How do you feel about self-checkout now?

[Broomstick]

@Seanette

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.

I don’t work for Walmart but we have an equivalent system. We also have three kiosks optimized for checking out with that system. You still have to wait, though, due to people attempting to use these very-different looking machines with zero bagging area as a normal self-checkout.

I swear, there is a segment of the general public that only have enough smarts to make their eyeballs work and no more. I wonder how creatures so inept manage to coordinate their feet sufficiently to walk, much less drive themselves anywhere, prepare food without setting the microwave on fire, etc.

@Jophiel

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.

We had nice, roomy bagging/holding areas. Then some genius at Corporate decided that a bag carousel should be permanently bolted into place on it. This is fine for those wanting the one-use bags (except the bags get shittier with every new shipment, but that’s a different topic). But a lot of our self-serve people want to use their own bags and there is no longer any convenient place to put them. I find that really frackin’ annoying.

@kayaker

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.

Yellow Cavendish are 4011.

Plantains are 4235, red bananas are 4236, and 4234 is for mini-bananas (yellow)

(I did go to Supermarket Cashier School)

Knowing as many produce codes as I do makes self-checkout at a lot of stores easier. Where it gets tricky is that there are codes stores can assign as they please and that can trip you up. Then it’s back to asking the attendant to take whatever mistake you made off your order and using the look up screen (if there is one) or looking for tiny stick-on labels.

@saje

With a good self-check system, and a good personal organizing system, I swear it’s faster than a standard lane with a bagger.

It actually isn’t - but it seems faster because you’re involved in the process and not just standing there. And there are definitely some people who are faster on the self-checkouts than others, just as some cashiers are faster than others. Especially if you’re buying multiples of items, or lots of produce, I’m going to be faster because of features on my registers that just aren’t on the self-checkout.

@saje

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.

I am extremely fussy about how I want my bags packed. When I go through the manned lanes where I work I insist on doing all my own packing. Too many people just do not know how to properly pack a shopping bag. Yes, there is a right way and a wrong way to do that.

Baggers (and I do my share of bagging for customers) should be able to accommodate requests. Want the minimum number of bags? Sure. Want everything doubled? Sure. Want everything tied with a bow? Sure (Yes, I really do get customers wanting that). Want the bags packed light? Sure, I can do that too. I can use our bags (your choice of paper or plastic) or you can bring your own and I’ll use those.

Unfortunately, not everyone is awesome as me (I do have to work on the modesty a bit) and when I’m a customer it drives me batty. Actually, as an employee it drives me batty when I see incompetent bagging but I’m not a manager and can’t do anything about it, sorry.

@Spiderman

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.

Are you a guy?

Not known or realized by most people, but both the manned cash register lanes and most (though not all) self-checkouts are optimized (theory) for the average woman, not man, because most cashiers in recent decades have been women. Our male cashiers, especially the one six and a half feet tall, find this annoying, and they usually don’t know why until that’s pointed out to them. So a lot of stuff - angle of screen, bagging area platform, etc - are actually set lower than they would be if designed with the assumption the user is always a man.

(Not universal, observation void where prohibited, YMMV)

@Spiderman

I wonder if 'skip bagging ’ is an option for something heavy, like a case of water?

At some stores, yes. Others? No. Again, YMMV.

[enipla]

@Spiderman

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

Putting it down in the bagging area weighs the item to check if it matches up with the price.

[Folacin]

@Broomstick

but there continues to be a problem for the stores with theft.

Presumably, corporate assumed some amount of inadvertent/advertent theft when they decided to implement self-checkout (or they should have).

I confess that I stole some bananas and strawberries from Aldi the other day. No sticker, neither my wife nor I could find either item on the produce list (even after we finally figured out how to scroll the damn thing (note that we are both IT types)), and there were no employees around we could ask for help.

I think my wife was convinced that were going to be arrested on the way out, but we made a clean getaway.

[Spiderman]

No, I was asking that (rhetorically) about that store. I couldn’t skip bagging on an 8oz package of crescent rolls but I wonder if I could skip bagging on something heavy (case of water) or large (mega pack of paper towels or TP) in that store; how smart or dumb did they program their scanners.

