I’ve never even seen a self-checkout system. The only self-serve gas stations where I live are very small units with overpriced gas in the “boondocks” — and these are a very recent innovation.
And I’m happy with these “old-fashioned” ways. I often exchange pleasantries with the checker. Am I a Luddite?
No. But it seems that as technology progresses people are less and less interested in interacting with human beings for day-to-day tasks like getting groceries. People would rather save time in mundane tasks by avoiding talking to people they don’t know (hence the success of online ordering) and spend that saved time texting with their friends.
Yes it does. I’ve tried that many times. You can partially pre expand the sides, but the bag will immediately collapse when you let go of it. The arms only hold it at two points. And there’s no expanding the “bottom”, as there is no “bottom” to speak of. The bags are more like a large plastic envelope.
The Meijer store I use after work does this. At least they do at 7am. SCO are the only registers open and has 2 clerks in the area. One scans and swipes, the other bags. Get through 20-30 items in about a minute. I don’t self check out ever otherwise.
The bagging scale will only have two or three numbers programmed into it for what it expects a bag to weigh - usually the weights of the bags that store has for sale. If the weight isn’t one of those numbers or a multiple thereof, it’ll require the attendant to confirm it.
Where I work, the SCO attendant sits at a podium where I can watch everyone ringing up their stuff, with a monitor that shows me what’s happening at each terminal. Most of the time, if there’s a weight issue, all I have to do is hit a button on the touchscreen to clear it.
I do have the ability to turn off the bagging scale. I’ll do that sometimes if someone is ringing in a very large order, or if they’re having trouble dealing with the scale and I don’t want to keep coming back to them every five seconds. The scale turns back on as soon as that transaction is finished, though.
Let me first state that although I’m a cashier and might be running a register 40 hours in a week, I, too, can find self-checkouts frustrating. I only use them if I have just a couple items. The technology doesn’t work well for large orders, or orders with complications.
First of all YOU might not steal that way, but my employer has thousands of hours of video tape showing people stealing via putting the wrong price stickers on an item, ringing up a cheaper item over and over while putting a more expensive one in a bag (repeatedly scanning the tag for a shirt on clearance while putting full price shirts in the bag, for example) , and other theft tricks. (Yes, people also just simply run out of the store without paying or making any pretense of doing so, or stash it in bags/jackets/etc., and the other methods you’ve described. Someone should do a cover of “50 ways to steal this stuff” to the tune of “50 ways to leave your lover”)
Weighing merchandise is not a perfect solution to the problem, either, but it does cut down on theft. What other method to you propose?
I’ll also note that at my store we have video surveillance on all registers, and the human attendant is supposed to be keeping an eye out, too. As my store has rewards for attendants who can demonstrate they stop theft there is an incentive to do exactly that.
It should be that easy, but at least in my state not all ID cards and drivers’ licenses have bar codes with that information in them (they are supposed to by 2020) so stores have to work around that limitation. Even if the ID card is legitimate, it may be stolen or borrowed, or altered. I’ve also had people try to “help” someone purchasing alcohol by offering their ID instead, or to buy it for them, apparently not realizing such actions are illegal or not caring that they are. This is not something that the self-checkout robots are up to dealing with at present.
Then that is a problem at the store you are using. My store currently has what you describe - you insert/swipe/tap your card or payment device and the transaction completes. You might have to indicate debit (and enter a PIN) or credit, that’s it.
For better or worse, the current tech utilizes a scale to check that you’ve bagged your item and that the weight is somewhere within proper parameters for the item (don’t get me started on the lady who told her kids to sit on the scale while she checked out and yelled at the attendant who asked her to not do that - “Don’t tell me what to do! I know how this works! I’ll sit my kids where I please! Why isn’t this [expletives deleted] machine working?” etc. etc.) If you don’t bag your items it will flag your station and eventually lock up, If you re-arrange the bags too much it will flag your station/lock up. If you go too fast it will lock up. These are the facts, whether the customer likes them or not. Yes, it can be annoying. Especially when you are purchasing very small/lightweight items that might not register well on a scale that also has to accommodate heavy items and public abuse.
The register I use as a cashier also has its quirks - the difference is that, because I use it 40 hours a week I know what those are and how to work with/around/despite them. (And I still have issues with customers who do things they shouldn’t with/to the machines and will not listen to the person who has actual experience operating it, sometimes to the point of crashing the computer entirely, at which point they get pissy about having to go elsewhere to complete their transaction nevermind that they precipitated the problem despite warnings).
