This is something that I've been hearing about now for approximately a year and half. Every now and then, I would hear how we're supposed to get new touchscreens at every register, but the bugs needed to be worked out first. Well, I guess the bugs have been worked out because it's happening now. For those of you that are at stores that have had the touchscreens for some time now, what's your opinion on them? I'm not someone that operates a register regularly, but when it gets busy, I'm part of the surge help that gets called and I'm not sure what to expect. I've heard talk that the checkers will have to be re-trained to an extent, but for those of us that aren't checkers, I wonder how they are going to make the time to get us comfortable with conducting transactions on the new touchscreens.
Not sure what division you are in, but I'm in midsouth and I would love to have touchscreens at the registers, especially if they could be customized and store those settings on a per-operator basis. I have seen other retailers with them and I could only dream of what I could do to increase productivity.
Not sure what division you are in, but I'm in midsouth and I would love to have touchscreens at the registers, especially if they could be customized and store those settings on a per-operator basis. I have seen other retailers with them and I could only dream of what I could do to increase productivity.
Southwest division.
I don't know to what extent they are customizable, if even at all. Both Walmart and Target stores in the area have had touchscreens for some time, so I guess Kroger is trying to get with the times. I don't see the touchscreens doing much to increase productivity, honestly. People that I work with barely seem to care because Kroger doesn't care about them, and that's the impression I get when I go in other Kroger stores, too. I know that where I'm at, from the baggers up to the co-managers, there's a dissatisfaction with how things are being done. Maybe the touchscreen technology would make your life easier and happier, but I don't think it's going to do anything positive for the people around me.
GenesisOne wrote:People that I work with barely seem to care because Kroger doesn't care about them, and that's the impression I get when I go in other Kroger stores, too. I know that where I'm at, from the baggers up to the co-managers, there's a dissatisfaction with how things are being done. Maybe the touchscreen technology would make your life easier and happier, but I don't think it's going to do anything positive for the people around me.
Oh I get that too. It's not just a regional thing; it's that way around here too.
The increased productivity would only really benefit me personally, since I have a keen interest in computers and technology. When I was first trained on SCO, I very quickly became the uscan guru in our store because I used my free time to figure out everything about how it worked. Within a couple months I knew far more than people who had been running it for years.
i'm interested as well. so far only the newly built stores seem to be getting them in ATL if it's anything like SCO integrated cashier it's a monument step backwards. i haven't had a chance to visit one of those stores yet.
Thanks for the reply. What you described doesn't sound good. It sounds like touchscreens will only slow down the processing of orders and bring down ring tender, so unless the checkers learn fast and become really efficient, Que-Vision compliance is going to take a hit and the front end's hours are going to take a hit too since, from what I understand, the faster the checkers are and the better their numbers, the more hours the computer will permit. Thus, if we have very few or no checkers hitting the ring tender goal, the front end is going to be even more undermanned. It's really stupid how the hours aren't determined by store volume and instead go by how fast/slow checkers do orders.
This change sounds really counter-productive, but hey, I shouldn't be surprised, because doing counter-productive things is one of the few things Kroger truly excels at.
-- Edited by GenesisOne on Friday 23rd of August 2013 01:21:51 PM
We've had touchscreens in my store for about two years now, and I can't say I'm used to them yet. They are actually much slower then the keyboards. They are faster to learn since you don't have to know all the shortcuts for different tenders such as wic checks, gift certificates, coinstar, etc. There is also a lookup for produce if you just cannot find that random veggie.
However the caveat is that they are much much slower. You have to literally look at the screen for everything since there's no tactical feedback. You can't just place your fingers on the number pad and type away which is what I used to do. There are many many mistyped plu's that should no longer exist (like one that rings up $999.99 for pharmacy) and the cashiers don't know what number they typed so sometimes fixing those is more of a hassle then they used to. Elms took a nose dive once we got them and stayed that way for about a month. It has come back up, but with the exception of a few people it has never been as good as it used to be.
Also they are very slow. Many times cashiers will tender out an order on accident or silly other things like that since the machine is so slow to update. Just wait when you have to void a transaction or ring up Kroger gift cards. Have fun!
