Super slow grocery checkout makes the Japanese feel alive again (5 photos + 1 video)

How they played on the psychology of the Japanese and were able to increase the number of purchases in the supermarket by at least 10%. A very interesting case that would hardly work for us, but works great for the Japanese.





“Don’t rush, otherwise you’ll make it in time,” employees joke with clients

Too much stress

While all other stores are struggling to ensure that there are no queues, and all goods at the checkout are processed in a minute, the Japanese supermarket has gone the opposite way.

He introduced a super-slow checkout, where people take their time.

This is because everyone at the checkout line is usually stressed. The seller picks up the goods so quickly and throws them onto the belt that you have to panic and stuff everything into bags before your goods get mixed up with the purchases of the next customers.



A report about how a supermarket is completely sold out due to a slow checkout

There is still time to pay and receive a check, or even better – check the check. It's two minutes, but filled with maximum stress. Because the Japanese, probably purely genetically, cannot afford to be a hindrance to other people in line.

The administration of a supermarket in Fukuoka noticed this trick and introduced the slowest checkout in the store, which can take more than 20 minutes. That is, do everything slowly at your own pace, and going to the store is no longer stressful.





In Japan they are trying to introduce self-service checkouts, but it is difficult for old people to relearn how to do this

The cashier is prohibited from rushing customers in any way, but is recommended to slowly give out change, alternately hand the goods from hand to hand in order to slowly stack their bags. He talks friendly and jokes with clients.

The Japanese were delighted with this! Apparently, the poor always feel the pressure in society and the need to be comfortable. And for such rare opportunities to be themselves, at least at the checkout counter in a store, without the need to care about others, for them it’s almost like a full-fledged session with a psychologist.

Accidental discovery

In fact, in an interview with the Asahi TV program, the administration admitted that initially they simply wanted to open a special cash desk for the disabled and elderly, because there are more and more of them in Japan now.



That's who this box office is for, but in reality everyone wants it

But it turned out that everyone wants to be served at a slow checkout. People want to shop through such a cash register! Store revenue increased by 10 percent.

Obviously, once supermarkets reached almost 100% speed and efficiency, they lost any veneer of humanity. And this “breaks” people, to be constantly cogs and functions, so that the slightest place where you are considered a person immediately becomes a hit in Japan.



Being a useful and precise cog in the system does no one any good psychologically. You need to give yourself a rest

It’s good that they came up with such a therapy, but it certainly wouldn’t have caught on here. You can be a human being as a cash register for people, there are no prohibitions.