Should get a discount or something

Tell me the OP is from the US without telling me they're from the US.

Countries I have visited, I never see a self checkout. Not sure if that is the norm.
- Then you havent visited many, its incredibly common in all parts of the world

[…] 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.

I AM the human cashier when I do self-checkout. People don't care WHO or what does it, they themselves just don't want to.
- Do what, drag a barcode over a flat surface and put an item in a bag? Oh no.
  I'll do that all day if it means I don't need to interact with anyone.
could you not simply politely say that you prefer a human cashier?
no because then it's not a personal grievance and everything has to be about me and how not automatically getting what i want makes me a victim dammit!

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.

Bro, are you really getting this fucking serious for a meme, chill the fuck out
- tell me you're that asshole that leaves huge messes everywhere without telling me you're that asshole who leaves huge messes everywhere

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!

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.
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.
- With a cashier, I can start packing while they scan, which is way faster
- Australia also.
  At the larger chains they're pretty good now.
  Its rare you need assistance and there's always someone hovering around.
SCO is for 10 items or less!
not where i live. hell there's a time of day when the self checkout kiosk is the ONLY option, and even when there's actual cashiers it's still super normal to take a full cart to the self checkout.

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.
UNEXPECTED ITEM IN BAGGING AREA! 😡

I am surprised about how many people prefer self checkout. Since AI is taboo to use but replacing a worker with self checkout is okay. Kind of a weird dynamic on the platform.

Self checkout ✅ AI ❌

Seems pretty clear to me... There's no LLM involved in self-checkout (not yet at least... ugh).
Short to no line ✅
Not having to interact with another human ✅
- The Walmart ones apparently have some manner of AI/neural net/deep learning image processing going on to attempt to catch people stealing stuff at the checkouts.
  Somehow they still don't support contactless payments for some reason, though, so that's neat.
self-chackout is often faster. Also, earier to shoplift.

Genx here

Ok boomer

Some of us prefer non-human interaction

Still ought to be discounted since it's eliminating jobs.
- there's a five finger discount
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....?'

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.)

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.
- the anxiety of packing your bags too slowly
  Haha, spotted the German. This isn't really a thing elsewhere, not to that extent.
I know I'm in the minority
Dude look around the comment section. 90% talk about prefering self checkout
- Lemmy doesn't exactly reflect the general population.
- All of the top comments are from people who prefer tellers over self checkout.
- I'm with him, though, every few months the anti-self-checkout crowd is all up in arms
  I somehow don't remember the anti-ATM machine crowd angry about putting tellers out of work or the anti-microwave crowd putting restaurant workers out of work, or the anti-car crowd upset about putting trolley drivers out of work
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.
- 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.
- 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.
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.

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.
- I've heard self checkout is terrible in the US, however in Europe they're generally pretty nice
- 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

And I always prefer machines over humans

gross. stay away from decent folks please.

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.

Same. But I would also be fine with it taking longer just to not have human interaction, unless I'm in the mood for that or the cashier looks bored...
I would be faster, if the tills didn't have a bloody delay after placing the item in the bag, before it will scan the next one.
- "Please place the item in the bagging area!!!"
- I didnt realize places still did that, I haven't heard that annoying line in a few years.
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).
I lose all saved time when trying to get through the exit gate that needs to see my receipt from all angles before letting me through.
- where is this that you are made to stop? I just keep walking and say ‘if you wanted to see my receipt then open another cashier lane and scan items yourself. It’s my property now.”
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).
- "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.
- At my local shop, some of the cashiers are extremely slow at bagging… Often I end up when bags that are way too heavy, and sometimes my bread is all smushed. I don’t fault them, I can’t imagine they’re being paid a reasonable wage.
  I am absolutely faster doing it myself.
- Hint, they're probably not. They perceive themselves as faster, but on average the employees are.
- 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.
You should change place then??

