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 banking area, help is on the way. (Hep 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 meaning 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
I’m shocked the cashier cared enough to stop you!
The cashier would have had to put all those items back. They chose the option that involved less work for them. Double duty on register and self-checkout is less work than self-checkout and restocking a large cart
I put the blame on Target management and corporate
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
Honestly this would piss me off more. Oh so you just lied to me and expect me to forget about it that quickly. If that’s how they treat customers I wouldn’t ever return. There’s too many options for me to put up with that bs.
I know not everyone has options, but exercise them if you do.
I kind of get it. It’s one cashier monitoring for checkout stations. Staffing is a her fault. And if someone comes up to the checkout stations while she is checking me out and has a problem she’s now doing another person’s job worth of work. She’s got to run double duty, and that sucks for her.
What I presented her with was a no win situation. If somebody doesn’t check me out they’re going to have to put away an entire cart full of groceries and probably waste a fair amount of perishables.
I was by no means happy with them at that point but my time is not worthless either and I had just spent the better part of an hour picking out a grocery order.
That’s genius
I wish it were intended. I was just tired, mad, and disappointed and was not looking forward to going to the grocery store doing it all over again to make a point.
This thread has made me feel so incredibly millennial.
I shop in the morning to avoid lines. But, before self-checkout, they’d only have two registers open, so there was still a line. With self-checkout, in the morning, there’s never a line so it’s faster.
I like Walmart self-checkout machines better than others I’ve used, such as at Lowe’s or Target (I don’t shop at Target anymore) because I only need to put in my pin number, there’s no other confirmations. I ignore the rate the store, donation, and print or email receipt questions while I put the groceries back in the cart, those all time out and the receipt prints by default.
I’m happy enough to chat or not chat to strangers, so that was never an issue for me. I’m sorry so many of the younger generation were apparently so poorly socialized, it must be stressful.
You can get a 5 Finger discount if you’re good at it. 😏
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.
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.
The key to getting in and out quick is to have them scan it and you bag it. Even if they start bagging it for you, “I got the bags” places things in bags.
Also Aldi, Aldi gets you in and out and they know how to pack a cart so things don’t get squished. I believe it’s because they actually pay their people and train them to get the line moving.
Your Aldi has cashiers? Ours will have at most one dude available but almost no one uses that checkout.
Pretty much the same. Though I have rarely been more than the 2nd person in line at an Aldi. That one dude keeps pace!
You are my people! My first ever job was grocery bagger boy so I love packing my own stuff the way I want. We take our giant plastic bags to Aldi and packing 4 of those is the equivalent of a cashier packing 20 disposable bags.
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.
While I have only been to Walmart once in the last decade, it was a year or two ago and the experience was the exact opposite. All the grocery stores in my area figured out the ‘unexpected item in bagging area’ thing well before COVID and are easy to use with no issues, but Walmart still had the stupid weight issue for the two things I was buying.
They’re hit-or-miss as a customer convenience because their actual purpose is to cut labor costs.
Walmart perfected it first. I don’t go many places but Lowe’s and Aldi have great checkouts. Home Depot used to be a damned nightmare but they seem to have got it together.
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.
“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.
This is actually pretty funny with the number of stores that offer the option to have stuff gathered by staff and ready for curbside pickup.
That sounds way better! Then they wouldn’t keep rearranging the aisles so you shop for longer.
That change was driven by the drastic expansion is quantity and variety of goods. A person couldn’t reasonably verbally dictate what they’d like to buy in a modern grocery store. It’s far more convenient to choose them yourself
The driving factor for self-checkout was solely profit, not customer convenience. I, personally, find it far more convenient to have a cashier do the checkout, because they’re far faster and the responsibility of doing it correctly is on them, not me. I don’t want police showing up at my house because the AI at my grocery store incorrectly decided I stole
Look at all the people in this thread complaining about how slow other customers are in self-checkout. It’s clearly a widespread issue
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?
Most stores in my city (The Netherlands) just have a little terminal you can carry around the store with you. I scan my items with the terminal, it shows me the total price, discounts, points acquired (if I scan my customer card) and then i have the terminal scan the QR code on the self checkout and I just pay. Everything is already in my bag and they rarely check. It’s great!
To be fair, the indignity and fact the machine never works because its all calibrated so YOU CAN’T STEAL ANYTHING so every time i bag an item an employee has to run over and enter an override code makes it :ery difficult to not steal.
Not that i dobt on purpose, but i probably steal more on accident and frustration.
I steal on purpose. Fuck self checkout, just more corporate greed.
Have a handful for the incels and weirdos who are too scared to face down an intimidating cashier, but leave us normal folks out of it.
Bagging groceries is a lot of kids’ first job, but now I have to do it and they dont get a chance for a low-pressure first job.
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.
We have lost most of the stores where a clerk will collect your items for you
Actually, pretty much the opposite, they are making a comeback in the form of curbside ordering. Walking through a grocery store or walmart nowadays there’s a large number of staff picking items from the shelf.
It’s been crazy to see people going nuts about having to scan their own items at the same time the bigger pain in the ass of picking the items is now being offered at no additional charge.
Try ordering ahead with curbside pickup if you haven’t yet and it’s an option for you.
If not … Idk … You’ll be alright. I actually prefer self checkout and to bag my own stuff so do keep in mind people have the literal opposite feelings on this topic too.
