I have a love/hate relationship with Walmart’s ever expanding “Scan and Go” checkout service. You know, the do-it-yourself option where you do Walmart’s work for them, as they laugh all the way to the bank.
Years ago, the Arkansas-based low price retailer invaded our Hattiesburg community, pushing out local groceries and department stores.
True enough, they delivered incredible bargains, and to handle the customer onslaught, installed over a dozen checkout counters with happy cashiers.
Life was good, and Walmart supersized its stores and became the premier grocery merchant in these parts.
As the years rolled on, the checkout aisles expanded while checkout workers decreased in equal sequence.
Before you could say “Wally World,” 19 checkout stands stood closed, lights out, while one lonely checkout held a tired and hapless employee.
Of course, the open counter was one hundred yards at the opposite end of the store where you parked! That poor soul, going solo, greeted customers in a line as long as the wait for Space Mountain at Disney World.
The difference was the customers were far less enthused, as they had to haul plastic bags to the car rather than roller coaster through an asteroid-filled and very dark outer space.
The pencil pushers in Bentonville, Arkansas, had to fix the “long wait” problem.
They did not add more cashiers or baggers. They cost too much. New technology was installed, but that only sped up the corporate dollar signs. Building more stores no longer seemed viable.
Among other threats, Dollar General built a store at every intersection and every woods hollow.
So I suspect the top dogs had an epiphany.
People did not stop buying gas when full service went by the wayside. Airline travelers preferred kiosks over check-in counters.
Why not make your loyal customers scan and bag their own stuff?
Crazy? Maybe not.
If the captives think they have no other choice, perhaps the idea will work.
Sure enough, the experiment succeeded.
Folks would rather do free work in exchange for standing in a long line. That definitely makes sense when you’re the person with one bag of dog food standing behind the person who has not grocery shopped in a month and has two overflowing shopping carts.
But what about that person who has a full cart?
Let’s hope they are feeling healthy because those biceps and that back will get a work out.
To add insult to an injured rotator cuff, Walmart posts workers to help you when the scanner messes up.
How often does that happen?
Every single time!
Yet, those employees, many quite young, just watch while you struggle with the sodas falling out of the bag you have no clue how to pack.
I do love it when I have only a few items.
Scan and go, baby! But I also hate it when it’s time to restock the house for growing boys.
Scan, rescan, fiddle with bags that won’t open, get help, and then go, once your day has briefly soured.
I do my best to shop local, but Big Blue can be irresistible.
Until now. I resist! Well, unless I have one purchase or need to cut my grocery bill. Breaking up is hard to do.
Clark Hicks is a lawyer in Hattiesburg, Miss. He can be reached at clark@hicksattorneys.com.
