Today I was at the supermarket and this location just happened to have these terminals that allow customers to process their own purchases. Must be a way for the business to save money while hopefully speeding up the checkout process. So, we thought why not as it seemed like a faster solution than lining up.
For items that simply had a barcode it wasn’t too bad as you simply scanned the barcode and it registered into the system. When it came to items like vegetables, it sure made me look silly. The way it scanned vegetables is that you have to first go through various screens that are broken down by category (It is a colored touch screen). For example, there is a category for green vegetables and inside there are items such as spinach. Once you find the item, you click on it and then place it on the scanner which weighs it to determine your cost.
It felt like a puzzle as you have to find the right category for the items and at the same time the color of the item could throw you off. For example, one of the items I had was some kale which was green. So while scanning through it I basically focused on all the pictures that were green. Instead, I found out the kale was purple colored on the screen.
Overall it was fairly simple process though. What this experience made me think of is how companies are trying to automate business operations as much as possible. Makes you wonder how much of a human touch a business like this needs to maintain a good experience for people.
2 Comments