i go into my local walmart the other day to realize that they now have at least 10 new self checkouts. me and the lady went through with no problems, but most of the other self checkout lanes had the blinking light of death. it was super simple, and i didn’t have to mess with some talky checkout person.
i have watched the checkout people do their jobs most of my life, and thought that it couldn’t be very hard, and it wasn’t! whoo! all checkouts were very quick indeed. the only thing that i didn’t enjoy was the computer lady voice telling me what to do, it was very very loud!
yes, i have had one cashier in particluar who liked to comment on items i was buying…like “i’ve never had (insert food) is it good?” i wanted to punch her in the face. no more of that.
I hate that aspect of the WalMart self check system. KMart here used to have them, and they had the same thing, this female voice announcing “$2.99”. It wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t so loud.
And they’re just enough different from the ones at the grocery store that I have to think about what I’m doing while paying, and I always hit a button wrong at some point. Usually, it’s the Spanish/English one. Luckily, I read Spanish, so I can muddle through.
Heading into the local WM to get some produce. Grab some…head for the checkout.
Check out girl: Zip DING!. She can’t get it to register the little UPS sticker on the fruit. She looks at it. Gives it another go. Zip DING. No love. She grabs a produce book. She flips through it. I ask what’s up. She says she just needs to look it up. Simple enough.
Tempus fugit.
She’s been looking for a bit, now. Finally she asks, “Do you know what kind of apples these are?”
I learned the hard way that one cannot purchase a DVD through self checkout. The damn thng kept freezing every time I scanned it and I had to start over. The attendant had to help three other people before hse got to me. Then it took her 5 minutes to figure out what was going on. Then she had to call a manager to come and enter some kind of authorization. And then I could buy my damn movie and spaghettios.
So what should have been a 1 minute transaction dragged into 17. They should post signs about specially tagged items that should be rung through regular checkout lanes. :mad:
Another word on self-checkouts - they’re remodeling all the Albertsons stores 'round here, and it’s fun to watch the young-uns try to take a six-pack through the self-checkout. You get a good chuckle every time.
At least you get self-checkouts. The Wal-Mart manager here thinks that putting them in would “ruin our customer service experience”. What?! I’m sorry, but I would much rather not have to deal with people at all than have to hear one more, “But this won’t take me five minutes to finish cleaning my conveyer belt instead of grabbing the items from your hand, scanning them, taking your money and handing you your receipt.” The employees at this one are so self-righteous they make me gag. (And spit fire and brimstone, but this ain’t the pit. ;))
There are two Wal-Marts around here, one with the automated checkouts, one without (it’s been a while since I was there, so that’s as far as I know). Both stores go to great lengths to hire the slowest possible cashiers. And if you think the cashiers are slow, you should see the customers!
I also hate the way the machines yell at you, but mostly, I hate the slow, slow, slow idiots who use them. Give me a slightly faster if still glacial cashier any day.
I love self-checkouts, because the world is full of technophobes who refuse to use them. In a store with self-checkout, I can frequently check myself out quickly and easily on any one of the four deserted computers while the cashiers’ lines stretch all the way across the aisle.
Go on avoiding the self-checkout, world! No lines for me!
I like them, but the ones they had at our local K-Mart were horrible. It wasn’t the machines that were the problems, but the employees. If you used a credit card, an employee had to verify it or the machine wouldn’t go on. Well, most of the time there was no employee to be found. Eventually they took out the machines.
I will only use self-checkout lanes if there’s no one standing there (completely dumbfounded) already. The majority of people I’ve seen who attempt to use these things couldn’t find their asses with two hands and a map.
The best part about the self-checkouts at Walmart is that I can buy 10 items, and walk out of there with only one bag. Sometimes I think Walmart cashiers get a bonus based on how many bags they use up.
weighables, such as fruit
fabric (stooopid process for purchasing fabric)
anything that requires an age-check, including knives and dvd’s
Those all require cashier intervention. Also if I’m buying something like…10 rolls of thread. It doesn’t sense them when you toss them in the bag, and you can only ‘skip bagging’ so many times before it requires cashier intervention. Fortunately, the cashiers attending the self-checkouts at my store are pretty quick.
