I dont like them and I'm only 25. I shop at really off-peak hours and there's rarely anybody else in line anyway. The store I used to shop at stopped having a real cashier on duty at all, so I dont go there anymore.
Like in the old thread, the self-checkout appeals to the anti-socialist in me. I don’t have to interact with another person and it is awesome.
Actually I don’t have to be actively ignored by the checkout person, who seems to like to have a conversation with the checkout person in the next lane and hardly even makes eye-contact with me and this just pisses me off more than anything. The machine actually says 'Hello" and “Thank you” to me and it is, in fact, more personal service than I get from the humans.
It probably doesn’t bray “SOMEONE’S THIRSTY!” when you are buying multiple bottles of water either.
Or “gonna do some heavy reading tonight?” when you’re buying a magazine.
Most obscure reference, ever.
Ordinarily I would say no, but this post reads uncannily like something my mom (who is old) would say. Scan bar code, place stuff in bag, money in, receipt out. Easy peasy.
Or “Having a party?” when you buy a lot of beer and some snack-type foods. No, actually, we’re just stocking up on beer for the two of us and got the munchies, but thanks for the unspoken insinuation that we’re alcoholics.
I like them when I have maybe a half-dozen items and the checkout lines each have a couple people in line and/or they have big purchases. Whip through the self-checkout and we’re out of there.
My problem exactly!
I actually did some weird, back of the throat snorting noise in response to this one, I laughed so hard. Well played.
I wish they would add non-express-lane self checkout around here. They have 4 self check out stands at my local grocery store, but they’re all really small, designed for the 15-items-or-less (Fewer! Grr!) purchases. I want a big one with a belt for putting the groceries on. C’mon! Some of us know how to use them and want to use them for big shopping trips as well as run-in-and-pick-up-a-few-items trips.
I remember a number of years ago when these things were relatively new. I was using one when a relatively young woman who was standing in a regular checkout line looked over at those of us using the self-checkout and mumbled to her companion something about having to be a rocket scientist in order to use the self-checkout. I guess she thought the cashier scanning her groceries had a PHD in astrophysics.
I avoided them for years because of this:
but the new generation machines work pretty well. I actually recently switched grocery stores for the sole purpose of being able to self-checkout. I’ve yet to wait in line more than 2 or 3 minutes, and that’s on the rare occasions there is a line at all, even during rush hour.
I’m guessing they’d be worried that the higher the volume, the greater the potential for fraud.
Fresh & Easy has these. They (at least the ones near me) don’t have staffed checkout lanes at all - it’s a mix of the 15-items type and the belt ones. They have two or three people monitoring the checkout, in case you need help.
I do most of my shopping at Albertson’s because they’re the only full-size grocery store near me that has the self-checkout. I will use it for a whole cart and play food Tetris, trying to fit everything onto the scale. I know I can just hit the “Don’t bag this” option, but where’s the fun in that?
Well, that’s an easy way to get an honest answer to the question, “Do I look old?”
Now we need an entirely different machine to answer the question: “Do I look fat in this?”
I don’t have any problem with these machines, but I wonder if they somehow might psychologically encourage more shoplifting.
Our Walmart and K-Mart have these self-checkout but don’t use them anymore, 'cause there was too much theft with them. At least that’s what I was told when I asked.
I like them simply cause I can do my own bagging. I hate having to ask for double bags, no one seems to do this. Our local Jewel using mentally challanged people to bag and they don’t get the idea, you BOSS may have said to use one bag, but if the customers say “Please double bag everything,” you just do it. I’m tired of getting a five minute lecuture by these people on the evils of double bagging 
(And no I don’t blame them, they don’t understand, they were probably terrorized into not double bagging by their bosses, but that don’t change the fact in the end.)
with today’s economy it is possible…
i went to ikea last week. the self check out is frustrating because people don’t know how to bag for themselves, where the money/card/change slots are; or how to scan. it takes longer to check out.
they didn’t have any one at a cash register. very frustrating.
At Ikea, you’re always a little screwed when it comes to people bagging things. You have to do it yourself even at a regular cash register and you have to sort through what’s yours, what belongs to the person before you who didn’t know that they had to buy bags to put their stuff in, and what belongs to the person after you that the check-out guy is now slinging down the conveyor belt.
I’ve only been to one with the scanners and I thought it was great, but it was a weekday and not crowded, so I didn’t have to wait in line. I’ve been hoping that they’ll put them in at the one closer to me.
They seem to be appearing more and more here in the UK. I don’t like them because they just never seem to work very well (that is, I always see people having trouble with them). I’ve used them for single-item purchases, but can’t be bothered otherwise (it is more bother to use them)
When I get a discount for using them and helping the store save on extra cashiers, then I’ll use them. Until then, I’m getting the service I’m paying for.
Just don’t try to use them to get money from the ticket from a 50 pound change run at the Coinstar.
It jammed up trying to give 300 in bills and they had to call someone from home who was authorized to handle the money in the thing.(Of course when he showed up the first thing he did was simply cancel the ticket transaction, and have someone give me the money from a drawer, something and of the idiots could have done at any time He Then put an out of order sign, verbally bitch slapped some people and went back home to bed. To deal with it in the morning.)
Why on Earth is a cashier fine in handling a drawer with possibly 3000 bucks in cash in it, but even the 3rd shift manager can’t touch the self-checkout lane stack?