[bordelond]

I do this routinely at several local groceries/big-box retailers. There are also some items small enough to bag that I don’t bag (e.g. six-packs of 0.5 liter soft drinks). Never an issue.

To reiterate, though – no place I shop uses the self-checkout bagging scale to confirm anything (except in rare one-off cases after apparent software reboots).

[Mighty_Mouse]

In self checkout 2015-style you had sensitive scales and onerous rules that made the process annoying to customers (and needed frequent intervention from staff) but was quite good at preventing losses.

2023-style is more relaxed but has a lot of losses and lower staffing.

Retailers are starting to realize that this is a dynamic system. You don’t just have a one time increase in losses. You have a continuing increase as you make thieves out of innocent people.

[bordelond]

@Broomstick

@saje

With a good self-check system, and a good personal organizing system, I swear it’s faster than a standard lane with a bagger.

It actually isn’t - but it seems faster because you’re involved in the process and not just standing there.

One exception – and I am curious whether you agree:

At our nearest grocery store, it’s common for the cashier to scan everything and pile it up at the back of their cashier station’s bagging area – and only after scanning everything commence to bagging the items (employees dedicated specifically to bagging are not usually present). This goes even for huge overflowing cartloads.

When a cashier scans and bags that particular way … the entire process is far slower than my bag-as-I-go self-checkout routine.

[Tibby]

I rarely use the self-checkout—only when there are no other options.

They make me self-conscious. I’m paranoid that the supermarket has eyes in the sky, like those in a casino, and they focus in on me like I’m a card counter, or grocery thief. If I make an honest mistake in my favor, I imagine the supermarket mob bosses will descend on me like flies on a pile of dog poo. Then they will strong-arm me to the back room and break my knees.

So, every time I scan an item, I look up at the camera and hold up my hands to show I didn’t engage in any nefarious funny business. By the time I finish scanning, my heart is usually pounding and I’m drenched in sweat.

Only as I make my way out the door does my heart rate return to normal. Then I open my trunk and carefully place the bags inside, making sure no one has followed me.

Only then do I empty my pockets of all the items I stole.

…ok, the last sentence is a joke.

[puzzlegal]

The places i shop not only have eyes in the sky, but human beings watching me. And they are very helpful when i have trouble with the scanner.

(Well, except for the place that’s unstaffed. They might arrest me a week later, but there’s no one there who could arrest me. Anyway, I’ve gotten home to discover that i stole something, or paid for an item i didn’t buy, and nothing has happened yet.)

[robby]

I have a similar reaction to self-checkout, and absolutely refuse to use the scan-as-you-go technology.

Why? Because the one time I used it, I carefully scanned everything as I went, started to get in line to pay, then remembered I needed K-cup coffee pods. The Starbucks ones I like were on sale, and I had to do some math to verify that the per-pod cost for the 12-packs that were on sale were indeed cheaper than the larger sizes. So I grabbed several of them. And completely forgot to scan them.

The system was new, so the store staff was keeping a close eye on things, and I was called out on my error with a very accusatory tone. Of course the K-cups were some of the most expensive things in my cart. I was very embarrassed, and said to myself that I did not need to put up with this. So I have refused to use the scan-as-you-go scanners ever since, and will never use them unless there is absolutely no alternative.

I do sometimes use the self-checkout at Stop & Shop (grocery store), but greatly prefer to utilize a cashier. If there is no line, the cashier is always faster because they can scan and I can bag. Also, I hate being yelled at by the Stop & Shop self-checkout, i.e. “PUT THE ITEM IN THE BAGGING AREA!”

With that said, the self-checkout at Home Depot works pretty well. For one thing, there is a scanning gun at the self-checkout, and you can scan everything right in your cart. There is no need to put everything in the bagging area. And because I’m scanning everything all at once, I don’t need to worry about forgetting to scan something.

[Broomstick]

@Mighty_Mouse

Retailers are starting to realize that this is a dynamic system. You don’t just have a one time increase in losses. You have a continuing increase as you make thieves out of innocent people.

I know my employer isn’t that concerned with the occasional unscanned banana or other inexpensive item. Sure, we’d prefer that never happens but humans are human and make human errors.

It’s the big ticket, deliberate thievery that is the primary concern.

