[…] Me: “I don’t work here”
This gives me big “ok boomer” vibes. Instead of this, imo, snarky response, could you not simply politely say that you prefer a human cashier?
Remember the human.
The point is that we are being asked as paying customers to perform work which previously employed people to do it for us, strictly out of a profit motive for the store.
They are destroying jobs by shifting the workload onto the customer, so that some chain cunt can marginally increase their already immense wealth while fucking over the workers and the customers.
As as introverted person, I gotta say self-checkout machines are my favourite invention in stores.
I’m faster than anyone who works there, and I don’t need to worry about long lines (usually the self checkout is the faster option). The time saved is my payment.
The time saved is my payment.
This point seems to get missed on all these “I don’t work here” arguments. Yeah, I don’t work here, so I’d like to be in and out quickly so I can spend my precious free time for things I actually like to do. If “time is money” anyway, then what’s the difference? I’d rather scan my own things, skip the chitchat, and reclaim the personal time I would’ve spent waiting.
I’m split on this. On the one hand if they didn’t have self checkout, they’d need more checkout people. On the other hand, before self checkout they didn’t really give a fuck if you had to wait in line (especially Walmart holy shit that was one of the biggest reasons I never went there, the fucking checkout line).
if they didn’t have self checkout, they’d need more checkout people
They would certainly need more checkout people, but speaking from grocery cashier experience they wouldn’t necessarily have them. I remember my manager’s indifference as I was the only one to show up on Thanksgiving and there were literally 30 people in my line.
That’s a perennial problem. How do you connect the responsibility to the authority? The cashiers are the ones who have to face 30 angry customers, (face the responsibility) not the manager. (the one who has the authority to change things) Customers can complain to the cashier, but they have no authority. They can complain to the manager, but the manager is getting a portion of the money not spent on hiring full staff in the form of a bonus, so they’re encouraged to ignore the complaint. It takes a certain critical mass of customers all spending less at the store before there’s even a possibility of someone noticing a revenue drop, and no guarantee the blame will be put where it belongs if it happens.
I think that’s one of the things that bothered me most. My manager was standing right there about 30 feet away, but the customers were directing all of their anger at me, by choice. One would think a rational person would understand where to direct that anger, but I’m increasingly convinced every year that rational people don’t exist.
I remember checking groceries at frankly unprecedented speed while being a polite as possible, but one guy started yelling names at me from five or so people back. I decided to ignore him and continue serving my current customer with a smile and he yelled “Stop smiling!”. This was so shocking to me that I looked at the other customers in line to share a “Can you believe this guy?” moment to find them all nodding along in angry agreement.
I didn’t even need that job. I’m so angry at my naive younger self for not quitting on the spot and making sure all of them knew exactly why.
Y’know that grocery stores could simply staff enough checkout registers and then all this self-checkout time-savings goes away, right? The stores - following the airline model - created a problem for the consumer (long checkout lines due to understaffing) and then effectively sold the customer the solution (you do your own labor, but grocery prices stay the same).
following the airline model
? Are you talking about, like, baggage prices?
Iirc, airline margins are super thin, and their customers are extremely price sensitive. In order to stay competitive, airlines need to be able to sell their customers on the lowest possible flight price, while still not losing money on every single flight. The solution is to charge the customer more directly for the scarce resources they use on a flight. Extra weight on the plane means more fuel used to reach the destination. Charging for each checked bag rewards people for travelling light, while giving everyone a free bag punishes the light traveller with higher fares. Sure, the byzantine fee structure in the booking process is annoying - but at the end of the day, flights are now extremely cheap historically speaking, and a pay-for-what-you-use model makes sense.
Of course, the actual solution is to have a better system of busses and trains. And the airline industry is always lobbying against that. But I’m not sure what the comparable action in the grocery industry would be.
“If” in one hand, shit in the other. Which fills up first?
Back in the day, I shopped at the one grocery store in a bit of a food desert. They’d have all…I don’t remember 10? 12?..checkout lines open all day, and you’re still guaranteed to spend half an hour in line. If they could have replaced 2 checkout lines with 6 self-check kiosks, or 4 & 12, it would have helped a lot, but they hadn’t been invented yet.
