A survey from NCR Corporation shows that shoppers appreciate the speed and efficiency of self-checkout and the choice of SCO as a customer service differentiator (view press release). NCR surveyed 400 random US grocery store shoppers, half using SCO and half using cashier assisted checkout, and 78% and 60% of both groups respectively said that they liked that SCO was usually faster. 64% and 44% of the groups respectively said that they ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ that SCO offers better customer service. Many shoppers in both groups were eager to see SCO expanded.

Basket size appears to be a main factor for shoppers choosing between cashier-assisted or SCO lanes, although 56% of the 200 SCO shoppers said they use it every time, and 7% said they use it when the cashier queues are too busy. SCO has been around since the late 1990s, but 6% said they did not use it because they didn’t know how to.