this post was submitted on 01 Dec 2023
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[–] AlternateRoute@lemmy.ca 301 points 11 months ago (4 children)

I like self checkout as an option, almost everywhere.

I DON'T like REQUIRED self checkout.

[–] Sarmyth@lemmy.blahaj.zone 166 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (5 children)

This really is it. I managed a grocery store for years, and the problem these companies have is thinking that the self checkout can replace too many cashiers. Note that it can take the place of 1 or 2, but really, the boon of the self checkout is to really function as the best express lane ever. It should take the heat off your normal cashiers and provide an option best suited for quick purchases under 10 items.

But what ends up happening is schedulers drop their usual front end down from 4 cashiers to 1 and a self checkout host and completely nullify any gains their customers would have gotten from the enhanced service options. People really do like self checkouts but resent the hell out of being forced to use them as a blatant cash grab.

[–] AlternateRoute@lemmy.ca 60 points 11 months ago (5 children)

I will put one other mistake in there, is self checkouts with too many prompts. I avoid using self checkout at a few stores because the minimum number of prompts is higher than 3.

Good: scanning starts the process, select done AT MOST asks for how many bags, then payment type, swipe and pay (optional email receipt on pin pad).

Bad: Cant' start till you tap start, asks for member ship card up front, asks if you want to donate, scan, asks if you want to use your rewards, asks for number of bags, also would you like an email receipt?

[–] Hawke@lemmy.world 46 points 11 months ago (5 children)

You missed incessant “place your item in the bagging area” and failing/requiring “assistance” if you scan too fast.

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[–] mean_bean279@lemmy.world 19 points 11 months ago (3 children)

I stopped shopping at a local grocery store because the damn self checkout made you scan everything and place it on the stupid scale. I couldn’t put my own personal bag there as it would upset the whole system. It ended up wasting more of my time. If they want self checkout to be used more they need to understand someone isn’t stealing and paying at the same time. Sure something might get missed on accident, but I’m not scanning $100 in groceries to steal some arbitrary amount.

Also, Home Depot took self checkout to the extreme and it sucks ass for it.

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[–] lagomorphlecture@lemm.ee 34 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Same. I'm purchasing 2 small things and there's a line with the creepy incel cashier? Yep self checkout FTW. I have an entire cart full of stuff and the store doesn't even have a cashier? FML.

[–] AlternateRoute@lemmy.ca 16 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Ya, having a lot of items, or odd items like vegetables or bulk items at a grocery store that need to have a code entered or need to be weighed suck at self checkout.

I would also say large items, but home depot and costco provide wireless scanners which work very well. Can just roll your cart up grab the scanner scan and go without taking stuff off.

[–] thurstylark@lemm.ee 22 points 11 months ago (2 children)

That and age-gated items like alcohol and [some] medicines. If the one human managing the self-checkout horde is busy, you're just left waiting.

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[–] knightly@pawb.social 121 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 34 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (11 children)

Is this a real tweet?

Because if it is, it's brilliant!

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[–] Sgt_choke_n_stroke@lemmy.world 103 points 11 months ago (6 children)

O green peppers are 99 cents each but red and yellow are 1.29? That's so weird all these peppers I'm buying are green.

Fuck you, I'm the cashier now.

[–] lobut@lemmy.ca 69 points 11 months ago

Bill Burr: "what're you gonna do? cut my hours?"

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 19 points 11 months ago (9 children)

Also

Oh, something didnt scan and you walked out without paying for it?

Enjoy your broken spine as cops appear in full swat outfit and tackle you to the ground and beat you with clubs because you are shocked and arent immediately calm and compliant.

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[–] LifeLikeLady@lemmy.world 83 points 11 months ago (18 children)

At Costco it's great minus the membership checks. Thanks this was a quick process, now let me stop and take my card out so you can see I'm not stealing deals.

Walmart, fuck you hire more cashier's why am I waiting 10 minutes to checkout at self checkout when you have 50 closed fucking lanes!

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 30 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (10 children)

Walmart, fuck you hire more cashier's why am I waiting 10 minutes to checkout at self checkout when you have 50 closed fucking lanes!

I straight up said this the last time I was there to one of the managers watching the self checkout after I heard them complaining about the long ass line. Maybe if you actually turned the other 20 lanes on instead of only having 3 the lines would go by quicker, ya dumbasses.

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[–] Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee 80 points 11 months ago (13 children)

I have no sympathy for companies losing money due to theft at self-checkout, it's a cost saving measure that's bitten them in the ass.

