RHU Discussion: QueVision - The Newest Techno Nightmare Intended To Make Custy Wait Times Shorter

I'm an RHU lurker and have yet to post any comments, so I guess in light of the subject of this post I shall dub myself Q Slave.

I've read many a frusterated post about the horrors of self checkout, or USCAN if you prefer, which was the most recent front end technology upgrade in my particular circle of hell until about 3 years ago.

So the question I pose to you is this:

Have any other slaves had the distinct pleasure (torture!) of being introduced to QueVision? For the confused QueVision is, what I assume was, an insanely expensive piece of technology with the sole purpose of telling us how many registers we have open, how many registers we are supposed to have open, and predicts how many registers we will need to have open in thirty minutes based on the number of people both entering and exiting the store and the average speed of checkout.

This brilliant invention was installed with the intention of helping us maintain the company's queuing standard of one person being waited on with one person waiting behind them.

We now advertise our shorter waiting times and as such I have dealt with many a customer demanding the opening of another register and my having to explain that we literally have not anothe person in the store capable of performing such a task (and promptly being yelled at because they don't care if no one else can run a register they want one open RIGHT NOW and expect me to clone a cashier for them or some such nonsense).

Anyway, I ask again, has anyone else had to deal with this nonsense yet?

--Q Slave

 

Comments

[Bored at the Bookstore]

Never heard of it... But it seems silly to create a program/whatever to do what any competent front-end manager should be able to do by instinct and logic.

"Let's see, I have two registers open; one has ten customers in line, and the other has eleven. I should call up a couple more cashiers!"

"Wow, the store is jammed with people - I'd better be ready to open more lines."

"Gee, my four cashiers look bored, and only one has a customer. The parking lot is darn-near empty. I think the rush is over. Hey, Joe and Maureen, why don't you go on break now, or back to your departments?"

See, I can do it, and I'm not even a front-end manager.

[Spritzy]

Sounds like a big waste of money for any company. As you said, even with the system you can still have times where all able-bodied employees are running register and the custys STILL think thats not enough.

[CrazyCatLady]

We have something even worse.

Our rota system is predicted by the computer predicting when we will be busy, and gives everyone tasks based on that.But it only takes into account the value of sales - so at times when there are loads of people but all buying small items it doesn't predict many till staff.

[CashierBtch]

it is a big waste of money. we've had it since february and it doesn't work for my register. mine is by another entrance were I can't see the main grocery checkout. but it can't seems to read that fact that the people standing near my register are just looking at the product that we have displayed near my register. a couple of time my manager has come up to the register and told me that we are about to get a rush of customers. she stood there for ten minutes and we would just look at eachother and sigh. It really doesn't work and there is really no need for it. people need to be patient and corporate needs to spend the money on things we actually need, like new racks, new registers, and more security

[Zmidponk]

I haven't heard of this before, but it sounds like so much bullshit, quite frankly. Anywhere I've been working, these kind of things simply cannot be predicted. You could have shitloads of customers come in, and all they do is browse before walking out. On the other hand, you could have what I call an InstaQueue moment, where about 20 customers walk up to the cash desk simultaneously, all carrying overflowing baskets or pushing overflowing trolleys. Any competent supervisor working in a competently run shop can easily handle things like this by simply grabbing people and throwing them at the cash desk when it gets busy, or throwing them away from the cash desk to get on with other stuff when it gets quiet.

[NC Tony]

You could have every single register in the store open and there will always be the asshats who complain about wait times. Of course it's also the fault of (mis)management who, instead of doing what Bored at the Bookstore suggested (actually seeing what's going on at the registers), decide it's better to blame the cashiers for not being fast enough. My guess is that both customers and managers never take into account the other customers who are holding up the line by buying 5000 things, or taking forever and a day to get their payment out, etc. For those people it's ALWAYS the cashier's fault.

[Damn Yankee]

Oh! I've seen that at my local Kroaker, and I've been trying to figure out what the heck it is. Now I know. I'll have to poll the cashiers on it now, if I'm ever in when they have people on the registers, other than the one poor soul on the U-Scan.

[LadyBelle]

At hellmart they are supposed to be using the system that looks at sales last year and predicts based on those numbers how many cashiers are needed. It doesn't take into account holidays that aren't always on the same day, and also in our store back to school is the busiest time of year, out doing xmas even. For bakery and deli, the busiest time of year is graduation. So looking at last year doesn't mean anything sometimes.

[ajason495]

ive seen it at the kingsoopers. I had no idea what it was until you explained it. I dont think the one in my neck of the woods uses it, its always busy and never has enough checkouts, or it isn't used when i shop like 10pm-midnight. p.s as much as i love scanning my own groceries, yes i do, i had uscanning an entire cart because they dont man regular lanes at night.

[Skittles]

Anything that feeds into an entitled custy's mind that they are even more entitled, is just plain evil.

[Humor_Me]

Computers will NEVER be smarter than real, intelligent people. They just aren't as logical and can't take factors in that humans can.

P.S. Notice I qualified "intelligent".

[Nadine Haven]

I don’t get it

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