"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.
- 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.
- Most stores in my city (in The Netherlands) just have a little terminal you can carry around the store with you. I scan my items with the terminal, it shows me the total price, discounts, points acquired (if I scan my customer card) and then i have the terminal scan the QR code on the self checkout and I just pay. Everything is already in my bag and they rarely check. It's great!
- To be fair, the indignity and fact the machine never works because its all calibrated so YOU CAN'T STEAL ANYTHING so every time i bag an item an employee has to run over and enter an override code makes it :ery difficult to not steal.
  Not that i dobt on purpose, but i probably steal more on accident and frustration.
- OK Boomer.
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

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.

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! 😁😀🙂😐☹️😢😭

If im too exhausted to steal competently, ill just wait in front of a checkout line.
It's also kind of a labor issue.

This thread has made me feel so incredibly millennial.

Wait, is this a thing? What's wrong with you people?

I love my self-checkout, so much better than waiting in line for a slow cashier to make chitchat.
- Cashiers are fast. I don't want to search for the catalog number for all my produce. The cashiers have it memorized
- I mean, I don't much care about the chitchat, but self-checkout is almost always faster. I only avoid it when I have alcohol or pharmacy items.

you queue up all you like boss...

I love the self checkout. No bullshit small talk, no customers stood right behind you breathing down your neck and I can pack my shit without feeling better rushed. to me that's invaluable...

But where are the mirrors?

if i've learned anything from this thread it's that y'all have awful self-checkouts.

I never understand the press they get. As someone that doesn't want to have a chat with a stranger about everything I buy, self-checkouts are amazing. I don't consider it extra work. OP should look at the history of supermarkets. We didn't use to pick items off the shelves either.
- Same with pumping gas. Self serve is the norm in so many places.
- I don't hate self checkouts, I hate the people who use self-checkouts. The mom with a cart filled with food to feed 4 people for a week, holding a baby in one hand and trying to scan and bag with the other. The guy apparently shopping for his whole apartment complex, scanning 4 items, paying for them, then scanning 6 different items, slowly working his way through an overloaded cart. The Gen-Z narrating each item into their phone for some reason, also struggling to bag items single-handed.
  One of them isn't bad, but two of them will strangle the entire kiosk farm, and make it seem like everyone is a self-absorbed idiot. Never go grocery shopping on a weekend morning.
I thought that was a basic design principal since it's so widespread.
- here they don't talk, don't weigh, don't time out, and can be cleared remotely when you buy age-restricted stuff and don't look like a twink. my only gripe is that some of them won't allow you to delete duplicate scans without help.
- That sucks for you and your area

You get a discount depending on how you scan.

this guy gets it
I've never been able to do that. It seems like it always gets me on weight. Any tips?
- Grab two items, scan only one barcode. That's all I can say. /s

Meh. I’m usually happy to just scan my own shit and bounce. Even a $500 Costco trip. I usually shop with earbuds in, so it’s just me and some tunes anyway. I just switch off my brain, follow my list, and go.

I am definitely not an outgoing or social person, but a big "Thank You" to all those pro-self-checkout folks ITT for making me feel like a social butterfly. I'm gonna brag and annouce I can say, "Hi." and "Thanks" to a cashier like a goddamn boss.

That is if the cashier isn't even more socially awkward/angry at their boss than I am and refuses to talk at all.

Woot! I'm gonna run for office!

Reporter: "Sturger, how are your policies going to improve life for the average voter?"
Me: "Get these goddamn cameras and microphones out of my fucking face. Thanks."

Camera pans as I push my shopping cart out the door like a pro.

Self checkout is the greatest thing ever and I will never understand why so many people seem to prefer waiting in line for a few minutes instead of just using the self checkout.

No human interaction, usually faster because I don't have to wait. What's not to love? Sure occassionally you might get selected for a random check and have to wait a bit, but that still beats the line.

They used to be awful here 10-15 years ago, with a scale for your scanned items that would complain over nothing all the time, but now everywhere I've been has done away with that in favor of random controls and the receipt for opening the gate. I think my highlight so far was the clothing store where you didn't even have to scan, you just put your items in a box and it told you what you have to pay.

