Chapter Six

Is The Checkout With Us To Stay ?

It was technological and cultural changes that brought us the supermarket. So will it be technology that spells the end of the supermarket checkout and even the supermarket?

This chapter explores the possible changes to checkout designs and operating practices which could have a positive impact on checkout workers and looks to the future of retailing and possible alternatives to the supermarket.

6.1 Technology Available To Change Checkout Design.

Researchers have identified that ‘improvements’ are now possible due to changes to the design and capabilities of the components of the checkstand. They argue that the retail industry is financially strong enough to make a sizeable investment in checkout design and operation. Such changes could be made and should be made.

6.1.1 Seating or Standing

Some feel that there should now be a role of the ‘standing checkout’ where the operator has the option to stand (although some form of seat is usually provided) - this being one of the recommendations made by Lannersten & Harms-Ringdahl (1990) who concluded: "The ideal ergonomic solution would be to offer the cashier the possibility of changing between sitting and standing" (pp.61), and being endorsed by Wells (1993) as a means of reducing foot, leg and lower back pain.

Whist modern gas lift chairs, similar to the designs used in offices by typists, offer good lumbar support and easy adjustability, a newer type of support the ‘Sit-stand’ seat is thought by many to be ideal, since it would allow the operator to take some of the weight off the feet. The following figure illustrates a sit-stand seat and the posture the operator should adopt.

Source: HSE (1991).

It would also be relatively easy to equip checkouts with adjustable fold away seats. A typical example is shown below. Here both the height of the seat and the height of the back rests can be adjusted. In this specific case the angle of the back rest is fixed, although newer versions of this design allow the operator to select the angle of the back rest to ensure that the back is firmly supported.

6.1.2 Improvements To Scanners

Workers should be provided with a light weight hand held bar code reader which they can orientate to read codes from bulkier items which are currently difficult to present to the fixed scanner.

The following illustration shows a typical hand held bar code reader.

Figure 19 Hand Held Bar Code Readers

Researchers also argue that scanning technology has evolved significantly over the last few years and that retailers should be looking to replace older bulky flat bed scanning systems which took up much of the work station space. They had a narrow scanning field and required quite specific placement of the items to be scanned, necessitating a lot of wrist movement by the operator to orientate goods. Modern alternatives obviate much of the need for operators to present goods in a specific plane, thus reducing the amount of product manipulation and accordingly wrist movement they need to make. These scanners, sometimes referred to as ‘bi-optic scanners’ project scan patters from two different angles. An example of a newer 360° scanning system is shown below.

Source: PSC Bar Codes Limited.

Most retailers recognise that these new scanning systems enable items to be processed faster by the checkout operator and are adopting these systems. Increased productivity has been proved by Madigan & Lehman (1996)

Early studies by Lehman & Marras (1994), and also by Cheng & Cheng (1996), confirmed that such scanning systems should reduce wrist motion, although operators were slow to take advantage of the increased scanning field, habitually presenting goods as they would have done when using the flat bed system they were more familiar with.

6.2 Retailers Experiments with Alternatives to Checkouts

As discussed, the checkout, of course, plays a vital role for the retailer and its use could not be simply abandoned - but there are now alternatives.

Equipment manufactures such as Potrafke, Europe’s largest checkout manufacturer, have been lobbying retailers to consider alternatives to present checkout systems which currently include self scanning and auto-scanning systems (Anon 1993). They claim that EC rules on health and safety, coupled with the need to reduce retail cost will make such changes inevitable.

Safeway has experimented with a system of customer self scanning using hand held bar code readers. Initially trialed in 24 UK superstores, and described by James Erlichman in the Guardian (15/3/95) as "technology which does away with the tedious business of queuing at the checkout". The system is now used in more than 150 branches. Using a hand held scanner the shopper uses three buttons ( ‘+’, ‘-’ and ‘=’) add an item, deduct and item, and show a subtotal for the selection.

Similar hand held scanning systems are planned within 100 Sainsbury’s stores by the end of 1998.

