Self Checkout Means Walking out the Door?

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Robert_Whited

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Now how many people would quit complaining about the checkout aisles at your local WalMart if you could just walk out the door? That is becoming closer to reality with the invention of a new RFID tag made from ink laced with carbon nanotubes.


“You could run your cart by a detector and it tells you instantly what’s in the cart,” says James M. Tour of Rice University, whose research group invented the ink. “No more lines, you just walk out with your stuff.”
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Im printing this out and heading to walmart now. I wonder if I can carry a 58" plasma all by myself?
 
this has been in development for at least 20 years now. it will happen eventually, hopefully soon. the real key is getting everyone to replace barcodes with standardized rfid tags.. the actual technology to read and auto-checkout is simple.

i really like the idea for gas stations... just walk in, grab what you want and walk out. much quicker then waiting for someone to win a scratch ticket.
 
Don't forget the privacy issues. Unless you destroy the RFID tags anyone else can read them too.
 
Robert_Whited said:
Now how many people would quit complaining about the checkout aisles at your local WalMart if you could just walk out the door? That is becoming closer to reality with the invention of a new RFID tag made from ink laced with carbon nanotubes.
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I guess it depends what you're buying. If it's a couple of things, then this works well. If it's a grocery run, you still need to bag all that stuff, though I suppose you could just grab bags as you walk in, or bring your own.
 
I know and see alot of people who already just walk out the door... though they don't pay or anything. Sad thing is there is just to many people for the amount of employees at walmart to deal with.

90% of all Walmarts that I have ever seen, or heard about are all understaffed. almost 100% of the time.

Anyone know if they just can't afford a full staff, or they just don't see it as cost efficiant or somthing else that I'm not privy to?
 
flooberjobby said:
I know and see alot of people who already just walk out the door... though they don't pay or anything. Sad thing is there is just to many people for the amount of employees at walmart to deal with.

Anyone know if they just can't afford a full staff, or they just don't see it as cost efficiant or somthing else that I'm not privy to?
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My days of jockeying a register are long over, but I remember plenty of people taking whatever they wanted at the local Quick Chek. The store had a policy of non-involvement.

Judging from the last time I was there, it still does. Guess its just more cost effective to let people shoplift than risk a confrontation and the potential lawsuits, damages, etc.
 
The only reason they haven’t implemented such a thing is because you can kill rfid chips quite easily! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RFID_Zapper

ZAP a whole bank of RFID tags and walk out the scanner without being charged for anything because the RFID's wont register.

Then as mentioned before it would be a bit of a pain to get every product with its own RFID tag embedded (or stick on). I remember it taking ages just to implement barcodes onto every product in our local library.

The whole reason for this is so we can get rid of the "check out chick" to save time. So moving to the new system means less service and more job losses.
 
flooberjobby said:
I know and see alot of people who already just walk out the door... though they don't pay or anything. Sad thing is there is just to many people for the amount of employees at walmart to deal with.

90% of all Walmarts that I have ever seen, or heard about are all understaffed. almost 100% of the time.

Anyone know if they just can't afford a full staff, or they just don't see it as cost efficiant or somthing else that I'm not privy to?
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This is a pet peeve of mine. Wal-mart has like 40 fucking cash registers and only 2 or 3 of them are open 99% of the time. Gah!
 
Azhar said:
This is a pet peeve of mine. Wal-mart has like 40 fucking cash registers and only 2 or 3 of them are open 99% of the time. Gah!
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I've seen that with many stores it seems like. They never use the extra lanes. Waste of space. They should add self check outs. I get out a lot quicker with them.
 
Conker said:
I've seen that with many stores it seems like. They never use the extra lanes. Waste of space. They should add self check outs. I get out a lot quicker with them.
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because their hours for employees are based on projected sales. They don't know weather they have made a profit till the end of the week when budget is deducted from what they made. All best estimated guesses and last years sales around that time is how they figure it.

I do believe this would be convent for some places but a grocery store where you have small items. No way unless people want to bag their own groceries. I know a store in my town does this. (To save you money pfff) I know some people totally dislike this place and don't shop their for this reason.
 
But what about parents with kids who love grabbing stuff and throwing it into carts? Or improperly priced items? This seems awfully like a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.
 
ceng-phil said:
But what about parents with kids who love grabbing stuff and throwing it into carts? Or improperly priced items? This seems awfully like a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.
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I'd say that billions of hours spent either waiting in line, or checking out customers every year is certainly a problem to be solved.
 
topslop1 said:
I'm game for it just so long as they don't try to rfid chip people
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That will be coming pretty soon. Think how efficient it will be to have an RFID or similar device with your financial and personal info on it, ala Minority Report.

Sounds far fetched but I can almost guarantee you someone is working on a system like that.
 
Conker said:
They should add self check outs. I get out a lot quicker with them.
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Yeah, until you get behind a person who has NO idea what a bar code looks like and clearly has never bought anything from a vending machine in his/her life!

