Publix is one of the few grocery stores chains in my area that still have efficient check out lanes. It is rare that you have to wait to check out in a Publix. Their pricing, however, is beyond crazy for most food items. They were expensive even in 2019 money, but now it has really gotten out of hand. You definitely pay for the extra service, but sometimes it is worth it if you've got kids with you and are in a hurry.

Winn-Dixie is hit and miss, with Aldi and Walmart being almost guaranteed terrible checkout experiences. Both Walmart and Aldi have more reasonable pricing, but going into those stores with two small children is a nightmare. It is usually a zoo, and unless you do curbside pickup you can figure on a trip to either store being frustrating.

I am not in the grocery business, but it is apparent that decisions to cut variable costs were made. Wage floors have externalities, and those include losing cashiers and customer service as a result. Fewer cashiers also means more theft, as people in self checkout lanes have more opportunities to steal.

I live in a relatively expensive area of Florida. Even here, retail theft has apparently gotten so out of hand that local Target stores now have armed security personnel at the front entrance. They usually have one guy at the door, and one guy watching the self checkout area. The local Target also keeps a good number of cashier lanes open, so self checkout isn't even necessary.

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Originally posted by HKAngusKL:
Publix is one of the few grocery stores chains in my area that still have efficient check out lanes. It is rare that you have to wait to check out in a Publix. Their pricing, however, is beyond crazy for most food items. They were expensive even in 2019 money, but now it has really gotten out of hand. You definitely pay for the extra service

I sit down every Thursday morning, when the Publix specials for the week are published. I skim through the lists of "Special Deals," "Extra Savings," and BOGO's, and click on "Add To List" when I see items that I want.

The list then appears in the Publix app on my phone, sorted by aisle in the store location that I select. Phone in hand, it's easy and efficient to cruise the aisles and grab the products.

This way, focusing on the huge selection of items on sale, it's not hard to keep the grocery expenditure under control.

Long lines and slow checkouts violate the #1 rule of business: "Make it easy for people to give you money!" I can't think of any justification a business owner might offer to justify the practice.

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Originally posted by Aglifter:
Is there a business reason to have slow, inefficient check outs?

Current management training dictates that the Customer Comes Last.

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Originally posted by Beancooker:

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Originally posted by Aglifter:
On average, it takes the clerks at the local store, 5-7 minutes, per customer, regardless of how many items are in the basket.

There are always a large number of uniformed employees standing around.

The self-checkout line can reach the back to the back wall of the store - but from about midway back, it’s 10 minutes for me to check out.

I was wondering the same thing about the candy bars.

Go to a Publix. I’m here in Florida on vacation and every Publix I go into is OUTSTANDING in customer service.

Winn Dixie has good pricing, and only self checkout. Both stores are a win in my book. I’ll trade them all day long for the local Safeway or Fry’s.

Also, the Publix ice cream is fucking magical. Thank you Artie and V-Tail for the suggestion. Now I need to get some half gallons shipped to AZ…

Try some of their special flavors in the quart size containers. Yeah, Publix has their stuff together.

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Originally posted by Aglifter:

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Originally posted by lyman:
so need more specifics, if you can, as in which chain? time of day?

Harris Teeter: not nearly as cool of a chain as it was before it was bought, but it still seems to have a better selection/does have better produce than Publix - though limited compared to H‑E‑B. I will start going to the Harris Teeter downtown Charleston.

The local Publix is nowhere as efficient as the ones in Miami were, but it is better. (The local Target is also very poorly run... Maybe it’s some kind of weird neighborhood labor issue, but all of the local businesses seem fine.)

Time of day doesn’t matter. Gone at 7PM on Friday, middle of the day during the week, in the morning, always the same lengthy experience at the local Harris Teeter.

Teeter "merged" with Kroger 15 yrs or so ago, and since they are a Kroger owned store now, they have started to migrate away from Teeter practices and more streamlined with Kroger,


when I was with Kroger, we (kroger) were managed seperately from Teeter and there was no overlap, as far as logistics, they were still thought of as competition , but more like family competition,


I would bet they are still non union (most Krogers are, but not all, and the local contracts would make it very difficult to hire, since they were structured on experience, and actually quite a low scale when I was there, (UFCW Local 400 is a joke)


if they are using Kroger scheduling software, then they (the store manager and or dept head) have very little input into the system, the scheduler makes a schedule, automatically based on budgeted sales etc, and we (management) used to be able to go in and change the help schedules (by number of people scheduled per hour) but that was cut off or rather severely limited before I left,

long gone are the days when a manager or dept head could put a pencil to paper and schedule help,

and I can say, when the CEO changed 10+ yrs ago, the old guy was a people person, the new guy is a numbers guy, there were significant changes in the way things were done in the first year all time and $$ based, and not all done smart or rather good for the business,

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Originally posted by Scooter123:

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Originally posted by Aglifter:
Is there a business reason to have slow, inefficient check outs?

Current management training dictates that the Customer Comes Last.

this is not just in the grocery business, big box as well,


the CEO and stock holders matter, the customer, not so much

Ditto on Publix. Easily the most well-run checkout system I’ve ever encountered. The bonus is they routinely do maintenance on their grocery carts, so they’re not squeaking and pulling and giving you fits. They move as smoothly as the day they left the factory.

