Awhile back we had to wear the shirts that said "so glad you're here." Around that time we also had signs put up that said faster checkouts. Has anyone seen if this is true? Sure isn't at my store. Also I saw in one of our newsletters where our CEO and saviour(a little sarcasm here) Dave Dillon stated that the average checkout time is now 30 seconds. LOL yeah right. It takes me 30 seconds to go through the u-scan when I'm alone.
Haven't investigated it properly, but I suspect our customers typically spend slightly less time in line these days. True, by "customer-firsting" Peter to pay Paul, we unveil a vast new minefield of petty first world complainables, but I suppose that's all part of living in a dying universe. Or something. What was I talking about?
I don't know about the wait times, but I know that they take Q-vision very seriously at my store. One minute you could have 4 registers open and just a couple people in line, but if there's ever three people in one line, it's only a matter of seconds before you'll hear a manager yelling over the intercom asking for some FE help from the other departments.
At my store that's about right. . . . unless we have an extreme couponer then that will hold up the line but usually I don't really make much convo with the customers I ring them up quickly and get them off my line. My customers usually leave saying "WOW that was fast" . I honestly ring them up fast on purpose to avoid talking to them and having to hear their lame a55 jokes =/
Dave Dillon stated that the average checkout time is now 30 seconds. LOL yeah right. It takes me 30 seconds to go through the u-scan when I'm alone.
While he may have said "checkout time" what he was really referring to was "checkout wait time" which is how long someone is in line before they start being checked out.
I think it's kind of silly how Wal Mart and Target, who are lightyears ahead of most retailers, refuse to hire baggers to speed up their checkouts. If you had two baggers, then you could probably send two cashiers home. If the baggers make $7.25 an hour and the cashiers make $9 an hour, then that move saves you $1.75 an hour AND makes the cashier's job less hellish. But I guess having 4 miserable cashiers is somehow better for Walmart than having two happy cashiers and two happy baggers.
Kroger does have a faster checkout because of the quevision and the fact there are baggers (sometimes..) problem is they are so bent out of shape about keeping quevision matched up and perfect that cashiers and office will go without breaks for hours and hours. the quevision is a lot more complex than just 2 heat sensors in each line. it's aligned with people walking in the door, the way people walk under the sensors, the direction they walk in, how fast everyone is scanning, how many registers were needed at that same time in the past 10 weeks, and to top it all off it is tied into how many hours are allocated to the front end. it's kind of cool but at the same time can be a pain in the butt. overall i think it's pretty effective though