@bordelond

One exception – and I am curious whether you agree:

At our nearest grocery store, it’s common for the cashier to scan everything and pile it up at the back of their cashier station’s bagging area – and only after scanning everything commence to bagging the items (employees dedicated specifically to bagging are not usually present). This goes even for huge overflowing cartloads.

When a cashier scans and bags that particular way … the entire process is far slower than my bag-as-I-go self-checkout routine.

Yes, I agree.

The reason the cashier is doing that is because we are timed. From the first item we ring up until the receipt spits out of the register we are on a timer. We are given a designated amount of time per item (with heavier or fragile items being given a bit more. I’ll just note that the intervals involved are measure down to the tenth of a second) plus a bit for whatever the customer needs to do or whatever. In the situation you describe if the cashier stops ringing to bag groceries that time will count against them. If your overall rating (averaged over the entire day of customers) drops low enough you can be put on probation, have your hours cut, or even potentially lose your job.

That’s now, when we’re supposed to have cashier/bagger teams. Back when we didn’t have baggers and were expect to bag-as-you-go using a carousel we were given more time per transaction, the bagging time being taken into account. But not any more.

[Biotop]

never mind

[DocCathode]

Biotop By gum, it’s been too long!

[Horatius]

@Broomstick

In the situation you describe if the cashier stops ringing to bag groceries that time will count against them.

Ah, the genius of capitalism. Measure a metric of performance in such a way that to pass it, you have to actually perform worse overall.

[LSLGuy]

I just keep wondering what this mythical creature called a “bagger” might be? I recall seeing them as a child half a century ago clear across the continent. But not recently near here.

ETA: I exaggerate for comedic effect. But only a little.

[tofor]

@Horatius

Ah, the genius of capitalism. Measure a metric of performance in such a way that to pass it, you have to actually perform worse overall.

That is not a feature of capitalism. That is a feature of bureaucracy.

[Biotop]

@LSLGuy

I just keep wondering what this mythical creature called a “bagger” might be? I recall seeing them as a child half a century ago clear across the continent. But not recently near here.

Those were local folks who used to work in the supermarkets before cost of living made it an economic impossibility to do the job on the wage paid.

[kayaker]

@LSLGuy

I just keep wondering what this mythical creature called a “bagger” might be?

In St Martin a trip to the grocery store involves fun interactions with the baggers, who are independent contractors (there are signs up stating this). .Preteens and teens, mostly boys, they offer to help you to your car once they have bagged your purchases. They’ll also point out any errors the cashiers might make; “hey, those are on special, give my man a discount”. We always tip them well and often.

I especially enjoyed our visit in 2009. The kids all wanted to know who we voted for and when I said, “Obama, of course”, they all wanted to shake my hand.

[Mighty_Mouse]

@LSLGuy

I just keep wondering what this mythical creature called a “bagger” might be? I recall seeing them as a child half a century ago clear across the continent. But not recently near here.

I don’t know where you guys shop, but in high volume stores, baggers are standard practice. In fact I bet there are more baggers today than there were ten years ago, when as Broomstick says, some geniuses thought that five cashiers beat three cashiers and three baggers. Then the University of Chicago graduated a better variety of genius, who concluded the opposite was true.

The true geniuses are the management teams of the supermarket chains who will pay millions to have twenty somethings with no Industrial Engineering background millions of dollars to override what their own Industrial Engineers are telling them: that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to “front end” configuration and staffing.

[Musicat]

I resent that remark! Baggers might be extinct (not) but not obsolete. As a former bagger while serving in the military, I worked with another GI on off-hours as a bagger. We put groceries in multiple, double-hulled paper bags for commissary customers, and helped them out to their cars. and we worked for tips only!

Our checkers were career cashiers, and since the commissary had a limited product selection and few price changes, they were able to memorize all prices. This was super-important, as there were no barcodes back then! The checkers were so fast that it took two hustling baggers to handle a single checkout aisle. And this was after the baggers spent an hour before the store opened setting up all the double bags. Not to mention the checkers who were pretty surly to us peon baggers, the lowest on the totem pole.

My local groceries still employ baggers, and sometimes they are high school students volunteering to earn tips for a class trip. I don’t know if the store pays them anything.

In contrast, our local Wal-Mart has no baggers, as the clerks are expected to bag as they go (which slows them down), and the self-checkout lanes don’t need them, either.