Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Technology

Grocery Store Opens 'Chat Registers' For Lonely Customers (vice.com) 35

Posted by BeauHD from the unique-solutions dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: A Dutch supermarket chain says it will introduce 200 "chat registers" in its stores for customers who aren't in a hurry and want to have a chat during checkout. The initiative, announced by the popular supermarket chain Jumbo on Monday, is meant to combat loneliness -- especially in the country's elderly population. According to Statistics Netherlands, a government organization, 26 percent of Dutch people older than 15 feel at least moderately lonely. That proportion rises to 33 percent among those over 75.

Jumbo piloted the first so-called chat register ("kletskassa" in Dutch) in 2019 and received positive reactions from customers. The decision comes as part of the government-sponsored "One Against Loneliness" program, which, among other things, established a 24/7 loneliness hotline. Jumbo also said it will "carefully consider areas where loneliness is a major issue" when choosing where to open the 200 chat registers in branches across the Netherlands and Belgium. Alongside the chat registers, it will also be opening an unspecified number of "cozy chat corners" where customers can have a cup of coffee and a chat, and will donate ingredients to Oma's Soep -- an initiative that brings the elderly together with university students to make soup.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Grocery Store Opens 'Chat Registers' For Lonely Customers More

Grocery Store Opens 'Chat Registers' For Lonely Customers

Comments Filter:

  • Needed in the U.S. (Score:3)

    by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Friday October 01, 2021 @06:46PM (#61852357)

    Was at an Ollie's last weekend, had five things to purchase. Found a register where the people in front of me were about halfway done with their large number of purchases. At some point the cashier and the woman talk about something (I wasn't listening and was keeping my distance) and the woman says, "Oh, don't worry about it. We're not in a hurry. We have all day." Needless to say, her husband didn't lift a single finger the entire time the cashier was moving the purchases along. He left it up to the women to do.

    I am firmly convinced there are people who have nothing to do all day and take their time about it.

    • I am firmly convinced there are people who have nothing to do all day and take their time about it.

      Yup, they have no job or family to go to. They're not digital natives, so there's no way someone born in 1941 is going to play video games or surf the web for hours at a time. There's only so much to watch on TV. I feel sorry for those people, especially in my urban community, where the pace is faster and half the community can't speak English fluently, so it's hard to make basic small talk with strangers on the street. With modern culture, small talk seems more impolite each day and everyone else has t

      • Perhaps instead of having cash registers for these lonely people to talk to, we could pair them up so they can chat with each other.

        • Perhaps instead of having cash registers for these lonely people to talk to, we could pair them up so they can chat with each other.

          The store agrees!

          Alongside the chat registers, it will also be opening an unspecified number of "cozy chat corners" where customers can have a cup of coffee and a chat, and will donate ingredients to Oma's Soep -- an initiative that brings the elderly together with university students to make soup.

          The initiative sounds good also. The Italian side of my family has lots of old ladies with really strong opinions on cooking and lots of good ideas on how to do it well. ..not as many old men because apparently smoking used to be a lot of fun back in their day! :) It would be nice to pair young people with old people and let them teach each other to cook.

          It's all good. It seems like society is becoming more anti-social and electronic communication is intended as an augmentation for hum

      • The other voices in my head are sufficiently entertaining.

    • Some people do love to chat while they're checking out. The social interaction probably makes the day a little better for the cashier as well. Now I'll be the first to admit it can be maddening when I'm stuck in line while they're chatting, but the world doesn't just revolve around me.

      Besides, there are workarounds. I try to go grocery shopping frequently so that I can use the self-check most of the time. And, if I do need to make a larger trip, I often opt for grocery pickup. Not to mention that, at least

      • The social interaction probably makes the day a little better for the cashier as well.

        Cashiers often have part of their pay based on throughput.

        • Cashiers often have part of their pay based on throughput.

          Citation needed.

          UFCW reports they represent about 835,000 grocery workers. I only looked at one collective agreement [ufcw770.org], but am willing to bet that none of them include provisions for paying their members piecework.

          • 4.6% of retail workers belong to a union.

            Obviously, the union workers are not going to be paid for performance.

            • Guess those other 95.4% are idiots. I'm part of the UFCW in southern California and our checkers make $22.50 hour, regardless of how great or terrible they do their job. We have employees that fill both roles.

              I can't understand why people work for really shitty retail companies that don't provide much benefits and don't pay anywhere near a livable wage to their long term employees. Sure, $22.50 an hour isn't amazing, but this is basically a high school drop out job. They also get a pension after 10 years, t

      • Some people do love to chat while they're checking out. The social interaction probably makes the day a little better for the cashier as well. Now I'll be the first to admit it can be maddening when I'm stuck in line while they're chatting, but the world doesn't just revolve around me.

        When I first moved to the South, it took me a while to get used to the pace. People love to talk and shoot the shit. I come from the big city, where if someone asks "Do you know what time it is?" the answer is invariable a c

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by quenda ( 644621 )

      In Australia, we have self-serve checkouts in supermarkets, - none of those the US?

      So *all* the remaining cashier checkouts are slow, used by the elderly or those killing time.
      Nothing wrong with chatting though - I'd prefer the cashier, and a bit of chat, if there wasn't a queue.

