Self-Check-Out Kiosks: Friend Or Foe?. Have You Ever Been
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Self-Check-Out Kiosks: Friend or Foe? Have you ever been in a rush to get in and out of a store? Did you contemplate using the self-check-out kiosk? Before deciding to use self-check-out kiosks there may be a few factors to consider. Self-check-out kiosks are marketed to both customer and retailer as a means of more efficient service. However, they actually can be frustrating for customers, give poor customer service, eliminate employment positions, and create opportunity for multi-level theft. For a 2008 project called the Human-use Experience: Supermarket Self-Checkout Kiosk, a MIT student evaluated the self-check-out kiosk in a local supermarket. The process was something like this: The student continued to explain that when it…show more content… Many retail stores have eliminated human cashiers for the most part, leaving customers no other option but to use self-check-out kiosks. This was the case at an IKEA outlet, where the president of an international consulting firm, who has tested kiosks worldwide, was a customer (Gagliordi). In the article, “IKEA checks out of self-service” at retailcustomerexperience.com, Francie Mendelson, president of Summit Research Associates, was quoted as saying, “There was no explanation on how to use them. I was aiming the scan gun at the bar codes and it just wasn’t working. An employee came by and said I needed to hold the scanner about six inches from the barcode. I asked her, 'How was I supposed to know that? There is nothing on the screen to indicate that this is how the thing works. ' She shot me an angry look and walked away” (Gagliordi). The self-check-out kiosk at this IKEA store clearly aggravated the seasoned veteran user, so perhaps it could be concluded that customer service by way of computer is not a good option. The kiosks not only cause frustration, but also create backed up lines in the smaller areas they are positioned in (Gagliordi). After a rash of customer complaints, U.S. IKEA stores removed the self-check-outs (Gagliordi). IKEA is not the only retail store that has put human cashiers back to work. In a 2014 Wall Street Journal article, "Returning to Wal-Mart: Human Cashiers," the superstore addresses their biggest customer complaint; long
readers, sorting equipment, and tag inventory wands. Security can be handled in two ways. Security gates can query the ILS to determine its security status or the tag may contain a security bit which would be turned on and off by circulation or self-check reader stations.
The purpose of an RFID system is to enable data to be transmitted by a portable device, called a tag, which is read by an RFID reader and processed according to the needs of a particular application. The data transmitted by the