They're not called self-checkouts anymore...

[prjkt]

...but "assisted checkouts"

My local supermarket has decided to rename their SCO terminals, including recording new instructions, calling them "assisted checkouts" now, without actually changing a thing about them in any other way.

I wonder what the logic is?

[TheSHAD0W]

Hum.

Ess-Cee-Oh had kind of a ring to it... ACO, not so much... Maybe call them ass checkouts?

[EricKei]

My guess is that there will always be a certain percentage of people who are utterly incapable of using the things, as "Scan item then place item in bag" is apparently far to difficult for them to comprehend. That, or it just sounds friendlier/they don't want people to think they need to actually do something for themselves (while continuing to MAKE them do it themselves)...

[MoonCat]

they don't want people to think they need to actually do something for themselves (while continuing to MAKE them do it themselves)...

This. Or enough customers complained that they "needed help" on the self-check-outs. Ugh.

[Seanette]

...but "assisted checkouts"

My local supermarket has decided to rename their SCO terminals, including recording new instructions, calling them "assisted checkouts" now, without actually changing a thing about them in any other way.

I wonder what the logic is?

Marketroids got involved? Some bizarre variant of political correctness/"sensitivity"?

[SixFortyK]

I wonder what the logic is?

My guess is marketing. The company has likely decided that it would like to emphasize customer service. Self-checkouts are pretty much the opposite of customer service, so they've relabeled it.

Kinda like where I work, customers cannot be called customers. They must be referred to as 'guests'. And coworkers must be referred to as 'colleagues'. It's all crap meant to cast a certain image.

[Lovecats]

My guess is marketing. The company has likely decided that it would like to emphasize customer service. Self-checkouts are pretty much the opposite of customer service, so they've relabeled it.

Kinda like where I work, customers cannot be called customers. They must be referred to as 'guests'. And coworkers must be referred to as 'colleagues'. It's all crap meant to cast a certain image.

Gee, I used to work at a place that called customers "guests" but we called coworkers "team members".

[XCashier]

Ugh, I hate all that Doubleplusgood CorporateSpeak!

Though I do like seeing it made fun of...!

[Shalom]

OK, I just watched that video.

Ouch. Never heard so many words mean so little in all my life.

[wolfie]

Just curious, but what operating system do the self check-outs use? Is it SCO UNIX?

For non-geeks:
Back in the days when MS-DOS was a viable operating system and a 386/33 was a "hot" machine, there was an operating system called SCO UNIX (this flavour of UNIX was distributed by Santa Cruz Operations). Don't know if it's still around or not.

[Shalom]

Pretty sure the Chain of Verylarge Stores was running some variant of SCO/OpenServer on their pharmacy terminals as late as 2007. Might still be, for all I know.

But then, their back-end stuff was written in COBOL at that time as well.

[Chromatix]

I think SCO did get used for POS systems quite often. But now we have SCOs that *are* POSes.

[BPFH]

Just curious, but what operating system do the self check-outs use? Is it SCO UNIX?

For non-geeks:
Back in the days when MS-DOS was a viable operating system and a 386/33 was a "hot" machine, there was an operating system called SCO UNIX (this flavour of UNIX was distributed by Santa Cruz Operations). Don't know if it's still around or not.

Heh. It's probably still around (old software lives forever), but I'd be surprised if it's actually being developed. Most developers regard SCO as toxic these days.

1. SCO UNIX (OpenServer, etc.) was originally developed by the Santa Cruz Operation (singular, not plural).
2. The Santa Cruz Operation developed a product line called Tarantella, then sold off their UNIX-related assets and continued as Tarantella, Inc.
3. The company that bought SCO's UNIX assets was Caldera International.
4. Caldera International renamed themselves The SCO Group.
5. The SCO Group somehow got it into their heads that Linux is derivative (in the US copyright law sense of the word) from UNIX, and started claiming that everyone who used Linux owed them royalties.
6. Then the SCO Group decided that since IBM had a UNIX license, and had contributed independently-developed code from AIX (their UNIX variant) to Linux, there must have been a contract violation in there, and attempted to revoke IBM's fully-paid, perpetual, irrevocable contract to use UNIX... and sued IBM for (IIRC) $5,000,000,000. (That's "five billion", folks!)

It didn't go well for The SCO Group (half-brained schemes usually don't). If you want more detail, the "SCO v. IBM", "SCO v. Novell", and "SCO Bankruptcy" links at Groklaw have it in spades. Suffice it to say that The SCO Group languished in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and at least once had the US Bankruptcy Trustee move to convert that to Chapter 7. (For those of you who are unfamiliar, Chapter 11 = restructuring, Chapter 7 = dissolution.) I have no idea if it ever came out of bankruptcy or not.

[raudf]

I always thought self-checkouts implied a certain speed, like faster than a normal checkout. Calling it "assisted checkout" is probably closer to the truth. Someone who doesn't know how to use them will inevitably require assistance and slow down the process pretty heavily.

[Dreamstalker]

Our SCO kiosks are Toshiba (some flavor of Unix for the OS). Secure as anything, but not that user-friendly. I've gotten a few errors where even I have no idea what went wrong. The 'user manual' that's supposed to be in the office is not there and most of the managers doubt a manual actually exists.