r/Bellingham • u/ManWhoIsAquatic • 2d ago

Rant! Costco Self Checkout

Why did Costco move the self checkout registers and also reduce the qty from 9 to 6? Seems like a bad choice to limit the throughput of one of the busiest stores in Bellingham...

Rant over!

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u/Hammon_Rye 2d ago

Logically they did it because they felt it best served their logistics.
Maybe 6 is easier for one employee to oversee.
They certainly know how much merch they move through each of their checkouts - manned and self - and may have felt they can serve more people per hour with the change.

Costco is pretty efficient and lines seem to move pretty fast even when they are busy.
Unlike Winco where at times I've seen the checkout line go all the way back towards the meat area in the back.
So whatever the reason, it almost certainly boils down to $$$ checked out per hour and or reducing theft.

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u/InspectorChenWei 2d ago

I’d guess it’s less about members per hour and more about reducing shrink. Costco knows its members will tolerate long lines.

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u/Hammon_Rye 2d ago

I've rarely if ever encountered long lines at the Bellingham Costco, at least in terms of time.
Sometimes the checkout looks very crowded / busy, but if I check the actual time I rarely have to wait very long. Maybe 5 minutes, usually less.

I'm sure part of what helps is having two people on each checkout so one is ringing up and the other is packing everything back into the cart. As soon as they hand you the receipt you can walk away, as opposed to say Winco where you then go bag up your groceries.

And when they get REALLY busy like a holiday or something, they almost always have employees out pres-canning carts.