From what I’ve seen it’s a lot of incompetence ( Doing it wrong causing constant approvals) or pure laziness (I’m not gunna do your job for you!)
Very rarely nowadays it’ll be from just shit machines. I’ve seen the box ones you are talking about, no scanning, just throw it all in. It’s a great solution.
- I prefer the human checkout and it's not for any of those reasons.
  For one thing I have a family of 5 and scanning that many groceries at a self checkout is super painful.
  Next the grocery store made its money off of the backs of their workers then when it wasn't convenient anymore they fired a bunch of them and replaced them with machines. Now you have 2 humans in the front of the store doing the job of 10. Their only motivation for adding them was money and not convenience based on how it's been implemented. I still have to wait in a huge line that wouldn't be there if they had cashiers and machines together.
  I love the idea of them it's just not being implemented in the right way to make it super helpful for the customer.
So Idk where you guys live and how your self checkouts look but here is my German perspective.
If I need a new gas cylinder I have to exchange it at the cashier's
If I buy alcohol or cigarettes I also have to get my ID checked. The self checkout will then be put on pause until some worker shows up and realizes I am well in my 30s. I can also not buy things like razorblades at self checkout.
Often the stuff will be weighted to ensure I put it in the bag and not more or less. When I buy something light, think a small back of herbs of like 15 grams, the scale doesn't realize it and again a problem occurs and a worker has to come
If I make a mistake like scanning twice I cannot cancel and again a worker has to come
It usually is a much more crammed space. I don't even need a whole trolley for it to become uncomfortable. More than 5-10 items just don't work because I have no space. Putting everything out of the trolley on the conveyor belt, getting it scanned, and then putting it back in the trolley is much easier.
If there are any items with a sale (30% off because BB date is approaching) I cannot scan this and again a worker needs to come.
I am not as fast. Not only because it is not a conveyor belt and I am not sitting at a scanner deck, but also I am just slower than a cashier who knows the code for fairtrade bananas and the avocados from spain but not from peru by heart. It's my first time scanning this can of beans, where is the bar code? While it is 9 am and the cashier has already scanned this can of beans 25 times today. (8. In some supermarkets my kid gets a free fruit which it not necessary but I find super cute. This is only a thing at the cashier's)
All I have to say is "hello", "card please", and "good day". And I can also just wave these things. So yeah, I am absolutely standing in line if it is possible. It is so much faster and more convenient and going to self checkout to then get an error code and wait for help to arrive for 10 minutes is absolutely not worth it. (Looking at you, cursed Rewe in Munich). Then I also have to explain what's the problem much more embarrassingly than any "hi thanks yeah with card please have a great day you to bye" conversation could ever be.
Edit: I just thought of an important 9.
I feel so much more anxious and pressured in the self checkout. How fast I am done with scanning, paying, and packing things up depends entirely on me. And I feel the stares of the people in line at self checkout stabbing my back. Telling me to hurry. I try to be fast but the more I try the more I fuck up. So for all the folks who don't like cashiers because of social interaction, don't you feel the angst of the line?
- Also germany, but yea makes sense, I don't have gas canisters, rarely buy alcohol, the self checkouts around here stopped with the weighing, and I rarely buy more than 5 things at once+am decently fast at scanning, so it maybe costs me 15 seconds.
  Also I did scan an item twice today and the lidl self checkout actually allowed me to delete it, at first I also thought I'd have to get an employee.
The people that complain probably have had far worse experiences with self checkout. I've been to a few stores where it was absolute hell between the machines working terribly and unhelpful staff, but on the opposite side all of the grocery stores near me solved the self checkout issues years ago and it is the best thing ever where it works well.
I've recently experienced that magic box at a sports equipment store! I was amazed by how it just works.

If you feel this way then you should never complain about the length of the lines or the speed with which you get through them.