Now, I shop in a better neighborhood where they have 6 kiosks, one staffed checkout, and 8 lanes closed. Start with a technical solution to a real problem, and some MBA is going to come in and figure out how to turn it back into a problem.
Until you get stuck between Ethel (who is trying to fill out a paper check and make small talk because she’s lonely) and Bob (who has no sense of personal space and smells like he doesn’t know how to wipe).
Non-self-checkout sucks.
Added bonus of not having to talk to anybody.
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.
You should change place then??
I know I’m in the minority but I prefer self checkout so I don’t have to talk to people. Same reason I quit customer service work. I do not want to hear about your day I want to pay for my shit and leave.
In Europe it’s becoming popular to have scanners at the store entrance that you can take and scan your products as you go. Sometimes you can also do it with a phone app instead. Then, at the self-checkout, you just scan one code instead and pay right away. I love this system because it’s quicker and you get to avoid the anxiety of packing your bags too slowly.
I would kill for this. Maybe not kil, it’s not a big deal. But I used to walk into my local grocer and just drop shit in the reusable bags I always bring. Then people were stealing, obviously, so they said you gotta use the baskets or a cart. So I use a cart, and it’s not a big deal, it doesn’t matter, but if I could scan, drop in my bag, and walk on, it would save a couple minutes. But as I said, it’s not a big deal, nothing matters.
the anxiety of packing your bags too slowly
Haha, spotted the German. This isn’t really a thing elsewhere, not to that extent.
Speak for yourself
I mean the level of pressure is lower elsewhere than in Germany, of course it’s still easy to feel anxious anywhere
You say it’s not a thing anywhere else, but you also say it’s easy to feel that way anywhere. Those two statements aren’t congruent
Yes the first one came out wrong. The “this” which I claim is not as much of a thing outside Germany is the insane pressure to pack your bag extremely quickly, not the feeling of anxiety.
I will never understand those who are afraid to face down a cashier. Is it REALLY that bad?
So many people complain about how modern society is isolating, but then go running to do stuff where they further isolate themselves.
Am I afraid to face down a cashier? No.
Is it REALLY that bad? No.
Can I make awkward small talk with a stranger? Yes.
Do I want to make awkward small talk with a stranger? No.
Am I relieved that I’m not forced to interact with a stranger and can continue to have to my own inner thoughts and not have to spend time rehearsing in my head what to say if they ask me how I am because I feel weirdly compelled to answer it honestly instead of simply saying “fine” like most do? Absolutely.
Hearing about small talk an the checkout never ceases to be bizzare to me. In all the countries I’ve been to, the cashiers only say the sum to pay and then goodbye.
Are cashiers in the United States of America really required to initiate meaningless conversations? I’ve also heard of the occupation of a door greater, which sounds even crazier.
Are cashiers in the United States of America really required to initiate meaningless conversations? I’ve also heard of the occupation of a door greater, which sounds even crazier.
The corporate ideal has their weird idea that everyone desperately wants to have conversations with employees. I think it comes from positive feedback often taking the form of, “Your employee was so warm and helpful and we had a delightful chat about X.” and never, “Your employee was polite and didn’t bother me with needless conversation.” One of the trainings my employer has even includes a scenario, which is presented as ideal service, where the employee ends up chatting with a complete stranger about his dead wife including sharing pictures from his wallet.
That said, while I’m sure corporate cares none of my in store managers cared when I was a cashier. Indeed, I had regulars who would seek me out because I specifically didn’t attempt to inject small talk into the interaction. I’d still get pulled into it by customers who initiated such but otherwise it was mostly, “Morning. Coupons? That’ll be $X.XX. Have a good one.”
A grocery store I used to frequent, I always picked this one lady’s cashier line if she was around 'cause she was nice to talk to. She liked Mortal Kombat and making her own pickles.
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then go running to do stuff where they further isolate themselves
Mmm yeah, cos it’s such quality time interacting with the cashier. Like, you’re not totally wrong about the problem, isolation does make us even less able to handle interaction, but making people bag groceries for a living is not the way to solve that problem. Anyway, it’s not fair to force your desire to have a conversation on someone who is trapped working somewhere.
