“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.
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
That sounds way better! Then they wouldn’t keep rearranging the aisles so you shop for longer.
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?
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.
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)In my supermarket you can go through stuff they picked for you and reject anything you don’t like.
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
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.
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
I don’t trust them with produce, but pretty much everything else it’s highly convenient for me. I’m certainly happy for the apps to tell me which aisle a food is in, but then I have to hunt anyway. It’s certainly not faster for me to walk around versus just picking up the ready to go ordered stuff.
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.
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
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.
Most stores in my city (in 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.
Yes, as you shoild, but it’s hard to not.
I feel like i should steal less at actual cashiers because labor reasobs.
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.
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.
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’m split on this. On the one hand if they didn’t have self checkout, they’d need more checkout people. On the other hand, before self checkout they didn’t really give a fuck if you had to wait in line (especially Walmart holy shit that was one of the biggest reasons I never went there, the fucking checkout line).
In my area, short lines are a priority for most retailers. If a lane has more than 3 people, they’ll be ringing for another cashier.
if they didn’t have self checkout, they’d need more checkout people
They would certainly need more checkout people, but speaking from grocery cashier experience they wouldn’t necessarily have them. I remember my manager’s indifference as I was the only one to show up on Thanksgiving and there were literally 30 people in my line.
That’s a perennial problem. How do you connect the responsibility to the authority? The cashiers are the ones who have to face 30 angry customers, (face the responsibility) not the manager. (the one who has the authority to change things) Customers can complain to the cashier, but they have no authority. They can complain to the manager, but the manager is getting a portion of the money not spent on hiring full staff in the form of a bonus, so they’re encouraged to ignore the complaint. It takes a certain critical mass of customers all spending less at the store before there’s even a possibility of someone noticing a revenue drop, and no guarantee the blame will be put where it belongs if it happens.
I think that’s one of the things that bothered me most. My manager was standing right there about 30 feet away, but the customers were directing all of their anger at me, by choice. One would think a rational person would understand where to direct that anger, but I’m increasingly convinced every year that rational people don’t exist.
I remember checking groceries at frankly unprecedented speed while being a polite as possible, but one guy started yelling names at me from five or so people back. I decided to ignore him and continue serving my current customer with a smile and he yelled “Stop smiling!”. This was so shocking to me that I looked at the other customers in line to share a “Can you believe this guy?” moment to find them all nodding along in angry agreement.
I didn’t even need that job. I’m so angry at my naive younger self for not quitting on the spot and making sure all of them knew exactly why.
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.”
This was funny like a decade ago when it was commonplace.
Stores in my area solved that at least 6 years ago, maybe even earlier than that.
Stores near me first put in self checkouts around a decade ago and still have the original, problematic machines. It’s the newer stores or ones recently renovated that have upgraded, but that is rare.
Yeah, even in South Central area of LA where I am, the system is quite responsive at the Food 4 Less.
Assert dominance and just use a different machine for the rest of the items. It’s not like an employee is showing up for a while anyway.
Kroger 😂
I didnt realize places still did that, I haven’t heard that annoying line in a few years.
Yeah I’m not actually talking about the “Please place the item in bagging area” part, I’m talking about the second or two after I place it before the system registers the weight and re-activates the scanner.
Sometimes I’ve seen this disabled, on certain tills at certain supermarkets, and I can scan breezily. Not sure if the weight check feature was disabled completely or what.
Oh gotcha
Same answer though, none of them by me do that anymore, I guess they all disabled the scale here. I can just rapid fire scan and out the door.
Hot tip: you can go at the same speed as before, and you’ll even get a discount for saving everyone’s time
How can you be faster when you have to both scan and bag everything, whereas at the human checkout you only have to bag?
Hint, they’re probably not. They perceive themselves as faster, but on average the employees are.
You must have some speedy cashiers at your local store!
No, the point is you perceive them as slower because when you rush you can feel it things feel snappy, you can emotionally feel your speed further and it is unfortunately socially acceptable for you to openly shit on retail workers as lazy, stupid and incompetent in a classist insult.
