How do you feel about self-checkout now?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

My local Wal-Mart installed a few self-checkout lanes a few years ago, and perhaps because they were so popular (with the store, not the customers), they expanded the area about 2 years ago. As of today, about half the entire checkout area is the self kind, and nearby are 10 regular lanes that have no attendants – ever – so are useless.

When I first tried the selfie machines, I didn’t like them at all. The constant “unknown object in the bagging area” and other nonsensical announcements were too annoying, and you could hear me all over the store yelling at the machines, telling them that they were only computers, and poor ones, too, and “I am HUMAN, so I OUTRANK YOU!!”

But not long ago, I tried them again, and now I prefer the selfie lanes over the regular lanes by far. Here’s why.

WM replaced the old machines with the 2.0 version, and they no longer pay any attention to what’s on the left or right side of the register. It doesn’t weigh or count anything (although I’m pretty sure we all are on camera). You can put anything anywhere, including directly into or from a cart, even the same one.

And I have become more accustomed to where the barcodes are (usually on the bottom of objects), and how to get a bc on a circular object to read (roll the object against the scanner). If I have multiple, identical items, I can wave one of them past the scanner multiple times instead of passing each one individually (there is a function to enter multiples, but it requires an attendant, so fuck that.)

And I have gotten used to ignoring any attendant who hovers, but grabbing one who doesn’t right away if I need her to handle liquor and I don’t want to wait.

The only trouble I ever had with an attendant was when I was shopping for two of my house-bound neighbors. This clerk thought she had caught me not ringing up 3 items that were still in my cart – “Don’t forget these!” I don’t think she’ll ever challenge me again, as I made it clear that she was out of line and I was ringing 2 orders separately no matter what she said.

So how do you feel about self checkouts now? Do you use them or not? Are the ones in your neighborhood version 1.0 or 2.0?

2

I like them. How long have machines been around that don’t care what direction your bill is oriented?

3

I don’t like them, but i haven’t used them enough to get proficient with them. The one i use most often is at a 24/7 farm stand that has no cashiers and that i really like. But I’ve made a lot of mistakes checking out. I’ve charged myself for things i didn’t buy, I’ve failed to ring stuff up, and I’ve left my credit card in the machine…

They have new machines that are a little harder to scan with but have a simpler interface. Maybe I’ll get to like them more.

My very first experience was bad: the machine at home Depot short changed me, and it was a huge pita to get that straightened up. But i felt they should be disincented from shortchanging customers, so it felt important to deal with, despite the dollar value being low.

Maybe if my initial experience has been better, I’d have used them more by now.

4

The ones in Wally World around here are the later machines. They work a lot better than the originals.

I still don’t like them and don’t use them.

5

I hate them. They never work right and the one supervising clerk always have to come over and fix them. My local Wally tore out all of their checkers’ aisles, and put in only self check. I haven’t been back.

6

I hated the early ones at my groc store. When even their own checkers could not scan and bag their personal purchases fast enough without being accused of shoplifting I knew they were a failed system.

I’m happy to use the modern ones provided 100% of my order has bar codes. So no fresh veggies at the grocery store and no coiled wire at Home Depot. Which means they’re great for stopping by to buy a couple oddballs for dinner or whatever, but useless for the big weekly groc run or a major DIY project.

I despise all forms of interaction with a computer device at a restaurant. I’ll make a grudging exception for paying by the portable card reader the server brings to the table and sets up for me to tap, tip, and OK. Any form of ordering or summoning staff by a tablet on the table is anathema.

7

They may be more efficient than a cashier, I try to use an actual cashier as I think that those jobs do provide employment opportunities for a lot of people.

8

I use the ones at Food Lion most of the time, unless I have a lot to check out or if I see a cashier line that’s empty. There are 4 terminals in my store and an attendant is always there and always helpful.

I also tend to use the ones in WalMart because their regular lines are usually stupid long and I don’t buy much there anyway. The few times I had issues, the attendant was right there to resolve things.