I used to work service, and having people to talk to generally made the day much better. I definitely had favorite customers, and what do you know, it was typically people who were social.
I currently work in retail, please just tell me what you want, pay for it, and GTFO. I have significantly more important tasks to do than chit chat.
Geez, I hope they’re not putting you front of counter.
Either amusingly or sadly, honestly, I still haven’t decided which, I am my store’s top earner and am considered a solid keyholder to the point I am regularly sent to go help out other stores of their messes.
Well, that doesn’t necessarily require a keen bedside manner.
You say sadly. Do you… like your job? I know it can’t always be helped, but I do hope you find a way to move into something better, if there is such a thing. My service job was almost a decade of my life, and I was sooo glad to leave when I was finally given an exit.
I’ve never even considered it. If I have too many items, I go cashier. We shoot the poop or we don’t, I bag my groceries and go home. If I have few items, I qualify for the self-checkout, I do my shit, say “Thank you” to the person who monitors the lanes, and then I go home. I give none of it a second thought because it’s such a meaningless part of my day.
It’s not that bad, it’s just more bad than self check.
Personally I hate waiting in line, I can feel the life leaving my body. I self check for speed.
Apparently line impatience is an ADHD thing, but regardless of where it comes from I appreciate being able to do it myself instead of waiting.
I have add. Proper diagnosis from a doctor and everything.
I’ve had to learn how to curb impatience. It is not a permanent affliction, it is a bad habit. Patience is a virtue that can be nurtured.
Yes cultivating patience is a great skill, but I have no interest in spending more time in line than I have to.
Wow, an ADD person telling an ADHD person to grow some patience, almost like they are very different things or something because I can tell you personally that the H in ADHD does not play well with patience.
sometimes I do, but if I’m having a really good day I like to see if I can spread it to the customer service staff.
Tell me the OP is from the US without telling me they’re from the US.
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Countries I have visited, I never see a self checkout. Not sure if that is the norm.
“Don’t you hate it when you walk into a grocer and they expect you to pick out the items yourself? I don’t work here, I just want to say “1 pound of ham and 2 loafs of bread” at the clerk, pay and pick them up. I’ve been to this new Piggley Wiggly, can’t find anything, spent like an hour to find beans. Imagine if I was paid for that time, I would have made 15¢!”
OP in 1925, probably.
Silly take. The problem isn’t having to move my own items around across a scanner. The problem is me doing more, the store doing less, and the prices just keep going up anyways. You’d rather just silently get less?
Oh, and also the ridiculous cameras they stick right in your face pre-accusing me of stealing in the checkout. And having to juggle a whole cart of groceries while the machine asks me to move the item off and on the bagging area.
Maybe if they had implemented the system better I wouldn’t mind using it?
That is literally what I am talking about, though. “you doing more, the store doing less, prices increase anyway” is exactly the same thing as happened 100 years ago.
Stores where customers didn’t have access to the back also don’t need security cameras, so even that point is 1:1 the same (although that’s way later than 1925 then).
We have lost most of the stores where a clerk will collect your items for you, they once were the only option. At this rate, we will lose most of the stores where a clerk will scan the items for you as well. Simply because 1 clerk and 20 cameras is cheaper than 15 clerks.
I’m not saying that you have to like or hate both developments equally, I just wanted to point out that we have had and lost this exact battle before.
We have lost most of the stores where a clerk will collect your items for you
Actually, pretty much the opposite, they are making a comeback in the form of curbside ordering. Walking through a grocery store or walmart nowadays there’s a large number of staff picking items from the shelf.
It’s been crazy to see people going nuts about having to scan their own items at the same time the bigger pain in the ass of picking the items is now being offered at no additional charge.
Try ordering ahead with curbside pickup if you haven’t yet and it’s an option for you.
If not … Idk … You’ll be alright. I actually prefer self checkout and to bag my own stuff so do keep in mind people have the literal opposite feelings on this topic too.
Not to say anyone’s right or wrong, but I do agree with the post you replied to, I bet so many people were mad they couldn’t just make a list and hand it to the clerk. I wonder how many tried at first to give the cashiers or other employees a list to get for them and then were surprised when they said they had to go get it themselves.