Retailers are also considering the use of customer operated checkouts. Here customers are able to scan, bag and in some cases pay for their purchases unaided. The system uses touch screens and audio prompts to aid the customer through the process. The following figure illustrates the "U-Scan Express" manufactured by the US based PSC Inc.

Figure 22 "U-Scan Express" Customer Operated Checkout

Source: PSC Inc.

Hand held scanning systems and customer operated checkouts are now available to retailers ‘off the peg’ and are being aggressively marketed in the UK at trade fairs such as the Retail Solutions exhibition held at Birmingham in June 1997.

Customers see such technology as a means of faster shopping. Retailers see the saving in staff wages (90% of the cost of operating a checkout, close to £56,000 per annum in staff wages according to US research. Source: Financial Times, 12/5/97), and find that users spend more. Whilst checkout workers may see their jobs in jeopardy by such systems, their usage is likely to be limited. Nevertheless, each item which a customer scans must be seen as one less which needs to be handled by a checkout worker - who's role would be limited to receiving payment and possibly assisting the customer bag goods.

6.3 Changes to Purchasing Patterns, & Products and Their Effects on Checkout Operations

The way we shop and the products we purchase are having an increasing effect upon the design of the Supermarket checkout. Changes in population demographics and employment patterns means that we are now a far more diverse range of shoppers.

There are now fewer families with two adults and 2.4 children who shop once a week in a planned, almost military, operation - although they still pose a sizeable market. There are more single people, young and old, who make more regular shopping trips. Hence the quantity they purchase on each occasion should be less. A swift glance at the range of trolleys and baskets available today in our supermarkets confirms the changing needs of customers. The standard shopping trolley and basket is now joined by the trolley to fit on to the front of the wheelchair, the trolley with the baby carrier, the oversized trolley and the bigger basket. Thus the range and volume of products which the checkout worker has to handle for each shopper on each visit has changed. This variability helps punctuate the repetitive task.

Parents with small children in prams/push chairs and the disabled are increasingly encouraged to use supermarkets and ‘accessibility’ has become a buzz word for the supermarket industry. Checkouts have had to be physically changed (or repositioned) to provide some with wider aisles. Such changes have given the opportunity to redesign checkouts and provide improved working areas. Regrettably the space available for workers has, in most cases, not changed and in some cases has been reduced slightly.

Products have also changed. Provisions are no longer standard sized tins and packets but a far more diverse range. On the whole, the size of the items has increased as ‘bulk-buys’ have become more popular. Older designs of checkouts were never intended for workers to have to reach and lift this magnitude of load. A point must be reached where the retailer recognises that there is a maximum size and weight which they can expect checkout workers to manipulate. They must encourage suppliers to keep their product configuration to within these realistic limits.

A call by Harber et. al. (1992b) for grocery product manufacturers to re-evaluate their packaging, and place bar code information differently with the checkout operator in mind, and the suggestion of Wells (1993) for the introduction of tear off scanning tags to eliminate the need for some handling of bulky or weighty products do not seem to have been taken up.

The range of services we expect at the checkout has also changed. Operators now may do any number of the following: weigh goods, pack bags, swipe loyalty cards and credit cards, receive cash, give change, give ‘cash back’, receive donations to charities, receive and give vouchers - the list is almost endless.

The positive effects of such changes mean that the checkout task is now more varied and that the worker experiences a more diverse range of movements. The disadvantage may be that it is both more physically and mentally demanding. The increased number of tasks that the operator may need to perform may make the checkout process slower - this puts the checkout worker under increased pressure to work faster and perhaps take risks such as over reaching etc. in order to prevent customers becoming irate.

6.4 Use Of Sales Data

Data collection has become a fundamental role of the supermarket checkout. Systems primarily collect information for stock replenishment, but they can also collect data for marketing purposes. The computer systems are, however, capable of much more.

Managers can identify which tills are busiest on which days (it does change!) enabling staff to be rotated so that they evenly share the workload and enabling the tasks of full time workers and the hours of part time staff to be matched to checkout pressures. Times when breaks can, and can not, be taken can be set. Using this data has obvious benefits for employers but it can also serve the customers. Initiatives such as Tesco’s "One-In-Front" promise - a pledge to open additional checkouts for customers when they experience queues in excess of one person in front of them are based upon checkout data trend analysis.

