DH expresses his frustration with self-checkout lanes.

[Rhonda in TX]

He gets so frustrated with the seemingly endless loop of "please remove unknown item in bagging area" and "please replace item in bagging area".

 

A quote from him: "I'm convinced that when the machines finally take over it isn't going to be like Terminator - it's going to be like the post office."

 

:lol:

[Mrs Mungo]

It *is* really frustrating. Some stores are better than others. I prefer the stores that have a "do not bag this item" option. Some items I even wind up pressing it because they are so light that they don't register on the scale.

[iquilt]

I agree with your DH! I find them maddening, especially when the employee approaches you to offer the self check lane - why can't they check you out?! I don't enjoy them at all, I have enough to do myself at the grocery store.

[dangermom]

I find them maddening too. I think they hate me. My husband never has any trouble. :glare:

[OnTheBrink]

I use them when I only have a few things. The worst experience I had was when I took two girls I was babysitting with me. I had dd and one girl in the basket (it was a two-seater basket) and the other one walked. We got to the check out and the girl kept sitting on the bag area, messing up the weight. I kept telling her to stand up, stay off of it, but she'd look at me with a blank stare and sit back down on it! UGH! It took about 4x the amount of time to check out as it normally would have. The next time, I had her hold onto the cart handle, far away from the bagging area!

[K-FL]

Our Winn Dixie is the only local that has it. I use it all the time because I'm usually faster than the checkers (unless they have a bagger.) It is a joke how some folks will go to self-checkout, but expect the attendant to do the work for them. :o/

[fivetails]

I'd never seen a "self checkout" until we moved to our current town last Autumn - I'd heard of them, but the stores in our old town didn't have any such creatures... when we first got here, I was all excited about them - I thought they were the coolest. things. ever. I felt like a little kid getting to "play cashier" - much to the amusement of dh, who'd been working out here for almost a year and wasn't nearly as entertained by them as I was. :tongue_smilie:

 

Our ds10 has the voices memorized - he's a little mimic (echolalia) and "air miles card scanned" is a commonly repeated phrase in this house. ;)

[Sahamamama]

I don't care if the only humanly-staffed checkout line is 10 miles long, I am not going to use a self check-out system. I hate them. With a passion.

 

When I go to the store -- is this a New Jersey thing? ;) -- I actually LIKE to say "Hello" to the person checking out my stuff. It feels weird to bypass that, as though I'm semi-shoplifting, or something. The few times I have used a self check-out, it felt as though I didn't have ANY personal interaction with my transaction, if you KWIM? Besides, enough people around here have lost their jobs, why let a machine take over yet one more job?

[petepie2]

I am completely inept at doing the self-checkout thing. And to make things worse, the person ahead of me in line is usually more inept than I am. It takes less time if I just let a cashier check me out. My husband, on the other hand, loves the novelty of self-checkout.

[Desert Rat]

I will use the self check at Walmart but not a Costco. Why? Because at Costco I pay a membership fee and I think I pay for the right to have a real person check out my stuff. Walmart doesn't have a fee so if I have half a cart or less I'll self check.

I hate the skip bagging option because the checkouts in our area only allow you to skip 2 before the overseer has to come over and clear the machine. Ick.

[Annie]

Maybe my local stores have nice self checkout systems or something, but I absolutely love them. I'm pretty sure I'm quicker than the full service checkouts, and I like to bag my things in a way that makes them easy to put away when I get home.

[elegantlion]

I so miss self-checkout. There isn't one at my Walmart. I usually take my canvas bags and many times the cashiers are so inept at bagging them I end up bagging my own. I had one cashier not even attempt to bag my food, she just handed me the items. I dared not say a word otherwise I would have exploded. I decided to blog about it instead. :lol:

 

So putting up with a few annoying self-checkout moments would be bliss for me. At least I can mutter under my breath about the computer and not end up getting attitude or squished bread.

