Lateral-g Forums - Self-Check Outs at Lowes/Home Depot

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In Home Depot or Lowes I always have to go looking for an employee if I need help anyway and then they usually have to go ask someone else. In general, I know exactly what I want and I can walk in, get the item, self-check out and leave without having to talk to anyone. I like that!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brewtal66 (Post 613738)

Have you ever used one of the self-check outs at Lowes, Home Depot or maybe a grocery store? Around here I really only see them at Lowes or Home Depot.

Are you a fan of them? Do they save you time?

Personally, I absolutely hate them. Here's my list of reasons why:

1. They are a pain in the ass. I have some electronic voice telling me what to do. If I don't do exactly right, I have to either redo it, or wait for a cashier(voiding the whole point of a self check out). I rarely find they save me any time.

2. They create job losses. So now Lowes only has to have 1 or 2 cashiers working, instead of 3 or 4. Yeah it saves them money, but, and my next point...

3. I don't get a discount. When Lowes or Home Depot prices something, they are taking into account all operating costs(variable and fixed). This includes the cost of hiring and employing people. So if there's no employee helping me, that means that Lowes/HD is bonusing out. They aren't paying for that extra man power required to sell the item. But do I get a discount for checking myself out? Absolutely not. I still pay the same price no matter what. If I got a 5% discount for self check out, I'd be much more inclined to do it myself.

4. Zero customer service. There's no interaction. I walk up, get barked at by an electronic machine, and that's it. An employee is a heck of a lot quicker ringing up items(especially when you have lots) than I could ever be with the units they have. Plus there's no "did you find everything okay?" "How are you doing?" or anything else for me to say "that was a great experience. I'll be back."

Okay rant over. I just really hate those and pretty much refuse to use them. Usually at the Lowes or HD, they have those open, plus one check stand way over in the lumber department. I'll take the extra 30 seconds and walk over there to a real human.

To #1 I would add that I always end up with the machine that some a-hole turned up volume all the way up on. Good thing I'm not buying anything embarrassing.

I am all for a person running the register and would like to see more of them. I understand the reasons behind the automated ones, but...they still suck.

I use the Home Depot self checkout multiple times a week. You just need to make sure all items have good bar codes. When I have large bulky items like lumber,I hit the contractors checkout.

I only use them if I just have a couple items and want to get out of a store. I have no patience for lines. Larger purchases I will get in a human line simply because I hate the weight check on the automated machines.

Our Lowe's usually has a handful of cashiers working, and I typically go to the cashier. The only place I favor the self-checkout over a live cashier is Wal-Mart, which is a place I normally try to avoid anyways, haha.

I enjoy human interaction...unless it's at Wal-Mart.

The bottom line for any store is overall cost. If they have less employees because of the self checkout and it saves them money then they are probably able to lower overall prices. So yes you probably are getting a discount. They work great for me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by clill (Post 614031)

I dunno...I'm not a professional economist or anything, but lowering costs while keeping prices the same means more margin. Sounds like any normal business to me. I'm not calling it greed, but I don't see a major company lowering prices out of the goodness of their hearts just because they saved a bunch of money each year by not having to pay wages. ***EDIT*** My thinking on this is because typically I've only seen a business drop prices in order to beat competition. So yeah, I can see how cutting employees to save wage expenses would give them room to lower prices, but again, I don't see them doing it for no reason at all.***

But again, that's just me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PBarkley (Post 614035)

As someone that dealt with Lowes & Home Depot Buying Offices, they squeeze suppliers to lower their costs. Many to the point where the company can not afford to do business with Lowes & HD and then they lose tons of volume. OR the quality of the products gets lowered to the point of Junk.

All the while Lowes & HD make HUGE Profits

Quote:

Originally Posted by BMR Sales (Post 614171)

Doesn't surprise me one bit. Their tool section is a joke. It's bad when a $10 socket set from Harbor Freight does a better job than stuff from Lowe's. Only a few brands (like Dremel, etc.) seem to have any real value.

Like I said in the last post, the only time I've seen a price drop is when it comes to beating competition...and I did my time working retail at Sears, so I'm well aware of the industry practices when it comes to pricing an item.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BMR Sales (Post 614171)

Home centers now have the leverage to spec product.........only one entity wins in that scenario.