[…] Me: "I don't work here"
This gives me big "ok boomer" vibes. Instead of this, imo, snarky response, could you not simply politely say that you prefer a human cashier?
Remember the human.
I'm faster than anyone who works there, and I don't need to worry about long lines (usually the self checkout is the faster option). The time saved is my payment.
I would be faster, if the tills didn't have a bloody delay after placing the item in the bag, before it will scan the next one.
"Please place the item in the bagging area!!!"
"Unexpected item in the bagging area." "Please place the item in the bagging area." "Unexpected item in the bagging area." "Please wait for assistance."
The time saved is my payment.
This point seems to get missed on all these "I don't work here" arguments. Yeah, I don't work here, so I'd like to be in and out quickly so I can spend my precious free time for things I actually like to do. If "time is money" anyway, then what's the difference? I'd rather scan my own things, skip the chitchat, and reclaim the personal time I would've spent waiting.
I suppose you might also leave trash at your seat in a movie theater or restaurant. After all, cleaning up is someone else's job and you don't even work there. Plus, you can pat yourself on the back for contributing to that person's job security with your added burden like some of the people here.
I know I'm in the minority but I prefer self checkout so I don't have to talk to people. Same reason I quit customer service work. I do not want to hear about your day I want to pay for my shit and leave.
In Europe it's becoming popular to have scanners at the store entrance that you can take and scan your products as you go. Sometimes you can also do it with a phone app instead. Then, at the self-checkout, you just scan one code instead and pay right away. I love this system because it's quicker and you get to avoid the anxiety of packing your bags too slowly.
I know I'm in the minority
Dude look around the comment section. 90% talk about prefering self checkout
"Don't you hate it when you walk into a grocer and they expect you to pick out the items yourself? I don't work here, I just want to say "1 pound of ham and 2 loafs of bread" at the clerk, pay and pick them up. I've been to this new Piggley Wiggly, can't find anything, spent like an hour to find beans. Imagine if I was paid for that time, I would have made 15¢!"
OP in 1925, probably.
Silly take. The problem isn't having to move my own items around across a scanner. The problem is me doing more, the store doing less, and the prices just keep going up anyways. You'd rather just silently get less?
Oh, and also the ridiculous cameras they stick right in your face pre-accusing me of stealing in the checkout. And having to juggle a whole cart of groceries while the machine asks me to move the item off and on the bagging area.
Maybe if they had implemented the system better I wouldn't mind using it?
That is literally what I am talking about, though. "you doing more, the store doing less, prices increase anyway" is exactly the same thing as happened 100 years ago.
Stores where customers didn't have access to the back also don't need security cameras, so even that point is 1:1 the same (although that's way later than 1925 then).
We have lost most of the stores where a clerk will collect your items for you, they once were the only option. At this rate, we will lose most of the stores where a clerk will scan the items for you as well. Simply because 1 clerk and 20 cameras is cheaper than 15 clerks.
I'm not saying that you have to like or hate both developments equally, I just wanted to point out that we have had and lost this exact battle before.
fun fact: you can get a discount at a self-checkout! grocery stores hate this one trick!
you queue up all you like boss...
I love the self checkout. No bullshit small talk, no customers stood right behind you breathing down your neck and I can pack my shit without feeling better rushed. to me that's invaluable...
I get that you are technically doing someone's job for free, but you can always collect your "pay" by giving yourself a "discount." Personally, I prefer to scan my avacados as potatoes so I can have my avocado toast every day and be able to save up for a house. I'm almost there, it's only gonna take 30 more years for a down payment! 😁😀🙂😐☹️😢😭
Tell me the OP is from the US without telling me they're from the US.
if i've learned anything from this thread it's that y'all have awful self-checkouts.
I never understand the press they get. As someone that doesn't want to have a chat with a stranger about everything I buy, self-checkouts are amazing. I don't consider it extra work. OP should look at the history of supermarkets. We didn't use to pick items off the shelves either.
oh nooooo, how dare they offer you a convenient option that saves time
UNEXPECTED ITEM IN BAGGING AREA. Sorry, Jandro, I'm not here to get yelled at by a clanker.
If you feel this way then you should never complain about the length of the lines or the speed with which you get through them.
I have witnessed far to many people with full carts que into the self check out, and than they get frustrated when every other thing they scan throws a flag.
Bitch, SCO is for 10 items or less!
Here in NZ, the self checkout is the preferred option for any amount of shopping. It's so much quicker and you don't have to engage in pointless small talk. I just got home from doing some grocery shopping and they had about 10 self checkouts and maybe 2 or 3 human ones that nobody was using.
The self checkout person always thinks I'm cute and gives me good deals
Wait, is this a thing? What's wrong with you people?
I love my self-checkout, so much better than waiting in line for a slow cashier to make chitchat.
I honestly don't hate the self checkout, I hate it when they do it poorly.
