My mother flew in last night for the weekend. We stopped at a Harris Teeter to grab her some things that she decided she wanted on the way home.

Got to the checkout and none of the lines were opened. I asked a cashier and was ushered to the self checkout lanes.

If I have to ring myself up, bag my groceries, and fight with the goddam machine to scan my items, I should get a discount for doing their job.

I was not happy. I loathe self checkout at a grocery store. Idiot cashiers putting themselves out of a job. Took three times as long, too, since we had several bags worth of things and the damned thing kept beeping at me.

Walmart just converted 80% of their checkout lines to the self-checkout type. You have to scan each item, place it in a bag, wait for it to check the weight, and then scan your next item. All the while a loud announcer is prompting you for every task. It's slow, annoying, and fails a lot.

Local grocery and hardware stores are gradually converting as well.

I've heard of grocery stores where you scan all items as you place them in your cart and then just roll the cart to your vehicle. That might be worth trying.

I remember from 2000-2004 when I was working at Home Depot and they started putting the self check machines in and management saying it wouldn’t eliminate any jobs. Well it sure as hell did when you have 1 person manning 4 machines when it used to be 4 people manning 4 registers.

They are pushing for internet ordering and just picking it up at the store. No cashier needed. With the flood of low skill peeps coming in, there is a push to eliminate low skilled jobs.

quote:

Originally posted by bryan11:
Walmart just converted 80% of their checkout lines to the self-checkout type. You have to scan each item, place it in a bag, wait for it to check the weight, and then scan your next item. All the while a loud announcer is prompting you for every task. It's slow, annoying, and fails a lot.

Local grocery and hardware stores are gradually converting as well.

I've heard of grocery stores where you scan all items as you place them in your cart and then just roll the cart to your vehicle. That might be worth trying.

Try the conveyor belt ones, they work much better.

I find them great if you have 1 or 2 items with a bar code. Anything outside of that, they suck completely with the delay to weigh the item etc.

I actually prefer the self-checkout as long as I don't have a large number of items, say a dozen or less. Now if I'm buying 48 cans of cat food, it's a different story - a regular cashier can scan one of them and tell the machine to multiply the price by 48, but doing it myself I have to scan each and every one of those F'ing things.

The Albertson's where I usually shop used to have a couple of self-checkout lanes, but they removed them last year. Don't know why.

I hate them with a fucking passion! I buy lots of groceries because I don’t eat out often, preferring to make all my meals for the week. So when I hit the grocery store I’m buying more than a few items. That got damn self checkout deal. So I’m filling up bag 3 or 4 and have to move them out of the way and the computer is bitching about it, acting like I’m stealing or something. “Need cashier” or whatever the message is. The lady comes over, swipes her card to get Her9000 to shut the fuck up. Another bag or two (I’m loading the full plastic sacks back into my cart) it starts bitching again. She has to come over and swipe her card yet again. Then like others, the damn thing won’t read some of the bar codes. Or you sift through the touch screen trying to find the produce code for your produce or veggies. I want to pull out the semi and put a mag into the thing. I’ve got shit to do.

I love self checkout. I never buy more than a dozen items in any trip to a store and I’m faster than most cashiers plus I get to bag things how I want to and I don’t have to talk to anyone. I love it.

I like the self checkouts just because I don’t have to deal with the suggest sell and/or asking if I want to donate to this or that.

The only time I don’t like the self checkout is if I have a bunch of items.

Self checkout at Wal Mart is an improvement for Wal Mart. They never have enough cashiers to begin with. Otherwise, I don't like it either. It's ok as an option, but not when you start lowering the number of cashiers and force people to use it.

I'm old and I'm lazy. I hate them. What happens when you buy some horrendous item at Walmart like shotgun shells. I assume all sorts of alarms go off and the one cashier runs over to check your ID. Kinda reminds you of that movie, where the guy gets everyone to shout, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!"

They're not surly. They give correct change. They don't expect me to chat with them. What's not to love?

 
I'd rather (and do) wait in line at one of the two or three open cashiers rather than use one of the 1,000 self-checkout lines at Walmart. I tried it once, enough.

quote:

I've heard of grocery stores where you scan all items as you place them in your cart and then just roll the cart to your vehicle. That might be worth trying.

One of my local stores has this and its awesome. Scan and bag your items as they go in your cart. Get to checkout an use the hand scanner to scan a barcode at the register. Transfers everything over and boom you are done.

They audit you like every 10th trip and give you a $2 off coupon when they do that. They don't audit every item, usually less than 10 than you are good to go.

quote:

Originally posted by Expert308:
I actually prefer the self-checkout as long as I don't have a large number of items, say a dozen or less.

Same. If I have a handful of items, self checkout is great. If I have a cartload of items, I go to an actual cashier.

I absolutely hate the self checkouts after being accused of shoplifting when a box of sandwich size ziplock bags did not ring up when checking out almost a $100 order. During the entire checkout the attendant helped me twice. Once in ringing up beer and once when something didnt scan and caused the register to been at me.

On my way out Barnie stopped me at the door and asked for my reciept which I happily gave him. He proceeded to ask if I wanted to tell him anything. He then shows me his video "evidence" of me scanning my items....apparently the zip locks didnt scan and I didnt notice because I was looking over my shoulder asking the cashier to come over since my beer was coming up next.

I asked him if the normal M.O. for their shop lifters was to buy $100 of groceries so they could swipe a $5.00 box of zip locks. It was an amazing waste of time and justification of his job......instead of recognizing an honest mistake he plows through his whole process as if I tried to smuggle out a few flatscreen TVs in my underwear.

So yea I hate them and when I do have to use them I am so damn anal about ensuring everything dings when scanned.

I refuse to use self check out. Every time you use it, you are supporting companies to use less employees. TIN HAT WARNING The end goal is a cashless society.

I hate them and refuse to use them no matter what. Even if I have one item I will wait in line behind people who have many items in their cart. It does nothing other than put people out of work and increase the companies profits.

A version I like has been implemented by our local Smith’s stores. You get a handheld scanner when you walk in and scan items as you put them in your cart. There are wireless scales in produce for weighed items. Once you hit the self-checkout, you scan the terminal and your handheld unit transfers your order to the screen. Pay and go.

I’ve always thought the job argument against these was ridiculous. It’s called progress. Good luck fighting it forever. I don’t see any arguments for lamp lighters, stable hands, or chimney sweep jobs.