It’s happened again. As I’m heading to the checkout lane with a cart full of groceries, some clueless old lady with one of those mini shopping carts with maybe a dozen items in it, manages to get in front of me in line. There are six self-service checkouts and an express lane just a couple of lanes over with no waiting, but these ladies insist on going through the regular checkout lane. And then chatting with the checkout girl, and taking for-freaking-ever to pay and get the hell out of the way.
I swear the next time it happens I’m going to say “Excuse me - the express checkout is over that way”, and if they don’t use it, then I’m going to.
So it’s YOUR fault! Here, most of the express lanes are automated, which is why the elderly prefer the ones staffed by people. Often I’m stuck in the express line while they try to work out how to scan items, weigh items, and pay by card or feeding bills in, and I wonder what they’re doing over here when they have no idea what’s going on. Now I know you chased them away…
I understand your annoyance! The express way is for speedy service, but it also helps the regular lines move faster. Well…it’s supposed to anyways.
I also hate waiting 10 minutes or so in line, a new line opens up, and someone who just walks up to the registers goes ahead of you that hasn’t waited at all. So rude. Or the impatient people behind you that you bump into because they’re standing too close.
You Scan It checkouts are run under Windows NT.
My fear is that in my old age they will be run by Windows MT. Mental Telepathy. An offshoot of video games that were played by thought, the young people who grew up playing will be able to envision their asparagus and check out quickly, while I dodder about trying to find the touch screen.
Huh. Around here, if you only have a couple of items, people with full carts will usually wave you past them. Of course, my grocery doesn’t have self checkouts. (And I tend to hate them, anyway. I only use them begrudgingly.)
I much prefer the self checkout - less human interaction for the win! Actually, it’s just faster, on average, because what the elderly like about the human-staffed lines is they can argue that the scanner was off by a penny and demand a price check.
A cashier at my local Jewel lived in my building and asked why my gf never came in anymore, and I cited the delays for price-checks and he said “Yeah, we get a lot of complaints about that, but what can you do?” Except send me in at 1 a.m. because I worked nights…
Our usual store usually has sufficient lanes open to minimize wait time. I like the express lanes, but will not use the self checkout. I see it as a small way to support continued employment of the employees.
Same here. Plus, perhaps I’m just inept, but I usually need help from a human somewhere along the way because something scans twice, or I get mysterious “An assistant has been notified to assist you” messages on the screen.
Sometimes I’ll intentionally choose the longest line so I can flip through trashy magazines while I wait. I miss the Weekly World News, and Bat Boy updates.
Eh, I used self-checkout yesterday, as I do all the time. They had all 4 lanes open for self-checkout. There were 2 different employees keeping an eye on things at self-checkout.
I highly doubt that there’d be 4 more employees on staff to have 4 more lanes open if there weren’t 4 self-checkout lanes. Maybe 1 or 2 - and those employees were there working.
Funny thing is that while I was checking out I saw my hot dogs and immediately remembered I forgot hot dog buns. So instead of sending someone to get them, I finished my checkout then rolled my cart back to get buns and checked out via the express lane. And I DID go through the express lane with a full cart! Albeit a full cart of bags. The checker yelled at me - while ignoring the bag of buns and the dollar bill in my hand. She needed a break
Yeah, I like people, so that doesn’t work for me. And half the time I’m picking up beer or alcohol, so that’s going to require somebody to come down and “approve” me, anyway. Plus a quarter of the time I feel like I’m arguing with the machine when it claims “unexpected item in baggage area!” when I just friggin put what I scanned in the baggage area. It’s just so much less stressful and much, much quicker for me to deal with a real cashier. I mean, I seriously hate those self-checkouts, but I almost have no choice in most places these days. When there’s exactly one cashier, with a line three or more deep, or an empty self-checkout, well, I guess I’m going self-checkout. Self-checkout may be slow for me, but not slow enough that a cashier could put through three customers in the time it takes me to finish up.
I’m old enough to remember when cashiers had to key in every price since there was no scanner. They also knew how to count back change. The carryout would then bag the groceries, take them to the car, and put them in the trunk. No carts were left in the lot because the carryouts took them back inside. All this new-fangled stuff just deletes jobs.
Now, for up-to-date whining:
I wish places would reinstate cash-only lanes and enforce them. Some say cards are faster, but it always seems there is some problem with the card or reader, or the person has to try three cards before finding a good one, or they wait until $200 worth of groceries are rung up and bagged before starting to dig into a luggage-sized purse on a ten minute hunt for the card.
If you are an attractive woman, the guy will still carry them to your car.
If they still read those stories in Penthouse that I…heard about when I was a kid.
Ever since I got my Kindle Fire HD, I haven’t noticed lines. I queue up, turn to a book, and when it’s my turn, but the book away and proceed. Great little invention, the Kindle.
Several years ago, I read a piece that changed my attitude about waiting in line. I take it as an opportunity to develop patience and observe the details of my surroundings. It’s a good thing.
…which would just result in a problem with the multitude of people who don’t see the cash-only sign until after their order has been rung up, and then complain that the sign wasn’t big enough or that the checker was being “rude” and “refusing to serve them”.
