I stopped in to a Value Village last week while I was waiting for my Covid shot next-door. There were NO regular checkout lanes, just a large self-scan area with several clerks helping all the customers with scanning. Seemed to be working pretty well.
My primary complaint about the self checkouts at the stores I frequent is that the holding area often isn’t large enough to actually hold what I’m buying. And the bags have to be there or else it complains about missing items from the bagging area. It’s really only useful for relatively small purchases.
Which would be fine, except the store would prefer that everyone used it and thus doesn’t adequately staff the checkout lanes. So you either wait forever in the one lane filled with everyone’s full carts or you try to cram everything into a too-small self checkout space.
As a side note, the Costco’s self checkout completes your purchase with a “Thank you for shopping Costco” except it says it like cost-KOH! with a weird inflection on the second half. Always amuses me that they obviously have some custom voice line in there but didn’t bother to make it speak like a normal person would.
I can’t believe I never opined on this weighty topic. I hate self-checkout in general and avoid it whenever possible. The term of course also encompasses self-bagging. It’s an opportunity to be a DIY checkout clerk, and work for free!
I did use it last Sunday when I made one of my little shopping expeditions not realizing how busy Sunday afternoon would be, and the store was not adequately staffed. There were lineups at the cash registers that seemed mostly to be populated by people whose overflowing carts suggested that they were stocking up for the Apocalypse, but the self-checkout area had immediately available stations, so I used it, and admittedly had no problems.
Still, I much prefer personal service and competent bagging, and don’t even get me started on produce sold by weight that may or may not have little sticker codes. Or store-made products with store-printed labels that are often scrunched up or folded over or otherwise unreadable. I have never been to Supermarket Cashier School and I’m not interested in attending.
I will voluntarily and proactively use self-checkout only when I’ve made one of my “how could I have forgotten that?” emergency return trips to the supermarket for just one or two items, and only when those items have clean barcodes. Also when I buy Sapporo Ichiban ramen noodles at Walmart, which is just about the only reason I ever go there. They always have obnoxious line-ups at the checkouts so I’ll get about five 5-packs and just run them through the scanner.
I still hate it.
Heh, my gf buys bananas every week. If I happen to be with her, I steer us to the self checkout where I know bananas are 4011, which really impresses her.
I guess I’m lucky that the stores I shop at have checkouts that don’t care if you move a bag before the sale is completed. I just fill a bag (I have a couple of giant cold bags I use) and move it to the floor or the bottom of the cart.
With a good self-check system, and a good personal organizing system, I swear it’s faster than a standard lane with a bagger. I also don’t end up with a zillion bags with one thing in them. Yes, I know I can ask that they not do this, but some of the baggers seem flummoxed by that and I hate to be a PITA customer. Easier and less stressful to do it myself.
$&@!!
What irks the hell out of me is my own doing. Again I failed to see a double scan at the kiosk so I ended up coming home with one jar of preserves but paid for two. Also that $10 salmon portion never made it in my cart. Now I have to schlep back to the store and plead my case at the customer service desk. Fine. And I still have to return the fly by Jing with no zing.
I guess this is a YMMV situation, but I can’t think of a time I ever had a problem with something like that at a grocery store. It’s been my experience that grocery stores want to keep you a happy (ie, returning) customer. Maybe even more so when it’s a self-checkout problem.
True Ive yet to get push back at customer service but I still feel awkward and foolish.
Love it.
All the major supermarkets I use here in the UK have the “scan as you shop” option.
I can bag everything by category as I buy and it makes putting it all away a breeze.
I’m through the checkout in a matter of minutes and no inane chat from the checkout operator.
That sounds awesome. I’d put up with some hassle with their app to be able to do that.
It is great, but my wife seems permanently determined to upset my system whenever we shop together.
There are some things that technology will never solve.
There’s a truism in the IT biz: “IT can’t solve what’s really a social problem.”
It’s usually referring to business politics, uncooperative or untrainable workers, turf wars, etc. If some higher-level manager thinks a new computer program will magically sweep away human dysfunction in their department, they’re in for a disappointment. Unless the department and all the workers can be eliminated altogether.
But it applies to marital politics too. Sigh. 
My wife and I grocery shop in the same store on different days. It’s soo much easier than an argument.
We used to tell a joke in the style of an algebra “story problem”:
If it takes Puzzlegal 45 minutes to do the grocery shopping, and it takes Puzzleguy 30 minutes, how long does it take to if they go grocery shopping together?
answer
60 minutes
We don’t argue when we shop together, but it usually is faster if just one of us goes.
Yeah. Zactly. “Argue” is an overstatement. But the mutual frustration just isn’t worth the small amount of extra togetherness.
Another is -“we can’t solve a bad business/work model.”
Yep, we rarely grocery shop together. I’m always annoyed by the way she just tossed stuff into the cart. I handle my purchases with care.
Twas the easiest transaction ever, plus no queue!
Customer service knows all, offered cash or credit back but the salmon portion was now on recall? So refund that on gift card. Thx Brandon! Then went shopping but still forgot to buy butter. 
We went to the Stop & Shop this weekend; got two small things. I was holding them both in one hand, could have held more, too. Total weight = 20 oz. Obviously, I didn’t need or want a bag, either. Scanned the first one & I was required to put it on the checkout area, which is lower than my knee. There was no option for ‘skip bagging’. The only thing that came up was “Request help”. Last time I was in that store, (I forgot about it before we went there this weekend) the clerk came over & stated I must put each item in the bagging area.
I understand it’s good to have the platform low if you are putting groceries into a big bag but I’m not a gorilla, my knuckles don’t drag; there’s no reason for me to have to bend over three times, once to put each one down & then again to pick them back up afterwards for two things small enough to put in a hoodie pocket.
Given the first ‘real’ cashier was open, I abandoned the self-checkout mid-sale & went over to the cashier where I didn’t need to bend down at all.
I wonder if 'skip bagging ’ is an option for something heavy, like a case of water?
Sure, the self-checkout experience is much easier on the customer for a variety of reasons, but there continues to be a problem for the stores with theft.
A couple of days ago we have a team of professional thieves steal thousands of dollars via the self-checkout in just a few minutes. The security people are still looking over the video. As always, it’s an arms race between the stores and thieves.
Where I work the attendants have the scanners - but then, we have actual attendants present which is apparently not the case everywhere.
Well, we wouldn’t want consistency, would we? That would be un-American, lack of competition between designers of systems, competition, etc., etc., [/sarcasm]
We just had all the card-readers in the store replaced this week. A half dozen subtle differences and changes are now required - card swiping is now “upside down” relative to what it was before, for example - with zero indications or explanations on the sleek, new units. Many upset customers upset because the card readers “weren’t working”.
Aldi, at least around here, is now going to self-checkout.
You forgot the “I refuse to adapt to/use technology!” category. But maybe, as an employee, I see that more often.
Not a baseless fear - there are some people who do exactly that. Sometimes it’s unintentional, but there are definitely deliberate instances of shoplifting by that technique. Many stores have come up with other ways of dealing with this without so obviously scrutinizing every customer as a potential thief. (Smile - you’re on camera!)