[Emmy]

I *live* for self checkout. I go out of my way to go through self checkout - even if I have $200 in groceries. I am *much* faster and more adept at checking out my own groceries than 95% of big box store cashiers out there. LOL AND I don't have to answer inane questions about what I'm buying. The only complaint I have with them is that they need to be faster - I can push my stuff through faster than they allow me to go....

[elegantlion]

My complaint about Walmart is they put in one item per bag. Then one ends up with 100 plastic bags. I know I could bring my own, but the way they have their bagging set up, there is nowhere to put bags (other than the plastic bag holding thing).

 

I forgot my bags a couple of weeks ago and was surprised how many things had one item per bag. Hello, aren't they taught HOW to bag anything? I either use them for cat litter or end up donating them to thrift stores when I drop off other stuff.

 

We have those rounders and the best set up is to place the bag on top of it. I usually end up helping, which I don't mind if they are at least engaged in the process. I hand them to the cashier one at a time. If ds is with me, that's his job.

[Sparkle]

I hate them too. The only place I use them is IKEA because that's all they have. Otherwise I avoid them completely. I don't think I've ever been able to use one without having some kind of error that a live cashier didn't have to come and fix. :glare:

[Cedarmom]

I like them. My husband and son (who are geeks) love them. They seem to move quicker then non-self help when it is only as few items.

[Beach Mom]

Our grocery has a handheld device that lets you scan and bag as you shop. When you get to the end of your shopping you just scan an end bar code at a special checkout, scan your coupons and pay.

 

I really like this method because the groceries are bagged in a way that makes them easy to put away when I get home. I put like things together, make sure my bags aren't too heavy, and I can see as I shop how much I have spent. If I have a child with me they do the scanning which keeps the busy hands from finding things to add to my cart :glare:

 

The funny thing is we are in a small town, but have one of the most high tech grocery stores around.

[HRAAB]

No thank you to the self-check outs. I hate them. I hate listening to them talk to me; I've been known to tell them to shut-up. I only use them when the other check outs have long lines.

 

Janet

[Erica in OR]

I like the idea of self-checkout machines, if they worked more smoothly for me. One local grocery store has them. I always think "THIS time will go more smoothly." It never does. It's either the machine thinking that we've breathed on the bagging area, or looked at the bagging area in an insulting way, or... Whatever we do always seizes the machine up in some way, and then I need to wait for the attendant, which always takes forever. I also dislike having to wait for the attendant to give them my coupons. I might as well wait in the regular line.

 

Erica in OR

[Happy]

I wanted to love self check-out. Really, I did. I tried them several times, but no more. The grocery store ones are slow and need constant help from the attendant.

[Brindee]

I will use the self check at Walmart but not a Costco. Why? Because at Costco I pay a membership fee and I think I pay for the right to have a real person check out my stuff. Walmart doesn't have a fee so if I have half a cart or less I'll self check.

I hate the skip bagging option because the checkouts in our area only allow you to skip 2 before the overseer has to come over and clear the machine. Ick.

I'm the opposite. I pay a membership fee at Costco, so I feel I have the option of whether to self-check or go through the line. On Friday afternoons, and sometimes other busy times (which I try to avoid, but....), there is NO WAY I will stand in a 10-mile long line to have someone check me out, when I only have to wait for 1 or 2 people, or none, in the self-check lines! A good thing about our Costco is that they have at least 2 people standing near the self-check places at all times. So if there is a problem, it's fixed right away. They even sometimes come and scan the heavy items so I don't have to take them out of the cart! I very rarely have a problem with those machines, and if I do, someone comes and helps right away!

 

Our Walmart has horrible self-check machines! They're constantly messing up and thought there SHOULD be a person right there, as they have a little place for them to be, there often isn't, so we wait and wait for a machine that repeats things over and over, but won't let me check things out!

