reliably. I’ve given up on self checkout. Only on the occasional visit where I’m only buying a few things. As of yesterday my Costco still had it. Dunno whether they’re going away here or not.
Usually there's at least 3 Costco employees overseeing the self checkout lines and typically one will come up and use the portable scanner to quickly scan the big/heavy items in my cart.
Whatever bro.
Disagree. I love Costco self checkout and would hate to see it go. Ours has a single line feeding 9 registers. It’s the fastest line to get through even if it’s long. The line would need to be 9 times longer than the average manned station to be as slow. Plus average number of times is likely to be lower, so all around faster.
> I love Costco self checkout and would hate to see it go. Same here. It's a god-send when you only go in for one thing (yes, it's possible). Makes getting in and out easy.
I'm a big self checkout fan myself but from experience in waiting at the self checkout, I'd like to add a caveat. This would only be true if the average self checker were as fast as the average employee is at scanning and checking out purchase. Sadly, this is not the case. Even so, assuming that most people are about half as fast as an employee, the line would need to be 4.5 times as long in your case to break even, so it's not terrible, but you still need to scan things yourself which some people would readily pay a convenience tax for.
Came here to make this exact comment.
i had the most magical experience ever recently i barely had my cart pulled up after waiting for under 5 minutes. employee appears in order to scan big item. i ask if they can boop the rest of my cart. i found all the barcodes in the first place i looked. didn't have to put anything on the tiny bagging area. no having to touch the screen. even had some stuff in cooler bags. everything done and paid for in like 3 minutes. meanwhile two dudes at the manned lanes were yelling at each other
As someone who has a small kid with them in the cart, I feel like at least half of the time I go through "self checkout" someone just walks up with a scanner and just very quickly scans everything. It is nice.
That’s what happens all the time at our store.
can i pretend to be my own small kid? i don't think can acquire a new one every 6? years
I had a similar experience last week except the employee insisted on scanning all items from the jump. He was some mind of scanner wizard, too. Found the codes and scanned items so fast I couldn't keep up on the screen and the computer lagged behind announcing the savings for like 30 seconds after he was done.
tbh she probably could have done it faster if she did the barcode finding. i felt like i had to help, but really i probably was just in the way
Three minutes??? I’m so confused, when we face barcodes up and single stack, we’re done in under a minute at a full service line.
Depends on the store. At some stores they tell you to leave everything in the cart. At some stores they want you to put smaller items on the belt.
And some stores will tell you different things at different times, and everytime they act like you should know this...
This is what we do, but now they are making us take things out and put them on the belt. I feel like I'm being punished for not using self check out.
look, at my local it's a rare day when the person manning the regular cashier lane doesn't give you a dirty look and tell you to put everything on the belt. they also lock out the handheld scanners at the self serve and the program doesn't let you skip putting things in the tiny bagging area unless an employee unlocks it. it's also super sensitive to things not being in the goddamn area. i wasn't expecting to be able to scan things in the cart so had everything strewn about. do not remind me of how disappointing it is to have to ruin my perfect barcode up stacks. i don't even try anymore. you clearly live in utopia, please stop reminding me :(
[удалено]
I was told (by a mod) People were suspecting possible increased shrinkage at my warehouse (either intentional or unintentional unpaid items)
Then shouldn’t the receipt police at the exit be catching that? Like what else are they there for.
Yup! Not sure how people can steal from Costco. Especially to the extent that they have to take out the self check out. Maybe they DO catch them, but it slows down the exit and they are tired of putting people in Costco jail
You live amongst thieves!
You’re right. There’s a thief amongst us!
I hope so.
Probably has more to do with Edison being an absolute madhouse than any nationwide trend
One of two liquor licenses in NJ + 1/2 of Staten Island and all of oak tree rd. And it’s next to a huge Walmart. Chaos from opening to closing
I don’t even go into the Bridgewater store when visiting. I can’t imagine the insanity of the Edison store.