Checkout data can also be used to look in detail at the performance of individual workers. The speed at which staff process goods and their accuracy (re-scan rate) may also be stored. Checkout workers are encouraged to work faster. Whilst there is an undisputed need for checkout staff to work efficiently, and a role for data to be used to identify workers who may need further training, it is of concern that some retailers use it to encourage rivalry and offer financial rewards for staff who can exceed checkout performance targets.

6.5 The Future for Retailing

Retailers have significantly changed the way in which supermarkets trade over the last decade. The development of out of town shopping stores has enabled them to provide dedicated car parking facilities. Increased trading hours (up to 24 hour opening Monday to Saturday) and Sunday trading means that customers should find it easier to visit the store. NOP Research Group suggest that more than 1 in 5 adults shopped in a supermarket on a Sunday at least two or three times a month (Armstrong, 1997). However, there is a growing number of people who would prefer not to visit at all and opt for alternative ordering and delivery system.

6.5.1 Home Delivery Systems.

A number of retailers (e.g. Iceland & Somerfield) are currently trialing home delivery systems where customers visit stores as usual, select and pay for their goods in the normal way - but the bagged goods are then taken away by store staff for subsequent delivery.

Such home delivery systems in themselves have little implications for checkout operations. They are, however, a means for retailers to test the waters and begin to put in place the expensive infrastructure which could be used for a full blown ordering and delivery operation.

6.5.2 Home Ordering Systems.

Some retailers are currently experimenting with full ordering and delivery systems. The customer places an order using a variety of media: telephone; fax; or computer screen. The received order is then ‘picked’ by store employees.

Whilst order picking by employees for such home orders would essentially be the same task as the current customer selection presently from the aisles (all be it in perhaps different surroundings) it is unlikely that the checkout task would be necessary at the end. The original order would have generated the picking list in a logical order to collect the products from the stock area. Details of order price and stock levels would have already been handled by the central computer prior to order being issued to the picker. The picker could work either from a simple paper list - marking off the items as selected, or via an electronic device, such as the one shown below confirming selections made.

Source: Symbol Technology Inc.

Sainsbury’s have piloted an ‘on-line’ service using the Internet with a range of 20,000 products available to 100 employees of Hewlett Packard at Bracknell.

It was the first major supermarket to have an internet sales site - which currently offers flowers chocolates and wines. The following figure shows a shot of the screen which welcomes shoppers to Sainsbury’s current internet service.

Tesco also currently offers a similar Internet sales system with 22,000 products and an additional off-line service "The Tesco Home Shopper".

Home Shopper services are currently only available in a limited number of regions, however they are being expanded. A recent press article explaining how the Tesco system operates is shown below. It is clear that grocery home shopping systems are still in their infancy in the UK. Be that as it may, there are an increasing number of companies who have registered domain names on the World Wide Web, and a number including Asda, Safeway, Somerfield and Waitrose who currently have web sites. At present these are mainly intended to advertise promotions, offer recipes etc. but such companies are looking at the interest in this media with a view to developing it further. Sarah Charles of KPMG concluded that: "Most retailers regard their web sites as an experiment from which they will learn" (British Retail Consortium 1996).

With approximately 1 in 4 homes in the UK having a home computer and of those 25% currently being connected to the internet there is a large potential market place for on-line retail services. J. Sainsbury are on record as believing that home order/delivery will gain 5-10% of the UK food Market in the long run. (BRC 1996).

6.6 So Is The Checkout Here To Stay ?

Whilst supermarket checkouts may change slightly in the coming years - perhaps to enable more services to be offered, or to allow a store to change its image, it would appear a safe bet that the laser scanner checkout is not about to disappear from the supermarket chains, nor is it about to vanish from the many thousands of independent and regional retail groups that attempt to emulate them.

Hence, it is now perhaps appropriate to look at a number of simple measures which could be taken by retailers, and their employees, to reduce the risks to checkout operators and the action which should be taken by enforcement officers to ensure that risks are assessed and appropriate controls identified and implemented. The final chapter of this study now makes such recommendations.