Oversensitive scales, improperly weighted products, stuff without barcodes, tiny little bagging areas that can only hold two bags. No belt for unloading groceries. Please remove the item from the bagging area, help is on the way. (Help is never on the way)
The grocery store where I used to live had a bunch of regular lanes, You threw your crap on the belt, Scan it over the sensors and send it down to the collection area where you could bag it. It was honestly pleasant.
I went to Target in the evening once, had an entire cart full of groceries. I push it up front there's no cashier's open only the self checkout. I look at the person manning the self-check out and say
Why aren't there are there any registers open?
Sorry just the self checkout.
This is going to be like 8 bags.
Yeah, sorry.
I shrug leave the cart there and start walking out the door.
No, wait: The cashier goes and opens the closest register to the self checkouts
Self checkout is the greatest thing ever and I will never understand why so many people seem to prefer waiting in line for a few minutes instead of just using the self checkout.
No human interaction, usually faster because I don't have to wait. What's not to love? Sure occassionally you might get selected for a random check and have to wait a bit, but that still beats the line.
They used to be awful here 10-15 years ago, with a scale for your scanned items that would complain over nothing all the time, but now everywhere I've been has done away with that in favor of random controls and the receipt for opening the gate. I think my highlight so far was the clothing store where you didn't even have to scan, you just put your items in a box and it told you what you have to pay.
I really like self checkout, tbh. No need to remove my headphones, and it's nice if you're getting a few items. If I'm getting more than one bags worth of stuff, there's the handheld scanners that you can walk around in the store with, and just put your stuff directly in to the bag you brought with you. Really handy, and quick.
This thread has made me feel so incredibly millennial.
Meh. I’m usually happy to just scan my own shit and bounce. Even a $500 Costco trip. I usually shop with earbuds in, so it’s just me and some tunes anyway. I just switch off my brain, follow my list, and go.
Self check out is faster especially since I can scan the items when I’m picking them off the shelves. The faster I can be outside and spend less time in those kind of commercial spaces the better. And no I don’t have agoraphobia. I just fucking hate the vibes of most stores.
It's a bullshit job though. Do you refuse to use elevators because they no longer have attendants? Having worked on a checkout at one time, it was always depressing. Plus there were other tasks that could be done and most people you deal with are awful.
People making the same old quips also make the job that little bit more unbearable - "must be free", urgh. Seriously you are not gods gift to comedy with these jokes, workers hear them 100 times every day and it is like some kind of compounding psychological damage each time.
I don’t want it to become the only option, but I actually prefer the self checkout.
I hate how self-checkout treats me like a child and speaks and prompts me a zillion times for things I don't want. How many bags do you want to buy? None, because I have mine like 90% of people, geez. How about a donation? Unexpected item in bagging area. TAKE YOUR RECEIPT. Nooooo
And it even SPEAKS. LOUDLY. It burns through ALL my patience within seconds.
If it just let me scan my stuff having me tap on a touchscreen, and then just let me stay the payment machine in a single touch, and it were silent ... I might tolerate it. Otherwise, get back, demon.
I am definitely not an outgoing or social person, but a big "Thank You" to all those pro-self-checkout folks ITT for making me feel like a social butterfly. I'm gonna brag and annouce I can say, "Hi." and "Thanks" to a cashier like a goddamn boss.
That is if the cashier isn't even more socially awkward/angry at their boss than I am and refuses to talk at all.
Woot! I'm gonna run for office!
Reporter: "Sturger, how are your policies going to improve life for the average voter?"
Me: "Get these goddamn cameras and microphones out of my fucking face. Thanks."
Camera pans as I push my shopping cart out the door like a pro.
The grocery stores that I go to seem to have an adversarial UI. I haven't been able to use them without them throwing a fit and then I have to wait for the one attendant who is there to oversee 6 stations (who has to help more than 50% of the people) AND do the customer service desk.
They used to have express lanes. Those actually moved fast.
Dollar store? Yeah those ones work well.
Main issue is they haven't lowered the cost to me the consumer. Which is the lie we were told.
It's a pretty solid hill I'm willing to die on. I like people, even if I disapprove of our economic model I will always choose humanity.
The day I choose a machine over people for the sake of expedience, I feel I will be deserving of the isolation I've earned.
Oh yeah, instead I'll get in the line behind Mildred who is paying by check and has to have a 20 minute conversation with the checker because her kids never call anymore. Then after that the employee can slowly scan my items and pack them with cold stuff across all bags and fragile stuff under heavy stuff.
Having worked cashier in a past life, I'll gladly let the employees do better work than dealing with having to scan my shit and do a bad job packing for me.
We all love to hate on Walmart, but in my part of the world, it's got the closest implementation to what I consider acceptable self-checkouts.
The biggest quality of life feature is that they don't use the the weight sensors in the bagging area. You can use the hand scanner to scan every item in your cart sans weighted produce, as fast as your body will allow.
On the flip side, most of the chain grocery stores in my area have the bagging area scanners that need constant overrides, use AI cameras that lock up after every third item and require an override each time, slow machines that seem to have to compute the pi to the 10 sextillionth digit after each item is scanned before it will be ready for you to place it in the bagging area, and things of that nature. Those suck for sure.
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