this post was submitted on 01 Dec 2023
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My costco "self checkout" is really just an employee scanning your things and then you box them. Does move quicker than the standard lanes, though.
I went to Costco, did self checkout and an employee walked up and offered to do it and I was just what? Didn't really make sense to me.
Same at my Costco. They have 6 or maybe even 9 "self checkouts" and each is manned by an employee who scans everything without removing anything from the cart. Its basically a compact checkout. Recently was in another area and the Costco had true self checkouts with weight sensors messing up and requiring employee overide and all. It was a pain in the ass.
I read somewhere that this can mean they think you might steal stuff.
I think they do it for customers with bulky items that you can’t comfortably scan yourself since Costco self checkouts don’t have wireless barcode scanners like Sams so the employee manning the self checkouts uses their own that basically temporarily connects to whatever terminal the customer they’re scanning for. Very helpful so I don’t have to fuddle with big packs of paper towels or soda to try to scan their barcode on the built-in barcode reader. Kind of an oversight imo Costco… you literally specialize in bulk items lol the poor worker doing self checkout scanning assistance is always running back and forth between customers
They have the weighing thing, and then also the people who count your items at the door... so it would be hard to do. I think the thought was it's just more efficient to help if the employees are already standing there.
At my Costco they have employees at every self check out. Pretty counterintuitive but eh. I treat it like a "10 items or less" sort of thing
I think it depends. Sometimes they are scanning everything, sometimes they just scan the large items.
If they would let you use the handheld scanner and not remove things from your cart, it would go so much faster. I used to do that at Sam’s a decade ago; dunno if it changed. I still load my cart barcode up on the off chance one of the cool employees is running self checkout because they’ll scan my entire cart in 30s like I wish I could.
I always load the cart barcode up when doing 10-15 item runs at the grocery Costco (a small one that was by my house... groceries and office supplies only). I tried doing that a 'big Costco' recently and they were like what? Don't you want us to bag them? And suggested I put it all on the conveyor.