This is the same phenomena as when older conservative men who have gotten used to being in control of everything cannot actually physically restrain themselves from micromanaging whatever they see people doing infront of them because they can’t handle their irrational experience of impatience not having the companion emotional experience of rushing at the task.
That’s an insane comment from a crazy person. You’re unwell.
Amusing that you think the employees scanning shit aren’t also the ones bagging it.
But to answer your question, I’m faster because I have an incentive to get shit scanned and bagged, vs just riding the till for 8 hours.
OK, so the reason is because in the situation with two people, you fail to make use of both to make it go faster, and instead just stand around.
So if speed were the priority, I have a suggestion for you.
Because I worked as a package clerk as a kid, some 30 years ago. They spent a week training us to be cashiers and how to pack groceries as optimally and quickly as possible. And most places around here, the timing of the cashier is not good, especially since we usually have to pack our own groceries anyway.
Because I care about leaving, so I do everything I can to be faster. In economics, this is known as the principle-agent problem. At my local walmart, it is known as “I’m not a septuagenarian who’s been hitting a vape pen for the last 5 hours.”
I have maybe once checked out at an in-person check-out where the person scanning was twice as slow as me on my own at a self-service checkout.
Normally at an in-person checkout, I am in fact the bottleneck placing stuff in bags. I’m already motivated to do that as quickly as possible, and the person scanning is still faster than that. Are you like the other person and just standing around while the cashier bags your groceries? If you “really care about leaving” you could do something about that.
At my local shop, some of the cashiers are extremely slow at bagging… Often I end up when bags that are way too heavy, and sometimes my bread is all smushed. I don’t fault them, I can’t imagine they’re being paid a reasonable wage.
I am absolutely faster doing it myself.
So… you can bag while the cashier scans, right? Splitting the work, making it quicker.
Nope, not the way my store is laid out. Unless I wanna snuggle up next to them behind the counter. Which both they, and I, absolutely do not want.
I lose all saved time when trying to get through the exit gate that needs to see my receipt from all angles before letting me through.
where is this that you are made to stop? I just keep walking and say ‘if you wanted to see my receipt then open another cashier lane and scan items yourself. It’s my property now.”
Pretty common in german supermarkets in my experience, at least those that only introduced self-checkout recently (so most of who even got one). The gates need to scan the barcode on your receipt. Not really a noteworthy timeloss in my experience though.
It’s still a very uncommon thing in general, my local supermarket even got rid of automated coin counters on normal checkouts again because they worked so bad (refused even slightly dirty coins) and made things slower.
ahh ok. in the US there are some private membership stores that do that. the public ones can try to stop you but you do not need to obey.
That’s a lot of words to say while not breaking stride. I just hand them my reciept and thank them for taking my garbage.
ha fair point!
I never stop for them. I’ll say “no thanks” or “I’m good, thank you anyway.”
Definitely helps to have headphones in.
Policy depends on location, but for some places offering your receipt is 100% voluntary. I wouldn’t deny showing my receipt at Costco (where it’s been standard practice long before self-checkout came around and, though I don’t have a copy of the agreement handy, I wouldn’t be surprised if it were part of the agreement when you sign up for a club card.) But when I worked at a certain home improvement store, they hired outside security to check receipts. When one of the security guards was ignored by a customer and they asked him again, the customer complained. Subsequently, the security guard got fired. That’s how I learned that the policy is “ask once, and let them go if they don’t respond the first time.” AKA security theater.
I mean, it’s security theatre what actually does save the store money. Hence why walmart had greeters all those years ago. They found people were less likely to shoplift if they just knew that someone was watching them.
I always just call the bluff. Offer them the receipt before they ask and they’re totally ok with you walking off with half the items unbought.
My favorite is “Thanks, you too 😊” and just keep walking
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You should change place then??
