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One of the first things retail executives learn is that shopper surveys are horrible indicators of what shoppers will do in stores. Asked if they would make purchases at a breached retailer, they’ll routinely say no. But quarterly earnings betray the truth that being breached has just about zero influence on revenue. (Blame zero liability, but that’s a column for another day.)
The issue for today is self-checkout. Surveys show that shoppers love the idea. Retailer experience shows that shoppers don’t love self-checkout the reality nearly as much as they love self-checkout the concept. Reality messes things up, with fruits and vegetables that need weighing and age-restricted products and long lines and filled-to-the-brim shopping carts that were never supposed to be handled at self-checkout. Shoppers are quick to dismiss the value of an associate at a staffed checkout lane, ignoring the fact that their experience of scanning millions of SKUs makes them awfully good at it and impressively fast.
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