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'It hasn't delivered': The spectacular failure of self-checkout technology


Unstaffed tills were supposed to revolutionise shopping. Now, both retailers and customers are bagging many self-checkout kiosks.

"It hasn't delivered anything that it promises," says Christopher Andrews, associate professor and chair of sociology at Drew University, US, and author of The Overworked Consumer: Self-Checkouts, Supermarkets, and the Do-It-Yourself Economy. One of the frustrations of self-checkout can be the extra work of having to find a specific PLU code to ring up a purchase (Credit: Alamy) Unexpected problems in the bagging area In 2022, the discount chain leaned heavily into self-checkout technology – it's not uncommon to see only one or two employees staffing an entire Dollar General store in some areas.

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