Self-serve grocery checkout on the way out?

[Ursa Majoris]

I've found them to be slower than the cashier lines and not because of human error. In my local stores, the system has to weigh every item and won't scan/recognize the next item until that process completes. Inevitably, I wait a few seconds between each scan before the blasted machine lets me continue.

This.

 

Also, if you shift something that is already in the bag to make room for something else or you start a second bag, Home Depot's system goes tits up immediately because it thinks you're thieving. They also have someone manning the things so why bother?

[Cunning Runt]

dont use them ... never will

 

To each their own. I go out of my way to shop at stores that have them. I find them to be a great convenience.

[SEC=UGA]

Do you know this? I've always thought the benefit was that there were more "cashiers" open.

 

What about that IBM commercial that was running for a while where that shady guy was walking around the store, putting things in his overcoat pockets, he walks out the door and the clerk stops him, telling him he forgot his receipt. That was supposed to be the future of shopping. Scanners so good that they could just tell scan everything as you walked past them.

 

That was at least 5 years ago. Whatever happened to that?

 

They 86 that plan, causes more cancer than those body scanning machines at the airport.

[Azazello1313]

hey, here's an idea....if you don't like them, don't use them.

[Yukon Cornelius]

Use them all the time and never had a problem with them.

 

Maybe it's just you, nimrods.

its not that they are complicated . its the principle of the thing. F- them, hell the grocery store i go to back the stuff for you still. It would be like going to the massage parlor and having to serve yourself.

[Clubfoothead]

We use our own bags. Seems like nobody that works for the store gets taught how to properly bag groceries anymore, except at the Whole Foods. Typically, I am not purchasing a loaf of bread as a pillow for the gallon of milk.

 

If I am not a Whole Foods, I always go through the self scan so my $hit doesn't get f*cked up but it is rare for me to have more than a few items. The most common problem I encounter with the self scan is the person in front of me who can't use the thing.

[Chief Dick]

It would be like going to the massage parlor and having to serve yourself.

 

Oh hell, I do this already at home.

[slambo]

Years ago when Albertsons closed many of their stores they shut down the one store that served the area I live in leaving us without a close place to grocery shop. Recently the space formerly occupied by Albertsons was split into two businesses, a Dollar Tree and a Fresh & Easy. Fresh & Easy is a small scale grocery store that is 100% self serve. Their prices are very competitive and their checkout system is easy to use, 8 checkouts, 1 attendant. I usually buy less than 5 items there but I'm starting to use them more and buy larger quantities due to ease of use. I'm using Safeway less and less. And as Club pointed out most checkers can't bag properly anymore.

[WaterMan]

I love how Wal-Mart and all groceries stores around here have many registers they could run but don't.

 

They usually have 2-4 people working register and then 4-6 self check out lines. In an economy where people need jobs, why not open up those registers?

[TheGrunt]

I almost always use self checkout.

 

In fact, just the other day for the first time in a long time I chose non-self-checkout and found it was slower, they packed the bags worse than I would have done it, and I had to have some odd conversation with the checkout dude. I found myself wishing I went through the self checkout.

[Big John]

If I am by myself, I find it easier to do everything myself. Plus, not having to talk to someone is a good thing. If I want to talk to someone, I will come here and post.

Yep here.

[SEC=UGA]

We use our own bags. Seems like nobody that works for the store gets taught how to properly bag groceries anymore, except at the Whole Foods. Typically, I am not purchasing a loaf of bread as a pillow for the gallon of milk.

 

If I am not a Whole Foods, I always go through the self scan so my $hit doesn't get f*cked up but it is rare for me to have more than a few items. The most common problem I encounter with the self scan is the person in front of me who can't use the thing.

 

The most annoying experience, how they bag groceries... I make a concerted effort to pull thing out of the buggy in an orderly fashion; canned goods grouped, juices grouped, boxed goods grouped, vegetables grouped, meat grouped, bread and eggs grouped, all in order on the conveyor. Somehow these guys ungroup my groups as they go through and I end up with chicken breast in the bag on top of the bread (as it leaks on the wrapper), canned goods with the eggs, lube with the vegetables... seriously, wth is wrong with these people?!?!?

[Big Country]

In the good ole paper bag days, it was boxes on the side to make the 'walls', canned goods/heavy items on the bootom to make the base of the bag and then lighter/softer items on top that were protected by the walls.

