Self-checkouts attract a lot of strong opinion, much of it negative. But now there is some science to back up the way we’re feeling.
A report published in the Journal of Business Research examined the influence of self-serve versus regular checkouts on customer loyalty, and the results aren’t good for Australian supermarkets hell-bent on funnelling us into more and more self-checkouts.
The research examined how self-service checkouts impact customers’ shopping experience with particular reference to customer loyalty.
It found that the regular checkout service made customers more loyal to the store and more likely to revisit.
Study co-author Professor Yanliu Huang said a “sense of entitlement” played a role in explaining the effect of loyalty.
Lower customer loyalty
“Our findings indicate that self-checkout systems, despite their advantages in terms of speed, ease of use and cost reduction, can result in lower customer loyalty compared to regular checkout systems, especially when the number of purchased items is relatively high (e.g. more than 15 items),” said Prof. Huang.
Prof. Huang and co-author Professor Farhana Nusrat conducted five studies for their research.
They found the extra effort required to check out and pack purchases, and the expectation of being served by the store, were negative consequences of self-checkout and decreased loyalty to the store.
However, when shoppers viewed the extra effort in self-checkout as a worthwhile experience, their store loyalty matched that of regular checkout shoppers.
“We found that when customers were encouraged to think of the extra effort involved in self-checkout as a rewarding experience, their perceived loyalty to the store was similar to those of regular checkout shoppers,” Prof. Huang said.
This week’s best deals
IGA
Sensible: San Remo pasta varieties, $2.50 each. A good Australian brand we should support. I always stock up when they are on special.
Indulgence: Pascal Jubes, $2.50, half price. My life became much better when someone made the genius choice to put jubes in bags instead of just those measly tubes. Even better when you can just buy those purple ones. Green should be left in the factory.
See the catalogue here.
Aldi
Sensible: Bakers Life Spiced Fruit Buns, $3.69. Take a bow Aldi, while everyone else was frothing at the mouth about early hot cross buns, you quietly sold them all year with a wink and a nudge and called them spiced fruit buns and no-one died of apoplexy. Aldi even had them in the ‘limited time only’ section, despite selling them for the past year.
I admire your audacity.
Indulgence: Fromager D’Affinois Petit d’Affinois, $10.99. I love trying cheese brands I have never heard of and I have never had a bad one from Aldi. Life would be very dull if you didn’t try something new now and again.
See the catalogue here.
Coles
Sensible: Vegemite 380g, $5.80, save $1.50. This is in the back-to-school specials, but do kids even do Vegemite sandwiches anymore? Vegemite hardly ever goes on special, though, so grab it while you can. Also in the back-to-school section is peanut butter. Parent alert: if you send a kid to school with a peanut butter sandwich these days you will probably get arrested.
Indulgence: Australian Forequarter Chops, $10/kg. Forequarter chops have fallen out of favour a bit. Fair enough, compared to loin chops there is a lot of bone and fat. However, you can fancy them up with a decent marinade, and they are perfect for barbecuing over coals as the fat creates a delicious smoky flavour.
See the catalogue here.
Woolworths
Sensible: White seedless grapes, $4.90/kg. Finally grapes have come down to a sensible level. The trouble with grapes is they are so heavy. You buy a bag and it clocks in at 1kg, which can seriously dent your budget when the early harvest ones are selling for more than $10/kg. Expect the price to fall again as the harvest kicks in proper in February.
Indulgence: Hot Cross Buns, from $4. Are we allowed to get excited about hot cross buns in the shops now or are we all still clutching our pearls about how early they were on the shelves? Anyway, Woolworths has the first shot at weird flavour combinations with a Caramilk offering. Sounds ghastly, but I’ll probably still try it.
See the catalogue here.
Do you think self-checkouts are a step back for your shopping experience? Why not share your opinion in the comments section below?
Also read: Supermarket pricing tactics lead to unhealthy choices, data shows
I won’t use them. In fact I wouldn’t use them even if they offered a token discount to do so.
I want people to have jobs and enjoying good banter with most of the staff helps make the day a bit more enjoyable bothways.
Oops, both ways, not bothways.
I have no problem with them and in fact prefer them because it lets me pack the way I like and never have a huge shop anyway.