I stopped at a Dollar General on the way to work this morning and decided to try their self-checkout. It was very simple, just scan and pay. I got rid of a bunch of one dollar bills. Will use it from now on there.
If I’m going to stop to make a purchase and have multiple stores to choose from, I’ll go with the self checkout as I prefer them.
There might be some confusion.
I consider “self-checkout” going into the store with a scanner. Scanning everything before I pack it into my bags in my shopping cart (there will be no unloading before loading the bags into the car).
OR
For fewer items, bringing a scanner into the store is a pain so there is also a scanner at the payment terminal.
No “unexpected items in the checkout area” bullshit. We do randomised checks by staff (they pick 4 or 5 random items and the system checks if those are on my bill).
There is no machine second guessing my list. I would not consider shopping somewhere so distopian
I’m intrigued by this system, but haven’t run into it anywhere locally (suburban New Orleans). Maybe spiffier places like Whole Foods do it … will have to ask around.
No “unexpected items in the checkout area” bullshit.
That shouldn’t be happening at self-checkouts in 2023, anyway.
It occurred to me that some of the self-checkout problems reported in this thread might be from years gone by, as opposed to something recently encountered. But there’s not way to tell that, really, just from reading the posts.
Shop and Stop still has the “unexpected item in baggage area” issue, and if you don’t immediately slam down the item on the bagging area within 2 seconds after scanning will show an error and say the weight is off. Every other place I go to is simple and has no issues but Stop and Shop is terrible.
This really smells like something ripe for the Aldi solution, where you pull things from one cart, the cashier scans them and then puts them in a different cart. In bucket-brigade style, your just-emptied cart becomes the empty cart for the next person to fill as they empty their cart across the scanner.
It’s also entirely possible that a lot of the places around here are cheap bastards who haven’t bothered to update their systems at all.
For example, we pretty much banned single-use plastic bags recently, after many years of paying a nominal fee per bag. And yet, there’s one store brand (a major national chain, no less), that still prompts you for how many plastic bags you’re buying on every single transaction. Because apparently they’re too cheap to update their software in a timely fashion. Having every customer waste a second or two on a now-useless question is easier for them.
Sharing carts? That Sounds Like Communism!
Then there’s that: Early-adopting stores that have kept pretty much the same self-checkout set-up for way too long.
Out of curiosity: After the scale affirmatively registers the weight of the item and all is copacetic … can you at least remove the item from the bagging area and place it into your cart? Or do items have to remain on the bagging scale for the duration of the scanning/paying process?
It’s finicky. The bag has to be on the scale and items placed immediately into the bag. If you take one out after scanning it doesn’t like that and it says the weight doesn’t match. I’ve never used it for more than two bags of items so I don’t know if you can remove the entire bag.
Oof.
Every so often, our Winn-Dixie will experience some kind of software issue with the self-checkout. Sometimes when they reboot and bring it back online, the “take inputs from scale” options seem to be enabled by default and the self-checkout station will be temporarily finicky about the weights of items and such.
Safeway recently made a change to the self-checkout stations that’s been enough to make me start avoiding them: you can no longer mute the blaring computer voice that says “PLEASE SCAN NEXT ITEM.” After each and every scan, it shouts that at you. I chalk up all such loud noise – evidently quite deliberate in this case, as they had to take an affirmative step to prevent you silencing it – as Man’s Inhumanity to Man, and now stay away.
Aside from the scan it your self as you walk around in the store (which totally failed miserably) The only place I’ve seen a self scanning gun would be Lowes or Home depot. They don’t expect you to run a 4x8 sheet of plywood over the scanner.
My CVS is fussy about placing things just right. It’s not like going to the supermarket, where i often buy tons of stuff. I don’t think I’ve ever bought more than fits in one bag. But i hate their self checkout.
I almost never use the self checkout at the supermarket, because i usually have a lot of stuff and it’s clearly set up for people with a couple of items. But it’s much better, and if i think of it, i sometimes use it if i popped in for one thing and the cashiers are all busy.
I agree it is a breeze! More so using the stores app to scan items as you shop. If an item I scanned has a coupon it pops up so I can select it. Often I’ll see items will be reduced but not marked on the shelf so I’m often scanning items just to check the price. I don’t want it I delete it.
I can take my cart, full or not to any self checkout lane and download my cart for instant check out. Employees are ready nearby to assist with any issues.
Scanning in my purchases at the self check out goes quickly, no more alerts about unauthorized items in the bagging area. I can also take my stuff off the bagging carousel at anytime without triggering alarms.
It keeps getting better in the grocery stores I frequent.
I liked self-checkout when this thread was started, and I still do.
Honestly, most “self-checkout sucks!” complaints really seem to be “shitty stores are shitty shopping experiences!” complaints.
My takeaway from this thread is that self-checkout varies a lot from place to place, and that when it’s implemented well, people tend to like it. But when it’s implemented poorly, or with a lot of “security”, it’s pretty annoying.
Here’s a picture of an early Piggly Wiggly store:
For those who don’t know, Piggly Wiggly was the first self service grocery store, and it’s obvious they were worried that if they let customers pick items off the shelves themselves they might just walk out with them. So they added a bunch of “security”, turnstiles and barricades and a layout that makes it impossible to leave without going through the checkout.
I think that’s pretty analogous to the very first self checkouts. In the beginning stores were worried if they let customers scan items themselves some of them would try to pull a fast one and not actually scan everything. So they added all those annoying security features that forced you to put everything in the bagging area and yelled at you if there was something there it didn’t expect. Then eventually realized most people are honest and aren’t trying to get away with not paying for stuff, and those security features were more trouble than they were worth, and removed them (well apparently not all stores did, but most of them). Just like how modern stores don’t make you go through a turnstile at the entrance anymore.
Same here. All the places that I have shopping cards with now allow me to enter my name and phone, so I don’t need to carry my loyalty cards.
I LOVE 
Self checkout
Walmart Scan & Go has you scan items with your phone. Especially now that Walmart in my area has produce scales that generate a scannable code, I like S&G, except for the “wait in that long line at self-check while people ahead of me are scanning a week’s shopping, with age-restricted products, in a much too small area” part. Walmart really needs to designate at least one pay station that ONLY does Scan & Go for that to really work well, IMO.