Only Anecdotal

I needed milk and ran into our local Stop & Shop today. Of course, we needed more than just milk, so I also picked up coffee, the cherries that are on sale, and several other things. This is the closest non-specialty grocery store to me, and even though my son once worked here, I am not a huge fan of the chain. Overpriced and rude more or less sums up my general experience at this particular location in the past several years. Because of this, though, the store is rarely crowded, and prices are not as high as they once were, at least not for everything. They do have a few things I like, so it was a good chance to run out for a break from my job search.

I made my way around the store with few problems. I think they have finally gotten rid of the terrifying robot that roamed the aisles, or at least I didn’t see it today. On a past visit, the beeping android startled me, and I slipped on a wet floor, cracking my knee right by the checkout. In case you are wondering, no one from Stop & Shop asked if I was all right, although they plainly saw me fall. But I didn’t sue. I also didn’t go back for over two years. I returned once on a whim last year when they were the only store without a long line to enter. It can be nice to go into a store with so few customers in a pandemic.

Today, I made it all the way through my visitt, and opted for self checkout, as I saw only one regular register open, with a few customers already waiting. Framingham has a new ordinance to encourage bringing our own bags, which I was already doing, anyway, so I lined up my bags in the designated area past the scanner. As it should happen, this doesn’t work well, because the bagging area has a scale for items that are scanned. My bags had not been scanned, so they set off the alarm that “assistance is needed.” The employee then told me that I can’t put bags from home in that area, so I would have to load my purchases after I finished.

I had a couple of heavy items that I would normally put right back into the cart, but the scanner will not work unless the most recently scanned item is in the bagging area. A large bag of bird seed would not fit there. This required assistance.

I scanned an avocado, which again set off the alarm, and the employee scolded me not to scan produce. There is nothing to indicate this at the checkout, but the barcodes on produce do not work; you have to look up each item on a directory instead.

I accidentally scanned the cherries as grapes, and the employee came back and scolded me again, and also grabbed a bag of pistachios from my cart, right next to my purse. She was abrupt, and seemed angry, which I guess I can understand if she has to provide assistance four to five times for each customer in self checkout. Other than a few people who had only one item, it seemed that alarms were going off all around. She was alone handling six self checkout registers, while only one regular register was open. It seems such a short time ago that there were only two self check registers, and four or five registers with a checker and bagger for each, and not even that long ago that there were six or seven registers with one express line.

As I said at the beginning, I have encountered rudeness before at this store, but today I had my limit. The system is broken, and I’m not going back there. I have had problems at every store with self checkout, and this is not limited to Stop & Shop. At first, I resisted using it, because I felt it gave the stores excuses not to hire workers, but in many places, it is hard to find a register that is not self checkout.

I used to see more people working in stores, people I chatted with and liked to see. I don’t want to push back against improvements and technologies, but customers seemed fed up; I know I am. In a few stores, I have realized that I am the odd person shopping for myself while most people in the store are Instacart shoppers rushing through aisles. This is an amazing convenience, and I have used it a few times, too. But I really prefer to choose my own produce, and meats, and sometimes, in the right place, I am delighted by something I find. Is the shopping experience becoming a frustration intentionally? Are we being pushed to order everything from home? The convenience is undeniable, but I don’t like a world where we stay in our own huts and never encounter a stranger.

I suspect that the frustrations we face are not so intentional, though. My guess is that it is just cheaper to have more self checkout aisles, to avoid hiring workers. The store profits, and customers may grumble, but they adapt. They leave the stores in a bad mood, though, and over time, some realize that there are better experiences elsewhere.

I wrote some time ago about the Target dressing room, and the frustration that could have been avoided by providing a sign telling customers to check in with the store employee before trying things on. I have seen hospital staff fed up with baffled patients and their families. It is easy to forget that visitors to stores and hospitals do not know what the employee knows and experiences all day, everyday. And vice versa; it is easy for customers and patients and consumers of all sorts to forget that employees are (usually) doing the best they can.

Designing systems that work well for both employees and visitors takes planning and care. It matters, and it can make someone’s day.