#self-check

[nickgerlich]

Machine Language

It is one of the most contentious of debates hitting retailers and restaurateurs these days. In their attempt to modernize and incorporate technology at every turn, they invariably wind up offending some customers’ sensibilities, as well as confusing those who no have tech savvy.

And then there are people like me who embrace all the change and have no problem using technology to make my life easier, which I am sure also benefits the business. Bring it, please, and hurry.

I could only be talking about self-serve kiosks, the touch screens and self-scanners that cause people to lose their minds over on social media. They fear jobs being lost and all manner of hypothetical ills. Maybe that’s just a cover for their inability to navigate the onscreen menus, but either way, there has been a line drawn in the sand between those who love and those who hate these things.

But a recent report yields a surprising conclusion: They’ve not been nearly as bad as some speculated, and all those fears of job losses simply did not materialize. In fact, by letting customers do the mundane part of the transaction—the ordering—it frees up employees to perform other essential tasks that help improve the customer experience.

The benefits of self-serve kiosks, especially in restaurants, are significant. The service level is consistent, removing the human element. Variability both within and between employees is removed by machines that always pitch the upsell at the precise same moment, and customized for each customer. In fact, with AI, it can be better than humans, because the order can be analyzed up to that point and relevant add-ons proposed that fit what the customer ordered.

It’s much better than just “Would you like fries with that shake?” No, now the machine-driven order taker can notice that you ordered a specific type of sauce to go on your taco, and would you like more?

Although fast food is not my thing, I confess to occasionally stopping at a Taco Bell while on long road trips, because I know that I can get bespoke burritos all courtesy of their kiosks. I can add this, delete that, to a far greater degree than you can do just standing there talking to a human, because the majority of the add-ons aren’t even on the menu. Well, not the one hanging on the wall behind the clerk. I am in and out of there in 10 minutes, and back on the road. Avocado and black beans? Yes, please.

Of course, there are downsides to kiosks. If you replace the human interaction aspect completely, thereby forcing customers to use the machines, there may be pushback. Some people are simply intimidated by them, and require assistance. This slows down the process. And, a study has shown that if there is a line at the machines, the same thing happens as when there’s a line to order with a human: We get cranky and order less. Or walk out.

As for supermarkets and other retailers with self-check kiosks, there is the increased risk of theft. It’s just too easy, especially with savvy thieves who tap the screen such that it thinks you are weighing bananas, but in fact laying a T-Bone steak on the scale, it’s easy to see how stores can wind up losing money.

As for me, I am a huge advocate of the self-serve kiosks. I don’t go shopping for chit-chat. I want to expedite everything. I also like packing my own groceries into my reusable shopping bags. Since I have Walmart+, I can simply scan a QR code when I’m ready to leave, and it charges the card I have on file within the app. Easy peasy. Call me a control freak, but I have this down. You can thank COVID for this. I cut my teeth on the system back then, and am now pro level.

I suspect that line in the sand is also a demarcation between younger and older shoppers, those most open to, and resistant to, change. Ooooh. There’s that word again. I use it a lot in every one of my classes. It’s a generational thing, digital natives versus the geezers who have spent their entire lives trying to keep up with all the changes around them.

It’s understandable, and to be honest, my students, you may very well just be geezers in training. I won’t be around, but please do a self-check—the personal reflection kind—when you hit 65. You may find yourself resisting technology that hasn’t even been invented yet.

Meanwhile, I have to make a Walmart run soon, probably later today. And you know where I will be when it’s time to wrap it up.

Dr “In And Out” Gerlich

Audio Blog

[jayjay-thejet-plane]

Obi-wan with the skywalker twins <3

(from an unfinished piece from ages ago that i found on my iPad, other than the weirdly small baby heads, im impressed with how it looks considering my art skillz at the time!)

[someonestrawberry]

saw I trap: hey girlie! this guy is dead. but he has a key in his tummy!! could you get it out to save yourself??

saw traps II and up: preform brain surgery on yourself then eat your own arm then watch your wife be brutally murdered then melt all your skin off with this acid then kill 7 innocent bystanders. you have 45 seconds. now you'll think twice about taking antidepressants.

[elletromil]

So I do a lot of book suggestion with my public libraries because, well, I'm a big reader and I can't buy all of the books, no matter how much i might want to.