The only times when I've seen anyone complain about the length of lines were times when it was clear staffing was very much insufficient. Line all the way to the back of the supermarket and literally 2 cashiers total.
- I'm very willing to abandon a shopping cart full of food. This was a thing at the one store I would go to. They opened 1 register and the line was wrapped around the store.
- Unfortunately, no one you will ever be able to talk to has any tangible control over staffing. It's an hours allotment determined by an equation and any deviation from it is met with more hours being cut and people being yelled at by someone who's never actually worked in a store
I feel like this and I don't complain about the line. Plus, self checkout is often even slower, because... People.
Companies are now intentionally under-staffing checkout lanes
They make record profits while I either have to wait longer, or do the work myself. Why, exactly, shouldn't I be able to complain about that?
- Because you will be complaining to people who have no tangible means of changing the situation.
ok
Maybe if all the cashier lanes are staffed. But if I have a cart full of groceries, the grocery store is full, and there's only two cashiers working (also, gotta bag your own groceries) then I'm considering switching stores at that point.
- https://ani.social/comment/11938316

I honestly don't hate the self checkout, I hate it when they do it poorly.

Oversensitive scales, improperly weighted products, stuff without barcodes, tiny little bagging areas that can only hold two bags. No belt for unloading groceries. Please remove the item from the bagging area, help is on the way. (Help is never on the way)

The grocery store where I used to live had a bunch of regular lanes, You threw your crap on the belt, Scan it over the sensors and send it down to the collection area where you could bag it. It was honestly pleasant.

I went to Target in the evening once, had an entire cart full of groceries. I push it up front there's no cashier's open only the self checkout. I look at the person manning the self-check out and say

Why aren't there are there any registers open?

Sorry just the self checkout.

This is going to be like 8 bags.

Yeah, sorry.

I shrug leave the cart there and start walking out the door.

No, wait: The cashier goes and opens the closest register to the self checkouts

I shrug leave the cart there and start walking out the door.
No, wait: *The cashier goes and opens the closest register to the self checkouts
Honestly this would piss me off more. Oh so you just lied to me and expect me to forget about it that quickly. If that's how they treat customers I wouldn't ever return. There's too many options for me to put up with that bs.
I know not everyone has options, but exercise them if you do.
- I kind of get it. It's one cashier monitoring four checkout stations. Staffing isn't her fault. And if someone comes up to the checkout stations while she is checking me out and has a problem she's now doing another person's job worth of work. She's got to run double duty, and that sucks for her.
  What I presented her with was a no win situation. If somebody doesn't check me out they're going to have to put away an entire cart full of groceries and probably waste a fair amount of perishables.
  I was by no means happy with them at that point but my time is not worthless either and I had just spent the better part of an hour picking out a grocery order.
I'm shocked the cashier cared enough to stop you!
- The cashier would have had to put all those items back. They chose the option that involved less work for them. Double duty on register and self-checkout is less work than self-checkout and restocking a large cart
  I put the blame on Target management and corporate

I won't help the company save what they should give to their staff. Fuck self-checkouts.

ITT sociopaths who think it's fine to devalue others' labor because they can't be fucked to spend <30 seconds total exchanging pleasantries with a stranger.

i mean i go to the cashier line out of worker solidarity and not because of whiney self-centered boomer shit but whatever gets you to help protect jobs i guess

In every store I've been in, I'm the guy who has to take everything out of my cart and put it on the little conveyor belt thing. Self checkout is a second or two on top of that (which is usually made up by not having to wait in line) with no real additional effort (I'm already picking up and placing my stuff in a specific spot) I also can type in my number for the coupons at the same time I'm scanning my card, and move the bags into my cart as my payment is being processed, which ends up saving even more time.

The only place I appreciate a cashier is when I get a boatload of groceries at Costco, those folks are box-packing wizards.

We all love to hate on Walmart, but in my part of the world, it's got the closest implementation to what I consider acceptable self-checkouts.

The biggest quality of life feature is that they don't use the the weight sensors in the bagging area. You can use the hand scanner to scan every item in your cart sans weighted produce, as fast as your body will allow.

On the flip side, most of the chain grocery stores in my area have the bagging area scanners that need constant overrides, use AI cameras that lock up after every third item and require an override each time, slow machines that seem to have to compute the pi to the 10 sextillionth digit after each item is scanned before it will be ready for you to place it in the bagging area, and things of that nature. Those suck for sure.

