City Convenience at Warren Towers installed three new self-checkout kiosks, in addition to the registers operated by cashiers.
The new registers were installed as “part of an upgrade to the CityCo experience,” Boston University Spokesperson Colin Riley wrote in an email to The Daily Free Press.
The machines were designed to be more convenient and speed up the check-out process, according to Riley.
“Self-checkout terminals are quite common in retail locations, and, after a review, we decided to add them at this location,” he wrote.
Signs on the registers state the self-checkout machines currently cannot accept dining or convenience points. However, Riley wrote CityCo is working with the machine vendor to allow payment with dining points.
Riley wrote that students participating in the new late-night dining program at Warren and Fenway would benefit from the self-checkout option in CityCo.
Freshman Kerry Li said the new self checkout machines could help reduce the wait time for checkout.
“Sometimes during the afternoon, there are many people and sometimes checkout’s really slow,” Li said.
According to freshman Rashi Singh, who tried the new kiosks, the process was “really efficient.” She also said the machines will help avoid long checkout lines.
“It’ll probably just help or make it more efficient for students to quickly go and grab stuff, because the line here is pretty long during certain hours,” Singh said.
Freshman Benny Dietz said he has not used the new self checkout machines yet, but he would in the future.
“I appreciate the fact that I don’t necessarily have to look someone in the eyes [as] I’m buying a pile of snacks for people,” Dietz said. “That’s great, because I feel a little bit of shame to be like, ‘Here are all my items, I swear I’m not the only one eating them.’”