Anyway, it always completely baffles me when, with series - especially when its in ebook form where you can see fairly easily on Libby whether or not there is another installment after the one you're currently reading - *I* have to suggest the next book for it to be picked up.

And not in a 'why is the librarian not buying it' way, but rather in a 'why are people not asking for it????'

For exemple, I've been reading a series of like 5-6 books total. I suggested my library get the first ebook, suggestion got accepted, i read the book and liked it well enough. About 10-ish people were in the hold queue. Of course that doesn't mean they actually liked it but whatever.

I suggested the second book, and because of the nature of ebooks reservation, some people got to read it before me. Ok fine. I read it, about 6-7 people are on the hold queue when i finish it.

Guess what? No one asked for the third book.

For EVERY book in the series, i had to ask for the next one and i'm just...

For people to read it before me, they had to have an alert on the book so they would know when it becomes available at once. Cuz obviously I have those alerts, but even just checking 5 minutes after the notification, there would be at least 2-3 people with a hold on the book already.

And its not even a 'oh, the library will get the ebooks at a certain time every months/few months so that's why it wasn't available yet'

I finished the second to last book of the series recently. It had been available since like october-ish. I had actually started back then, but since I'm not a fan of reading ebooks, I couldnt finish the book in time, so into the hold queue I went.

I know that public library. I know how often they get their ebook. If anyone had asked for the last book, it would be available already.

It wasn't.

Do people not know they can suggest books? Is the process too obscure for them?

Anyway, there is no point to this post except to say, my good peeps, you can make books (or dvds or games or whatever kind of item your public library offer) suggestion! You usually can do it online!

If you can't find where exactly, usually just googling 'purchase suggestion' or 'reccomand a title' with the name of your public library will get you to the right page

And if you're still not sure, you should ask your librarian, they'll be happy to tell you how!

[favroitecrime]

world war 3 jokes on twitter meanwhile none of them live in the region and none of them understand the severity of the situation. these next few hours will really determine whether or not we head into a regional war…

[sunderwight]

What if the peak lords concluded that the most likely answer to the mystery of Shen Qingqiu's behavior is not that he's possessed now (because they checked and all the tests came out negative), but that he must have actually been possessed before?

No one thought to check him before, after all. They just figured he was an asshole. But then he suffers a qi deviation, almost dies, but comes back nicer. Only slightly lacking in context for his own past behavior and lifestyle, too.

It fits remarkably well, doesn't it? All this time the real Shen Qingqiu must have been trying to free himself from a demonic spirit that took possession of him in his youth! It was the demon who was the asshole, dragging his poor host to brothels, alienating his sect siblings so that they wouldn't investigate him too closely, abusing his disciples and probably weakening the sect from within as part of some nefarious plot!

But then the real Shen Qingqiu finally managed to beat back the demon himself, even being gracious enough not to point out what happened to his martial siblings and so save the sect's face. What a guy.

[kingfluffkinss]

AU where pro exy player Andrew is forced to do at least three interviews a year, and during one of them, a gorgeous but mouthy reporter keeps asking him interesting/innovative questions. The press hates him, they see him as disrespectful and unprofessional, but Andrew loves him. He only responds to that guy and refuses to talk when he's absent. He doesn't know the guy's name, just that people keep yelling "Josten, it's not your turn," and "Josten, this is an exy interview, not buzzfeed". Every time Andrew asks him for a name, they guy gives him another one.

Everybody keeps hammering about stats and goals and what does he think about this teammate and that match and Andrew is BORED. But Neil asks him what's his lucky ice cream flavor and which position would his cats play and does he carry knives to the court and Andrew is WHIPPED

[teaboot]

I haven’t done any sculptural work in a really long time but recently I’ve been feeling inspired by @claypigeonpottery and their animal statues sO

WE BACK, BABY

[26ja]

I'm replaying the game and there's such a neat little detail I haven't noticed before - all three characters have a chance to look into mirror in their introductory chapters - prior deviancy.

Kara and Markus don't react.

But!

Connor does.

Vain little motherfucker (affectionate).

[tempo-takoyaki]

Hiiii sooo I've been very busy lately because... I'm participating to the SVSSS Big Bang for the very first time! @svsssbigbang

I'm illustrating @adventure-waffles's fic, alongside @dustmeadowx and Qiye. A SVSSS x Night at the Museum AU! Check it out when it comes out, everyone's done an amazing job for it!