While I have only been to Walmart once in the last decade, it was a year or two ago and the experience was the exact opposite. All the grocery stores in my area figured out the 'unexpected item in bagging area' thing well before COVID and are easy to use with no issues, but Walmart still had the stupid weight issue for the two things I was buying.
- walmart is trying to take over the local grocery business here, so we've got big mega walmarts and small local grocery walmarts in the region. one of the megas and three or four i can't remember of the groceries in my town specifically. the mega has it figured out. like twelve self scans that can be monitored by one or two persons, all of them have hand scanners, and a few lanes with cashiers manned for the folk who are desperate for human interaction or just don't use self checkouts for reasons. the grocery, they have like three self checkouts that are not quite so good and a bunch of cashiers. maybe they are still afraid of the banana trick idunno.
They're hit-or-miss as a customer convenience because their actual purpose is to cut labor costs.
use AI cameras that lock up after every third item and require an override each time
As a customer than once I've had those cameras trigger because I leaned in a bit too much to press a prompt on the touch screen and it flagged my head as some item I'm trying to fake scan. As an employee it is also fun to watch the cameras trigger on purses and children and grind things to a halt so it can warn me that someone's kid hasn't been scanned. Though my absolutely 'favorite' interaction with those cameras as an employee is having them trigger over me attempting to sign in using my name badge on the scanner. So it would interrupt my attempt to sign in to do something for the customer to make me sign in and reassure it I wasn't trying to steal something and then I had to sign in again to actually help the customer.
I haven't seen a self-checkout in any store that weighs the bags in quite a few years in my area.
But absolutely they got machine vision looking. Once I got flagged for potential theft because I put the box to the far side of the scanning area before scanning. It flagged me as trying to steal it after I had scanned it with the scanner gun, and I got to see the video 'evidence' of my theft, including grabbing the scanner gun and starting to move toward the box.

I really like self checkout, tbh. No need to remove my headphones, and it's nice if you're getting a few items. If I'm getting more than one bags worth of stuff, there's the handheld scanners that you can walk around in the store with, and just put your stuff directly in to the bag you brought with you. Really handy, and quick.

We had those handheld scanner at the store I usually go, but they removed them as the theft rate was supposedly higher.
Can't have nice things..
- Here you need to use your receipt to get out, and there's (pretty infrequent) checks. Like once every 10th time they'll randomly scan five items
- Ever since I saw that the grocery store near the train station in my city (which is famously one of the worst in the country in terms of crime) had self checkout without even a gate to scan your receipt for a while (they added it now) and has the handheld scanners, I've been assuming that the added theft from either really can't be that bad, or is a result of poor security. Clearly it's worth it for the higher customer throughput for that store, so I kinda doubt it could be that bad especially in safer areas.
In Poland I've only seen the in-store scanners in Kaufland so far, but I love it.

what has me upset is that they spent all that time getting rid of cashiers, for self check out… THEN THEY CLOSE 3/4 OF THEM! they will have 2 rows with a person there, for cigarettes and such, then have a single person watching 6 self checkouts. if trader joes/aldi had name brand snacks i would cut out wall-mart wholesale from my routine. the whole shopping experience is terrible, and for some reason wall mart is more expensive and worse quality

The discount you get at the self checkout is the 5 fingered discount.

It's a bullshit job though. Do you refuse to use elevators because they no longer have attendants? Having worked on a checkout at one time, it was always depressing. Plus there were other tasks that could be done and most people you deal with are awful.

People making the same old quips also make the job that little bit more unbearable - "must be free", urgh. Seriously you are not gods gift to comedy with these jokes, workers hear them 100 times every day and it is like some kind of compounding psychological damage each time.

This. If the attendant/clerk is telling me about the self checkout, I'm going to assume they don't want to deal with ringing me up, and I'll happily handle my own shit even if they are standing there on their phone not "working."
Now if a manager tells me to use the self checkout? Fuck that, absolutely, I don't work here. But I've got solidarity with the underpaid employees who'd rather not deal with me.
I wish there were more bullshit jobs because I have no job.