The uscans don't work with the new computers (at least here) so anyone trained over there has to learn the old system as well and it just seems very disconnected.
Thanks for the reply. What you described doesn't sound good. It sounds like touchscreens will only slow down the processing of orders and bring down ring tender, so unless the checkers learn fast and become really efficient, Que-Vision compliance is going to take a hit and the front end's hours are going to take a hit too since, from what I understand, the faster the checkers are and the better their numbers, the more hours the computer will permit. Thus, if we have very few or no checkers hitting the ring tender goal, the front end is going to be even more undermanned. It's really stupid how the hours aren't determined by store volume and instead go by how fast/slow checkers do orders.
Front end hours are not affected by ring tender, they are determined by sales and the tasks activated in elms, just like every other department.
Front end hours are not affected by ring tender, they are determined by sales and the tasks activated in elms, just like every other department.
we were told eschedule takes ring tender into account when scheduling the mix of cashiers. don't know if that's accurate. i've learned to believe none of what i hear and half of what i read.
Thanks for the reply. What you described doesn't sound good. It sounds like touchscreens will only slow down the processing of orders and bring down ring tender, so unless the checkers learn fast and become really efficient, Que-Vision compliance is going to take a hit and the front end's hours are going to take a hit too since, from what I understand, the faster the checkers are and the better their numbers, the more hours the computer will permit. Thus, if we have very few or no checkers hitting the ring tender goal, the front end is going to be even more undermanned. It's really stupid how the hours aren't determined by store volume and instead go by how fast/slow checkers do orders.
Front end hours are not affected by ring tender, they are determined by sales and the tasks activated in elms, just like every other department.
I've heard differently from both the CSM and other front end supervisors. Part of the reason all checkers, including surge checkers, have and continue to be, told to "get their numbers up" is because the better everyone's ring tender, the more hours the computer will give. It never made sense to me, but that's what I and others have been told. I know people on the front that have basically been threatened by being told if they didn't get their numbers up, they weren't going to be allowed to run self-scan/customer care any longer and others haven't been allowed to work either one because their numbers aren't where they need to be. Either we're all being lied to then or ring tender is a factor in the equation.
Ring tender has nothing to do with number of hours budgeted. The reason cashiers are pressured to make their ring tender is that a faster cashier helps quevision scores while a slow cashier, or at least one who is not making their scores, is slowing the lines down. I know that ring tender was around before queuing was a big issue, but it has always been that way. The only reason your floor supervisors are saying that is because your CSM has told them that. Why your CSM would think that, idk, but it makes no sense anyways.
Riddle me this: why would higher ring tender scores give the front end more hours, when ring tender was introduced specifically as a way to pressure cashiers into being faster as a means to doing the same amount of work with fewer hours. Why would they set up a system that is meant to save hours by increasing speed of checkout to give you more hours when you are increasing speed of checkout?
We were supposed to get touchscreens 2 years ago when my store was remodeled, but now I'm glad we didn't.
As far as I can tell, Kroger loves technology. The problem is that they don't understand it, and aren't willing to test it before implementing it on a wide scale.
I'm not surprised that it's slow and doesn't work well.
Our fuel centers use touchscreens, and having a physical number pad would speed things up so much.
The problem with touch screens is that too many people aren't familiar with them and become impatient while using them. In no time, they get broken down from all the physical abuse. So once again, something that was implemented to save money ends up costing more.
The touchscreens clearly still have too many bugs for them to be considered store-ready. They respond sluggishly to touch, the screens glitch up and so on. Tonight, something as simple as clearing BOB couldn't be handled because the screen glitched up and flashed on and off so fast that there was no time to override. When two co-managers and the CSM all can't fix the problem and the big order has to be re-rung up on a regular register with the old-style keyboard, it's extremely obvious that the "superior" technology isn't so superior yet. All the touchscreens are doing is confusing cashiers, causing surge help to respond even more slowly because they hate them just like the cashiers/co-managers and making the wait time longer for customers because the touchscreens are less efficient. More money wasted on something that wasn't needed rather than spending money on what is really important - on the employees who are there taking care of the customers every day.