They also suck for alcohol, or anything that doesn't have a barcode, as mentioned in the story. I never buy either of those products at self checkout.

[–] piecat@lemmy.world 30 points 11 months ago

That said, I really liked the opportunity to not have to socialize with someone

[–] Raiderkev@lemmy.world 22 points 11 months ago (5 children)

Ha,, I once got booted from a Safeway in my early 20's when I was trying to buy beers and the lady who was supposed to be verifying ID was shooting the shit w her coworker. She clearly saw the thing flashing, but wanted to finish her story. I tried waving at her to no avail. She had a very I'll get to you in a minute vibe, but she clearly wasn't talking about work stuff. I had worked at a Lucky previously and they used the same self checkout system system. I knew I just needed to type my bday on their terminal to get it to sell, so I went n did it lol. Hey, self check out amirite? I figured fuck it, I'll do that part too I guess.

She finally noticed like right before I paid and took my beers and wouldn't let me pay. I was like here's my ID, I've been waiting like 5 minutes to show you. Manager showed up told me to leave, and never come back, it was a whole thing. Granted, I was 100% being a young , dumb prick, but I was annoyed with the lady not doing her job, and wasting my time. Having been on the other side of that terminal before, knowing how easy it was to do, I was super annoyed that she wasn't even acknowledging me trying to get her attention. Fun times lol.

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[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 22 points 11 months ago (8 children)

Self checkout is useful when you only want a few things. Much faster.

If you're getting a full trolley, you'd need a barcode scanner to take round the shop with you. If you don't have that, it's faster to go with a manned checkout.

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[–] WaxedWookie@lemmy.world 77 points 11 months ago (21 children)

Remember kids, if you see someone shoplifting or switching the barcodes at your big-box self-checkout: No you didn't.

[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 28 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Preach!

I'm lucky enough to not need to take the risks involved in order to get by, but I'll be damned if I'm going to fuck over someone that may be unluckier than me. Idgaf what it is, I'm fucking sergeant Schultz.

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[–] vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 18 points 11 months ago (1 children)

My grandmother snitch on some poor bastard stealing crystal light at walmart. If someones stealing fucking crystal light from walmart theyre clearly in way worse than I am.

[–] WaxedWookie@lemmy.world 26 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I worked at a supermarket in a wealthy area for years - no one stole more than the wealthy old crones from the retirement village next around the corner.

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[–] gekkonaut@lemmy.world 67 points 11 months ago (21 children)

unexpected item in the bagging area. place items in the bagging area. unexpected item in the bagging area.

[–] Sway_Chameleon@lemmy.world 17 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (5 children)

Even worse, here in Canada at the Sobeys owned stores, you can opt to use your own reusable bag (plastic grocery bags are now outlawed) but if you do they prompt an employee to come check your bags. They never actually check, but if there isn't an attendant around you just have to wait there until they notice and end the prompt. I waited for 10 minutes the other day because the employee went off for a break or something.

Edit: spelling

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[–] zeppo@lemmy.world 44 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)

In my experience, self-checkout started with the weight sensors, rather than adding them later. I've noticed some stores have a system now without the weight thing, which probably cuts down on confusing and time-consuming error situations, but it makes it seem chaotic. My parents use them in the most fucked up way - leave everything in the cart, scan stuff, bag it, then put it in the cart, and I'm just WHAT? Aren't they going to accuse you of stealing? Some walmarts aggressively pursue claims of theft from self checkout, like in the case of this lady who was awarded 2.1 million after being accused of stealing, which she said was not true. This article details the story of a lady who said she was arrested after not scanning things by accident, and the article notes "Sixty-two other people were cited and released by police at the same Tucson Walmart between January 2021 and April 2022."

During the civil trial, which lasted about three weeks, the judge criticized Walmart for the “intentional loss” of the security camera footage, according to court records. The judge, James T. Patterson, said that the court would advise the jury that the videotapes “were destroyed by the defendants with the intent” to deprive the plaintiff of the benefit of seeing them “and that the jury therefore is to presume that the content of the missing videos would be adverse” to the defendants.

Walmart also is starting to use 'AI' to detect self checkout theft, which I'm sure will be foolproof and work out great.

And if you're wondering which item causes the most problems, it's milk. O'Herlihy explains, "People find it hard to scan milk ... Sometimes they get frustrated and they just don't scan it."

What?

Anyway, I'm sure they love not paying employees to do this, but it seems like more trouble than it's worth.

