this post was submitted on 15 Jan 2024
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For most of my shopping, which takes place at our local Walmart (I live in the US), I actually really like using the self-checkout. Now when we make a big grocery run, having a person there makes things easier because they can scan and bag, I can unload things onto the belt and my wife can pull bags off the little turnstile thing and put them back in our cart, but most of the time I'm just running in to grab a handful of items so when I leave I can just walk up to the kiosk, scan my stuff, scan the QR code with the Walmart app on my phone and walk out the door. It'll auto pay with the privacy card I attached to my Walmart account and give me a digital receipt to show if somebody wants to see it at the door. They even have a thing now where you can pay a monthly subscription for "Walmart+" where you can scan and pay for your items as you shop.
I don't use self-checkout for one reason only: if I am doing the work, why am I paying the same price. It's just another scheme by the business people to get them more money.
There are far better ways of queuing, and they can always hire more people to deal with the demand. But no, they figured out hiring fewer people makes it inconvenient for many, which is an incentive to use self checkout, which gives them even more money on top of already high margins.
Same thing with gas stations. No thanks. I'll happily leave a tip to people providing the service, but it's a matter of principle. You don't go to a restaurant and rummage through their refrigerator to get the meal, nor should you serve yourself anywhere else.
If I go to a buffet style restaurant like Golden Corral where there's a long table full of precooked items, I'm gonna go up to that table and rummage around and fill my own plate, 😜