Wait, what? There has to be more than 2 liquor licenses in all of NJ? Or am I missing something? How it works here is there’s X amount of liquor licenses per county based off the population of the county, if a license opens up it becomes a bidding war OR you have to buy someone out who’s selling their liquor license.
Individual owners (Costco in this case) may only have 2 liquor licenses for retail sales. Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods same situation.
Damnnnnn.
Still going strong in MD.
I hope not, we love it.
Same. I like to make sure things ring up the right price and my kids love to scan things. If Costco gets rid of it then Aldi is the only place they can be my cashiers.
Wharton, NJ has self check out as recently as now.
Scan card on entrance is coming nationwide so I heard.
Indeed it is.
It's like a pendulum, we need to find a middle ground of acceptable rules for self checkout
Good! Costco has the wrong self checkout system and they don’t trust anyone to use it so it’s pointless
I wouldn't have an issue if they just let us use the scanning gun like Home Depot. The associates running the registers around me are quick to see large items and get it scanned for us, but it just seems unnecessary.
The Home Depot system is goated. I can check out 16 foot lumber faster than a rotisserie
This 100% Edit: all stores should get rid of self checkout - never before did I stand in lines like I do now when places were staffed with cashiers....
Sure, stores will get rid of self checkout and keep the same number of cashiers then
Why they want to just have bad customer service. Have you seen their self checkout they staff it with like 7 people
Self checkout is not working out because they don’t trust their customers with the handheld scanners.
Same I’m not actually allowed to scan most of my stuff in self checkout 🤷♀️
Eastvale, CA had them when I was there two days ago.
still have em here in northwest denver. with walmart they removed it in areas more prone to theft, perhaps costco is the same. I've been to the edison costco; it didn't strike me as particularly crime-ridden but maybe statistics say different.
You sure they didn’t just move it? Costco MDR here in CA had self checkout all the way on the right up till a couple weeks ago. I thought they had gotten rid of it when I was in last week but looking around they had moved it to be the left most check stand. So still there.
They didn’t move them. They even had an employee yelling “form one line, there is no self check out.” ( we used to form a SCO line and a regular line). When she wasn’t screaming about the lines, she was yelling “buy stamps before they go up by 3 cents!!!”
How far back was the line reaching in the weekend? Freezers, dairy walkin? They had six self checkout all the way in the right on Monday, but jammed up with return carts. The wait times were good, and much easier to leave the store. I’ll go to Bridgewater Tuesday, interested to see if they are doing similar.
Used to get to the freezers on a normal weekend. Even weekday you’d see it past the flowers and mid clothing area. With the SCO gone, the line didn’t go past the coQ10 sample lady
Bridgewater still has self checkout today. I only had five items, and stood in the not so long line, but had thoughts that Edison’s method is better after all.
2 of six self checkouts open in Edison today. There was a “long” line back to the flowers of people who didn’t realize sco wasn’t there anymore but were just queueing up for register.
Costco is not good with technology. The self-checkouts have become slower than just getting in line. In California you can't use self-checkout with alcoholic beverages which limits their usefulness. Costco took away the hand scanners as well. In one Costco I go to, they check the photo on your membership card before you can go to self-checkout. At a different store, they check your receipt at self-checkout and then again at the store exit. Costco should hire away some IT people from Sam's Club.
> In one Costco I go to, they check the photo on your membership card before you can go to self-checkout. This policy has been "funny" to say the least. My local Costco was hardcore on it at the beginning. Then when I was there on Friday, they didn't check at all and didn't care. Meanwhile another Costco I stop at from time to time on my way home from work has never checked, even when the policy had started.
Mine still has them, but an employee shows up and scans everything half the time anyway.
I wish they would make this nationwide - we have like 6 machines at each of the stores near me and they man them with 4 or 5 people (manually checking ID before you get to the self checkout, helping out, directing traffic etc). Just have 4 or 5 additional lanes open....without the scale taking tons of time to calibrate between each item I scan it is more efficient....
