h&m, uniglow, zarah, they have also recently rolled self-checkout. self-checkout is very controversial. you have some shoppers that love it. they don t want to talk to the cashier. they think it moves more quickly than going through traditional checkout. some shoppers get so frustrated about it. think about all the errors or all the time you hear unexpected item in the bagging area, or please place item in the bag. it s incredibly frustrated and things slow things down. i feel like it s constantly accusing me of thievery. like, it s in the bag, i have to go and get people to help me. there are a lot of pros and cons here. what are the pros and cons of self-checkout for the actual businesses? so for the businesses, they re trying to save on labor costs, save money. they don t have to hire and staff those cashier areas. they can just add the self-checkout machines. that s a little bit cheaper for them. and then, younger shoppers, they often prefer it. you re seeing technology cha
that we re all feeling a little frustrated by the amount of work that we have to do when we go to the store. so, i do think that there s a risk. you also have people that prefer them. but when competition from amazon is so tough against these stores, you risk driving shoppers away. i was going to say, so much of retail now is about the experience you have in the store that you can t replicate when you re shopping online. it s interesting that they might risk losing customers because they re forcing customers to do the work of a cashier. but also, there are unique ways in which the pandemic helped popularize these self-checkout systems, right? exactly. so during the pandemic, we all got used to social distancing and a lot of people started using self-checkout, because they wanted to limit those close interactions with cashiers and other customers. but i think as you mentioned earlier, with all of the issues with self-checkout, you often
those experiences. but then there are other people who get really frustrated by it, and shoplifting levels are higher with self-checkout that be traditional cashiers. people will scan everything and walk away without paying. they will switch an expensive steak for cheaper eggs. there are all things that people have to try to avoid paying on self-checkout. unions avoid self-checkout, because they lead to job losses. it s really interesting, there was this 2021 survey by radiant. they asked a thousand shoppers if they had had an issue using self-checkout. nearly 70% of them said yes. do you think retailers might be risking driving customers away by having self-checkout? i do. i think that the work of checking people out is being shifted from paid employees to unpaid shoppers, and i think
levels. it will likely become more of a boutique kind of experience for those brands. nathaniel meyerson, happy new year. i ll definitely come get you the next time i m at a self-checkout and it s malfunctioning. thanks so much, man. and amara, it sounds like you may have had some of those experiences where you want to physically fight a machine over the frustration it gives you. aren t they so inefficient? well, at least the way i handle them. i m not going to blast the machines, but i m just terrible at self-checkout. i detest them. i abhor them. i loathe i mean, i need a the saw thre threesaurus. i m going to put you on blast, sidney, you love self-checkout. but i have two little ones, and they want to play with the machines when they see me doing it. you re super passionate about it. i feel like you should start a
it will change your life forever. loved by some, loathed by others. self-checkouts were first introduced by supermarkets in the 1980s, and since then, big box chains and drugstores have started using them and now they re starting to crop up in more and more clothing and department stores. cnn business reporter nathaniel meyerson joins us now. nathaniel, great to be with you on new year s day. great to see you. walk us through this. which clothing and department stores are trialing these self-checkout lanes and why? right, boris. we re used to seeing self-checkout at grocery stores and pharmacies like cvs, but now they ve spread to unexpected stores like clothing and department stores. so kohl s, bed bath and beyond,