Every time I see this thread pop up to the top of my list my (usually) unwritten response is:
“Still prefer it, thanks for asking!”
I mostly shop at Publix and Aldi, and they both have sensible, user-friendly systems. That does make a difference.
Common around here in store where you dont buy that much stuff, like a dollar store.
I am sure it occurs, but the last study I read- (which of course i cant remember where) said most theft was inadvertent.
There are many “schools of thought” about these for me.
I don’t generally mind them but it isn’t a black and white mind set for me:
- if I have one ore a couple of items, it’s perfect.
- if I have a cart full of stuff - for any reason, including the ones below, I pass them.
- If I’m having a poopish day and don’t want to deal with people, also perfect.
- If I’m locked in the house, working remote, and I want human interaction? I avoid them.
From a political side of things, (oh boy Kwy… here we go.) I have heard two schools of thought (YMMV):
Right side: They’re taking jobs! (Can’t pay people if they aren’t working.)
Left side: They are taking tax dollars! (Machines can’t contribute income/sales taxes like a person can.)
I avoid the political side and just do what I feel. I like the convince of using them but I do prefer the human interaction.
A factor about me that I had not considered before now. I generally like them, net of minor irritants. I rarely buy shopping carts full of stuff anywhere, so almost every checkout for me is an express- or almost express sized order. Often it’s just 2 items.
My big “a ha” is that I do any/everything about twice as fast as an ordinary person and about 3x as fast as an older person. Of which I am increasingly one. Or a Caribbean Islander of any age who are very common here and have a very laid back, slow-moving approach to life. They may well live longer for their calm, unruffled nature, but IMO they spend more time than they gain just moving at half speed.
By using the self-checkout I greatly reduce the number of sloooooooooooooowwwwwwwwww 70yos in front of me. They’re far more likely to choose a live checker for technophobic reasons.
I had an interesting self-checkout interaction yesterday. I tried to scan a 6-pack of Perrier sparking water and an error message popped up, saying something like it couldn’t find the price. I motioned the customer service woman over, she looked at the 6-pack and said “I have no idea”, and manually plugged in the price as $1 – a substantial discount. (normal retail is around $7.99)
I didn’t say anything about it being the wrong price. I figured it the employee didn’t want to deal with the hassle of getting the “real” price, that was fine with me.