8 BULLETIN 1044, U. S. DEPAETMEI^T OF AGEICULTTJEE. 



is necessary than can be efficientl}^ employed through the remainder 

 of the day. 



Some of the chain-store companies have given up trying to supply 

 adequate service to the customers during rush periods because it was 

 found to be too expensive. As a result, the customers lose much time, 

 grow impatient, and are harder to please. The overworked clerks are 

 likely to hurry the customers in their selection of goods and to become 

 discourteous at times. N^umerous customers endeavor to aid the situa- 

 tion by selecting as many of their purchases as the store arrangements 

 will permit and bringing them to the counter, so they may be waited 

 upon more quickly. This partial self-service is rather unsatisfactory 

 from both the dealers' and customers' standpoints. As only a few 

 packages are wrapped in cash-and-carry stores, the clerk does not 

 know certainly whether the customer has paid for the articles he has 

 in his hand or not. The customers perform this work with a certain 

 amount of mental protest, not knowing whether they will be criti- 

 cized by the clerk for adding to the general confusion. 



One of the most satisfying features of the self-service plan is the 

 ability to take care of the customers during the rush hours with a 

 minimum of inconvenience to the dealer and the customer. It re- 

 quires only from one to two persons (depending upon the sj^stem of 

 checking used) to double the capacity under the self-service plan, 

 and these can be drawn from work which is not usually pressing at 

 that time. This elasticity of the self-service plan is a very economical 

 feature. It eliminates, to a large extent, the extra-help problem, 

 which is a rather difficult and unsatisfactory one to both the employer 

 and the customers. Persons Avorking odd hours are usually more or 

 less inexperienced- and unreliable, and generally present more of a 

 management problem than does the regular help. 



A psychological advantage is also derived from this elasticity. 

 The average person is so constituted that time spent in action, either 

 mental or physical, is more satisfying than the same amount of time 

 spent in inaction and waiting. Suppose that during a busy period 

 of the day a customer has to spend 15 minutes in making a purchase 

 of groceries, and that the same amount of time would be required 

 whether the goods were bought at a self-service store or at a service 

 store. Assume that in the service store the customer spends 10 min- 

 utes waiting for a clerk, 5 minutes making purchases, and 2 minutes 

 waiting at the checker's counter, and that in the self-service store 13 

 minutes are used in maldng purchases and 2 minutes in waiting at 

 the checker's. While the customer may spend the same amount of 

 time in each j)lace, it is evident that lie would emerge from the self- 

 service store in a much better frame of mind, simply because he has 

 had to wait unemployed only one-fifth of the time in that store that 

 he did in the service store. 



