Self-Checkout | Is the Philippines Ready?

12.19.2018 - The Holiday Season in the Philippines is in full swing and long lines build up at retail counters in department stores, boos stores,, and other retail shop nationwide. It’s the busiest time of the year, but despite all this, the more employed staff takes up the counters without any proper solution to the congested long lines that are comparable to the traffic in EDSA. The Philippine retail industry has been this way ever since that has not changed while other countries namely their Asian counterparts are slowly embracing the self-service checkouts as an alternative way to ease off the congestion inside these shops is this the country ready for this type of service?

McDonald’s in the Philippines have recently installed their self-service kiosk and most elevated stations like the LRT 1 & 2, and MRT has self-service ticketing kiosks. It’s different when you talk about a Self-Checkout, which has been common in North America (US & Canada) that was introduced in 1997. The technology at that time was in its infancy that it has advantages and disadvantages. But technology is catching up when it comes to having these self-checkout counters in retail stores.

A Customer Making her payments using the Self-Checkout Counter in BIG W at Armada Arndale Shopping Centre.

Recently Asian countries like China, Hong Kong, Korea, and Japan has slowly embraced this technology as a potential to improve the market. It’s not going to eliminate manned cashiers like most have thought when McDonald’s introduced their self-service kiosk. Filipinos would still consider speaking with a person when purchasing a product or loading up their train cards. But it’s also taking up time that small chats can be delaying the service when a self-checkout counter can reduce that without the need to speak to staff when there’s an option for other customers to use this technology to take up more time creating long queues at the counter.

Yes, as mentioned there are Advantage and Disadvantages regarding this self-checkout counters that makes this service unavailable in the Philippines for all the retail stores. But imagine more about the positives having this in big Department Stores like Landmark, Rustan’s, and other stores or even local Supermarkets that always have long lines most of the times not even during the Holiday Season.

Landmark Makati's long lines have been a common sight during the Holiday Season every year with no alternative.

A Toys R' Us Store in Glorietta given that it has only had four counters and no express self-checkout is a Horror Holiday.

Long lines have been common in most retail stores in the Philippines. The experience inside the National Bookstore. 

The process of using the Self-Checkout machines is easy all the customer need to do is:

• Scan the barcodes
• Input the types of items such as fruit and vegetable (usually with a touchscreen display)
• Weigh them, if applicable
• And place all scanned items into a "bagging area". The weight observed in the bagging area is verified against previously stored information to ensure that the correct item is bagged, allowing the customer to proceed only if the observed and expected weights match

The payment process using various methods may be accepted by the machines like Card (EFTPOS, debit/credit cards, and electronic food assistance cards) and Cash, which doesn’t need you to be asked if you have loose change.

It is a convenience nonetheless that has been what was built for, and if you think this country is being left behind here are some pointers to weigh on about self-checkout counters.

Advantages

The benefit of having self-checkouts can help ease the build-up of long lines. It’s also an alternative for customers who are in a rush to take this service, while others who would still take time talking to the store staff through the cashier. The machines, of course, won’t be unmanned but there will still be staff watching over the machines in case the customers encounter an error processing their purchases.

This would help the retail industry giving customers an option and helps the industry with this one advantage, namely an investment to cater foreigners since the machines have multilingual (It cannot be fully bilingual unless the goods are labeled in all the relevant languages, which is often not the case.) service option for non-English speaking customers.

There are several pointers why the Self-Checkout counters have disadvantages namely shoplifting due to its vulnerability with potential theft using techniques that break the system. In some cases, the machine will pick up the attempt to steal, or cause the shopper to alter their behavior (e.g. an item can be put not on the scales but somewhere else where it should not be put, and this may be noticed by the system supervisor). For example, in 2007, a man was charged with replacing the tag of a plasma TV with a $4.88 DVD, and trying to purchase it through self-checkout.

Disadvantages

Studies suggest that a large proportion of shoppers are tempted to shoplift due to the relative ease of fooling self-checkouts. For example, a person who (initially without intent to steal) does not scan an item, may remember that this was easy, and fail to scan other items deliberately.

A 2012 survey with 4,952 respondents in the UK found that a third of shoppers had stolen this way, with around a quarter of the remainder stating they were deterred by the risk of detection. Non-barcode items such as produce, and store staff overriding (or ignoring) checkout alerts, were singled out as vulnerabilities, and poverty was not seen as a major factor. The founder of one store video surveillance system estimated that "Theft — intentional or not — is up to five times higher with self-checkout than when cashiers are working", although the behavior of shoplifters is becoming well known, and stores are now better at shoplifting detection.

A 2014 survey of 2,634 respondents confirmed the same general findings but commented that the cost of additional theft was evidently seen as "tolerable" compared to the cost of other processes, such as manned checkouts, and harm due to poorer customer service arising from the slowness of manned versus automated checkouts.

A Closer Look at one of the Self-Checkout Machines inside Big W at Westfield Marion in Adelaide, South Australia.

Modern Self-Checkout Counters

But over the years security has been tight regarding this flaw to prevent this type of crime from happening in Self-Checkouts. In Big W alone where this photo was taken in their Westfield Marion branch shows that the self-checkout area has CCTVs keeping an eye on their customers and potential theft with unscrupulous individuals. Besides that, with the security cameras, there are assigned staff there to assist the customers if some encounter a problem processing their purchases.

The retail industry in the Philippines can really benefit in having this type of technology as staff won’t be reduced as criticism behind this technology as an alternative for customers who are in a rush. There are also criticisms that customer service will be reduced, but with assigned staff that won’t be the problem as staff assigned in this area will be ever present to help just that not to overly keep watch on the customer as they also need space for privacy entering their password to make a payment.

The experience won’t be a hassle for most Filipinos just like I have to go through during the weekend while at the Landmark Department store or waiting in a long line at National Bookstore to pay for my copy of a Time Magazine and some postcards.

So what do you think about the possibility of having Self-Checkouts in retail stores across the Philippines?

Feel free to leave a comment and some of your suggestions about this technology as it may not ease the traffic on the road, but surely it will help reduce the long lines at your nearest department store or supermarket that has given you enough hassle ever since.

Source: Wikipedia