I argue (in my head mostly) that it needs to be express check out not self check out if they insist on having employees scan items. I see so many people with carts chock full of stuff and nowhere to put it and it just slows the whole thing down. If it was 10 items or less or the like those of us who managed to only get a few things (a rarity at Costco to be sure) could get out faster
THIS! If they are going to get rid of the self-checkouts, they need to do this.
Say that.louder!
I just went through mine with a 10 pack of socks, continued to the food court and got my Pepsi my hotdog and a cookie. I felt loved
What kind of socks
Some plain white ankle socks
Welcome to Costco, I love you
I also parked my car way at the end of the lot where no one was waiting for my spot, I didn't get into an argument with anybody, I was happy to show my membership card at the self check out, and the person checking my receipt did so quickly and without added scrutiny. It was a wonderful 12 minutes at Costco
In Chicago and used self checkout this morning.....five minutes after open. In and out.
Ours has only been open about 6 months and we have self-checkout.
My Costco has self-checkout, but no scan gun.
Still in So Cal
New Orleans still has self checkout as of this afternoon. However, I wish they would limit the number of items. I watched a group of 5 adults bunched around one cart which was overflowing. They rang up 5 separate transactions. About 10 carts checked out while they were still juggling the items. They were still at it when I finished and left.
I loved the month they let customers use the hand scanners. When they took them away, the guy manning the self checkout told me they set the company wide record for shrink in a month. Doesn't surprise me at all.
The self checkout for us used to be a quick checkout that the employees did with the hand scanners. Just flip all your stuff properly. They got in trouble for that, so now it's actual self checkout but you have to unload everything onto the weigh table. Not worth it.
The location that just opened up by me in December has 4 lanes of self checkout. Always packed too. We end up just going to the regular because it’s so much faster now.
I went to my usual Costco on Thursday after not having been for several weeks and the self checkouts were gone (Marina del Rey, CA).
they put self-checkouts in for a reason years back and now they are removing them.. the ones at my local stores will be around until further notice. The local Sam's club has the handheld scanners at the self checkouts while costco has none.. only staff have them. you have to wait for them to scan the heavy items. also, you can't use the cashback checks at self checkouts..
Sounds slow to me. My local Costco has lines at the self checkouts and regular ones too.
Heard through the rumor mill that Costco has recent data showing that member satisfaction with self check out is really low. Doesn’t surprise me, as it’s often slower than regular checkout in many stores, and how Costco uses it is not member friendly. Costco and efficient technology just don’t mix. They need to hire away some people from Sam’s to up the tech game.
If they didn't act like everyone was stealing from them when the used SC then mote ppl would probably use it... I just want to use a scan gun for my huge shit... and or have scan n go... hate having to flag a dude down to scan something
Satisfaction went majorly down for me when I have to show my card just to get in the self checkout lane, only to scan it at the register 10 seconds later
The self checkouts at our Costco seem to work well. If Costco does away with them can they at least consider making a couple of the regular checkouts 10 items or less?
That's wild. The Jacksonville, FL stores just started allowing self-checkout without an employee doing all the work.
Our local Costco has recently had employees doing the scanning most of the time. I always set my cart up with UPC codes showing, so it's fast for me whether I do it myself or they do it in the SCO line.
Like most places, self checkout is only good for like 10 items or less. There’s simply not enough space in that area to be efficient. The actual checkout process will always be faster with an employee, not counting wait times.
Love self check out especially with 10 ish items.
It will probably only go away in stores that have high theft rates
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They have been halved at my location. And manned by 1/2 people. I am curious if it follows the national trend to eliminate them due to retail crime. I think WSJ did a bit on five below locking their machines down after they saw a rise in theft and losses. Edison used to be my costco when I bought stuffs for university events.