[–] Horsey@kbin.social 17 points 11 months ago

From Tucson here: Walmart in town is pretty sketchy compared to the other places. We had someone light the chemical isle on fire on Christmas Eve that burnt down half the entire store lmao. Walmart sold itself as a low price retailer for so long that only low income people go there and with that there’s theft and then the classism of hiring armed guards during their high crime periods.

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[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 44 points 11 months ago

Jokes on them, I shoplift at the staffed checkout too.

[–] MycoBro@lemmy.world 43 points 11 months ago (2 children)

At my Walmart the employees don’t stop people from stealing food. They told me as much.

[–] null@slrpnk.net 26 points 11 months ago (6 children)

I believe it's policy at Walmart for the regular staff to not prevent theft at all. Loss prevention handles that. They'll build a case without pursuing at first, and then being down the hammer.

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[–] KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 24 points 11 months ago (6 children)

Honestly, can you blame them?

Electronics, luxury items, other “nice to haves” maybe. But who wants to be the reason someone goes hungry?

Not to mention, they are getting paid dogshit wages.

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[–] spectradawn77@lemmy.world 40 points 11 months ago (7 children)

Don’t get it. Sam’s and BJs both have scanning apps on the phone. Most amazing tech ever! Costco… HURRY UP! Also, Sam’s and Bjs don’t check my card because I WOULDNT BE ABLE TO BUY ANYTHING WITHOUT THE CARD ANYWAYS… Costco!!

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[–] smackjack@lemmy.world 35 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (8 children)

Walmarts's self checkout is the only one in my area that doesn't frustrate the hell out of me. I've stopped going to certain other stores simply because I don't like their self checkout systems.

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[–] digger@lemmy.ca 30 points 11 months ago

As long as shrink stays below what they save by removing cashiers they will stay. It may be location specific removals at high shrink stores.

[–] atrielienz@lemmy.world 26 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The only reason for Costco to do this would be theft prevention or to make sure members are the only ones using their cards.

[–] EssentialCoffee@midwest.social 19 points 11 months ago (6 children)

Our Costco checks your member ID before you can use the self checkout.

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[–] mojo@lemm.ee 26 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Literally the opposite is happening. Look at any busy store: self checkout can handle like 10 people, compared to registers which are significantly less at any given time. Registers account for much less business, and corporations are going to try and get by the minimal amount of employees as possible to function. Handling physical cash also adds more complexity with tills having to be deposited, audited, and withdrawn daily.

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[–] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 22 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Replace them with “no chit chat” lanes. I’m just buying some pasta, I don’t want to talk to you.

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[–] Nougat@kbin.social 21 points 11 months ago (6 children)

I don't use self checkouts because I hate trying to get those fucking bags open.

Also give cashiers chairs.

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[–] paddirn@lemmy.world 21 points 11 months ago (17 children)

I avoid self-checkout as often as possible. In my mind, that’s taking a job away from a physical person, it’s a cost-savings for the retailer, but customers never see any benefit from it. I choose the person checkout everytime as my little bit of solidarity with my fellow humans.

[–] billiam0202@lemmy.world 16 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I'm the opposite. I use self-checkout as often as possible, because it means I have to interact with as few people as possible. I loathe people being forced to ask me how I'm doing, because we both know they don't care. Or when they ask "Did you find everything?"- does it fucking matter? Either I did, which is why I'm checking out, or I didn't, in which case it doesn't fucking matter because thanks to their shitty implementation of JIT their stock has been converted from on-prem inventory to rolling warehouse deliveries every single day. Just let me get what I want and get out.

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[–] ThatFembyWho@lemmy.blahaj.zone 20 points 11 months ago (9 children)

yeeeeah. They'll have to hire people to work the checkout lanes in that case... which means paying enough to compete with other employers who offer more. Case in point, here it's like 12/hr here to work in a grocery, vs 16/hr at Amazon. But even if they do this, people will still shoplift. Self checkout didn't create the problem, it rather treats everyone like a suspect.

The grocery I go to never has more than one staffed checkout lane at any time, typically a very long line of people too old, too stubborn, or with too many items to do it themselves. During the day it's 8 or 16 self-checkout lanes (minus broke ones), and they close in the evening, so everyone is forced to use the slow staffed checkout.

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[–] RedditReject@lemmy.world 19 points 11 months ago (4 children)

I guess there is good and bad with either style. I generally prefer the self checkout because I can bag my own stuff

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