I won’t use the ones in Lowe’s because you need a cashier to give you the military discount. For 10% off everything, I’ll wait in line.

I don’t think any other place I shop has any.

9

I’ve been using them contentedly for years. The ones at the supermarket (Lucky, in my town) work fine, although they lack some of the conveniences described in version 2.0 models above. Anyway, I don’t have problems with them now that I’m used to them. The ones at Target are about the same, and are certainly preferable to a) trying to find an open lane and b) waiting so long because there aren’t enough cashiers. At Home Depot, there is nearly always a cashier there who picks up the scanning wand and scans the stuff for me (generally only a few items) even though I am capable of doing it myself, plus there are other regular cashiers who will practically trip me to get my custom and divert me from the self checkout. These are pretty much the only ones I come into contact with.

10

Still infinitely prefer them as I’ve done from their inception. I wave my bags at the attendant to let them know it’s gonna freak out when I set them on the platform, the attendant waves back and okays it and boom, on the way. I can pack everything exactly the way I want it because I can check the items in the order they need to be in the bags and my only bitch is that a lot of places have machines that only accept cards and I do about 95% of my shopping in cash. I got the last laugh though, because several places I’ve been to recently have had problems with their POS systems such that they can’t process anything BUT cash and I sail right through. Ha HA, take THAT! :smiley:

11

Like all technology, I love them when they work and curse their souls when they do not.

Any invention that eliminates small talk with a stranger is ok in my book.

mmm

12

I still don’t like them. The ones at my Giant and Safeway must be 1.0, because there are always bagging area issues if I’m getting more than 1 bag’s worth of groceries and it always takes forever for someone to come over and clear the error. I rarely go to the store for just a few things, so I almost always opt for a cashier line — even though both stores have taken to only having one or two of them open at a time (I think due more to staffing shortages than relying on self-checkout).

13

My local grocery store offers scan as you go, which I love. Bring your own bags, grab a hand held scanner upon entry. Fill the bags as you shop and at checkout just point the scanner at an on-screen barcode, it downloads your items, you pay normally and walk out the door.

It took me a few trips to get efficient, but when the store is crowded it is golden.

14

Im happy to have them there for the people that want to use them. That wouldnt be me. They’re inefficient and create extra hassle IMHO.

15

They work well if you only have a few items. Produce? The scanner does not know what you have and I am not looking up the number code.

Alchohol? Wait for a checker. It may become better to use in the future, but not yet.

16

I’d like to know more about how this works. Around here I’ve only ever seen the ones with scales built in to track what you’ve paid for. They even just this year put new ones in at the local grocery store I mostly use (they never had any before), but they still have the scales. This store is particularly annoying, as it’s an older, smaller store, and they crammed 6 self-checkouts in the space where one old checkout used to be, next to the service desk.

So now the scales are too small for more than maybe 3 bags of groceries. That’s okay if you’re just buying a few things, but a serious grocery order is just a pain in the ass now.

17

We’ve had threads and threads of self-checkout in general and this issue in particular.

As one drive-by poster explained:

Not that I personally hold by this technique, but it appears to have a lot of support out in the wild.

18

I love them. And since I usually only purchase a relatively small number of items it it works pretty well. Maybe if you’ve got a full cart yeah you need to go through the old fashioned line.

I used to go to the grocery store a lot in the late evening, and if they only had one checker- one could wait 15 minutes for the privilege of giving the grocery store money. Plus, even before COVID-19 who was really using cash?

19

I’ve never come across a grocery store yet that could hire enough cashiers to keep all registers open. The self-checkouts MAY put a few people out of a job, but it’s much more likely that they allow stores to get more people checked out per hour while retaining the same staff level.

20

Love the one at Publix, mostly because I’m super picky about how stuff is packed. I’m fast enough that I’ll do an entire cartload (or buggy full, as they say down here) with no guilt. Rarely do I have a problem.