Because I worked as a package clerk as a kid, some 30 years ago. They spent a week training us to be cashiers and how to pack groceries as optimally and quickly as possible. And most places around here, the timing of the cashier is not good, especially since we usually have to pack our own groceries anyway.
Because I care about leaving, so I do everything I can to be faster. In economics, this is known as the principle-agent problem. At my local walmart, it is known as “I’m not a septuagenarian who’s been hitting a vape pen for the last 5 hours.”
I have maybe once checked out at an in-person check-out where the person scanning was twice as slow as me on my own at a self-service checkout.
Normally at an in-person checkout, I am in fact the bottleneck placing stuff in bags. I’m already motivated to do that as quickly as possible, and the person scanning is still faster than that. Are you like the other person and just standing around while the cashier bags your groceries? If you “really care about leaving” you could do something about that.
How can you be faster when you have to both scan and bag everything, whereas at the human checkout you only have to bag?
Because I worked as a package clerk as a kid, some 30 years ago. They spent a week training us to be cashiers and how to pack groceries as optimally and quickly as possible. And most places around here, the timing of the cashier is not good, especially since we usually have to pack our own groceries anyway.
Because I care about leaving, so I do everything I can to be faster. In economics, this is known as the principle-agent problem. At my local walmart, it is known as “I’m not a septuagenarian who’s been hitting a vape pen for the last 5 hours.”
I have maybe once checked out at an in-person check-out where the person scanning was twice as slow as me on my own at a self-service checkout.
Normally at an in-person checkout, I am in fact the bottleneck placing stuff in bags. I’m already motivated to do that as quickly as possible, and the person scanning is still faster than that. Are you like the other person and just standing around while the cashier bags your groceries? If you “really care about leaving” you could do something about that.
Amusing that you think the employees scanning shit aren’t also the ones bagging it.
But to answer your question, I’m faster because I have an incentive to get shit scanned and bagged, vs just riding the till for 8 hours.
OK, so the reason is because in the situation with two people, you fail to make use of both to make it go faster, and instead just stand around.
So if speed were the priority, I have a suggestion for you.
Hint, they’re probably not. They perceive themselves as faster, but on average the employees are.