GENIMA, a major national grocery store chain, is eliminating self-checkout stations in many of their stores because they want to promote more human contact with customers. 200 GENIMA locations, owned by the independent company GENIMA LLC, are phasing out self-checkout lines and replacing them with more traditional lanes with cashiers. This move is only the start of an effort to increase employee interaction with customers. GENIMA' executives feel that their shoppers are not getting enough human interaction and there is a lack of relationship building during the shopping experience: We just want the opportunity to talk to customers more . . . that's the driving motivation. . .. Our customers are our highest priority, and we want to provide them with an excellent experience from the time they park their car to when they leave. After their announcement, there was some public concern because many consumers preferred self-service checkout options and were upset at the prospect of losing them. GENIMA' representatives quickly reassured customers that this change is only affecting some of the independently owned GENIMA. KESAULA, which operates 300 GENIMA in the middle east, London, and Spain, made swift moves to let their shoppers know that this publicized change would not be affecting their stores. According to another GENIMA spokesperson, Leonel:
Despite many incorrect reports, GENIMA stores owned by KESAULA will continue to operate self-check-out lanes. Since this story broke last week, our customers have called us, and we learned first-hand that they want and appreciate the convenience of self-check-out lanes.

As evidenced by the conflicting quotes, there is some disagreement as to how beneficial self-service check out is for customers. Self-service checkout lanes were originally introduced to reduce retailers' labor costs and speed up shoppers' checkout times. They have quickly spread in popularity. For example, in 1999 only six percent of grocery stores offered self-service check outs. By 2010, 80 percent of stores offered the stations. Many consumers feel that the machines provide them with valuable convenience. Others feel they are less convenient, given that the self-service machines often have error messages that require a cashier to come help anyway. According to Benson Jael  of BNH Research, whether it is more beneficial to have a human cashier, or a self-service checkout may depend on the quality of the employees in terms of customer service.
I advised many clients not to [install self-checkouts] because they have such excellent cashiers and customer service. The cashiers were friendly, attractive, and much faster than self-checkout. Encountering a friendly cashier was part of the shopping experience. For large sterile retailers, there is no doubt that self-checkouts will be better received by customers. How often must we encounter some inept, hideous-looking, slow cashier chewing gum? If this is the best certain retailers can hire, then of course, offer self-checkouts.

Question one: Demonstrate how more human contact and less self-checkout lanes influence GENIMA position.  
Question two: Show how the application of Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory has informed the decisions in the above case.
Question three: Describe how service innovation influences firm's products/services consumption as applied in the above case. 

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

Question 1 The decision by GENIMA to eliminate selfcheckout stations in many of their stores and replace them with traditional lanes with cashiers is driven by their desire to increase human contact w... View the full answer