Oh yeah, instead I'll get in the line behind Mildred who is paying by check and has to have a 20 minute conversation with the checker because her kids never call anymore. Then after that the employee can slowly scan my items and pack them with cold stuff across all bags and fragile stuff under heavy stuff.

Having worked cashier in a past life, I'll gladly let the employees do better work than dealing with having to scan my shit and do a bad job packing for me.

I hate how self-checkout treats me like a child and speaks and prompts me a zillion times for things I don't want. How many bags do you want to buy? None, because I have mine like 90% of people, geez. How about a donation? Unexpected item in bagging area. TAKE YOUR RECEIPT. Nooooo

And it even SPEAKS. LOUDLY. It burns through ALL my patience within seconds.

If it just let me scan my stuff having me tap on a touchscreen, and then just let me stay the payment machine in a single touch, and it were silent ... I might tolerate it. Otherwise, get back, demon.

They have to do this because the average shopper has negative IQ. These machines need to be as simple to use as possible.
- They done failed.
- And I guess they really care about cost too, because if they wanted it as easy as possible, it would have a treadmill and a box with a 360° barcode scanner or something and the person could be spared from the whole bagging area thing.
  But yeah, that simplification and accessibility ends up being what alienates me because of how significant it is. Hopefully there are enough of us that they'll keep some cashiers around.
I am a divine being, you are an object. You have no right to speak in my holy tongue.

The grocery stores that I go to seem to have an adversarial UI. I haven't been able to use them without them throwing a fit and then I have to wait for the one attendant who is there to oversee 6 stations (who has to help more than 50% of the people) AND do the customer service desk.

They used to have express lanes. Those actually moved fast.

Dollar store? Yeah those ones work well.

Main issue is they haven't lowered the cost to me the consumer. Which is the lie we were told.

You people don't have self scanning? Pick a barcode scanner at the entrance, scan everything when you put it in your bags in the cart, and just pay at the exit and walk out (unless you get a semi-rare random check). One of the favorite features of the store I use is that I fill the shopping list at home in the app (that can be shared with other accounts) and then I see the list in my phone or the store scanner, sorted by the order of sections in the store, so eg. all fruit and vegetables will be next on the list when I get to that section. I also like that you see your total in real time and the scanner reminds you if there's a "3 for 2" or other offers.

They used to have that at a few grocery stores by me but don't any more. That was fuckin awesome, just used an app on my phone.
No, everything is securitized. Theres six securotu guys watching the labor saving four lanes of self checkout, along woth one employee to enter override codes.
Did that three times, got three times "random" checked, returned my customer card and buy in another store now. Solid 5/7, perfect experience 😅
- I think they do more checks in the beginning, or if you missed to scan something as the system probably sees you as more or a "risc". I can understand your frustration though

I don’t want it to become the only option, but I actually prefer the self checkout.

It's a pretty solid hill I'm willing to die on. I like people, even if I disapprove of our economic model I will always choose humanity.

The day I choose a machine over people for the sake of expedience, I feel I will be deserving of the isolation I've earned.

I die on this hill for a different reason: the store holds the customer responsible for scanning or incorrectly scanning your merchandise. There was an article of a store calling the cops to arrest someone who accidentally forgot to scan something on the bottom of their cart.
Self checkout is a way for companies not only to get rid of a job, but to shift shrink liability to the customer.
If you're going to make me scan my own merchandise, then the store should wave my liability if I get it wrong.
- Solid reasoning, I could get behind this too.