If you will now complain that all too many retail drones don’t give a damn and suck at their job I will have to agree with you. But some of us are actually competent people who try our best - which is why I’ve had customers refuse to move to a shorter line because they want my service rather than someone else’s. Yes, there are issues with human cashiers, too. If you don’t want me to be chatty then just say “don’t feel like talking today” and I’ll shut up - my employer assumes everyone wants chatty interaction so that’s the default, but the customer’s wishes override that. If you want your stuff packed a certain way tell me - I get a lot of requests and I have no problem fulfilling them (people want them packed light, packed heavy, cold food together, divided up because they’re shopping for two household, all plastic bags or all paper or all their own or a mix of all the above, and so on) but I’m not a mind reader, you have to tell me what you want. If a cashier sucks let management know. If a cashier is really good ALSO let management know because if they know what’s being done right it will be done more often.
That is certainly your prerogative. Do what works for you. We’ll probably all be happier as a result.
We’re seeing more and more people shopping for others where I work - hey, it’s a legit alternative. Funny, though, most of those professional shoppers who are doing it for a living choose lanes with human cashiers over the self-checkout. Hmm… Keep in mind, those folks are on a clock and a deadline, they have considerable incentive to choose the fastest way through checkout.
You’ve got options:
Use what works best for you.
I prefer self checkouts, and have been doing so for about a decade now. The latest ones are just great, so much better than humans. Walmart just upgraded in our area, and boy, did they eliminate a lot of the old problems. These are super fast and accurate, it appears they fixed or eliminated the weight feature of the product.
One slight annoyance that also got fixed, was never knowing if a checkout was card only. They were not allowed to post signs on the checkouts anymore for some strange reason. I used to give them grief over this, explaining it would save a lot of trouble to let us know in advance. But finally an employee told me to just look for a blue band around the perimeter of the screen at top, I believe, a red band doesn’t allow cash. Occasionally I still see the red band, so it’s easy to avoid those now.
I don’t use self-checkouts. I don’t work for that store. If I’m going to wander the store, select the items, and bring them to the checkout, somebody besides me is going to have to work a little bit to get my money!
^^^ I’m with california jobcase ^^^
They were introduced more than 20 years ago. How is it that you’ve never seen one? :dubious:
On the other hand, maybe it is better to wait on the regular checkout line behind the woman with 50 coupons. :dubious:
The Walmart near me does that, but none of the other ones in the city do. I figured they have more theft problems.
The systems in use at Home Depot are so much better than the ones being used at the supermarket. I go to Home Depot, flick each item’s barcode under the scanner, tell it I’m finished, and stick my credit card in, done.
The supermarket’s machines are completely opaque to the possibility that the customer has supplied his or her own grocery bag. I stick our green ecologically-friendly fabric reusable bag in the bagging area. “Please remove foreign object from bagging area”. Ermm, OK. Put bag on the floor. “Scan first item”. I do so, then put it into the bag, then lift the bag into the bagging area. Nope. “Wait for an attendant…”
Unrecognized bar codes, items that have to be weighed that then cause the system to complain that I’m weighing nothing or the wrong thing, or it thinks I’m engaging in funny business with the scale or something. Or it thinks I didn’t put the newly scanned item in the bag when i did. Or thinks that I’m putting things in the bag that I didn’t scan yet.
Home Depot usually works okay, but Lowe’s self-checkout is always a total shitshow. Half their self-checkout registers are always out of order, and the ones that are “working” are still fucked up somehow. Disappointing because I like everything else about Lowe’s so much better than Home Depot.
My issue isn’t scanning errors as much as it is the fact that decent quality canvas bags NEVER fit on those holders you’re supposed to use. Ideally I would get around this by indicating that I don’t want to bag anything at all, then put everything in the cart so I can bag it when I get to the car. But I’ve never seen an automatic checkout lane that lets you skip bagging, except for each item individually.
Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
Most of them have a limit of how many items you can skip bagging before alerting the attendant. At my store it’s 3 - the fourth time you hit “don’t bag this item” the system stops and calls for a human.
I agree, there SHOULD be a much better way to account for bring-your-own bags.
The Lowes in my area doesn’t have them. OTOH, I have three near by Home Depots and no matter which one I go to, one or two of their 4 self checkouts always has a big cardboard sign taped over it that either says “out of order” or “credit card only”. I have emailed them about it a few times and just get a ‘sometimes they run out of change and that turns off the cash portion of the machine until it’s refilled’. While that may well be true, it’s frustrating to get into the self checkout line only to realize two lanes are closed so it’s not going to go very fast, or to get all the way to the register and not be able to pay the way you’d like to. And worse, it’s consistently this way.
I only do self-checkout at the grocery store if I have a handful of items. I’ll happily stand in line and read magazines if I have a cart full of stuff.