I agree with the fear thing, or at least round here. I love the self-scanning machines and almost never need a cashier, and I use them weekly. I’d use them everywhere if I could. And I was a cashier.
My husband still writes checks. It’s not like he’s chiseling it out on a rock. And the tech isn’t any faster when the machine takes forever to process and then kills the transaction, and we have to do it all over again.
I once used the automated postage thingy at the PO when there was a long line. But there were no Priority Mail stickers on the machine (as advertised) or anywhere in the lobby, so I still had to stand in line to get one. :mad: I mentioned the missing stickers to the clerk, but she didn’t seem terribly inclined to get the problem fixed.
I don’t think there’s really any danger of the self-checkouts completely replacing the staffed registers. Self-checkouts are great in some circumstances, not all. If I have a few things that don’t need special attention, I do it myself. If I have a whole cart full of stuff, I go to a staffed register. I think most people operate the same way.
Similarly, ATM’s didn’t eliminate the job of bank teller. The ATM has limited functionality. More complicated transactions are handled by the teller.
I for one welcome our new automated, time-saving overlords.
Well, I would imagine carrying all those rocks around would be cumbersome.
And if they did, would anyone really object? Let’s say there was some type of RFID in the cart that just charged it to your credit card (or some type of prepaid account) and you could walk right out the door with no line or scanning at all? Would anyone really bemoan that? If I am going to pay someone to do work of no value, I might as well pay taxes to give them welfare benefits. Then at least they get the free time to raise their kids or learn a new skill. Yes, the wages of the cashiers are ultimately paid by the customers. Where on earth else would they come from?
I’ll go through a line with a cashier if I have a lot of stuff (which I usually do) because the shelves at the self-checkout only hold so much. Sometimes I’ll go to a cashier with a medium-sized basket of goods when there’s a lot of produce, because the weighing and typing in the codes is kind of a pain.
Sometimes I think tech that’s based on pre-printing tickets is kind of a pain although it reduces waits, because now the burden is on the customer to carry some piece of paper around that they wouldn’t otherwise be responsible for. I don’t necessarily seek that kind of tech out, although sometimes I’d rather deal with the paper than the wait.
I like automated services if they save me time or money or effort, but they don’t always.
In my new neighborhood, they’re phasing out grocery store cashiers, whether customers like it or not, leaving only one or two cashiers per massive store. And it’s not like they’re lowering prices to compensate. Got a full cart and you don’t feel like being an unpaid employee, unloading it all, scanning it all, bagging it all and reloading it yourself? Get in the long, long line. Baaaaaaaaa.
Although, at these same chains, in my previous (more affluent) neighborhood, you get full service, with cashiers, baggers, and guys outside who load your car for you. The customer base there is mostly self-entitled, rude, and demanding. See, nice guys finish last.
This has been my experience. I’m not afraid of technology, but every time I’ve tried to use self-checkout something goes wrong, no matter how closely I follow the instructions.
I use the self-scanners all the time, though I guess our stores are better staffed, as it never takes more than 15 seconds for an employee to come OK an alcohol sale or whatever. I’m pretty sure ours can handle anything, including non-coded bakery good, produce, etc. The screen’s basically a hierarchical menu, like an ATM.
I check-in flights from home, I use NextBus all the time (“hey, sweet, I have time to get a burrito” or “20 minutes? I’ll just walk”), and I also love BevMo’s order-online-and-pick-up-in-store option. Browse the store at home/work, select & pay online, and be in and out of the store in less than a minute.
Harriet the Spry- we’re almost there. We’re beta testing something similar with the transit systems. I have one, and I just touch my wallet to the sensor and walk by the crowd. It’s awesome.
I think these two points are major parts of the answer. Usually I don’t pay for the groceries, I trundle on out to the car while my husband pays for them (with a check, he doesn’t like debit cards) but I have tried the self-service line a couple of dozen times, in various supermarkets. While I wouldn’t say I’m particularly technically savvy, I can generally pick up on how to make things work, if they’re designed halfway well. Self-checkout machines are not intuitive. Upon trying one for the first time, I had to be coached through it. There were no real instructions on how to check myself out. I think that this is a big design flaw. And yes, I felt damned stupid while I was trying to puzzle it out. I have always been one of the smarter kids in the class, I can easily pick up a new skill just by reading about it, I’m a member of Mensa, and generally I feel confident that I’m pretty intelligent. And I was made to feel stupid by this machine. I can only imagine how my husband’s parents would feel, as both of them had dropped out of high school, didn’t read for pleasure, and couldn’t multiply anything over 10.
If the stores want their customers to use the machines, they have to make the machines easy to use. They should also make the machines PLEASANT to use.
Possibly because these folks are not frequent travellers on that route. I would certainly not be interested in getting a pass if I only used the route occasionally.
