Pick n Pay's self-service tills, innovative or distructive?

Pick n Pay is South Africa's second largest retail store and it has chosen to implement a self-service till system in South Africa. Now this has been welcomed with hugely positive reactions and some negative, however most people will find it difficult to use the system (The old generation to be specific), but for the born frees this will have made till-point paying more convenient.

This project is still on a pilot stage in Capetown. It is complemented with the normal till systems used nationwide.

So how does this system work?
well its not that difficult. It is a three step process ( After doing your shopping, obviously), It starts of with the customer scanning the purchased items on the scanner system at the till; After scanning the customer needs to pay for the items using the swiping machine provided on the till thereafter can the customer pack his/her items and leave. Most stores have security scanning systems on their doors that scans products and identifies products that were not cleared off the till system,as stolen and makes a sound to alert security.

There is a concern among employees and labor unions about job loss, however Pick n Pay has assured all parties that no jobs will be lost.
Although the system is highly automated, you still need cashiers to help those that are unable to use the system or first time users. With this system having been implemented in both the US and UK, there is fears that it will promote shoplifting as it did in the countries mentioned.

This is one example to show that technology is slowly taking over jobs which were previously impossible to be done by machines. Many will view this as a step closer to full customer satisfaction and convenience, while others will view it as a threat to employment.

The biggest challenge of this system is not how it will work or how sustainable it is; rather how it will change consumer behavior, this is an unpredictable concept which can lead to both positive or negative results. If it does succeed however it will raise another question...Have we taken a step further to losing touch with physical human interaction, are we slowly being dehumanized?


Most companies in the world use SAP systems to run their daily operations and tracking data more reliably, by using SUSE Linux enterprise for SAP, Pick n Pay will cut down their operational costs through the reduction of energy consumption, Efficient updates and many other things. Below is a video describing this system



 Personally I think it will be ideally to have both ordinary till systems and the new self-service till system working in most large stores and only have the conventional till systems running on your smaller stores or remote stores as this transition will take time, This gives consumer more options, and that's what consumers really want.

What is your take on this? leave your comment below and let us find better solutions through cooperation and discussions