quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:
I like self checkout as I get out the door faster. I won't give workers shit either and ask for a discount "for doing their job" because I value my time more than scanning a few items.

It's not like they made that policy. Don't like that policy, let corporate know.

As far as asking for a discount, I am nice about it and don't do it to be mean. Most of the time they laugh, most understand why I am asking.
At some point stores will be so automated that there will no one to help anyone at all, then we will just shop at Amazon for everything from now on.

I am retired so I have the time to wait. Just about every store I go to that has self check out, I always see people waving their hand for someone to come help them because they have a problem.

The last two time I was at a store with self check out there was a longer line for self check then there was for a cashier.

Letting corporate know is a good idea I did not think of that,thanks.

It stinks and people shouldn't be rationalizing that it's OK and they damn sure should not excuse these corporations who are putting people out of work and placing on their customers the burden of a task that has always been provided as a part of shopping.

It's sad because they are removing customer service and in doing so, changing one of the fundamental things in our society, that goes back all the way to our beginnings, and it's infuriating because these corporations know that if all corporations do it, the consumer will have no choice.

It's sad and infuriating and wrong and unless you like being shit upon by having to not only pay today's outrageous prices, but also to do the work of checkout yourself, you will object to this greedy corporate change at any opportunity.

These corporation are changing our world, and that's no exaggeration, and the day will never come when I decide that this is OK and not an insult to these who patronize these businesses.

The customer in me prefers Self-Checkout (SCO). The old Loss Prevention worker in me both loved and hated SCO. SCO is easy and convenient and makes all kinds of theft way easier. Scan one and bag two of the same item. Scan a cheap item, bag a more expensive one. Put a cheap barcode over the expensive barcode and scan like normal. Or my favorite - Hold a barcode in your hand and scan that for every item. I’ve seen it all. It also increases the ease of credit card theft. Skimmers come in with 20 cards and activate between $5000 and $25000 in gift cards real fast - usually they work in pairs, so I’ve distracts the host with product codes while the other fills gift cards.

But it seems to be a justifiable risk. 10-20 or more registers manned by two or three employees and add a few more LP guys, and increase in shrink a bit. But savings on cashier pay and benefits must outweigh the rest by no small margin.

I kind of like self checkouts. There’s a couple markets, Walmarts and Costcos in my area that offer it. My likes are I can be sure the item scans at the advertised price and I don’t have to put up with a stupid cashier’s attitude. CA already requires you to bring your own bags so there’s no bagger issue.

My dislikes? The self checkout lines usually has twice the folks that the regular lines have so I’m not saving any time. And if I’m buying alcohol that requires a peep to either make sure I look like my 70+ years of age or scan my D/L. Folks need to get used it. As soon as they figure out the alcohol issue, it will be everywhere.

Glad folks like it. I could care less, but prices aren't going down and the employees now seem to have nothing to do...they appear to spend most of their time huddled in groups conversing. I think maybe my local market is just mismanaged...it's an irritating place to visit.

Their theft rate will soar. Between self check out, and retail theft being all but decriminalized in many places. They will pay for this in the long run.

These companies have been nudging people toward self checkout for years now by having only a lane or two open with long lines/long checkout times. Fast food is doing the same thing with phone apps.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
It's sad because they are removing customer service and in doing so, changing one of the fundamental things in our society, that goes back all the way to our beginnings, and it's infuriating because these corporations know that if all corporations do it, the consumer will have no choice.

That sentence describes exactly our family's attitude toward self checkout.

I wonder if SCO and loss prevention will lead to the costco model everywhere -- you can checkout but then everyone will have their cart spot checked against the receipt when exiting. So instead of checkers and baggers, they will have multiple people checking items to receipts?

My local supermarket prides themselves on their friendly service (like CFA). I can't see them moving to SCO. That'll be the day. They check to see no eggs are broken, that yogurt foil tops are sealed and intact, bag meat separately from the rest of your items, and other things that may not be typical of your average supermarket. It'll be a shame the day the convert to just sales of good and eliminate the services.

For the haters, please stop giving the employees shit about SCO. Send your comments to home office, the people in the store are not making these decisions. People are outright rude about this shit and it’s uncalled for.

quote:

Originally posted by Leemur:
For the haters...

Let's stow the ghetto lingo, shall we? "Haters" and "Hatin' on"- no. I don't want to see that stuff any more in this forum. I have mentioned this several times in the past few months and you can expect for me to keep saying it every time this language pops up here.

quote:

Originally posted by Leemur:
For the haters, please stop giving the employees shit about SCO. Send your comments to home office, the people in the store are not making these decisions. People are outright rude about this shit and it’s uncalled for.

We TIP THE KIND GIRL WHO RIDES HERD ON THIS FIASCO SND TAKES THE SHIT OVER IT ALL DAY EVERY DAY. We buy her gift cards. We are well aware it is not their fault.

Is everyone who “likes self checkout” happy with their infirm 88 year old mom or dad trying to check and bag their own big cart of groceries? Hell, I worry about my 80 year physically-unstable mom not falling and hurting herself while she does it.

I always go straight to the customer service desk to check out my groceries anyway. That's where they sell the lotto tickets. They love me there. I can see it in their faces.

Meh. High labor costs and unionized benefits eat into the meager profit most grocery stores make. I thought I read somewhere that store profit hovers around the 1-2% range and a broken bottle of ketchup wipes out the profit on a $100 sale. I don't know if it's true.

So this is just the stores cutting costs. I use self checkout more often than not.

The local self-checkouts can be okay if you remember ear protection as on the range. The recordings at all the self checkouts seem to be playing at 100dB, a bit louder than the background music in most restaurants.

quote:

Originally posted by Flashlightboy:
I thought I read somewhere that store profit hovers around the 1-2% range and a broken bottle of ketchup wipes out the profit on a $100 sale. I don't know if it's true.

Horse shit

quote:

Meh.

Yeah, leave it to you. No surprise.

quote:

Originally posted by MelissaDallas:
Really pisses me off to see elderly people with a full cart, including lots of produce that has to be looked up, trying to check themselves out. They are also not able to navigate the “digital coupon” shit on things they used to benefit from sales prices on.

This is a very good point. Mom's a Kroger shopper, largely because there's not a ton of choice in their neighborhood. My mom is about the most polite person someone might meet, but I can picture her giving Kroger the "double-barreled middle finger" over this insanity.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:

quote:

Originally posted by Flashlightboy:
I thought I read somewhere that store profit hovers around the 1-2% range and a broken bottle of ketchup wipes out the profit on a $100 sale. I don't know if it's true.

Horse shit

quote:

Meh.

Yeah, leave it to you. No surprise.

You think it's a ton of profit, right? It's not. Google results from any number of sites who study and report on this stuff say it's around 2%. That broken bottle of ketchup does eliminate the profit on close to $200 in sales after you factor in overhead and labor.

Yes, I'm meh on this. No reason to lament the lack of cashiers for most people and if you run into some issue, there's always an employee who is there to assist, even at Home Depot.

We don't complain about having to pump our own gas or having to load our own groceries in the car. No one complains about using an ATM as a teller replacement and neither do they complain about not having a travel agent to book your flight or that you're compromised in some way by having to do it yourself online.

So yes, you're not surprised by my Meh but I'm consistent about it.

Watch out for card skimmers.
Smiths (kroger) grocery store in New Mexico had a card scimmer at the self check-out for a month before it was discovered.

The story talks about people losing their food stamps but I imagine credit card info was also stolen.

https://www.kob.com/new-mexico...-at-los-lunas-store/

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