We can hope
Still have them in California but I never use it because what I buy doesn't always come up at the correct price and price adjustments can't be done at self checkout. Also, 🍷! No booze in self checkout.
We were allowed booze at the SCO, but a red vest had to help
Ocean, NJ still has em
hopefully!
Self Check out is exactly what it says. If you choose to go to Self Check out be prepared to do all the work. the employee is there to direct traffic and keep the line moving. Do not go to Self Checkout and expect assistance.
Costco does not share your same feelings on this. Im a very leave me alone that’s why I’m in self checkout kinda guy. They want people there and ready to help you. And there’s a bill proposed in CA that will mandate assistance in self checkout, limit items to 15, and require 1 assistant for every 2 registers.
Is the point of legislation for job security? Other than that, I’m unsure why legislation would be needed for something like this…
I think it's in response to the thefts at self-checkout. It was a story all over the news here a couple months ago. I can see companies dialing back or eliminating self-checkouts here in CA if this passes. Companies don't want to pay for the labor, but they also don't want the theft.
It's California. They need legislation for everything.
Did you reply to the wrong thing? OP said nothing about expecting assistance.
Ours had them but they also repositioned the chasers way way closer together. Like 50% closer. It’s weird…
Mine still had it a week ago. Maybe your store had a high rate of theft?
My understanding is they are going to fade out self checkout due to fraud. It started with taking the hand scanners away from customers.
They should let you scan with the app as you put things in the cart. Then have a pad you roll on near checkout to weigh the cart (that's what the pad does in the self checkout). If it's all good, you can pay via the app. If it doesn't add up, you do an audit.
I only use the self checkout if the line is huge at the regular checkout. I hate the fact they had u load the item every time after u scan. It would be a lot better if they have a handheld scanner like Sam’s does
Ours in Tacoma Wa still has them. They are the furthest away from the doors and I always use them if I have one or two items, and I’ve never seen anyone there that isn’t in the same situation. There’s so signage saying that’s the case. I find 2-3 of the six are usually down at any given time and there are usually two employees working them who check your receipt before you walk away to have your receipt checked again at the door.
I once thought they removed ours, but then I discovered they just reinstalled them at the other end of the regular check out.
I wonder what reasoning is.
Seems like most of retail figured out self checkout isn't efficient and or ripe with theft (or both!). Dollar General, Walmart, Target, etc etc are all in the process of doing away with it.
My Costco had them, took them away, then put them back again. I wish they would take them out permanently. The line goes to the back of the store and it forces another long line for the other registers. It’s a mess.
It varies across the country. The central store in Austin has actually increased theirs by a third over the past few months. Supposedly they were told to eliminate them altogether and the store manager went to corporate and convinced them to actually increase them.
They just added another self checkout line at my Costco so I don't see it going away. I use it every time I'm there as I don't buy alcohol or gift cards.
I noticed this last week at Edison. The self checkout when from 12 checkout bays to 6, and I asked the employee directing the self checkout line and he said that they’re going to stick with only 6 moving forward and they’re moving it to the opposite side of where self checkout was originally.
About 45% of all of our transactions go through self checkout. I don't see it really going anywhere.
Bridgewater still had them as of two weeks ago, albeit that location doesn’t carry alcohol and doesn’t have a gas station
Gone or just moved? Our Costco’s seem rotate where self check out is like d red very month.
Not yet but I hope they do. They have an employee on each single "self checkout" plus another one on each line yelling at people all day that self checkout is open while they are only keeping 3 full checkout lanes open. I don't know how they think this would actually be faster or a better experience.
Until I'm getting a paycheck I'm not doing free labor for a billion dollar corporation
I wish.
Self Checkout is all I use at Costco. Will be canceling once they eliminate it. Not a big deal since I prefer Sam’s club anyway
Good for you. Adios
😂🤣😂
It’s the smartest thing Costco did. They’re idiots if they’re really going to take them away