Technology has been carving its way into our daily lives. Even grocery shopping is set to change the way we interact with stores, as innovations in retail continue to emerge. Recently, Al Meera Supermarket in Education City’s Student Center introduced a self-checkout system, replacing traditional cashier services. However, the change has sparked controversy in Education City.

Many customers believe that the self-checkout system has not improved convenience as expected, but has instead created more problems. Yaqi Huang, a student at  Northwestern University in Qatar said, “I just wanted to buy a carton of milk quickly, only to find that the checkout line took longer than the time it took to pick out the items.” 

She believes the new system has made her shopping process more cumbersome. “The machines at the self-checkout often malfunction, and many times it’s still a clerk helping with the checkout, so I feel that the change is not very useful.”

Similarly, Anthony Gu, a student from Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, who is used to paying in cash, found the self-checkout machines, which only support card or electronic payments, to be extremely inconvenient. Anthony recalls an embarrassing shopping experience: “Once I thought I had finished checking out, but just as I walked out of the supermarket, the clerk told me to go back, as it turned out that one of the items had not been scanned successfully. This situation made me feel very uncomfortable.”

However, some customers support the self-checkout system and believe it has brought about an increase in efficiency. Khatimat Abilova, a student at NU-Q believes that technological advances are inevitable, and approves this new way of paying. As a user who is used to paying by credit card or Apple Pay, she believes that the self-checkout system reduces the interaction with the cashier and makes the whole payment process smoother. “Self-checkout saves me a lot of time, especially because I can operate it on my own without having to talk to anyone, which is very convenient for me,” she said.

In response to these different voices, Al Meera employee Moti Kunear points out that the self-checkout system was introduced to alleviate the long checkout lines that were previously a problem at Al Meera. “In the past, we only had one manual counter, and the checkout was less efficient,” Kunear said. “Now with two self-checkout machines, we can better divert customers and reduce waiting time.” 

Kunear also mentioned that the supermarket has added a new manual checkout counter based on customer feedback, specifically for those who are not used to using electronic payments or have encountered problems. “We hope to cater to the needs of different customers through the co-existence of manual and self-service,” he said. He also added they will continue to collect feedback and further optimize the system to ensure a better service experience for customers.