I've seen people just swipe something across the reader with the bar code UP and facing them and they just go "duhhhh, why didn't this scan?" *swipe* *swipe* *swipe* over and over....

Then when it's time to pay, they can't figure out how to swipe their debit card, OR if they're paying in cash they either try to stuff 10 bills in at once or they go too fast for the machine and wonder why it won't accept their crumpled ones and/or spits them back out.

Jesus, people, is it really THAT hard?
 
Yea and what few shitty cashier jobs they offer now will be gone as well. Even more money leaving communities on top of killing every small retail business in town. Scourge of small town America, all so you can save a few hundred bucks a year.
 
HomerRulez said:
I wonder if I can carry a 58" plasma all by myself?
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At the Walmart I used to work at, we had two 32" display LCD TVs taken out basically that way (same model stolen one week apart). Apparently, they were dropped into a cart and walked out the door...guessing during a busy time.
 
Wouldn't matter. I still wouldn't set foot in a Wal-Mart. Stores like that are just a way for us to destroy the North American economy. I'll stick with Costco.
 
DanNeely said:
Don't forget the privacy issues. Unless you destroy the RFID tags anyone else can read them too.
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Well you would think that they would be automatically deactivated after read, to avoid double-charging people. Although that would create another issue of some idiot coming up with a device that can disable them before they leave the store.

From there the issue chases itself about by the tail. :D
 
UrielDagda said:
Well you would think that they would be automatically deactivated after read, to avoid double-charging people. Although that would create another issue of some idiot coming up with a device that can disable them before they leave the store.
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The iPhone will have an app for it. :p
 
I suppose it's possible since there are already RFID credit cards. Weren't they demoing it on the microsoft surface? I suppose if you had it in your pocket, the counter can assume that all other RFID product tags within your cards proximity when you walk out gets charged to it.

However, they also showed an episode in CSI where the MO was to have a bag with a reader and standing next to other people in crowded malls or counters hoping for a hit.
 
I don't mind scanning/bagging stuff myself, I can do it faster than they can, pay and be on my way...

My local stores all have self-checkouts... and for small carts of items (15-20) it's fine. Once you get a cart of stuff I could see it being a pain unless they made those areas bigger, and some people just won't bag their own groceries. But they close the self-checkout's after 9 or something in this one store because they need someone there to "monitor" it... this other store I go to (Same store, just different location) leaves the self-checkout going all the time. But if you ever need to "Wait for an Assistant" you gotta go find the guy who has the little PDA thing that is connected to the self-checkout. So if you're buying alcohol they gotta check your ID... so it's still a pain either way.

This automatic scanning shit just sounds like it's prone to a lot of issues... but it does have some advantages too. I guess if you could verify the list of items before you pay, it wouldn't be that bad... Just slide the cart through the scanner, verify those are the items you want, pay for it, and be on your way... would take significantly less time than trying to scan 100 items...
 
Azhar said:
This is a pet peeve of mine. Wal-mart has like 40 fucking cash registers and only 2 or 3 of them are open 99% of the time. Gah!
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If you go at 0300, it's typically down to one. And yes, people are out shopping at 0300, kids in tow and all...

What I found, well, I guess not too surprising or shocking I imagine, is that the employees working overnight appear to be even more anti-social and unstable than myself. WTF?

One time the cashier wouldn't say a darn word to me. Even after I initiated hello and etc, just trying to brighten their day a tad. I just about said "forget the items" and left...

Half the greeters just completely ignore you on a regular basis. How hard is it to smile and say hello to everyone as they enter? Only one greeter is always greeting everyone with a smile and a wave. I've never seen him do otherwise. Then again, he also looks like he has the mentality that Wal-mart could pay him in cookies and candy and he'd be happy as hell for it...
 
How many low paying jobs will that eliminate though. Think of how many checkers there are in Wal-Mart and other stores like Target or your local grocery. Those jobs aren't meant to be career jobs but they are what sustains/augments a lot of families. Some of the workers with some gumption also work themselves into store management.

Not saying it isn't a tempting idea and the geek in me is all for it but with the expense of losing a significant amount of jobs I am not so sure I like it.
 
Uberazza said:
The only reason they haven’t implemented such a thing is because you can kill rfid chips quite easily! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RFID_Zapper

ZAP a whole bank of RFID tags and walk out the scanner without being charged for anything because the RFID's wont register.

Then as mentioned before it would be a bit of a pain to get every product with its own RFID tag embedded (or stick on). I remember it taking ages just to implement barcodes onto every product in our local library.

The whole reason for this is so we can get rid of the "check out chick" to save time. So moving to the new system means less service and more job losses.
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Well, you could also de-magnetize security strips. That could also allow you to steal some goods just as easily as zapping RFIDs. I the solution is to use Costco style item checker grunts.
 
