Here the situation has been like this for a while. The Walmart, not far from home, spans 19,000 square meters (slightly larger than the Auchan Mega in Khimki) and is operated by one cashier during the day and none at all in the evenings and at night. Several times, I found myself unable to locate anyone in the store to ask a question. Of course, there are always some people around the checkout area. If a cashier calls for help, they come running. However, they certainly don’t monitor the customers to ensure they don’t sneak out merchandise without scanning, nor do they scan items for the customers themselves.
We also have an ALDI nearby. It also has no cashiers, but neither does it have self-checkout stations. You either have to wait for a cashier or wander around the hall looking for one since they multitask quite a bit. Furthermore, there are no free bags at the checkouts in ALDI. Only purchasable bags (not disposable) are available, though they are fairly cheap. The store justifies this as a cost-saving practice that allows them to keep food prices low.
A little further away, there’s a Wegmans. We buy everything there that feels too risky to purchase from Walmart due to uncertain quality. Wegmans is a very old chain. It’s already 105 years old.
https://www.fox5ny.com/news/walmart-looks-to-remove-all-cashiers-from-stores
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 