BoiseDev reports on how Albertsons is testing "a store without traditional checkout lanes. The conveyor belts are gone at the store at Five Mile Rd. and Ustick Rd. in Boise. But so are the checkers punching buttons and scanning items behind a piece of plexiglass.
"Instead, customers can choose from a beefed-up array of self-checkouts, with staff nearby to help."
The story says that the program - being tested in two Albertsons stores around the country - "guides customers to self-checkouts by their basket size: 10 items or less, about 15 items, and 20 items or more. Albertsons replaced the previous small number of self-checkouts with more than two dozen. In the pods marked 20 items or more, there’s a much larger area to bag groceries than the traditional self-checkouts."
- KC's View:
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I love this, but have a question - why isn't Albertsons also testing checkout-free stores?
To me, self-checkout systems haven't changed all that much in decades … I think it is time for Albertsons, if it is committed to this path, to take the next big step.
