The Houston Business Journal reports that Kroger is testing a new checkout system that will allow the customers to scan their own groceries - and virtually check themselves out. This might be a good idea, it's hard to say until you try it. It's being tested at the Kroger store at Kuykendahl & Louetta, in the 16 items or less lane, if you want to check it out for yourself. When you first hear of something like this, it's hard to tell if it will be a 15 minute wonder or if we'll all be checking out our own groceries in another year or so. I'm old enough to remember when you just pulled into the gas station and said, "Fill 'er up!"
Some of the changes we've seen over the last few years have been great: who would have guessed at the spread of home computers and the Internet? To me, that's a good change. Other changes leave you wondering... How often do you call a business nowadays and get a courteous human being instead of a demanding machine ordering you to push buttons? We have allowed our answering machines to make us rude. I was looking for a photographer on short notice one day, and went through a half dozen listings before I reached a human being. Guess who got my business?
That's an opportunity, you see. If you are the company that has a human being on the other end of the phone line, you have a certain advantage over the competition. There will always be people who want full service gas stations: elderly and handicapped people, people with a little more money to spend, folks who just don't want to get their hands dirty. Maybe most of us will come around to scanning our own groceries, but there will still be some who want the old-fashioned service. The businesses that offer that extra service will probably do well.
When you're in a hurry, it' s good to have a restaurant where you can walk up to the counter and get your lunch in a couple of minutes. But sometimes you want to sit down and treat yourself for an hour or so while the waiter takes your order and brings you everything you need. There's a place for both kinds of business, and for something in between. We don't have to be afraid of changes; usually there's more than one right way to do things.