Self-service is a system whereby customers acquire (or serve) themselves goods or services, paying for the items at a point-of-sale, as opposed to a shop assistant or clerk acquiring goods or providing services in addition to taking payment. Common examples include ATMs, coin-operated laundrettes, self-service checkouts, self-service petrol stations, and buffet restaurants.
History
Grocery stores and supermarkets Before the 20th century many businesses such as grocery stores had clerks or assistants who would serve customers individually, taking required items from the shelves, before adding up the total at the till. Some products such as ham, cheese, and bacon were sliced to order, while dry goods such as flour would be weighed out from large barrels. On September 6, 1916 the first Piggly Wiggly opened in Memphis, Tennessee by Clarence Saunders, the world's first self-service grocery store. Customers would pick up a wicker basket upon entering the store, and then walk through the store placing items they intended to purchase in their baskets. As the duties of the shop clerks were reduced to stocking shelves with goods and taking payment at the tills, a "small army of clerks" was no longer necessary, allowing for cost reductions to be passed on to the consumer. In 1937, Saunders start opening Keedoozle stores, a further development of his idea of automated grocery stores. By the 1950s about 80% of the grocery trade in America was on a self-service basis. In the United Kingdom, trials with self-service began in the inter-war period, specifically in the forms of cafeteria (self-service restaurant), womenswear, and grocery and provisions shops. After the Second World War this gathered pace, with the first permanent self-service store, a co-op, opening in 1948 and Tesco's first self-service store in St Albans opening later in the same year. The reduction in the number of staff needed to operate such a store, and the increased speed at which customers could be served, helped to mitigate problems created by the labour shortages in the war. The concept caught on quickly, with Sainsbury's, Waitrose, Morrisons and Marks & Spencer adopting self-service models in the 1950s, and one sixth of all co-op grocery stores being self-service by 1957. In 2020, Amazon Fresh (a subsidiary of Amazon) opened its first till-less store. Some of these stores use "grab and go" systems where surveillance cameras and other technology tracks what each customer takes and places back, whereas most use "dash carts" which use touchscreens, barcode scanners, cameras, and various sensors to track items placed into and removed from the cart. Payment is done by scanning a QR code from their Amazon app, connecting the purchase to their Amazon account and allowing it to be billed through the payment method linked to their account.
At petrol stations
In 1930 the Hoosier Petroleum Co. attempted to trial self-serve fuelling, but was prevented from doing so as it was considered a fire hazard. In 1947, Frank Urich opened the first self-service gasoline station in Los Angeles, California. It was an unbranded station with rows of self-service pumps and roller-skating attendants who would collect money and reset dispensers. The pumps used mechanical computers to track how much fuel was dispensed, and were manually reset between each customer. A few other unbranded stations using this model were created, but the idea didn't catch on with major retailers at the time. In 1964, Herb Timms showcased an invention to John Roscoe that would allow for an attendant inside the store to dispense gasoline at the pumps. This remote fuelling system quickly took off, with three of Roscoe's twelve stores employing it and averaging 4,500 gallons in sales per week. In 1961 Britain's first self-service petrol station opened in Southwark, London. In 1968, the use of "unattended fuelling" was permitted in the City of London, with BP announcing plans to open self-service units within the city. By the mid-1980s, credit card readers were integrated into pump dispensers, allowing for "pay-at-the-pump" transactions. In 1998, Japan abolished the Special Petroleum Law, allowing for self-service petrol stations, although at least one attendant is still required to keep watch over customers to ensure safety. In the 21st century, self-service gas stations are the norm across the US, and New Jersey is the only state "where drivers are not allowed to pump their own gasoline."
In banking
In 1960, Armenian-American inventor Luther Simjian invented an automated deposit machine (accepting coins, cash and cheques) although it did not have cash dispensing features. His US patent was first filed on 30 June 1960 and granted on 26 February 1963. The roll-out of this machine, called Bankograph, was delayed by a couple of years, due in part to Simjian's Reflectone Electronics Inc. being acquired by Universal Match Corporation. The New York Times wrote in 1998 that it was his most famous invention and "the basis for the now-ubiquitous A.T.M., from which he never made a penny." His device did not see widespread adoption however. In Europe, in 1967, three independent efforts to create ATMs entered use simultaneously, the Swedish Bankomat, and in the UK the Barclaycash and Chubb MD2. In 1968 a joint effort between IBM and Swedish banks began testing a networked cashpoint, with Lloyds Bank soon following, deploying networked devices in 1973.
Vending machines
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