Y’know that grocery stores could simply staff enough checkout registers and then all this self-checkout time-savings goes away, right? The stores - following the airline model - created a problem for the consumer (long checkout lines due to understaffing) and then effectively sold the customer the solution (you do your own labor, but grocery prices stay the same).
following the airline model
? Are you talking about, like, baggage prices?
Iirc, airline margins are super thin, and their customers are extremely price sensitive. In order to stay competitive, airlines need to be able to sell their customers on the lowest possible flight price, while still not losing money on every single flight. The solution is to charge the customer more directly for the scarce resources they use on a flight. Extra weight on the plane means more fuel used to reach the destination. Charging for each checked bag rewards people for travelling light, while giving everyone a free bag punishes the light traveller with higher fares. Sure, the byzantine fee structure in the booking process is annoying - but at the end of the day, flights are now extremely cheap historically speaking, and a pay-for-what-you-use model makes sense.
Of course, the actual solution is to have a better system of busses and trains. And the airline industry is always lobbying against that. But I’m not sure what the comparable action in the grocery industry would be.
Until you get stuck between Ethel (who is trying to fill out a paper check and make small talk because she’s lonely) and Bob (who has no sense of personal space and smells like he doesn’t know how to wipe).
Non-self-checkout sucks.
“If” in one hand, shit in the other. Which fills up first?
Back in the day, I shopped at the one grocery store in a bit of a food desert. They’d have all…I don’t remember 10? 12?..checkout lines open all day, and you’re still guaranteed to spend half an hour in line. If they could have replaced 2 checkout lines with 6 self-check kiosks, or 4 & 12, it would have helped a lot, but they hadn’t been invented yet.
Now, I shop in a better neighborhood where they have 6 kiosks, one staffed checkout, and 8 lanes closed. Start with a technical solution to a real problem, and some MBA is going to come in and figure out how to turn it back into a problem.
Same. But I would also be fine with it taking longer just to not have human interaction, unless I’m in the mood for that or the cashier looks bored…
You people don’t have self scanning? Pick a barcode scanner at the entrance, scan everything when you put it in your bags in the cart, and just pay at the exit and walk out (unless you get a semi-rare random check). One of the favorite features of the store I use is that I fill the shopping list at home in the app (that can be shared with other accounts) and then I see the list in my phone or the store scanner, sorted by the order of sections in the store, so eg. all fruit and vegetables will be next on the list when I get to that section. I also like that you see your total in real time and the scanner reminds you if there’s a “3 for 2” or other offers.
No, everything is securitized. Theres six securotu guys watching the labor saving four lanes of self checkout, along woth one employee to enter override codes.
Some stores have scanning from a phone, but for most it is much more cost effective to prevent theft in one place instead.
I know some stores mix self scanning and self checkout, usually they’re in the same exit area, or even at the same terminal
Did that three times, got three times “random” checked, returned my customer card and buy in another store now. Solid 5/7, perfect experience 😅
I think they do more checks in the beginning, or if you missed to scan something as the system probably sees you as more or a “risc”. I can understand your frustration though
They used to have that at a few grocery stores by me but don’t any more. That was fuckin awesome, just used an app on my phone.
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.
We had those handheld scanner at the store I usually go, but they removed them as the theft rate was supposedly higher.
Can’t have nice things…
Ever since I saw that the grocery store near the train station in my city (which is famously one of the worst in the country in terms of crime) had self checkout without even a gate to scan your receipt for a while (they added it now) and has the handheld scanners, I’ve been assuming that the added theft from either really can’t be that bad, or is a result of poor security. Clearly it’s worth it for the higher customer throughput for that store, so I kinda doubt it could be that bad especially in safer areas.
I guess the store I went lost more money than what the cost of maintaining these barcode scanners and the system itself was.
Here you need to use your receipt to get out, and there’s (pretty infrequent) checks. Like once every 10th time they’ll randomly scan five items
They also did that, still higher rate of theft according to them :(
Too bad, most larger stores here have them, I love it. Shopping is so quick this way, every thing is already in the bag when you leave, and you just tap your card to pay, and leave by scanning a barcode on your receipt.
