The checkout counters are stacked two deep, have a short conveyer, and a small bagging area. Small amount of merchandising. The lines (if present) are easily visible as you walk into the store. This indicates that they expect most people to be buying only a modest quantity of goods, and that they're confident that they have enough staff on hand to avoid having long, scary lines that will cause some customers to re-think their shopping trip.
Single layer, with a larger conveyer and bagging area. Large amount of relatively tall merchandising displays that also serve to obscure the presence of lines to new shoppers. This tells me they expect to be selling a fairly large amount of goods to each person, and that they expect to staff it so there's a queue to checkout. They use the merch both to monetize the checkout, and to obscure it somewhat, so the lines don't look as long to people who are coming into the store.
Smaller amount of merchandising, single layer. larger bagging area than target, shorter conveyer than wal-mart. They appear to be somewhere in the middle.
Big differences I see in checkouts:
How visible is the checkout itself as you walk into the store?
Are the lines (if present) clearly visible?
Did they design it so they have the option to add a large number of staff to handle rushes (like pre-christmas or pre-thanksgiving), or did they design it so there's just going to be some long lines during high traffic?
Do they cater to people with kids by having a couple aisles that have children's books and such instead of candy bars?
When there is a line, does it block access to any parts of the store? (just the other day I saw a long line that backed up into a pharmacy counter... does anybody really want to fill a potentially private prescription with a line of bored shoppers next to them?)?
Not to mention things like differences in self-checkout. Sometimes it exists, sometimes not... and sometimes it's so poorly designed (receipt, coupons, paper change and coins in different spots... oversensitive fraud checker that makes you re-scan items, etc) that you regret using it.
I could go on a rant about the other things too, but the reality is that these things only look the same if you're squinting very, very hard.
Are they? Because I see some fairly large differences.
Target: http://www.treesfullofmoney.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/c...
The checkout counters are stacked two deep, have a short conveyer, and a small bagging area. Small amount of merchandising. The lines (if present) are easily visible as you walk into the store. This indicates that they expect most people to be buying only a modest quantity of goods, and that they're confident that they have enough staff on hand to avoid having long, scary lines that will cause some customers to re-think their shopping trip.
Walmart: http://mike.creuzer.com/uploaded_images/SSPX0019-787334.JPG
Single layer, with a larger conveyer and bagging area. Large amount of relatively tall merchandising displays that also serve to obscure the presence of lines to new shoppers. This tells me they expect to be selling a fairly large amount of goods to each person, and that they expect to staff it so there's a queue to checkout. They use the merch both to monetize the checkout, and to obscure it somewhat, so the lines don't look as long to people who are coming into the store.
Safeway: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2611/4147295724_b4ea1e5e79.jp...
Smaller amount of merchandising, single layer. larger bagging area than target, shorter conveyer than wal-mart. They appear to be somewhere in the middle.
Big differences I see in checkouts: How visible is the checkout itself as you walk into the store? Are the lines (if present) clearly visible? Did they design it so they have the option to add a large number of staff to handle rushes (like pre-christmas or pre-thanksgiving), or did they design it so there's just going to be some long lines during high traffic? Do they cater to people with kids by having a couple aisles that have children's books and such instead of candy bars? When there is a line, does it block access to any parts of the store? (just the other day I saw a long line that backed up into a pharmacy counter... does anybody really want to fill a potentially private prescription with a line of bored shoppers next to them?)?
Not to mention things like differences in self-checkout. Sometimes it exists, sometimes not... and sometimes it's so poorly designed (receipt, coupons, paper change and coins in different spots... oversensitive fraud checker that makes you re-scan items, etc) that you regret using it.
I could go on a rant about the other things too, but the reality is that these things only look the same if you're squinting very, very hard.