Self Checkout Services: A Boon or A Bane

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Introduction: Self-checkout is an automated process that enables the customers to process their own purchases without any human assistance. The concept of self-check-out services is not new but new instances have cropped up everywhere from banks to airports, retail stores, supermarkets, airports etc.

Self-checkout service has become omnipresent and has created a new era of convenience for consumers.

The service observed here is the self-checkout service at a supermarket – COLES. The customer is required to scan the barcodes of each item, input the items such as fruits and vegetables which is with a touchscreen display and then weigh them. After the scanning of the items are done, all the scanned items have to be places into a bagging area.

Payment can either be done by cash or card. There are few machines specifically for card as well as cash.

Products, Services, Information Systems all require different approaches to quality

–Garvin, Parasuraman, DeLone & McLean

Parasuram, Zeithmal and Berry have identified dimensions like reliability, responsiveness, competence, access, courtesy, communication, credibility, security, understanding and tangibles of service quality as crucial.

Self-checkout is used extensively in supermarkets and has strong consumer acceptance.

Instead of queuing for a long time, these machines give instant services. The automated voice on the machine makes it very user friendly.

The machine has a user interface that has an intuitive flow and has easy-to-use instructions which makes it easy for anybody to navigate it without taking extra time.

Customers can get their service done in a short time and the service process is quite clear and requires little effort.

The size of the machine is smaller than a traditional checkout which can save space and could be used for other purposes. The physical form and appearance offers an effective and efficient experience.

There are customers who do not want to interact with the cashier, hence the prefer the self-checkout system. They also find it faster and convenient.

A service always has both pros and cons. The self-checkout services also have quite a few of cons in them. The scale used to weigh the goods in the bagging area, fails, the machine does not work. There isn’t enough staff on hand to perform immediate maintenance which also makes it difficult for customers who are new to the system and do require assistance.