Checking in on the Key Food checkout situation

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

As noted this past week, Key Food at Avenue A and Fourth Street retired a row of its self-checkout terminals.

In its place: a good old-fashioned staffed register, which will make four for the grocery. 

The move is part of a broader effort by store management to ease congestion and improve the checkout experience. The new models — arranged in a single pass-through lane — aim to speed up transactions and tighten security, potentially reducing the familiar bagging-area standoffs that not even a surprise Mike + the Mechanics track can fix.

Store manager Richie added that the full point-of-sale overhaul should be completed by the end of May.

And the new human-operated register will be up and running "soon."

One question remains: will the CAKES FOR ALL OCCASIONS signage return to the relocated cake station, now with random puddings and parfaits?

Richie wasn't sure. I made a case for its reinstatement.