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Originally posted by 12131:
HEB at my place in pretty good. They always have a person monitoring the check-outs during busy hours. Any line gets long, they'll open up another previously empty check-out.

And their employees are friendly, as mentioned above.

Kroger, otoh, sucks.

I have both a Kroger and an HEB within 2 miles of my house. HEB is 2 to 3 times busier, but they have more checkouts open so you get in and out faster. Every time I go to Kroger, I get this false sense of hope that due to the lack of crowds I'm making it quicker through the store and then I get to checkout where I wait and wait and wait.

IME, the person monitoring the checkout line at HEB is management and I've even had the manager personally open an additional regiseter when it was real busy. I don't ever recall even seeing a manager at Kroger and their lack of management engagement is evident throughout the store.

Seems that once markets grow beyond their region, their ability to be customer service focused, goes out the window and the result is low-performing management and employees. Top tier regional or specialty grocers like a Publix, HEB, Nugget Markets, Olivers, Mitsuwa, H Mart all have outstanding service, top-level produce and products, the stores are inviting & attractive, overall costs might be a bit higher but, every other aspect of the shopping experience far exceeds the big-box, national operator that offers low prices.
You get to Kroger, Albertson's, Save Mart-size operations and it's only about the bottom-line, there's no shortage of reasons to not shop with them.

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Originally posted by selogic:
I'm fortunate I guess . There's a locally owned supermarket near me that is staffed mostly by high school age kids except for the management . Super friendly , helpful and they move you through quick . If there's more than two people waiting to check out they send somebody to open another register . NO self checkouts either . Their prices are slightly higher than Walmart or Winn Dixie but they more than make up for it in service .
One thing that I have noticed is that I see the same employees every time I go in . Apparently a very low turn over . That tells me something .

Are you in Baton Rouge? I was going to write almost exactly that about Calvin’s. It’s the friendliest, fastest grocery I’ve ever seen.

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Originally posted by corsair:
Seems that once markets grow beyond their region, their ability to be customer service focused, goes out the window and the result is low-performing management and employees. Top tier regional or specialty grocers like a Publix, HEB, Nugget Markets, Olivers, Mitsuwa, H Mart all have outstanding service, top-level produce and products, the stores are inviting & attractive, overall costs might be a bit higher but, every other aspect of the shopping experience far exceeds the big-box, national operator that offers low prices.
You get to Kroger, Albertson's, Save Mart-size operations and it's only about the bottom-line, there's no shortage of reasons to not shop with them.

not so much ,,


depends on the management in the store, and the corporate or divisional management,



I worked for Winn Dixie for 24 yrs, from high school, as a product clerk, and then meat dept, meat dept manager, store comanager and store manager,

the division president, and DM (distict manager) were the ones that set policy and what you as a manager did daily,

some were great, some were fucking idiots,


Winn Dixie was a publically held company, however it was family owned, as in the Davis family owned most of the stock, and they loaded th board and high management positions with friends and family

some good, most not, and the reason why they went bankrupt and then became a subsiduary,

shitty upper management makes shitty decisions, and good lower management tends to leave, or suffer,

I'll admit I suffered until I was told I was valuble, and asked to move south,

nope, I jumped ship to KRoger thanks to a connection (wifes coworkers husband was management at Kroger)

when I left there were maybe 4 store managers left that gave a shit, and one of them left with me, the rest were either what you may call a DEI hire, or folks that were put in the Store Manager position because they were the only ones that applied,,


as in insight to corporate hiring, I was a relief manager (Store Manager was fired for Inventory control and fucking his help) and applied for a smaller store (in volume) as a Manager since I was told to apply for some stores to show that I was intested,

my DM called me and said, what the fuck are you doing, I am trying to get you posted as the Store Manager in the good store (Great crew, good sales volume etc) you are in vs the shit show you posted for,

so I pulled my application,

my point is my DM , who was fired long before I quit, was smart enough to realize that the company was struggling and promoting whoever , where ever,

and that affects everything in teh store, inventory controls, service, etc,



some bigger chains, such as Kroger, are not too much different,

the DM that hired me, and my fellow WD store manager, caught shit for hiring us,
because KRoger bought some W\D's in indiana (branded as Thriftways) and part of the deal was no Management would be hired,

as in we were almost fired after we were hired,

this guy, the DM, was a total asshole, but had vision, and was a great motivator (both carrot and stick were used often, and to this day if he called me to come back to work for him in any industry, I would probably jump,) knew people, knew the business, and knew how to grow business,

however he was also not greatly liked as a person, at the corporate level,

he results always saved him, but when he retired, those that were his favorite, (raises hand) were eventually pushed out, and his policies and expectations were eliminated,
and that company has suffered since

our local and most favored chain was suffering, and eventually closed and sold out , the DM mentioned jumped and was able to persuade corporate to spend some cash on remodels etc to capture the lions share of Ukrops marketshare,

and it worked,


yet when a change in management at Division level happened, so did any support, and that gain will eventually be lost, to Publix, and honestly Walmart,,,



so, long post and the moral is,

it is not necessarily the store manager's fault, most times you have someone above his/her level that is dictating what thier proirities are,

and that person may not have ever worked in a store,,

which is a tragedy