 

Plastic bags make that more difficult.

 

Oh, and a lesson I learned is to not pack that magic shell ice cream topping (the chocolate syrup that hardens into a shell when it gets cold) in the same bag as the ice cream. Customers don't like that.

[Azazello1313]

it appears huddlers are more anal retentive about their groceries than I would have imagined.

[TripleW64]

Back in the day I worked at Grand Union (Big Star in the South -- red dot specials, anybody?) and I was the fastest cashier by far and always worked the express lane. That valuable skill has stayed with me to this day, so of course I seek out the self-serve lane wherever possible. That feeling of self-reliance as I complete the transaction without any assistance from anyone is really incomparable. I wish every store had them.

 

but dude, don't you realize that the self-service line is there so that the store does not have to pay someone like you? Back in the day, you were a valuable commodity. Now it's called unemployed.

 

I do use them if the other lines are long. Or if, as in so many cases now, the store only has one or two live cashiers and 6 self service lanes.

[Grits and Shins]

I think they are "selling it" to the customers as convenience and "selling it" to management as cost savings (less labor).

 

I think it is a way for the corporation to shift some of their cost/labor burden onto the customer in an effort to improve their bottom line. That is the reality of why it came into existence although they sell it to the public as enhanced convenience.

 

Kind of like walking into McDonalds and having the option of making my own burger or having somebody else prepare my burger. Both cost the same to me though.

[detlef]

I love how Wal-Mart and all groceries stores around here have many registers they could run but don't.

 

They usually have 2-4 people working register and then 4-6 self check out lines. In an economy where people need jobs, why not open up those registers?

Because, despite the tax breaks, they have inexplicably still decided to hire based on need rather than out of the goodness of their heart.

[Big Country]

Because, despite the tax breaks, they have inexplicably still decided to hire based on need rather than out of the goodness of their heart.

 

Exactly - 1 employee can watch 4-6 self checkout registers vs. a 1 to 1 ratio in a normal checkout lane.

 

 

Do you people still whine about using ATM machines vs. walking in to see a teller?

[Ursa Majoris]

Exactly - 1 employee can watch 4-6 self checkout registers vs. a 1 to 1 ratio in a normal checkout lane.

 

Do you people still whine about using ATM machines vs. walking in to see a teller?

Not when they work, no.

 

I am not sure why these stores are removing the self-check out lanes. Seems to me that offering a choice is the way to go. I prefer not to use them unless I'm buying just one or two small items.

 

Perhaps the stores aren't able to can as many staff as they were expecting and the annual maint / licensing costs are not being covered by redundancies so they're making a loss? Doesn't seem to make sense but who knows?

[BeeR]

Do you people still whine about using ATM machines vs. walking in to see a teller?

Or having to pump your own gas vs someone else doing it?

 

Surprised how many of you don't like them but as someone else said, if you don't like, don't use. This will suck big if they go away. I love em so much that I'll drive farther to a suckier place if they have em. Along with knowing how to bag (eg bread on top at grocery stores etc) I am faster then most if not all cashiers - often much faster - and my main goal is to get in and out of there as quickly as possible. Plus there's the occasional cashier who's hygeine I frankly question; I'll pass on them handling my food or having to even get within 10' of them. Well worth the modest effort to bag my own stuff.

 

I rarely have any real problem with the machines; occasionally it might not know I put the thing in the bag but there is always a person right there to clear it. The only legit drawback to me are the mindless other shoppers who either go at a snail's pace or for whatever reason seem baffled by it all, but you get those in the cashier lines too.

Edited September 26, 2011 by BeeR

[Delicious_bass]

I like the self-serve checkout for times (as others have said) when I have only a few items. I almost always use them at Home Depot and Lowes now, and will use them at Cub if I am just getting a bag or two of groceries. Quick and easy, IMO.

 

Now when the wife and I have a cart full of stuff or plan to use coupons/promotions/etc, we typically go through a cashier lane. We get the cart about half unloaded and then I head for the end and start bagging while she finishes unloading. Works pretty well

[Yukon Cornelius]

Exactly - 1 employee can watch 4-6 self checkout registers vs. a 1 to 1 ratio in a normal checkout lane.

 

 

Do you people still whine about using ATM machines vs. walking in to see a teller?

who uses an atm?