On the company blog, Fresh N’ Easy CEO Simon Uwins talks about how the new retailer tries to stop consumers avoid the modern hell that is self-checkout.
In a candid article entitled ‘where are the robots at fresh & easy?’ he says that he wants to make sure that staff are always ready to help customers at checkout:
We actually offer assisted service: if you want to check out yourself you can, if you want help we’ll provide it, and if you want us to do it for you, we will.
In doing this, we’ve managed to create a whole new level of customer and staff interaction. The checkout operator is no longer a part of the machine. Rather, our customer assistants are there to help.
With the added benefit that all our checkouts are open all the time.
Of course, we don’t always get it right. It’s different to running a traditional full service checkout, putting a greater emphasis on people skills: it’s one of the reasons why we provide 2 days life skills training for all our people. And getting scheduling right, as ever, is a challenge.
However, we do have one store with full service checkouts, to act as a control - it has the lowest rating for checkout service of all our stores!
