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).
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.
Added bonus of not having to talk to anybody.
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.
“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.
How can you be faster when you have to both scan and bag everything, whereas at the human checkout you only have to bag?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
You should change place then??
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 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 to that extent.
Speak for yourself
I mean the level of pressure is lower elsewhere than in Germany, of course it’s still easy to feel anxious anywhere
You say it’s not a thing anywhere else, but you also say it’s easy to feel that way anywhere. Those two statements aren’t congruent
Yes the first one came out wrong. The “this” which I claim is not as much of a thing outside Germany is the insane pressure to pack your bag extremely quickly, not the feeling of anxiety.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
The people that complain probably have had far worse experiences with self checkout. I’ve been to a few stores where it was absolute hell between the machines working terribly and unhelpful staff, but on the opposite side all of the grocery stores near me solved the self checkout issues years ago and it is the best thing ever where it works well.
I’ve recently experienced that magic box at a sports equipment store! I was amazed by how it just works.
receipt for opening the gate
What is that?
The self checkout prints a receipt with a bar code on it and you have to scan it to leave the store.
Is there something physically preventing you? That sounds like a thing the fire department would shit all over.
It’s a normal gate like those you have at entrances to stores.
I am sure they open automatically when the fire alarm rings. You can of course just go out through the normal cashier’s line.
If this country obsesses over one thing excessively, then it’s fire safety, so I have no concerns about that here.
I don’t want it to become the only option, but I actually prefer the self checkout.
This thread has made me feel so incredibly millennial.
The self checkout person always thinks I’m cute and gives me good deals
Hate to break this to you, but you are on the QTEE list and everyone is looking at your picture while they get coffee in the morning in the break room.
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.
That’s not the same, in OP’s case it’s about the store outsourcing the work onto the customer while cutting labor costs so some rich fuck can get slightly richer, while not littering is a matter of basic social responsibility, not a labor situation.
That’s not the same, in OP’s case you’re doing the business’s job for free so some rich fuck can get richer by fucking over both the workers and the customers, while in the other case not littering is basic social responsibility, not labor substitution.
Bro, are you really getting this fucking serious for a meme, chill the fuck out
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.
Lol that hilarious I might do that and see what happens
So you disrespect the person doing the job? I won’t insult them so.
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
“no thank you” is not disrespectful
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.
I’ve heard self checkout is terrible in the US, however in Europe they’re generally pretty nice
I went to the US for a few days. Their self checkouts seem to be universally awful, compared to the UK or German equivalent.
While the hardware is far less reliable, and more convoluted, it’s the users that seem the main issue. Self checkout is generally intended (over here) to shift the fast, small shops out of the main queues. 1 big line and a dozen or more tills. In the states they treat it as just another till. Built for trollies, and 1 queue per till. Combined with a slow user and it becomes hell rapidly.
idk why people say it’s bad! even at fucking Walmart i don’t have issues
maybe I’m just lucky, but I’ve never had that particular issue. the only time it’s been slightly annoying is if I’m buying alcohol and the people watching self checkout are busy, and other than that, they’re easy to use. I don’t buy huge chunks of groceries at a time, though, ad I imagine large shops would be annoying
clanker
*Claptrap
You support taking away jobs
if you wanna know my actual beliefs on the matter, people shouldn’t have to do meaningless labor to live
What does that have to do with taking away jobs? A lot of jobs are meaningless doesn’t mean you help corporations save a buck.
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 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!
Is it really? I’ve never seen such a sign in my corner of the US. Often there’s only one human operated checkout.
The ‘let the kid touch the hot stove’ approach.
It worked on me, but I fear other people might nurse their burns and pray that next time things will be different.My experience is different. It’s a dense urban grocer. Now that you mention it, I’ve been to Target in the suburbs where SCO was like thunder dome. A little more room for bagging, but not much. I feel so bad for the one team member dashing around checking IDs and explaining why coupons from a decade ago no longer work.
My location (different grocer ) may be privileged, because, even when it’s slow, there are two full service registers. I remember how gross it felt watching a checker at Walmart in 02 also bag the groceries because baggers didn’t exist any more.
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.
Edit: Another time-save: you can pay for your groceries by card before they are finished ringing them up.
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.
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.
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.
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
Tell me the OP is from the US without telling me they’re from the US.
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Countries I have visited, I never see a self checkout. Not sure if that is the norm.