Not to say anyone’s right or wrong, but I do agree with the post you replied to, I bet so many people were mad they couldn’t just make a list and hand it to the clerk. I wonder how many tried at first to give the cashiers or other employees a list to get for them and then were surprised when they said they had to go get it themselves.
Now we’ve gone full circle with the curbside pick up stuff! I really like it, but sometimes they do bag stuff nonsensically but no big deal.
Of course I’ll be alright. I order ahead all the time and get my groceries delivered, but that requires pre planning. Sometimes I just want to go to the grocery store and walk around and have 30 seconds of social interaction in the process because the cashiers enjoyed talking to someone pleasant for 30 seconds too. Self checkout is less convenient than ordering delivery groceries, so if a store wants to make me use self checkout, I guess I’ll just use their competitor and skip the issue entirely?
Its not about getting mad for the sake of hating change or having to do more work. Why don’t they offer me even just a one dollar discount for using a self checking? A fifty cents discount? Because it’s all about the CEO firing their employees and pocketing the extra cash, to no benefit on my behalf or anyone elses. I guess aside from people who don’t care to even question or think it through.
Curbside pickup is an inconvenient option. Screens are a terrible interface for picking groceries. Maybe in the future a VR option will be as, or more, convenient
I prefer the fastest and most convenient option. Picking out products in person is faster, and having a cashier scan the items is faster
Seems most people like self-checkout because they have anti-social tendencies. That’s perfectly valid, but I don’t have that issue. I actually enjoy small talk with strangers
Curbside seems great until some kid making poverty wages is picking out your produce and grabs whatever. Cant find red onions? Eh, red potatoes are close enough. Wanted bananas that would last a week? Heres a bunch that are almost to black for even banana bread.
It is a godsend for those with mobility issues though. A friend uses it because of that and its been a big help for her. (Though she does like to complain about the produce choices)The big brained solution is to use curbside for stuff like canned items, chips, liquids, etc. and then go in to get the fresh produce/meats/whatever else needs to be picked through personally.
100%. Veggies and any fresh produce is a gamble. When I order cilantro, there is literally a 10 fold difference in size from order to order sometimes. The employees do not care or not know how to pick out a decent onion and you’d better forget about getting a reasonable avocado ever haha
OK Boomer.
What?
THEY SAID “OK BOOMER”
Turn up your hearing aid!
Haha, could you speak a little louder? I guess because I don’t like the grocery store firing employees so that the CEO and shareholders can pocket the difference, I am but an old spent husk which should be shunned for speaking their mind. I should have just kept my mouth shut because, as a boomer being born between 1946 and 1964, I am old enough to where my feelings are irrelevant and I should be shamed simply for my age! Oh, and I can’t hear duh
I don’t use self checkout because I’m afraid of messing up something and getting judged by people :(
okay, nobody cares but sometimes we enjoy the show. like one time we were at HEB and there was this shopping cart these two sorority girls were sharing and they had to scan everything in the right order. like the first two or three minutes we were annoyed but after twenty we were cheering for them every time they got it right
Twenty???
yeah. they took for-fucking-ever but like after five minutes it became entertaining and the whole line got in on it. you ever seen someone pick up a can to scan it, look at it, then put it back in their cart? but still buy the whole cart?
Aww. :p
Well, I know this doesn’t help, but you know you’re never going to get over this without messing up a few times, yeah?
When I learned to sing, I was so overcome with embarrassment that I could barely do it in a big building I knew was empty (I was the closing manager for a while). I only got over that feeling by singing anyway. I would get loud, my voice would crack, I would stop and apologize to the ghosts nearby, and then I’d steel myself and try again. This built a lot of confidence, though. I learned not to fear the embarrassment and eventually stopped feeling it altogether.
If this matters at all: to the right kinds of people, being a little embarrassed is endearing anyway. I would help somebody learn the self-checkout if they didn’t know.
Thanks for your kind message. Fear of embarrassment is really something that holds us back
Of course, friend. :)
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! 😁😀🙂😐☹️😢😭
If im too exhausted to steal competently, ill just wait in front of a checkout line.
what has me upset is that they spent all that time getting rid of cashiers, for self check out… THEN THEY CLOSE 3/4 OF THEM! they will have 2 rows with a person there, for cigarettes and such, then have a single person watching 6 self checkouts. if trader joes/aldi had name brand snacks i would cut out wall-mart wholesale from my routine. the whole shopping experience is terrible, and for some reason wall mart is more expensive and worse quality
Also fucking greeters who want check your receipt. I don’t stop, my wife won’t acknowledge them. If you don’t trust me to scan and pack my shit then bring back cashiers. Fuck that noise. And yes we should get a discount.
I do the same. They chose to outsource a critical piece of their business to unpaid labor. They get what they paid for
They ask me for my receipt so I just hand it to them and keep walking.
They asked for my receipt, not to stop.
So you disrespect the person doing the job? I won’t insult them so.
“no thank you” is not disrespectful
I mean if the job comes with disrespect people will stop taking it right?
Not that it’s a nice thing to do but it does sound effective. Consumers don’t really have much recourse when large companies adopt policies that hurt them. It’s designed like that for a reason. You won’t be mean to a person from your community so they make them the face of their bad policy choices. Then they can say oh sorry it’s just our policy and the issue goes away
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.
Oopsie, accidentally forgot to scan an item
(Don’t worry, I check the statute of limitations so you can’t charge me with a felony 😏)
But where are the mirrors?
