Are Cashier-less Walmarts Coming to the Southern Tier?
When you go to the store, do you use the self checkout aisles? If you do, this may not concern you at all. But if sometime in the near future you go to check out at the Walmart in Johnson City, or the Walmart in Vestal and there are no cashiers, this would be why.
According to KWWL, Walmart is testing an all self-checkout store in Fayetteville, Arkansas. According to the report, the company is planning on eliminating all cashiers and turning stores into all self-checkout aisles. The report states that Walmart is hoping that with the elimination of cashiers it will help prevent the spread of Covid-19 and speed up check out times.
It is unclear if Walmart will be doing this at all of their stores, just some of their stores, or just this one store in Arkansas. As of now, both Binghamton area Walmarts still have cashiers.
Depending on how long the lines are in the lanes that have real cashiers, I will use the self-checkout from time to time. And these machines have come a long way.
The first time I saw these self-checkout machines in a store was at the Price Chopper in Endicott. Back then, I swear time I used one of the self-checkout machines, I still had to wait for assistant from a store employee. Since then, I haven't had many issues with them.
The report does not state whether or not Walmart will continue to use self check out isles only after the threat of the Coronavirus has gone away. I tend to believe if they can eliminate people on the parole by going to all self-checkout, and it runs smoothly, this will be what you see in stores moving forward.
When it comes to self-checkout, someone still has to verify your age if you purchase alcohol or tobacco products. I'm not sure how that will speed up the time it takes to check out.
I guess time will tell if either the Walmart in J.C. or Vestal will be effected.
[via: KWWL]