The side entrance is right at the dividing point between the clothing and general merchandise sections, and features its own pair of checkouts. Very unusually for Fred Meyer, there are no self checkouts over here! There aren't very many places where Fred Meyer provides regular checkouts only -- the opposite situation is more common -- and this seems to hold true across most of Kroger.
Ha, I wish we had Krogers here which only had regular checkouts like this Fred Meyer has with at least one of the entrances. In addition to digital coupons that I use at Kroger (and Randal's), Kroger has started to mail me paper coupons in the regular mail as well. They are good coupons for things I usually buy. It's probably a good strategy by Kroger to keep customers coming back for things they usually buy. Anyway, using those coupons at the self-register is a real pain. You have to wait for the attendant to come over and process the coupon. If there is any issue with the coupon, which is not infrequent because there is a known bug with Kroger's produce coupons that causes it to not scan correctly, the attendants usually don't have the skill and/or authority to fix it quickly like the manned checkout clerks do (they're usually aware of the issue with the coupons).
ReplyDeleteLong story short, in addition to my usual reservations with self-checkouts, the manned checkouts are just much more efficient for coupon users. This Fred Meyer setup would be beneficial, but then I don't know Fred Meyer, or QFC for that matter, even mail out paper coupons.
Yeah, paper coupons are a definite sore spot for self checkouts. Thankfully, Safeway seems to have gone back to more or less the honor system for coupons, so it's too bad that Kroger still makes it complicated. I don't believe they do paper coupons like that around here, though -- I haven't ever seen any, at least, and unlike Safeway which generally has a few paper coupons in each weekly ad, QFC and Fred Meyer seem to be digital-only for store coupons these days. (Which has actually driven me away from shopping them, since setting up an account to use online coupons feels like more trouble than it's worth for the occasional sale!)
DeleteI remember, way back when, the self checkout attendant at the Albertsons in Port Angeles showing people how to fake out the coupon sensor to make it think they had inserted their coupon without actually dropping it in, because that was more reliable than actually dropping the coupon in the bin like you were supposed to!