 

We get most of our groceries at Safeway. Usually they have enough lanes open, so I go to the cashiers, especially on days when I'm tired and just want to get home, I find the cashiers way less aggravating than the self-check machines!

[Rosy]

I love them. I love not having to chit-chat with the cashier, I'm just not in the mood usually by the time I get done shopping.

 

I will say, though, I wanted to punch the girl who gave me attitude for ringing an item a 2nd time after the machine told me to. And the guy who it took 15 min. to figure out how to take a check I'd written for $5 over. My cashier issues seem to be way worse when the self-check doesn't work. :P

 

I'm not an ogre, honest. :)

[Mommy22alyns]

I can't stand them, but then I spent many years working in retail. I've paid my dues, time for someone else to scan my stuff!

 

I'm especially irritated right now, fresh off a trip to Kroger where 3/4 of the self-checkout lanes were clogged with people with waaaaaaayyyyyy more than 15 items, going verrrrryyyyyy sloooooowwwlllly. :rant:

[Ginevra]

I completely despise them! And I'm not one who tends to resist automation in general. I cannot STAND is when I go down to bag my items because the nice automaton-lady has insisted that I must bag my items because the bagging area is full, but then she nags me with, "If you are finished scanning, please press finish and pay...If you are finished scanning, please press finish and pay...If you are..." I'M NOT finished scanning, you dope! I'm bagging the darn items you just told me to bag! :glare:

 

Seriously, unless the only available humanly-clerked line wraps around the block, I will not use the auto check. This is one thing I actually like about shopping on a busy day, like Sunday. They are prepared for Sunday crowds and usually offer many human clerks. It's Tuesday when there is one human clerk and ten self-check lanes open.

[Garga]

Hello, aren't they taught HOW to bag anything?

 

No, they're not taught. I asked a cashier once. I put my items on the conveyor belt in the order I want them bagged (cold with cold, boxes with boxes, etc.) but sometimes they bag them oddly. So I asked the guy why the cashiers always make a point of bagging my non-food items separately from my food-items and end up using 1000 bags. (A box of crayons can sit next to a box of cereal with no problem...so why do they separate them??)

 

He said that each cashier just bags them however they think it's logical and that he just figured people would want their food separate.

[Denisemomof4]

I save my time and frustrations and have given up on them. I never knew a machine could make me so mad. Oh wait, yes I knew that. When my computer doesn't work right I really get upset. :001_smile:

[fivetails]

Our grocery has a handheld device that lets you scan and bag as you shop. When you get to the end of your shopping you just scan an end bar code at a special checkout, scan your coupons and pay.

 

I really like this method because the groceries are bagged in a way that makes them easy to put away when I get home. I put like things together, make sure my bags aren't too heavy, and I can see as I shop how much I have spent. If I have a child with me they do the scanning which keeps the busy hands from finding things to add to my cart :glare:

 

The funny thing is we are in a small town, but have one of the most high tech grocery stores around.

 

Oh wow, that sounds crazy cool! :D

 

{ha. Okay, I just had the same reaction to THIS as I did when i saw the self-checkouts for the first time here. :lol: }

[Earth Angel_79]

Ugh...those things take me longer than waiting in a line several people deep. I, invariably, have a problem with them that requires help. So what was the point? I avoid them.

[Tap]

I use them half the time. It depends on the mood I am in. For a few quick items, they are great at most stores. I don't like certain ones; Fred Meyers are really sensitive in annoying ways. I wanted to rip the little voice box out of one there over a rubber ball one day that didn't register on the scale.

 

If I have a lot of groceries, I let the clerk check them but for a few simple items I find it much faster to do it myself.

[KidsHappen]

My hubby can cause a self-checkout machine malfunction just by walking by one. He has a problem every single time and yet he insists of using them. I will use one if I only have a few items and I have not brought my bags with me. If you have brought bags you can't set them on the scale because it asks you to remove unauthorized item from bagging area and if you buy more than a few items there is no room to bag them because you can't remove any bags until you are done. So most of the time I just go to a person because it is both quicker and easier.