Edit: here being Sweden
Yeah it was great, especially for packing frozen stuff right away in thermal bags 🥲
In Poland I’ve only seen the in-store scanners in Kaufland so far, but I love it.
I used to bag groceries at a mom n pop store. I know the proper way to bag and it infuriates me to watch someone fuck up my stuff.
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.
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.
Cashiers aren’t paid enough to deal with customers. At least when I’m using the self checkout they don’t need to engage with me.
So, your solution for a corporation underpayying their staff is to offer to do their job for free so corporate can just eliminate the position altogether?
I like how you’ve taken a self deprecating comment that tries to empathise with other people and turned it into a confrontational jab at making one of the many failings of neoliberalism my direct responsibility.
I actually use self checkouts because I don’t want to have to engage the social parts of my brain for what is essentially a tedious chore. However this means that staff also don’t have to deal with me under those circumstances, which is a nice bonus.
To counter your jab, your solution to the failings of neoliberalism is to create needless busywork under dehumanising conditions rather than address the systemic failings?
You don’t have to answer that, I was just making a point about how I didn’t come to this thread to fight anyone. Put the knife down.
Oh, I don’t like fighting with the knife. I just enjoy poking people with it now and then to see if it produces anger or genuine thought… I should probably find a more productive hobby.
[…] 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.
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.
This. If the attendant/clerk is telling me about the self checkout, I’m going to assume they don’t want to deal with ringing me up, and I’ll happily handle my own shit even if they are standing there on their phone not “working.”
Now if a manager tells me to use the self checkout? Fuck that, absolutely, I don’t work here. But I’ve got solidarity with the underpaid employees who’d rather not deal with me.
I wish there were more bullshit jobs because I have no job.
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.
The self checkout person always thinks I’m cute and gives me good deals
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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.
I don’t hate self checkouts, I hate the people who use self-checkouts. The mom with a cart filled with food to feed 4 people for a week, holding a baby in one hand and trying to scan and bag with the other. The guy apparently shopping for his whole apartment complex, scanning 4 items, paying for them, then scanning 6 different items, slowly working his way through an overloaded cart. The Gen-Z narrating each item into their phone for some reason, also struggling to bag items single-handed.
One of them isn’t bad, but two of them will strangle the entire kiosk farm, and make it seem like everyone is a self-absorbed idiot. Never go grocery shopping on a weekend morning.
Exactly. Get in line behind me, I’ll show you how it’s done! I don’t get visibly annoyed that other people exist and also need food. I’ll be watching and immediately start scanning my items when a self-checkout opens up. I know to scan the produce barcodes, or how to quickly look up the code. I keep my cart close by, but out of everyone’s way. If I have to get an age-verification or other cashier intervention, I let them know as soon as they’re available. I put my reusable bag in the bagging area, and efficiently load it as I go. I don’t stand in anyone’s way… I may even leave you cashback from my debit card sticking out of the machine, because I’m a forgetful dumbass!
Same with pumping gas. Self serve is the norm in so many places.
I pass the time ignoring the dangerous substance I’m handling untrained by thinking about how we stopped employing a specialists so that someone’s quarterly profits could go up a bit more.
You don’t need a tucking specialist to pump gas lmao
tucking specialist
Is this a type of drag queen? I agree you probably wouldn’t need one to pump gas.
Tucking the nozzle into my carussy
I thought that was a basic design principal since it’s so widespread.
That sucks for you and your area
It does.
here they don’t talk, don’t weigh, don’t time out, and can be cleared remotely when you buy age-restricted stuff and don’t look like a twink. my only gripe is that some of them won’t allow you to delete duplicate scans without help.
The duplicate scan is the only hassle I ever get.
Thats great for you, and your area.
yeh
They were awful at first, especially the ones with scales that insisted items weigh a certain amount and be placed a certain way. I’m not aware of any around here that do all that crap, and this is a relatively poor little town.
But I also don’t want the cashier to silently judge me for buying 4 pastries, an energy drink, a bag of lollies, and a bag of nuts.
