When Phillip Boaz heads home from a day at the hospital, his trip usually involves a stop at the grocery store. An infection control specialist in Woodlawn, Texas, Boaz says he will often use self-checkout, even if there are no lines at the traditional lanes.

"It is quick when I have few items and am in a hurry," he said. "And I like using the scanner — it’s fun."

For Charles Kaplan, a retired attorney in Louisville, Ky., the experience is very different. He has tinkered with self-checkout with mixed success, and has ultimately determined that it is not for him.

"I’ve found self-checkout machines to be less intuitive than they could be," he said. "I hate having machines talk to me. If one is using cash, it’s always a pain — sometimes the laser won’t read the bills. I never have the right amount of silver. I’ve had problems with scanners. The few times I’ve used them, I’ve always had to call the clerk for assistance."

Those differences of opinion are also reflected in two new research reports, which take very different views of self-checkout and just how successful it really is.

For its new publication "IT and the North American Supermarket," IHL Consulting Group analyzed the role technology plays in the grocery retail segment. The report, written by IHL’s vice president of product development, Lee Holman, calls self-checkout "a prevalent trend in most regions of North America" and the leading technology purchase intent for retailers surveyed.

A companion IHL survey of 533 consumers found that:

• More than 94 percent had used self-checkout; 40 percent said they "really like self-checkout," with only 5 percent saying they will not use it;
• 27 percent of respondents use self-checkout more than 70 percent of the time;
• Nearly one-fifth of self-checkout users claim to use it "all the time" when it is available.

"The data we’re seeing among consumer response is that consumer satisfaction with the devices is continuing to improve," Holman said. "The primary likes are, number one, it’s faster, and number two, it’s more convenient."

Holman also pointed out that self-checkout has a positive psychological effect on consumers. Since shoppers are taking part in the checkout process, rather than simply standing around waiting for their transactions to finish, they have the illusion that things are moving more quickly for them — even when they are not.

"We’ve seen the results of studies where people have taken the time to measure how long it takes at a cashier versus how long it takes for a layperson scanning the items in self-checkout, and it takes longer for the layperson," he said. "But because they’re actively involved, it seems like it takes less time."

This concept is well-known to advocates of in-store digital signage, some of whom refer to it as "wait warping," the idea that giving the shopper something to do and/or think about gives the illusion that things are moving faster than they are.

Not all of the news has been rosy, though. In an October 17th story, eWeek reported that a new study from consultancy Aberdeen Group called self-checkout "an absolute failure."

The story referenced Aberdeen’s paper "Building Point-of-Sale Retail Efficiencies: Enhancing Customer Experience through Contactless Payment Technology" and quoted its author, analyst Sahir Anand.

In an interview with Self-Service World, Anand said his comments were taken out of context, and that the full results of his research remain to be seen in a final report to be published this December.

"These are preliminary hypotheses," he said. "This is a hypothesis of mine — the findings of the final report will clarify all of this."

What customers want from self-checkout Self-Service World recently surveyed 60 retail grocery shoppers in various geographic regions and asked them to share their thoughts on self-checkout. Here are a few of the findings: 37 percent said they use self-checkout "always" or "most of the time," while 18 percent use it about half the time. Only 10 percent said they do not use it at all. 66 percent of respondents said they use self-checkout because the traditional lines are too long; 62 percent said they prefer it because of its speed, and 52 percent said it is more convenient. 77 percent of respondents said they only have to ask a staffer for assistance "seldom" or "occasionally", as opposed to 7 percent who felt they have to ask for help fairly often. Click here to view the full results of our survey.

So what hypothesis, exactly? In the Aberdeen report, Anand writes that self-checkout systems "have not significantly improved the customer experience … These systems have met several operational and store navigation roadblocks such as lack of a strong customer interface, inflexible store formats and frustrating self-scan and bag procedures. Customers have never found self check-out convenient or time-saving."

In the interview, Anand’s tone is considerably softer, pointing out that many of the problems self-checkout have encountered have had more to do with poor implementation than any inherent flaw in the concept.

"The larger problem lies in that it is not being done properly," he said. "The systems that were in place five to seven years ago, when the technology emerged — when there was adoption and first opinions were formed — those were bulky systems and they weren’t very flexible in terms of how intuitive they were for customers."

He also stressed that self-checkout is a technology well suited for certain retail segments and ill-suited for others, such as apparel.

"But it’s not a technology that is going to go away," he added. "Let me be specific. It can be enhanced."

Anecdotally, both the Aberdeen report and consumer feedback seem to suggest that self-checkout itself is not the problem — rather, it is the sometimes spotty execution.

"I wish stores would enforce item-limit rules," Boaz said. "I’ve seen people with full baskets using these. There is no way they are faster than a ‘professional’ checker in those cases."

In a recent survey, Self-Service World invited customers to give their thoughts on what they wish was different about self-checkout (see sidebar for more on the survey). Most of the responses echo the notion that the technology is good, it just needs ongoing tweaking.

A few of the responses received:

• "Some of them are too sensitive to touch, so if your 4-year-old leans on the shelf where the bags are it starts yelling at you to put the item back on the counter and wait. I really hate when that happens."
• "Easier codes for fruits and vegetables."
• "Quit telling me to place the item in the bag. A package of Kool-Aid is in the bag, it just doesn't weigh anything."
• "Ability to have a hand-held scanner to get to barcodes that are in awkward places rather than having to call for help."
• "I use cloth bags which constantly confuse the bagging scale. Come up with a system where I can place all my items on the belt before scanning and bag them in my cloth bags after."

"It comes down to customer service," Holman said. "You might have the greatest technology in the world, but if customers don’t like it, it’s not a positive. Vice versa, you might have a technology that has its own failings, but if the customer prefers it over what they had before, that’s a positive. Customers tend to be forgiving — they will overlook shortcomings."

As an example of the customer’s willingness to overlook shortcomings, Holman points to Wal-Mart and the retail giant’s practice of leaving pallets of goods stacked in the aisles. "At most other retailers, people will not tolerate that," he said. "But at Wal-Mart, they will.

"Again, there are issues that arise, and I’m not discounting anything that the Aberdeen folks have said," he added. "But if you want to focus on the negatives, my car has almost 200,000 miles on it and the window doesn’t go up and down right. I could find all sorts of things to complain about on the car. But it gets me from point A to point B safely."