Now we’ve gone full circle with the curbside pick up stuff! I really like it, but sometimes they do bag stuff nonsensically but no big deal.
Curbside pickup is an inconvenient option. Screens are a terrible interface for picking groceries. Maybe in the future a VR option will be as, or more, convenient
I prefer the fastest and most convenient option. Picking out products in person is faster, and having a cashier scan the items is faster
Seems most people like self-checkout because they have anti-social tendencies. That’s perfectly valid, but I don’t have that issue. I actually enjoy small talk with strangers
I don’t trust them with produce, but pretty much everything else it’s highly convenient for me. I’m certainly happy for the apps to tell me which aisle a food is in, but then I have to hunt anyway. It’s certainly not faster for me to walk around versus just picking up the ready to go ordered stuff.
Of course I’ll be alright. I order ahead all the time and get my groceries delivered, but that requires pre planning. Sometimes I just want to go to the grocery store and walk around and have 30 seconds of social interaction in the process because the cashiers enjoyed talking to someone pleasant for 30 seconds too. Self checkout is less convenient than ordering delivery groceries, so if a store wants to make me use self checkout, I guess I’ll just use their competitor and skip the issue entirely?
Its not about getting mad for the sake of hating change or having to do more work. Why don’t they offer me even just a one dollar discount for using a self checking? A fifty cents discount? Because it’s all about the CEO firing their employees and pocketing the extra cash, to no benefit on my behalf or anyone elses. I guess aside from people who don’t care to even question or think it through.
That sounds way better! Then they wouldn’t keep rearranging the aisles so you shop for longer.
This is actually pretty funny with the number of stores that offer the option to have stuff gathered by staff and ready for curbside pickup.
That change was driven by the drastic expansion is quantity and variety of goods. A person couldn’t reasonably verbally dictate what they’d like to buy in a modern grocery store. It’s far more convenient to choose them yourself
The driving factor for self-checkout was solely profit, not customer convenience. I, personally, find it far more convenient to have a cashier do the checkout, because they’re far faster and the responsibility of doing it correctly is on them, not me. I don’t want police showing up at my house because the AI at my grocery store incorrectly decided I stole
Look at all the people in this thread complaining about how slow other customers are in self-checkout. It’s clearly a widespread issue
fun fact: you can get a discount at a self-checkout! grocery stores hate this one trick!
Uhh yeah there’s a camera there now, and literally my local grocery store of choice, Food Lion, fucking shows you your ass on its display screen. Which is basically saying “Fucking do it mother fucker, we dare you, we double dog dare you.”
You could probably do it if you never plan on entering that store ever again.
Yeah, better pay cash n wear a mask tho. They are starting to bust people for that.
https://www.gulfcoastnewsnow.com/article/self-checkout-machine-retail-theft-shopping/64244074
UNEXPECTED ITEM IN BAGGING AREA! 😡
I get that you are technically doing someone’s job for free, but you can always collect your “pay” by giving yourself a “discount.” Personally, I prefer to scan my avacados as potatoes so I can have my avocado toast every day and be able to save up for a house. I’m almost there, it’s only gonna take 30 more years for a down payment! 😁😀🙂😐☹️😢😭
I suppose you might also leave trash at your seat in a movie theater or restaurant. After all, cleaning up is someone else’s job and you don’t even work there. Plus, you can pat yourself on the back for contributing to that person’s job security with your added burden like some of the people here.
That’s not the same, in OP’s case it’s about the store outsourcing the work onto the customer while cutting labor costs so some rich fuck can get slightly richer, while not littering is a matter of basic social responsibility, not a labor situation.
That’s not the same, in OP’s case you’re doing the business’s job for free so some rich fuck can get richer by fucking over both the workers and the customers, while in the other case not littering is basic social responsibility, not labor substitution.
Bro, are you really getting this fucking serious for a meme, chill the fuck out
Genx here
Ok boomer
Some of us prefer non-human interaction
Still ought to be discounted since it’s eliminating jobs.
Do you prefer any human interaction?
