Recently Meijer has been making changes to try and give their customers a faster and better experience at the checkout lanes. All Meijer stores have the usual checkout lanes with a cashier that rings up all the groceries and bags them for the customer, and all Meijer stores have USCANS for 12 or less items that allow the customer to ring up their small purchases themselves. Recently though, Meijer stores around the state of Michigan have been seeing some changes around the checkout lanes. The company has decided to add, "fast lanes", a new way for people to checkout. These fast lanes are very similar to USCAN's because the customer still scans and bags their own purchases. The difference is, a customer can take any size order through these lanes. The customer scans their items just like the USCAN, but then instead of placing the item right into the bag, they items slide down a conveyor belt and wait to be bagged after the customer has finished scanning all items and have paid. After paying, the customer bags their own groceries and are on their way. Unfortunately in my opinion, these fast lanes are causing more problems then they are solving.
I worked for Meijer as an intern inside the store this summer and got to hear all the feedback out how people felt about the new check lanes. A good 7 out of 10 people wanted nothing to do with the new lanes, and almost everyone was upset because they thought that these news lanes were taking jobs from cashiers in a state with one of the countries largest unemployment rates. Another thing customers didn't like was the fact that they had to do "all the work" because they had to scan and bag their own groceries. A reoccurring comment was always, "If I'm bagging my own groceries, I should be getting a discount."
I personally don't like the check lanes either because if I had 50 items, I wouldn't want to scan and bag them all either. However, in Meijer's defense, for all the people who feel like cashiers are losing their jobs, you're wrong. Meijer still employs the exact same number of cashiers and still has the same amount on the schedule at all times. The only actual difference is, instead of having 5 cashier lanes and 4 USCAN, there is now 4 cashier lanes, 4 USCAN lanes, and 4 fast lanes, with that one lost cashier working at the fast lanes. So in all reality, there is actually more lanes for customers to choose from. As for all the people wanting a discount for using these lanes, how about thinking about it from Meijer's point of view. The cost of gas is forcing the price of everything up, but for the most part, Meijer has tried to keep their prices fairly low by doing things like opening these fast lanes. This allows for extra lanes to basically be open 24/7 without spending money on any extra labor. So next time instead of complaining about not getting a discount, try thinking about the prices you could be paying for your groceries.
I worked for Meijer as an intern inside the store this summer and got to hear all the feedback out how people felt about the new check lanes. A good 7 out of 10 people wanted nothing to do with the new lanes, and almost everyone was upset because they thought that these news lanes were taking jobs from cashiers in a state with one of the countries largest unemployment rates. Another thing customers didn't like was the fact that they had to do "all the work" because they had to scan and bag their own groceries. A reoccurring comment was always, "If I'm bagging my own groceries, I should be getting a discount."
I personally don't like the check lanes either because if I had 50 items, I wouldn't want to scan and bag them all either. However, in Meijer's defense, for all the people who feel like cashiers are losing their jobs, you're wrong. Meijer still employs the exact same number of cashiers and still has the same amount on the schedule at all times. The only actual difference is, instead of having 5 cashier lanes and 4 USCAN, there is now 4 cashier lanes, 4 USCAN lanes, and 4 fast lanes, with that one lost cashier working at the fast lanes. So in all reality, there is actually more lanes for customers to choose from. As for all the people wanting a discount for using these lanes, how about thinking about it from Meijer's point of view. The cost of gas is forcing the price of everything up, but for the most part, Meijer has tried to keep their prices fairly low by doing things like opening these fast lanes. This allows for extra lanes to basically be open 24/7 without spending money on any extra labor. So next time instead of complaining about not getting a discount, try thinking about the prices you could be paying for your groceries.
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