Friday, February 2, 2024

Looking at the Astor Place CVS renovation plans

Over at the CVS on Astor Place, renovations, including aisle rearrangement and new self-checkouts (now in place), continue. 

EVG reader Jacob Ford found the plans for the reno on display ... (they're upside down, so you may need to tilt your computer/phone upside down, too, for a more accurate look)...
The new self-checkouts come out at a time when other chains are doing away with them. As Boing Boing called them, "the shopping equivalent of an automated phone menu." 

CNN reported on Jan. 23: 
A newly-released study by researchers at Drexel University published in the Journal of Business Research found that "regular checkout" – the kind featuring a human cashier – makes customers more loyal to a store and more likely to revisit in the future than self-checkout. The study comes as some companies remove self-checkout machines and others adjust their self-checkout operations. 
Jacob shared this with us: 
What CVS (and Wawa) hilariously do is make the robot ask you more questions than even the humans at Kmart used to. Or, in CVS’s case, ask you to ask an employee to type a code so that you can type in your own birthdate to buy Tylenol.
The CVS, the first retail tenant for 51 Astor Place/the IBM Watson Building/the Death Star, opened in late 2015. 

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just presumed CVS was taking note of the vast Wegman’s self checkout lanes across the street. Sure beats waiting in Tradet Joes and Whole Food lines.

JM said...

It's been awhile since I missed the Walgreen's at Astor and Lafayette, but now I do. Pro tip: if this CVS is the most convenient for you, have any prescriptions filled there and get anything else you need when you go to pick them up. Check out at the pharmacy, where humans are.

Anonymous said...

Just don't get the problem people have with self checkout, it's not like interacting with a cashier is so different, except they scan the items instead of you.

Anonymous said...

@ 7:39 AM anonymous: the lines at trader joe's moves pretty quickly. whole foods is pretty decent too.

Emily said...

If anyone wants first-hand evidence of how awful self-chekout is, all you have to do is go to the Key Foods on A. The cacophony of robots all chiming simultaneously to "start scanning your items now" is absolutely the worst thing about this technological "advancement" and is an easy one-way ticket to a migraine.

BLAHBLAHBLAH said...

First I always have earbuds in so I don't hear the cacophony and second, the less human interaction I have the better. I get enough of that just trying to walk down the sidewalk.

Grieve said...

Someone asked:

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union represents CVS workers all across the country...

Anonymous said...

Agreed

Anonymous said...

Isn't it interesting that pharmacies like CVS sell more junk and crappy snack food garbage than things to make one healthy and whole.

Anonymous said...

Am I crazy? I like cvs self check out. It is faster. And a plus is that I see every price as I enter it. And can easily cancel items if I decide not to buy at the last second.