In a society where online shopping and increasingly automated businesses are causing the human factor to gradually diminish, the Dutch supermarket chain Jumbo decided to go against the grain and instead of installing more express checkouts or self-checkout systems, chose to create the Kletskassa, which literally translates as “chat checkouts”, a service designed specifically so that customers, especially older people, can talk with cashiers while doing their shopping and thus combat loneliness.
The initiative was implemented in 200 of the chain’s stores since last year, and Twitter user Drik Janssen brought attention to it through a post, where he explained that they were “checkouts for people who enjoy chatting, especially helping older people cope with the lack of companionship”.
Jumbo’s communications director, Colette Cloosterman-Van Eerd, explained to a local media outlet that the main reason for these “slow checkouts” was to combat the social isolation of its customers, and highlighted the company’s community duty as a supermarket chain and meeting place, while the company also has areas where customers can have a coffee and chat inside its stores.