JayteeBates said:
How many low paying jobs will that eliminate though. Think of how many checkers there are in Wal-Mart and other stores like Target or your local grocery. Those jobs aren't meant to be career jobs but they are what sustains/augments a lot of families. Some of the workers with some gumption also work themselves into store management.
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bacon said:
Yea and what few shitty cashier jobs they offer now will be gone as well. Even more money leaving communities on top of killing every small retail business in town. Scourge of small town America, all so you can save a few hundred bucks a year.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite

Your argument is, and always has been, flawed.
 
Tolyngee said:
How hard is it to smile and say hello to everyone as they enter?
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Maybe they realize most people don't like this and stopped. I HATE when people greet me when I want into a store, I continue looking at the ground while walking by them hopeing they think I just didn't hear them.

Also I LOVE self-checkout because I almost never have to wait or deal with anyone, so a walk-out-the-door soltion would be great. Also, using your own re-usable grocery bags would save on the environment over those tons of double-bagged plastic ones.
 
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Youn said:
Maybe they realize most people don't like this and stopped. I HATE when people greet me when I want into a store, I continue looking at the ground while walking by them hopeing they think I just didn't hear them.

Also I LOVE self-checkout because I almost never have to wait or deal with anyone, so a walk-out-the-door soltion would be great. Also, using your own re-usable grocery bags would save on the environment over those tons of double-bagged plastic ones.
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Why do you hate being greeted? All they say is "hello, welcome to Wal-mart". It's not like they want to coddle you.
 
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EvilWays said:
At the Walmart I used to work at, we had two 32" display LCD TVs taken out basically that way (same model stolen one week apart). Apparently, they were dropped into a cart and walked out the door...guessing during a busy time.
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The best way to not get caught is to not look suspicious, this method works because people think "they must have done an exchange or paid in the electronics area, because who would be stupid enough to just walk out with a TV!".. ironic really, so no one stops them.
 
Nemesis999 said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite

Your argument is, and always has been, flawed.
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The principal objection of the Luddites was against the introduction of new wide-framed automated looms that could be operated by cheap, relatively unskilled labour, resulting in the loss of jobs for many skilled textile workers.
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Good point there but Luddites were concerned that the skilled were being replaced by the unskilled. Sounds to me like this would totally eliminate checker jobs with the exception of perhaps 1 or 2 people that assist when there is an issue. Again the geek side of me is all for this walk out the door thing but that is a lot of jobs going away.
 
JayteeBates said:
Good point there but Luddites were concerned that the skilled were being replaced by the unskilled. Sounds to me like this would totally eliminate checker jobs with the exception of perhaps 1 or 2 people that assist when there is an issue. Again the geek side of me is all for this walk out the door thing but that is a lot of jobs going away.
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So we should continue to persist unskilled jobs in the interest of propping up those that lack viable skills? Why not just tax people and give the money away? It's the same net effect.

Before major construction equipment was invented holes were dug with shovels. Perhaps we should use vast numbers of unskilled workers to dig holes instead of using a backhoe?
 
I wonder how many jobs this tech would eliminate. Just when those who worked as checkout cashiers thought their jobs are safe from being outsourced. :p
 
Nemesis999 said:
So we should continue to persist unskilled jobs in the interest of propping up those that lack viable skills? Why not just tax people and give the money away? It's the same net effect.

Before major construction equipment was invented holes were dug with shovels. Perhaps we should use vast numbers of unskilled workers to dig holes instead of using a backhoe?
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So you advocate socialism and promoting lazy people to never change? That's what you would be doing by getting rid of the "unskilled" labor, taxing us more and letting them live off of government handouts. It doesn't matter the income level it is a bad idea. Why shouyld anyone have to work if the government is going to give them money?
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Lebowski said:
So you advocate socialism and promoting lazy people to never change? That's what you would be doing by getting rid of the "unskilled" labor, taxing us more and letting them live off of government handouts. It doesn't matter the income level it is a bad idea. Why shouyld anyone have to work if the government is going to give them money?
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^^^
You've missed the point. They should do neither, maintaining jobs for the sake of busywork is no different then giving away money. There has always been an endless stream of people claiming that <insert new technology> will cause mass unemployment in the field of <Insert affected group>, and they're always wrong.

Not paying $1B for trivial labour translates to $1B elsewhere (in the hands of consumers/business/etc) that will generate jobs in some other way. A net increase in wealth very very rarely does anything but create jobs in the long run.

In the short run? Well, ya, it probably does suck plenty of people, but so what? Cashier isn't exactly a hard-earned career. Why should some developers/engineers/etc go unemployed?

And how about if cashiers were already automated? Would we not be having the exact opposite discussion if we were trying to move from automated to manual?

"Think of all those developers! and engineers! Converting to manual labour will cause mass unemployment in the IT sector!"
 
Now what if I went out the store with my stuff and went back in with my items because I forgot something?
The chips are still on and they don't keep track of if you go out and turn right around and come back in again. So would you get double charged, triple charged?
 
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