/s kinda
Just do like me and replay a Homestarrunner cartoon while waiting in line. Then reference it like the 18 year old at check out knows what the crap you are talking about.
‘I’m sorry, Mergetrude, can you halp an old master gather his particles…?’
Reminds me of this Bill Burr clip.
"You know what I hate about these corporate chains? You go in there you’re paying for a business, they make you like do half the job now. I don’t get it. Like I walk in there,
- Hey, lemme get a turkey sandwich. Lettuce, tomato, on rye, with mayonnaise.
The guy behind the counter’s like,
- All right, turkey sandwich, lettuce, tomato, on rye.
- And mayonnaise.
- Oh, the mayonnaise is, uuh, right over there.
- Really? Why don’t you, UUH, fucking GO OVER THERE and, UUH, put it on my sandwich?"
(Yeah I just wrote that out. Why? Fuck you I don’t have to explain myself to you.)
Back when Fudruckers was a thing, I always got upset when people wanted to go there.
If I’m paying you $18 for a mediocre hamburger, you can put on the damn lettuce.
This thread has made me feel so incredibly millennial.
The self checkout person always thinks I’m cute and gives me good deals
Hate to break this to you, but you are on the QTEE list and everyone is looking at your picture while they get coffee in the morning in the break room.
oh nooooo, how dare they offer you a convenient option that saves time
UNEXPECTED ITEM IN BAGGING AREA. Sorry, Jandro, I’m not here to get yelled at by a clanker.
maybe I’m just lucky, but I’ve never had that particular issue. the only time it’s been slightly annoying is if I’m buying alcohol and the people watching self checkout are busy, and other than that, they’re easy to use. I don’t buy huge chunks of groceries at a time, though, ad I imagine large shops would be annoying
clanker
*Claptrap
You support taking away jobs
if you wanna know my actual beliefs on the matter, people shouldn’t have to do meaningless labor to live
What does that have to do with taking away jobs? A lot of jobs are meaningless doesn’t mean you help corporations save a buck.
I have witnessed far to many people with full carts que into the self check out, and than they get frustrated when every other thing they scan throws a flag.
Bitch, SCO is for 10 items or less!
Here in NZ, the self checkout is the preferred option for any amount of shopping. It’s so much quicker and you don’t have to engage in pointless small talk. I just got home from doing some grocery shopping and they had about 10 self checkouts and maybe 2 or 3 human ones that nobody was using.
I don’t enter a store without coming out with beer, an item that needs to be age verified by a cashier. I always have to stand around waiting for one of them to leave the cash register and come over and clear it.
Pisses me off.
Give me my god damned beer so nobody gets hurt.
Yo, recommend me a beer! I don’t like hazy stuff but everything else is on the menu.
Look, I don’t know where you live, your standards, or your money situation, so it’s a tricky ask. For me I drink the cheapest shit because I drink a lot of it, but I recently went to Laos, and they had a beer, like basically the only beer they have, called Beerlao, which is partly made with rice, and it’s fucking FANTASTIC.
If you can find that shit on the shelves, try it out. Though tariffs just hit Laos exports with 50% so, my advice stands- buy the cheapest shit possible and drink a lot of it because what is about to unfold in the world will require you to be drunk or dead to endure it.
Is it really? I’ve never seen such a sign in my corner of the US. Often there’s only one human operated checkout.
The ‘let the kid touch the hot stove’ approach.
It worked on me, but I fear other people might nurse their burns and pray that next time things will be different.My experience is different. It’s a dense urban grocer. Now that you mention it, I’ve been to Target in the suburbs where SCO was like thunder dome. A little more room for bagging, but not much. I feel so bad for the one team member dashing around checking IDs and explaining why coupons from a decade ago no longer work.
My location (different grocer ) may be privileged, because, even when it’s slow, there are two full service registers. I remember how gross it felt watching a checker at Walmart in 02 also bag the groceries because baggers didn’t exist any more.
Self check out is faster especially since I can scan the items when I’m picking them off the shelves. The faster I can be outside and spend less time in those kind of commercial spaces the better. And no I don’t have agoraphobia. I just fucking hate the vibes of most stores.
But we love it when you visit… (Camera cranes in for an unrequited hug.)
