Springfield, Mass.-based Big Y Foods will eliminate self-checkouts in all of its stores by the end of the year. The privately owned company, which operates 61 stores in Connecticut and Massachusetts,
said it had hoped the self-checkouts would speed overall checkout time when the machines were introduced in 2003, "but that has not always been the case."
"After extensive research,
Big Y has concluded that these self-checkout lanes not only do not save their customers time but usually take them even more time to check out than customers in standard checkout lanes," the company
said in a prepared statement. "Self-checkout lines get clogged as the customers needed to wait for store staff to assist with problems with bar codes, coupons, payment problems and other issues that
invariably arise with many transactions." Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons LLC made the same decision earlier this year.
"Our self-checkout technology could not deliver on the service
needs of our customers," said Michael A. Tami, vice president for information resources and technologies at Big Y. "In short, we were not able to provide the exceptional customer service through them
that has made Big Y what it is today. While other chains are opting to replace cashiers with more self-checkouts, we are adding cashiers to service more standard lanes."
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