Self-Checkout: A Proposal

by Shapol Mohamed

Every single day, I wait in the lunch queue and wonder what could make the process quicker. 

Firstly and most importantly, I believe the checkout tills should face the pupils and the pupils should “self-checkout” just like you could do at any supermarket. This could save between 10 seconds to 20 seconds per person. This is because you would save time by not talking to the catering staff about what food you want and telling them what your name is. 

Now, 10 seconds might seem negligible but when you multiply that by 100 pupils, you can save 15 minutes in total. Secondly, I would recommend that both checkout tills are used - halving the waiting time. This would require the queue to be moved and that could be moved so that the queue is a straight line opposite the kitchen. Once the tills have become self-checkout tills, it also means an extra member of the catering staff is available to serve lunch. Therefore, the speed of serving food could be doubled.

Now you may argue that a self-checkout till won’t work; for example, pupils could lie about their names. However, this can be done right now as no one is preventing you from lying about your name when you are paying. I am not encouraging you to lie about your name but I am arguing that no one does it. This is because trust between each other at PGS is strong and everyone knows each other. 

Self checkout has worked at all major supermarkets so I see don't why it couldn’t work at PGS.

These simple changes could save us a lot of time!