I know I'm the outlier, but I love me some self-checkouts. Most places* the line moves more quickly and I can bag as I go without the bread getting wedged between a box of cereal and a can of soup. (* Target seems to have a higher percentage of folks who choose self-checkout, and at least around here, they only have four, across from customer service. So the lines get jammed. But at Aldi? Boy Howdy, I am Out Of There while everyone else lines up for the lone, overworked cashier).
PS yes, I get why this is Bad For Labor. No lectures required kaithnxbyee.
Self-checkout stations have cameras aimed at your face. So far, I haven't noticed cameras in checkout aisles with cashiers.
I don't want my face with name to be on the internet, although preventing that may not be possible unless I wear Groucho Marx glasses, starting retroactively at birth.
... This is why you do spot checks. This is not a complicated concept: Automate a process, then do spot checks with a frequency based on some kind of KPI, stock accuracy, for example.
It’s not just the robots who are losing jobs. Think about their families!
OTOH I just got food from a restaurant that had closed their seating (take out only) because they can’t hire people to wait tables. 4 percent unemployment is a bitch.
I hate self checkout, esp at CVS. One day I just left my stuff at the front because no one was there and I could not stand being yelled at by the machine.
Also, it is a *drug store*. Why would you insanely loudly announce what people are buying at a drug store?
The hardest-working and most miserable person at any store is the person tasked with monitoring all the self-checkouts. At least if you’re running a cash register you can get into a flow state - scan, bag, have a good day, repeat. People trying to check themselves out will scan the same thing twice, try to buy a vegetable they can’t identify, lack the strength to heft their case of soda to the belt or the good sense to find the hand scanner. And they’re already mad when the self-checkout monitor comes to them.
I will say that before I started truly believing in my karma if I tried to scan something in the early days of self checkout and the scanner sucked and nobody helped me I would call it a “scan tax” for the store and just throw it in the bag.
I have not accidentally not scanned things at WalMart, because they are evil and I think they owe me and errybody else a can of chick peas and a pair of sewing scissors.
The Today show had a couple of "out of control crime and organized shoplifting/smash & grab" segments this morning. Evidently you can't drive home without getting followed and jumped by armed thieves! Who knew??
In a Wankermart aisle, I saw a guy whose cart was completely filled with things in white plastic bags lacking logos. Later, I saw him shuffle out very slowly through an unblocked, cashier-less checkout lane. I was preoccupied, or I would have thought of talking with someone at customer service. I don't love the company's wages and owners, but I think large-scale shoplifters raise prices. Blocking unused checkout lanes shouldn't require a lot of thought, so I wonder if disgruntled employees neglected to block unused checkout lanes as a quiet statement about cuts in the number of employees.
Having been a cashier for 6 years (at a Hellmart no less) I liked the self checkouts at Safeway. Obviously I had the experience so it wasn't that difficult but I completely understand why some people find them annoying. It also meant I didn't have to talk to anyone and could bag my own stuff so win/win. They took out the self checkouts in less than two years so that was a waste of time and money.
If I don't have much stuff and there's a line at the regular checkout (which there always is at Walmart -- I think they do this on purpose), then I will use the self-checkouts as there usually isn't a line. But if I'm buying produce, I like to use the regular ones, because trying to check out at a self-checkout with produce is really annoying.
Middle of the day, 2 weeks before Christmas, the local Fred Meyer which has about 12 regular checkouts and about 16 self-checkouts, had 3 regular checkouts open. THREE!!!! Unless you wanted to stand in line for a year you were forced into the self-checkout. Because I had mistakenly purchased a bottle of wine, I had to wait for HELP IS ON THE WAY to arrive to check my ID, (I am decades past needing my ID checked and I go to this store at least twice a week). Well, HELP IS ON THE WAY was busy with another customer, so I waited 10 minutes before I could checkout the rest of my groceries, bag them myself and haul them out to the car myself. The whole time the computer kept saying THANK YOU VALUED CUSTOMER.
Here's the deal: To the corporation, your time is worth exactly what they pay for it: nothing. I think they teach this to MBA students Harvard. Clowns like Mittsy Romney and George "Drunk Moron" Bush learned all that crap at Harvard.
I don't know which is worse: Phone based service which combine menu hell with untrained personnel whose language skills are neither coherent nor articulate, or just an incompetently designed web site with useless graphics but no functionality. The only solution is to just check out.
I know I'm the outlier, but I love me some self-checkouts. Most places* the line moves more quickly and I can bag as I go without the bread getting wedged between a box of cereal and a can of soup. (* Target seems to have a higher percentage of folks who choose self-checkout, and at least around here, they only have four, across from customer service. So the lines get jammed. But at Aldi? Boy Howdy, I am Out Of There while everyone else lines up for the lone, overworked cashier).
PS yes, I get why this is Bad For Labor. No lectures required kaithnxbyee.
Self-checkout stations have cameras aimed at your face. So far, I haven't noticed cameras in checkout aisles with cashiers.
I don't want my face with name to be on the internet, although preventing that may not be possible unless I wear Groucho Marx glasses, starting retroactively at birth.
