I’m tired and don’t want to do the extra work. I really appreciate services. Maybe it’s my age, but I don’t see the virtue in paying the same amount of money and receiving less service than I used to. Until very recently you could get your groceries checked out, bagged, and loaded into your car as part of the deal. I always have a full cart, so that’s a factor.
The good grocery store in my town, which is to say the small, locally-owned one rather than the Food Lion, still loads groceries. Better produce, too.
I love them, but I feel like I’m putting six checkers out of work (and in fact, I believe I AM putting six checkers out of work, at least, they aren’t there).
I also caused a layoff when I switched from my local video store to Netflix.
Of course putting live people on the phone out of work when I call the automated menu at the bank wasn’t my idea but I feel guilty about that, too. (And then when you get someone, they’re in India.)
So does the poor checker who has to resolve all the issues of customers who get hopelessly wrapped around the axle at four or six registers get paid more? Thought not.
Well if you don’t like them, don’t use them, it will be faster for me.
I don’t like them, but it has nothing to do with work. Things don’t scan, or they are too light to register that I have put them in the bag, or they are too big for the bag, or they ring up the wrong price, or they won’t take your money. If the lines are extremely long I will use them, but I don’t likecthem.
i voted i love them- the only drawback is when you have a full cart - the space at the end of the little conveyor belt is never big enough to hold more than a few groceries.
I want to cause great bodily harm to the people that after they scan the item throw it half way down the belt so it bypasses the sensor that is waiting for it and causes the machine to go into shock.
I don’t have a problem with produce or things that need to be weighed - there is a list that is alphabetized that i can manage pretty well but i have stood behind some shall we say rather slow individuals that seem to look at the screen and have no idea what to do - um, maybe press the no barcode or produce button and press the picture of the banana, peaches, or what ever fruit you are buying.
I’ve seen some people walk right out without paying and since i ususally go to the same store they know me there and i tell them about it quickly - it’s gonna be me that ends up paying for it in the long run away - screw that.
I always wondered why this never happens to me, so I began to watch people who are having trouble. The almost universal answer to getting the “UNEXPECTED ITEM IN BAGGING AREA” message is because there is an UNEXPECTED ITEM IN BAGGING AREA!
It’s usually a purse, or a kid, or you’ve got your cart jammed up against it. Listen, people, the bagging area is a scale. When you scan the barcode on your can of tuna, the machine expects to weigh nine ounces heavier when you bag it. If you put your two pound purse over there, or your 40 pound kid, the machine tilts.
Here’s a foolproof way of self-scanning: Pick up one item from your cart/basket, scan it, put in bag. Repeat until done. You can’t scan three cans of tuna and then put them in the bag, they have to be done one at a time. It works the way it works, not the way you wish it would work.
Please explain your thought process as to why you believe you are putting six checkers out of work. A lot of people (particularly older ones) refuse to use the U-Scan lane, citing the same thing. It really confuses me. 
Just in that, the store only took out one register for the four U-Scans. One register cashier was turned into one U-Scan cashier, no gain and no loss.
If anything, it helps the cashiers. It allows the people go go at their own pace. Believe it or not, the cashiers get timed on every transaction on a normal register. 
So to have those four people who want to use U-Scan, who have a handful of items or might require extra help such as going back to get an item they forgot, turning in bottle deposit slips, coupons, needing their EBT card punched in, there’s no pressure on the person who is working the U-Scan.
I do agree with those people who don’t like them because they’d rather have the human interaction, and the robot’s voice gets annoying when you have to hear it for hours at a time. I try to make it a point to say “Have a nice night” or “Thank you” as people walk by, if I hadn’t talked to them during their transaction. The Kroger I work at is one of the older/smaller ones so we have some regulars who like to strike up conversations even at the U-Scan.
Gah, I feel like a dork. :o I’m not even fond of the job, just been working for some gas money for college and around town. Been almost a year there now with probably two more years to go.
I use them when I’m buying a handful of things. However, I tend to develop a fleeting but incredibly intense hatred of the Empty-Eyed Meat Cows who invariably get to the scanners ahead of me.
Yeah, you would think that. But, that’s what I do, and it doesn’t always work right for me. It either sometimes doesn’t register an item I have put in, or thinks there’s something there that isn’t. I don’t use a cart, I don’t carry a purse, and I don’t actually possess anything that I could rest in the baggage area except for the item I just scanned.
I’ll use them is the line is shorter. I rarely have problems, but if I do, the person in charge of them is usually quick and on the ball.
I have to say I’m a bit surprised at some of the comments in the thread. It seems like in many areas, people use them for carts full of groceries. No wonder you get pissed off, both with the lack of room for bags on the scale, and with the slowness of it. Here, they are essentially express lanes, and you only use them is you’ve got an arm basket full of groceries or less. It’s way quicker to take a cart through the regular checkout, plus, you won’t piss off the people behind you.
Or the unexpected item is my collection of reusable bags that I brought to carry out my groceries with. And the U-Scan attendant has disappeared. They pull that shit all the time at my local Bi-Lo. I’m so done with that store. But not U-Scans. I love self-service checkout.
Then your grocery store has sucky self checkouts because I use them a lot and the only time I get unexpected item alerts is when there’s an unexpected item. (And, of course, I never have the alcohol problem because Minnesota doesn’t sell liquor in grocery stores, which is probably why I’m not filled with rage at self checkouts.)
Which would be great - except, as in my case, a store that’s open 24/7, and used to have a cashier/checkout lane on hand 24/7, decided to only run cashiers about half the day. So I have no option, which is part of the backlash against these things. If they didn’t exist, stores would keep checkout aisles open.
When they first showed up, I used to love 'em since I tended to buy small amounts of groceries and it felt quick since there was never a line.
I now tend to dislike them. They feel like one more symbol of the general de-interaction of modern life. I’m bad at human interaction and naturally avoid it. I’m realizing now how bad that is for me, yet I simultaneously feel like life is increasingly providing opportunities to minimize any human interactions or even excuses to leave my house. See also: online banking, Netflix, facebook.
I think a lot of people’s reaction to self checkout may vary by how recent a model they are dealing with or how recently the software was updated. I remember when they first came out. The Winn-Dixie models. I adjusted to fairly quickly, but the Home Depot ones would drive me up the wall. I noticed that the Home Depot models are easier now. Of course, I know not to take the big stuff through self check out and check for bar codes on everything.
Of course, it would be nice if they would add a sign that said, "If you can’t program your DVR, don’t stand in this line.
Is anyone else remember when self-service first came in? It was actually confusing to use a pump that a different layout? Now it only seems to just take a few seconds to adjust to an unfamiliar layout.
Of course, figuring out the controls in a rental car can still be a problem.
I dislike them because I hate automated voices speaking to me and the instructions are not always obvious. However, having been a cashier, I can use them more quickly than a lot of folks. I do use them. But I don’t enjoy the experience.
Ditto with gift cards.
If you’re buying something you don’t want bagged (like a six-pack of soda), you still need to put it down in the bagging zone, or it will lock up.
If you want to buy multiples of the same item, you need to scan each one and put it in the bag zone, or it will lock up.
I prefer paper inside of plastic, and there’s rarely ever any paper available.
In short, I can count the number of times I’ve had a transaction go seamlessly without some kind of override necessary (and good luck finding that clerk when you need them) on the fingers of one hand w/digits left over, so for all the “convenience”, I’d rather have the checker/bagger streamline the transaction for me.