      The latest thing is to scan your groceries with your phone as you put them in the trolley. You then pay on the phone as you leave. The only human contact is the random security checks.

      • We have them. The major problem is that it's not very efficient if you have many items or several are especially large. The one I use most has six bag slots on a rotary thingy. If I buy raw meat, that's one bag. Soft drinks? Another. Detergent? Another. That's half the capacity used on three items. You can sort of make it work if you can stack the bags two deep, or just overload them, but it fills up quickly if you have a full cart. And I have to unload each item, scan it, and bag it, then repeat, which is

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by quenda ( 644621 )

          Wow, you still have grocery baggers in the US?!
          We lost those some time last century, along with elevator operators, bus conductors, shoe-shine boys, long-distance operators, and gas station attendants.

          • You're still not permitted to pump your own gas (generally; there are rare exceptions) in New Jersey and Oregon. And we don't have enough baggers for every line, but yes, at peak hours they will have them in some stores. Generally stockboys who are recruited to the job when the lines start backing up. Particularly local stores who trade on convenience rather than cost - there's one right by my home that always has someone to bag groceries for you so the cashier can spend time scanning and collecting payment

  • That's the kindest thing I've read in a long time. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Somervillain ( 4719341 ) on Friday October 01, 2021 @07:01PM (#61852381)
    Loneliness is a huge issue that is under-treated, particularly among the elderly. It warms my heart immensely to know this business would accommodate them with an employee who doesn't mind small talk and makes them feel welcome...and it speeds up the registers for those of us who have to get home to our kids. I can't find nice enough praise for whomever thought of this, to make the lonely feel welcome to talk and go at a slower pace.

    • maybe people would be less lonely if people like you just talked to them more

      • I tend to talk :) (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Somervillain ( 4719341 ) on Friday October 01, 2021 @09:31PM (#61852705)

        maybe people would be less lonely if people like you just talked to them more

        I have Aperger's, so it's immensely uncomfortable, but it's also an opportunity to improve my social skills. I smile wide, crack jokes, and try to be the listener as much as I can. Old people love me, just so long as they don't expect eye contact or get frustrated that I fidget. I let them talk!...and ask follow up questions. Life is more fun that way.

        Not everyone likes interacting with me. I am fucking autistic and sometimes outright awkward. In order to compensate with my natural monotone, I also subconsciously emulate a standup comedian's tone and cadence. It's not always appropriate, but I can't always figure that out in advance. However, I put in the effort and am very friendly. I do the best I can with the way I was born.

        It's weird. Black people and old folks seem to figure out I am different (ASD) far faster than my younger peers.

        Point is, send your old folks my way. I'll chat!

    • Some background on Jumbo, since I visit the Netherlands every so often, and then regularly do grocery shopping... Jumbo had a fast register system, where as soon as the queue is three carts after the person being served, they'd open a new register. Last time around, they had quite a few self service registers. So this is just a nice way to compensate for those shoppers that sort of got left behind.

  • The silver lining for the supermarket (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Supermarkets run at amazingly low margins. And they're feeling the crunch from online shopping. So they have to do something. This is also one of the chains doing their level best moving people off cash and onto chip+pin. Because banks are making cash ever more expensive. So more and more checkout registers move to "pin only". Mix in this initiative, and if you still want to pay cash, wait for the oldster having a good old chat. This is what makes the idea worth it to them: Even less cash in the till, becau

  • This is great! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Stormthirst ( 66538 ) on Friday October 01, 2021 @07:36PM (#61852439)

    I hate the idle chit chat in the grocery store. I use the self check outs because of it, until I have larger shop. These tills will mean I get through the bigger shops faster as I'm not waiting for other customers and staff to waste my time.

  • I love it. More please. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Petersko ( 564140 ) on Friday October 01, 2021 @08:55PM (#61852611)

    Bars have been doing this forever. That attractive waitress (or waiter) at the pub on Friday after work is a PR specialist, and fulfills this exact same need.

  • have a line for people who just want to pay for their merchandise and get the fuck out of there instead of having to waste time getting asked whether you want to sign up for their preferred customer card, or do you want to donate to some worthy cause or all the other bullshit you have to go through just to get out of a grocery store these days. How about some respect for our time?

  • My old man has been ill for some time, not able to easily leave the house, and lockdowns haven't helped. For him it recently lifted him greatly to be able to go to some shops and briefly interact with people.

    It doesn't have to be a long conversation. Just brief chats with people is enough to life the day of those who are otherwise pretty isolated. Having moved away from my usual haunts, I miss my morning chats at the coffee shop. Simple 'how're you doing?' conversation that gets the day started.

  • Being obnoxious is the root cause why the other doesn't like you. Not only you are obnox to others but to you yourself. So fix this. Raise your awareness/consciousness -- be less materialistic. Be more giving/loving/sharing. Less militant about your ideas/views. Or if you are a nerd, raise your intelligence to realize you don't need the other and plunge deep into your aloneness and enjoy it. Cultivate a hobby say.

  • Now we just have to mandate that the chatty idiots all HAVE TO queue up in that line and let the rest of us get home.

  • They are not called 'man's best friend' for nothing. And when you walk it, they love to say hi to other dogs, giving you a chance to chat with the other dog's owner.

Slashdot Top Deals

Promising costs nothing, it's the delivering that kills you.

Close