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.
Genx here
Ok boomer
Some of us prefer non-human interaction
I won’t help the company save what they should give to their staff. Fuck self-checkouts.
In every store I’ve been in, I’m the guy who has to take everything out of my cart and put it on the little conveyor belt thing. Self checkout is a second or two on top of that (which is usually made up by not having to wait in line) with no real additional effort (I’m already picking up and placing my stuff in a specific spot) I also can type in my number for the coupons at the same time I’m scanning my card, and move the bags into my cart as my payment is being processed, which ends up saving even more time.
The only place I appreciate a cashier is when I get a boatload of groceries at Costco, those folks are box-packing wizards.
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 my shopping cart out the door like a pro.
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.
The discount you get at the self checkout is the 5 fingered discount.
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.
I know I’m in the minority
Dude look around the comment section. 90% talk about prefering self checkout
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 would kill for this. Maybe not kil, it’s not a big deal. But I used to walk into my local grocer and just drop shit in the reusable bags I always bring. Then people were stealing, obviously, so they said you gotta use the baskets or a cart. So I use a cart, and it’s not a big deal, it doesn’t matter, but if I could scan, drop in my bag, and walk on, it would save a couple minutes. But as I said, it’s not a big deal, nothing matters.
the anxiety of packing your bags too slowly
Haha, spotted the German. This isn’t really a thing elsewhere, not too that extent.
Speak for yourself
I will never understand those who are afraid to face down a cashier. Is it REALLY that bad?
So many people complain about how modern society is isolating, but then go running to do stuff where they further isolate themselves.
I’ve never even considered it. If I have too many items, I go cashier. We shoot the poop or we don’t, I bag my groceries and go home. If I have few items, I qualify for the self-checkout, I do my shit, say “Thank you” to the person who monitors the lanes, and then I go home. I give none of it a second thought because it’s such a meaningless part of my day.
It’s not that bad, it’s just more bad than self check.
Personally I hate waiting in line, I can feel the life leaving my body. I self check for speed.
Apparently line impatience is an ADHD thing, but regardless of where it comes from I appreciate being able to do it myself instead of waiting.
Am I afraid to face down a cashier? No.
Is it REALLY that bad? No.
Can I make awkward small talk with a stranger? Yes.
Do I want to make awkward small talk with a stranger? No.
Am I relieved that I’m not forced to interact with a stranger and can continue to have to my own inner thoughts and not have to spend time rehearsing in my head what to say if they ask me how I am because I feel weirdly compelled to answer it honestly instead of simply saying “fine” like most do? Absolutely.
A grocery store I used to frequent, I always picked this one lady’s cashier line if she was around 'cause she was nice to talk to. She liked Mortal Kombat and making her own pickles.
then go running to do stuff where they further isolate themselves
Mmm yeah, cos it’s such quality time interacting with the cashier. Like, you’re not totally wrong about the problem, isolation does make us even less able to handle interaction, but making people bag groceries for a living is not the way to solve that problem. Anyway, it’s not fair to force your desire to have a conversation on something who is trapped working somewhere.
I used to work service, and having people to talk to generally made the day much better. I definitely had favorite customers, and what do you know, it was typically people who were social.
sometimes I do, but if I’m having a really good day I like to see if I can spread it to the customer service staff.
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 😏)
As a former cashier, I really hate people like you.
No, I will not check out your groceries for you. You are in self checkout. Wait in line like everyone else if you don’t want to check out the items yourself, you impatient, obsolete bastard. FFS, self checkout has been a thing for over twenty years now; get with it, old man!
(Edit: I haven’t been in retail for over a decade now. This post really triggered some PTSD I didn’t even know I had.)
Why is everyone so adverse to talking to a cashier? Also, you have cashiers that wish to chat?!
Speaking as someone who worked cash as a teenager/young adult, no we don’t want to fucking talk to you. I was there because I liked money and that was a reliable way to make minimum wage. That’s it. I didn’t have a passion for scanning items and asking for payment. I had tuition to pay and debt racking up. I wasn’t there to chat with you, or improve the customer experience. I was there to get paid and I can tell you that most if not all of the other cashier’s were in the same boat.
That’s what I’m saying! Not 1 in 20 cashiers give a shit to chat you up. And I’m in the American South!
People get more sociable the closer you get to the equator. This is reflected in the distance from which people talk to you. So in the southern USA people are very chatty and will talk about pretty much anything while basically sitting on your lap, but in Norway you’ll pretty much just shout across the fjord at someone to tell them their house is on fire if you’re in a talkative mood. Talking to cashier’s doesn’t happen anyway.
You have cashiers that wish to chat?!
The cashiers at the store across the street (that has no self check out) will talk your freakin’ ear off. There could be 1 person ahead of you with a single item and it takes 'em 15 minutes to get checked out. 😬
I’m faster.
Also, trust myself better.
I have some soft bread, I at least know I won’t put something heavy on it.
I have some items that are fragile, I can keep track of them packing and keep them separate.
I won’t end up single-bagging a bunch of stuff that could be bagged together (e.g. if they scanned some window cleaner, they bag it separate, not knowing that some dishwasher detergent is coming that it could be packed with).
Got some product with a markdown barcode? I can be sure the discounted barcode gets scanned not the full price one.
To the extent possible, I can also just skip bagging most of the time. If I have some very small things sure I might use a bag, but mostly I just scan and put in cart.
Only time I had cashiers wanting a chat is if there is no queue otherwise its “Hello” and “Have a nice day”
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.
I haven’t seen a self-checkout in any store that weighs the bags in quite a few years in my area.
But absolutely they got machine vision looking. Once I got flagged for potential theft because I put the box to the far side of the scanning area before scanning. It flagged me as trying to steal it after I had scanned it with the scanner gun, and I got to see the video ‘evidence’ of my theft, including grabbing the scanner gun and starting to move toward the box.
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.
walmart is trying to take over the local grocery business here, so we’ve got big mega walmarts and small local grocery walmarts in the region. one of the megas and three or four i can’t remember of the groceries in my town specifically. the mega has it figured out. like twelve self scans that can be monitored by one or two persons, all of them have hand scanners, and a few lanes with cashiers manned for the folk who are desperate for human interaction or just don’t use self checkouts for reasons. the grocery, they have like three self checkouts that are not quite so good and a bunch of cashiers. maybe they are still afraid of the banana trick idunno.
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.
They’re hit-or-miss as a customer convenience because their actual purpose is to cut labor costs.
I don’t use self checkout because I’m afraid of messing up something and getting judged by people :(
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.
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?
The last self checkout I used, a store associate took my things and scanned them for me…it was a strange self checkout experience
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.
It’s also kind of a labor issue.