... This is why you do spot checks. This is not a complicated concept: Automate a process, then do spot checks with a frequency based on some kind of KPI, stock accuracy, for example.
This former store manager says amen to all that.
It’s not just the robots who are losing jobs. Think about their families!
OTOH I just got food from a restaurant that had closed their seating (take out only) because they can’t hire people to wait tables. 4 percent unemployment is a bitch.
Ta, Robyn.
How are you?
I hate self checkout, esp at CVS. One day I just left my stuff at the front because no one was there and I could not stand being yelled at by the machine.
Also, it is a *drug store*. Why would you insanely loudly announce what people are buying at a drug store?
Profits were up by $24B? Nobody feels bad that they have to hire a human or two at minimum or near-minimum wage.
Did The Onion write the headline?
The hardest-working and most miserable person at any store is the person tasked with monitoring all the self-checkouts. At least if you’re running a cash register you can get into a flow state - scan, bag, have a good day, repeat. People trying to check themselves out will scan the same thing twice, try to buy a vegetable they can’t identify, lack the strength to heft their case of soda to the belt or the good sense to find the hand scanner. And they’re already mad when the self-checkout monitor comes to them.
I will say that before I started truly believing in my karma if I tried to scan something in the early days of self checkout and the scanner sucked and nobody helped me I would call it a “scan tax” for the store and just throw it in the bag.
I have not accidentally not scanned things at WalMart, because they are evil and I think they owe me and errybody else a can of chick peas and a pair of sewing scissors.
Empty checkout aisles now have gates to block people from exiting through them.
The closed checkout kiosks are the latest efforts to block growing retail theft.
You mean like they were for 60 years before self checkout existed??
Yeah, I was like, "What store hasn't already been doing this?"
The Today show had a couple of "out of control crime and organized shoplifting/smash & grab" segments this morning. Evidently you can't drive home without getting followed and jumped by armed thieves! Who knew??
I have a surprise for jackers.
I was going to respond to this sooner but o just got out of my zip ties
They want us olds scared and, and ... profits?
Yes. Eyeballs and dopamine equals profits.
All the really quality shoplifters are just dropping stuff into their eco-bags while still out in the aisles. So I hear.
In a Wankermart aisle, I saw a guy whose cart was completely filled with things in white plastic bags lacking logos. Later, I saw him shuffle out very slowly through an unblocked, cashier-less checkout lane. I was preoccupied, or I would have thought of talking with someone at customer service. I don't love the company's wages and owners, but I think large-scale shoplifters raise prices. Blocking unused checkout lanes shouldn't require a lot of thought, so I wonder if disgruntled employees neglected to block unused checkout lanes as a quiet statement about cuts in the number of employees.
Having been a cashier for 6 years (at a Hellmart no less) I liked the self checkouts at Safeway. Obviously I had the experience so it wasn't that difficult but I completely understand why some people find them annoying. It also meant I didn't have to talk to anyone and could bag my own stuff so win/win. They took out the self checkouts in less than two years so that was a waste of time and money.
Is Hellmart a lot like Megamart on King of the Hill?
Hellmart is the proper name for Walmart.
If I don't have much stuff and there's a line at the regular checkout (which there always is at Walmart -- I think they do this on purpose), then I will use the self-checkouts as there usually isn't a line. But if I'm buying produce, I like to use the regular ones, because trying to check out at a self-checkout with produce is really annoying.
Yeah, I will really miss self check. I was reluctant to adopt, but now I'm a fan.
Middle of the day, 2 weeks before Christmas, the local Fred Meyer which has about 12 regular checkouts and about 16 self-checkouts, had 3 regular checkouts open. THREE!!!! Unless you wanted to stand in line for a year you were forced into the self-checkout. Because I had mistakenly purchased a bottle of wine, I had to wait for HELP IS ON THE WAY to arrive to check my ID, (I am decades past needing my ID checked and I go to this store at least twice a week). Well, HELP IS ON THE WAY was busy with another customer, so I waited 10 minutes before I could checkout the rest of my groceries, bag them myself and haul them out to the car myself. The whole time the computer kept saying THANK YOU VALUED CUSTOMER.
The computers' compassion is suspect.
FM has been Krogerized. Resistance is futile.
I don’t know FM. But sounds like Harris Teeter in the DC area. They’re all Krogers, I bet.
I prefer the Asian or Asian-Latino grocery stores. Better produce. h Mart is one example, but there are many options around here.
I miss the Latino grocery stores in Texas. Also the Mexican bakeries which are unrivaled by anything here on the West Coast.
Laura Penny, an awesome Goddess, wrote a whole book about this: "Your call is important to us -- The Truth about Bullshit":
https://quillandquire.com/review/your-call-is-important-to-us-the-truth-about-bullshit/
Here's the deal: To the corporation, your time is worth exactly what they pay for it: nothing. I think they teach this to MBA students Harvard. Clowns like Mittsy Romney and George "Drunk Moron" Bush learned all that crap at Harvard.
I don't know which is worse: Phone based service which combine menu hell with untrained personnel whose language skills are neither coherent nor articulate, or just an incompetently designed web site with useless graphics but no functionality. The only solution is to just check out.