I almost never drove over any of the bridges here (San Francisco) but our FasTrak system has no service or monthly charges at all, so even if I used it once a year, it was still 100% worth it. You just stick it to the windshield in a corner or behind the rear-view mirror and forget about it. Depending on traffic, it could save you way more time than the minute or two we’re piddling about with the self-checkout kiosks. Plus if I ever drove to Southern California, I could use it on their tolled express roads as well.
And is there a reason, besides your own personal involvement, that the cashier’s job is somehow more worthy of protection than the job of someone who works in manufacturing the self-checkout equipment? Somehow this seems like someone in the 1920’s refusing to buy an automobile because he didn’t want to see blacksmiths lose their jobs.
In the Dallas area, at least, while there are no service fees, the TollTag system takes a chunk of money out of your account (used to be $40, not sure what it is now) and paid tolls out of that until the balance got low, then another chunk was taken out. So if you never take toll roads, that’s essentially $40 that you don’t have. Also, until about a year ago the transponder was a plastic box that you attached to the windshield via velcro strips, and at least initially there were reports of people’s cars getting broken into to steal the tag.
Also, when the system first came out, there really weren’t any of the full-speed tag lanes, you still had to stop at the gate, you just didn’t have to toss change in and you got a bit of a discount, so there was no initial massive speed increase. And now, tollroads are moving to systems where there are no booths at all–if you don’t have a tag, it just takes a picture of your plate and sends you a bill. So we really seem to be near the end of a rather short time window in which a tag actually saves you a lot of time.
Similarly, I refuse to use those robots they have taking phone calls, even if it would go faster, because I don’t think we should be putting Indians out of work.
I just don`t like the idea of people losing jobs to robots.
I tend to shop rarely and at off hours though, so there’s usually no wait for a cashier anyway.
How many blacksmiths do you know who still have jobs? Seems like that in the 20s was right about the future all along. If only more people had followed suit, we might have market for blacksmiths today. Imagine 80 years from now when robots do all the work we used to do, and people just manufacture robots. 
For everyone who thinks I should use the cashier instead of the automated machine, do you still buy regular film and get it developed or do you use digital cameras? Don’t you think people who work in film labs have lost their jobs due to more people using digital cameras? Email vs regular mail? You don’t pay at the gas pump with your credit or debit car instead of going into the gas station, right? There are dozens of examples that could be given.
I imagine there’s a big intimidation/fear/frustration factored in not using the self checkouts at stores. People try it once and have to wait for assistance is your frustration. That happening once or twice and you decide you’re just as well off standing in line with everyone else.
In the matter of airport check-ins, I’ll add ignorance. Most people just aren’t aware that it’s an option until they get there.
And the camera put portrait and landscape painters out of business.
Just got home last night from a business trip to upstate NY. On the long drive home, especially at tolls, I was thinking just how convenient it would be if I were to finally sign up for EZ-Pass.
This thread reminded me of that thought about fifteen minutes ago. I’m now a happy EZ-Pass user, waiting for my tag to come in the mail :).
Oh yes… and the reason why I never bothered before is because I just don’t travel much on toll roads. I imagine that’s why most folks don’t. These days I find myself on toll roads a little bit more so it’s a great time to start.
Maybe not ignorance. Maybe instead, an understanding that the “in” part of “check-in” means “I’m in the airport and ready to go,” rather than “I’m not in the airport but I am somewhere miles away and I am unsure if traffic and other local conditions will allow me to get there in time for my flight; but what the hell, I’ll tell you that I’m there now anyway.”
I’ll happily use the automated check-in kiosks at the airport itself, but I’m not going to check in using my computer and the Internet from who-knows-where unless there is absolutely zero chance that I might be held up somehow. Having had a couple of incidents where I nearly missed my flights due to traffic clogging all the roads heading to airports, I prefer to check in at the airport itself. That way, the airline isn’t thinking I’m there, when I’m not.
Grocery store self check outs - None of the stores around here do it very well yet. If all I have is 3 items, all with a manufacturer applied label, I’ve got a decent chance of getting through the self-scan system. Add in anything just a little odd, and I end up spending lots of time convincing the system that I’m really not stealing the 12 pack of Coke (No, I CAN’T put it on the scale, there isn’t any room) or the sauce packet (to light to trip the scale). Heaven forbid I have a full cart. The checkers have a nice big conveyor belt to put all that stuff on. I have to try to cram it in bags on the scales. It probably takes me 5 times as long to scan as it takes the employee to do it.
Airlines - I’d love to be able to use the self-checkings. But again, the technology isn’t up to snuff. On our last trip, between my SO and I, of the 4 checkins we did (2 each) 3 wouldn’t go through on the self serve kiosks. So we ended up standing in line, and in one case, got to the front of the line, to be told I had to go stand in some other line. Crikey people. How about a system that tells me what the issue is, and directs me to someone that can help.
Toll booths - Maybe those people still in the cash lanes are like me, either visitors or people who seldom use the tollways. In either case, it’s not worth the hassle to have the EZ passes.