I don't use self checkout because I'm afraid of messing up something and getting judged by people :(

- okay, nobody cares but sometimes we enjoy the show. like one time we were at HEB and there was this shopping cart these two sorority girls were sharing and they had to scan everything in the right order. like the first two or three minutes we were annoyed but after twenty we were cheering for them every time they got it right
Aww. :p
Well, I know this doesn't help, but you know you're never going to get over this without messing up a few times, yeah?
When I learned to sing, I was so overcome with embarrassment that I could barely do it in a big building I knew was empty (I was the closing manager for a while). I only got over that feeling by singing anyway. I would get loud, my voice would crack, I would stop and apologize to the ghosts nearby, and then I'd steel myself and try again. This built a lot of confidence, though. I learned not to fear the embarrassment and eventually stopped feeling it altogether.
If this matters at all: to the right kinds of people, being a little embarrassed is endearing anyway. I would help somebody learn the self-checkout if they didn't know.
- Thanks for your kind message. Fear of embarrassment is really something that holds us back

Just accidentally drop and break a gallon of milk on the self checkout machine. Then a human who isn't paid enough to live will take its place.

I prefer self-checkout to reduce the amount of having to talk to or look at someone else.

Unfortunately a lot of stores in my area have either done away with traditional checkout in favor of self-checkout, or they only ever have 1 or 2 registers open. So either way, we get long lines. And they wonder why we buy so much online!

I had one of those self checkout machines think we were shoplifting. We had to sit there while the employees went through the video feed to verify it was an error. It was embarrassing. We were treated like criminals.

My local Walmart does that. I just wait by the cigarette area until someone comes by. They ask what kind of cigarettes and I just say I don't smoke.

Also, I use cash for everything. The amount of times that these machines don't have change or accept cash is frequent.

Oopsie, accidentally forgot to scan an item

(Don't worry, I check the statute of limitations so you can't charge me with a felony 😏)

As a former cashier, I really hate people like you.

No, I will not check out your groceries for you. You are in self checkout. Wait in line like everyone else if you don't want to check out the items yourself, you impatient, obsolete bastard. FFS, self checkout has been a thing for over twenty years now; get with it, old man!

(Edit: I haven't been in retail for over a decade now. This post really triggered some PTSD I didn't even know I had.)

I used to bag groceries at a mom n pop store. I know the proper way to bag and it infuriates me to watch someone fuck up my stuff.

Cashiers aren't paid enough to deal with customers. At least when I'm using the self checkout they don't need to engage with me.

So, your solution for a corporation underpayying their staff is to offer to do their job for free so corporate can just eliminate the position altogether?
- I like how you've taken a self deprecating comment that tries to empathise with other people and turned it into a confrontational jab at making one of the many failings of neoliberalism my direct responsibility.
  I actually use self checkouts because I don't want to have to engage the social parts of my brain for what is essentially a tedious chore. However this means that staff also don't have to deal with me under those circumstances, which is a nice bonus.
  To counter your jab, your solution to the failings of neoliberalism is to create needless busywork under dehumanising conditions rather than address the systemic failings?
  You don't have to answer that, I was just making a point about how I didn't come to this thread to fight anyone. Put the knife down.

Where do I clock in?

I don’t use self check out because every one is a horrid user experience.

I always like to ask the fervently anti-self-checkout crowd around here whether or not they pump their own gas, and then why self pumping is okay, but self checkout is not okay. (Note, my community is hopelessly car dependent so most everyone around here drives).

I don't think anyone pumps their own gas. I think you put the tube in the hole and a pump does it for you, and a computer counts how much you got. I would hate getting gas if I had to pump it like an old timey water spout.
- Old timey gas/oil pumps were manual, too. I can still remember a few stores that used to have those. Especially if they had a pier with no electricity near by. Some farms still have them today.

But I also don't want the cashier to silently judge me for buying 4 pastries, an energy drink, a bag of lollies, and a bag of nuts.

Self checkout is a great place to sneak your 10 dollar parmesan in to the 2 dollar head of lettuce

This is what I tell my boyfriend anytime there's a line at the cash register but not self-check out

The last self checkout I used, a store associate took my things and scanned them for me....it was a strange self checkout experience

I feel seen!

You technically get a discount. I can't say I've ever heard of having enough cashiers. If they hire more at a higher rate maybe they could get more cashiers. This would increase the expense and this increase the prices. Without that, the price now is what you get. A technically lower price than if they paid cashiers more.

But they give such amazing discounts

But if I did…