HOUSTON — Do you like self-checkout lanes? What about an entire store of them?
It may not be the end of full-service grocery stores, but Kroger is testing it out with its latest experiment.
The nation's largest supermarket chain is testing out an all-self-checkout store in Tennessee. It uses the new belt scanners that were installed a year ago, which customers spoke positively about.
"These new style lanes are much more convenient than the old fashioned self-checkout lanes," one customer said. "You had so little room to place all your stuff."
Kroger spokesperson Jen Moore said the chain plans to expand the belted self-checkout lanes to other stores, but said there were no plans to use its all-self-checkout model elsewhere.
"We have implemented a self-checkout model at a location in our Nashville division where customers were already primarily using self-checkout," Moore said. "Kroger associates remain at checkout, assisting customers scan and bag groceries. No reduction in labor occurred as a result of this change."
Major chains like H-E-B and Publix have no plans to get rid of clerks either. It's a plan that customers hope remains in place.
"I like it, but I don't want to take away nobody's job," Jeanine Watkins said.
While anything is possible in the future, for now, most stores will keep humans working checkout lanes.