Should get a discount or something
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Why is everyone so adverse to talking to a cashier? Also, you have cashiers that wish to chat?!
People get more sociable the closer you get to the equator. This is reflected in the distance from which people talk to you. So in the southern USA people are very chatty and will talk about pretty much anything while basically sitting on your lap, but in Norway you'll pretty much just shout across the fjord at someone to tell them their house is on fire if you're in a talkative mood. Talking to cashier's doesn't happen anyway.
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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.
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The discount you get at the self checkout is the 5 fingered discount.
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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
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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.
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I'm faster.
Also, trust myself better.
I have some soft bread, I at least know I won't put something heavy on it.
I have some items that are fragile, I can keep track of them packing and keep them separate.
I won't end up single-bagging a bunch of stuff that could be bagged together (e.g. if they scanned some window cleaner, they bag it separate, not knowing that some dishwasher detergent is coming that it could be packed with).
Got some product with a markdown barcode? I can be sure the discounted barcode gets scanned not the full price one.
To the extent possible, I can also just skip bagging most of the time. If I have some very small things sure I might use a bag, but mostly I just scan and put in cart.
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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.
Completely agree with you, I never buy huge amounts when I shop (single guy), big orders are better with human cashier.
There are also zero places around me where there is only self checkout. Having zero cashiers is terrible. There’s always going to be large orders, elderly or disabled people that might not easily use self checkout.
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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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
You should change place then??
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Wait, is this a thing? What's wrong with you people?
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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.
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.
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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.
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This was funny like a decade ago when it was commonplace.
Stores in my area solved that at least 6 years ago, maybe even earlier than that.
Stores near me first put in self checkouts around a decade ago and still have the original, problematic machines. It's the newer stores or ones recently renovated that have upgraded, but that is rare.
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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.
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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.)
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Most folks think their hourly wage is the employer's cost. By the time you add it all up, a $15 cashier actually costs $25-$30. For almost any employer, wages are the number one expense. If they started paying that again, you bet we'd pay more.
Have you been in the American minimum wage job market in the last 10 years or so? Every job that pays minimum wage doesn't give enough hours for the employee to be full-time, which means they don't get benefits, retirement contributions, etc. In these cases, outside of the onboarding costs, a $15 an hour employee does in fact cost $15 an hour.
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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.
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.
