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Big Y Supermarkets Dump Self-Service Checkout Lanes

SPRINGFIELD (AP) -- A Massachusetts-based supermarket chain is doing away with its self-service checkout lanes, saying they haven't been able to replace the friendly human cashier.

Big Y says the self-serve lanes will be phased out by the end of the year, and more standard service lanes added.

The chain opened self-serve lanes in 2003 as a way to speed up checkout and save money. But it found checkout times actually lengthened as customers grappled with bar codes, coupons and payment methods.

WBZ-TV's Paul Burton reports

Big Y added that the lanes can't replace the service provided by a human being.

Another chain, Boise, Idaho-based Albertson's LLC, has said it's phasing out self-service lanes. Kroger says it's keeping the self-service option because customers like it, although one remodeled store replaced it with another quick-checkout method.

Big Y operates 61 stores in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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