Porter Square Walgreens closing

[keithn.livejournal.com]

While not Davis Square, this is still likely of interest since I'm sure many of us are regularly in Porter Square - the Walgreens there is closing on July 30.

It will probably be a shock to few that this store failed, although I'm somewhat surprised that it failed so quickly.

Comments

[ron_newman]

I believe that Star and Shaw's dropped self-checkout chain-wide, not just here in Cambridge.

I've never thought self-checkout made much sense when you have to deal with produce.

[kelkyag]

A surprising amount of produce is bar-coded these days (my last pineapple came with a tag with cutting instructions and a QR code), and a fair bit of the rest has the PLU number on it on a sticker or twist-tie or similar. I only have to look up about a quarter of my produce by name at the self-checkout most of the time.

[paradoox.livejournal.com]

I was told by the manager of the Star at Brighton Landing (or whatever it is called) that Star decided to get rid of all self-checkout. I can hope this was for customer service reasons, but, ISTM, that self-checkout is a great opportunity for fraud esp with produce and I wonder if their "loss prevention" people drove this change.

[somerfriend.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how not having the self checkout leads to better customer service. You have the choice to use it or not if you don't like it. I personally prefer it as I get tired of having to stop them for bagging things and convincing them no really I don't want a bag please. Their training just simply doesn't include people who don't want to waste bags.

[ron_newman]

Any time I go to a supermarket and hand them my own cloth or canvas bags, they are happy to fill them.

[somerfriend.livejournal.com]

Great, but if you just want to carry something out in your hands, they look at you like you have 3 heads.

[josephineave.livejournal.com]

There are just too many problems with self-checkout when you have so many different items. They wouldn't take Star/Shaw gift cards, coupons wouldn't scan or the box would get full, it would accidentally catch another card on your massive key chain of shopper cards, no one available to reset machines, items too heavy or too light for the belt... You absolutely need dedicated staff on the machines because there are just too many variables that can cause problems.