[anexcellentshot]

you know what's wild to me? some people just... watched arcane

like they watched both seasons and were like, 'that was good' and then watched something else

they don't wake up thinking about the show and walking around thinking of fanfic plotlines, edits, and fanart. they just literally watched it and then moved on with their lives instead of making it their whole personality. they may have watched it and talked to no one about it.

like what does that feel like??

[nickgerlich]

Just Checking

Ever since my local Walmart installed self-check kiosks, I have been a fan of doing it myself. I don’t come to the grocery for chit-chat to begin with. And when COVID hit, I most certainly wanted to be anti-social and pack my own. Heck, it’s even better today with the Walmart+ membership and app. I just tap the camera icon on my phone’s screen, scan the QR on the POS device, answer one question, and off I go.

Paid. In. Full.

Alas, things are not all that well in some sectors of retail land regarding these self-check marvels. Turns out that theft is an issue (they should have seen this one coming), but also whenever you buy alcohol, an employee must verify your age. And then there are those products that simply defy scanning, and assistance is needed over at Terminal 7.

The result is that some stores are rethinking how they deploy—if at all—self-checkout. In some instances, like at three Albuquerque stores, Walmart is removing them completely. Albuquerque has earned its reputation as a high-crime city. Walmart also recently shuttered a huge store over in a neighborhood known pejoratively as “The War Zone.”

Enough said.

On the other hand, it is tiring to listen to the virtue signalers crying “I don’t work for Walmart” and “I want to be paid to check my groceries.” I hope they remember all of their virtuosity the next time they use a product or service rolled out in the last century or so whose primary benefit was labor savings. I won’t bore you with a list, because you can probably come up with your own. There have been many disruptions the last hundred years, and every time, we recovered nicely.

Theft, of course, is the biggest problem, although better surveillance—albeit at great cost to the retailer—could help curtail it. One of the biggest frauds being perpetrated is the “banana trick,” whereby someone needing to weigh an expensive item—like a steak—would instead key in that they are buying bananas, which are only 59 cents a pound. The right camera could easily catch that (come on, I can do an image search in my camera roll and find all the bananas quite easily, if only I had photographed some to begin with).

But when you have to keep installing sophisticated equipment to try to stay one step ahead, labor savings may very well be tossed out the window.

As for alcohol and the occasional item that will not scan, I have no problem with those minor inconveniences. And when you’re 64, they don’t bother asking for IDs, at least not in Texas. One look and they’re good with me. “You have a good day, Sir.”

But I have to wonder about the people who need hand-holding at every step. Why would you enter the self-check area if you don’t know how to do it? I know. There’s always a first time for everything, right? But it’s not like you haven’t watched hundreds of cashiers through the years do this for you. It’s really pretty simple.

As long as customers have a choice, I’m good with it, with the possible exception of the Amazon Go stores with zero cashiers. That’s the whole point there, though. If you like having the F2F interaction, then have at it. If you don’t, then take care of it all yourself.

The sad commentary on this is not jobs displaced or companies spending millions on equipment. No, the issue is theft, something I don’t think will be cured by returning to traditional checkouts. Theft was occurring long before the first self-check terminal. Given the economic uncertainties of the day, along with inflation, it is easy to explain. That does not excuse it, of course, but it helps put reason to it.

As in most things, I suspect the correct answer is somewhere in the middle. Finding that right mix, though, is the challenge du jour, and I don’t need someone to point that out to me.

Dr “Bag And Go” Gerlich

Audio Blog

[lickthehilt]

note taking

bonus:

[msmimundo]

In which Angel Dust gets big on politics

EDIT: Part 2

[gotchibam]

Ogerpon & Darkrai ko-fi doodle for CyclopeanSpook!

[dricacchi]

days 1-3 of the daily sketch thingy i've been doing on bluesky! descriptions in the alt text + brief captions under the cut in case of spoilers:

day 1 - the king in yellow (you can see john and yellow here)

day 2 - arthur, noel and the butcher x le cercle rouge 1970. i've been dying to make this crossover for AGES

day 3 - peter "parker" yang, who i can finally draw after we got to hear his voice!!

that's all i have for now, i don't know how many days i'll do, but it's been fun!