 

It is great at the library but I do miss talking to all the librarians.

Edited October 13, 2009 by KidsHappen

[Dawn in OH]

I used one once, it was a nightmare.

 

I ran into Walmart to grab a box of diapers. Just diapers. Nothing else. All the checkouts had a line except the self checkouts.

 

I thought "Hey, cool, I can just zip through there and be on my way!"

 

Umm, no. The scanner refused to "see" the box of diapers no matter what I did. Seeing I was having trouble, an employee came over to assist me. She couldn't make the scanner see the box of diapers either.

 

After 5 minutes of her trying she took me over to a regular check out lane. For all the time I spent at the self checkout, not checking out, I could have gone through a regular line, twice!

Edited October 15, 2009 by Dawn in OH

[hornblower]

These are just starting to come here but they don't seem to be working welll. I don't like them - they seem slow the few times I've used them. mostly at Home Depot. And the signature thingie? Why even bother? I could grab a random 2yo and hand them the pen to scribble on that stupid pad and it would look as good an approximation as I end up doing.

 

The new thing in grocery stores here is NO FREE bags. You need to bring your own or pay 5-10c/plastic bag. One trendy store has NO plastic bags at all, and charges 10c/paper bag. All the stores sell reusable canvas type bags; many of the bags are not canvas at all, they're actually made from recycled pop bottles.....

 

I shop with these Five of them fit into a cart & I just load them up. Now if I could just scan the items as I put them in and pay at the exit like a PP mentioned, I'd be in heaven......

[JoyfulMama]

... I want to get my money's worth by using the full service check out. Where is the incentive to use the self check out?

 

:iagree:If I am doing the job of a paid employee, where is my discount?

The prices of the items in the store contain a mark-up from the wholesale price in order to compensate for the need for employees to stock the shelves and staff the registers. If I graciously eliminate the need for them to pay someone to work the register, then the store gets to pocket that money.

My DH and I have been known to force a store to open a staffed register, just for us. If they want our business, they will provide the services we pay for. (Of course we are courteous about it!)

[Linda1951]

they never work. The ones at home depot are quick do not ask stupid questions like the ones at walmart.

[Ravin]

I work at Wal-Mart and I loathe self-checkout. I detest having to explain the quirks of the accursed things over and over and over; I hate tryiing to ring things up on them (the scanners don't work as well as on a regular register, and there's no hand scanner for stubborn barcodes). I hate having to push three times as many buttons to approve an alcohol sale. I hate seeing customers get frustrated. I hate having to play cop and watch in case people are trying to sneak by extra items and steal them (the one time I caught someone, it was on accident and she had the audacity to be offended).

 

The really annoying thing is, if more than one of the 4 is broken, it's really more effective to just close them down and work a belt; I'm faster than any three customers trying to check their stuff on those machines.

 

Oh, and working in the cash office, they double what I have to do at night almost. Each has a change dispenser of $100 in change that has to be counted, the bills put in have to be sorted...much more time consuming than a regular till to count!

[Ellie]

I *live* for self checkout. I go out of my way to go through self checkout - even if I have $200 in groceries. I am *much* faster and more adept at checking out my own groceries than 95% of big box store cashiers out there. LOL AND I don't have to answer inane questions about what I'm buying. The only complaint I have with them is that they need to be faster - I can push my stuff through faster than they allow me to go....

(((soul sister)))

 

I'd choose self-check-out any day. The problem is that where I usually shop, the self-check-outs are limited to 20 items.:glare: But I'll take it whenever I can, which as an empty nester is often.

 

Mr. Ellie, however, grumbles over self-checkouts, primarily, IMHO, because he doesn't use them often enough to know how they actually work, and he doesn't follow instructions properly, so he has to redo things, and then he gets grumpy.:glare: