Welcome to Incremental Social! Learn more about this project here!
Check out lemmyverse to find more communities to join from here!

mechoman444 ,

The self check out was supposed to decrease the amount of cashiers the store would have to use so they wouldn't have to pay so many cashiers.

They're a detriment to society.

BorgDrone ,

Why? Seems like a win for everyone. The end goal should be to eliminate all jobs so we dan spend our time doing things we enjoy.

mechoman444 ,

You're right! There should be no jobs!

asdfasdfasdf ,

The job hasn't been eliminated. You are just the one doing it now. The only benefit is that the store doesn't need to pay you.

GrayBackgroundMusic ,

You're right, it should be, but greedy CEOs will find a way to make us all still have to have jobs so they can see us toil. Remember, rich have to have something to make themselves feel above us plebeians.

firadin ,

Not a win for the shopper, who now has to scan and bag their own items. Not a win for the now laid-off cashier who is unemployed. Only a win for the company, which has gained free labor.

BorgDrone ,

Oh no, bagging your own items. I already had to do that because we don’t have demeaning jobs like that on this side of the pond.

Massive win for me as a shopper as the self checkout is much faster and doesn’t require human interaction.

barsoap ,

I'm quite sure I'd go mental over in the US as I very much doubt a bagger can tetris my backpack as well as me.

firadin ,

I'm sure the baggers would rather be employed rather than laid off. I'd rather have the money go to a bagger than the CEO's pockets.

TheFriar ,

Yeah, you know, this is mostly my view on AI. Eliminate jobs! But they’re not going to ditch capitalism, so losing jobs doesn’t mean no work. It means people suffer and starve. Because businesses want us to have money, they just don’t want to pay us that money. I mean, without money, we wouldn’t buy their shit. And eliminating jobs (“costs”) means keeping more of the money for themselves. And more money for themselves means more power and sway over policy.

Can you ever foresee a future in which the world is filled with businesses hiring no one, but people still having money via UBI or however they would arrange to keep capitalism afloat through the continuous circulation of money? The more jobs they cut early, the more money they have to fight the tax increase that UBI would necessitate (in this hypothetical mostly jobless society). If we can’t secure more power in a system that actually values human life, AI and increasing automation will only lead to us, the working class, suffering and dying while the baron class keeps amassing power and money.

In short, capitalism and full automation/AI are incompatible with human life.

(I mean, capitalism is incompatible with human life. But we need a complete overhaul of the entire concept of modern life itself before we allow capitalism to go on automating. It only spells disaster for us—even though it could mean utopia. Capitalism will not let utopia exist because it’s not generating profits.)

shiroininja ,

nope. hate dealing with a cashier, never going back. If I'm grabbing an item or two, I can be out in like 2 minutes. Most places I don't even have to touch the screen or fiddle with a card reader. scan scan, tap phone, I'm out! even at wallmart you can finish a transaction without pushing anything.

nintendiator ,

scan scan, tap phone,

Do we tell him?

shiroininja ,

What?

bdonvr ,

Usually I quite like self check

Except at ALDI.

Before they put in self check the cashiers sped through transactions at lightning speed. Now they've cut the number of cashiers and people sit at SCO slowly scanning and bagging everything....

It's ALDI bruh scan that shit and go to the bagging counter.

Sendbeer ,

Oh shit, I just started going to Aldi and sounds like I am one of the idiots doing it wrong. The store I am going to seems to be setup same as a typical SCO though. I don't know that I have noticed a bagging counter. Will be looking next trip I guess.

bdonvr , (edited )

Ah I'm mostly grumbling anyways. The SCOs look the same as anywhere else had I begun shopping at Aldi after SCOs got there I probably wouldn't do anything different either.

But famously the cashiers at Aldi were super fast. They don't bag anything. They just toss it into your cart. They'd often have a spare cart or two and if you had a lot of groceries they'd put it into a new cart for you instead of waiting for yours to be empty. (And also is one of very few places in the US where they let cashiers sit down).

People who would attempt to bag their groceries while at the cashier (unless they only had a few things and got it done very quick) would attract ire from both the cashier and other customers for holding things up since they'd usually be done scanning before you'd get done bagging. Check this meme: https://x.com/ladbible/status/1270736248546758656 and the replies to it calling them out for bagging at checkout.

After you checkout, you were meant to go to the bagging counter and bag your stuff (in your own bags or some people use empty display boxes.) The bagging counter is on the front wall of the store right by the exit (see picture)

https://thelemmy.club/pictrs/image/00d07635-7bab-4156-9e61-b637863f8d1c.jpeg

But if you notice next time, all the store brand stuff (90% of the stuff there) has unusually large and tall barcodes usually on multiple sides to help the cashiers be as fast as they are.

Also the SCOs at ALDI are some of the quickest I've EVER used in terms of scanning items. It doesn't need any delay between scans. If I only have one layer of stuff in my cart I usually just scan it while it's still in the cart using the hand scanner and can be gone in under two minutes.

barsoap ,

They just toss it into your cart.

That's a US thing. In Germany it's common practice everywhere that the cashier does the scanning, you do the putting in your cart, or wherever, but if "wherever" is slower than a cart you'll get death stares from other customers. They probably introduced that to deal with Americans who'd otherwise just stand there twiddling their thumbs.

Also ALDI cashiers have gotten slow: They introduced scanners very late, before that cashiers would rummage through the belt with one hand and enter four-digit codes with another. It was possible to keep up with fresh cashiers but the seasoned ones were absolute speed-hogs -- not that they'd mind you being slower, they just were done quickly because with practice, you get blazing fast at code entering.

Nollij ,

Pro tip: Use (sturdy) boxes instead of bags.

Set them in the completed area of SCO before starting the process, or in the empty cart before the cashier starts. That way it gets scanned and goes straight into the box. The box then makes it easy to put into your car, and into your home.

Sendbeer ,

Hey that's pretty cool. I did see the unbagging area when picking up few items yesterday. Going to give it a shot next time I go to Aldi. It's not a busy store and I always see an empty register, but maybe that's because everyone else is doing their shit right.

I did notice the bigger bar codes and that the Aldi registers scanned real well but somehow didn't put the two things together.

Fedizen ,

Making customers bag their groceries for free is not a "cost saving measure" its a "cost shifting measure"

mundane , (edited )

I don't recognize these pain points. I always use the self checkout and it's usually quick and painless. My experience is.

Edit: seems I made the assumption that everyone uses wireless scanner handles.

  1. When we enter the store we scan the ID to get a wireless scanner handle.
  2. Collect your wares, scan with the handle, placing them directly into the bags along the way.
  3. Put the handle back and blip your membership id (card or qr code on phone) again to start the checkout.
  4. Blip your payment card.
  5. Walk out

Every once in a while I get caught in a random check, which is kind of a pain, but it's so infrequent that it is acceptable.

Is this not how it usually works?

Zitronensaft ,

Ok now I am curious where you live that you have to provide ID to shop. Here in the US we scan the items and then swipe our payment card, the ID is only used to check your age for tobacco and alcohol purchases which can’t be sold to minors. An employee has to come look at the ID to make sure a minor hasn’t borrowed someone else’s, so it doesn’t even get scanned. Employees just swipe their work badge and confirm that they checked your age.

As for the pain, a lot of self checkout systems have very limited space and can be awkward to run all your items through. Manned stations have the conveyor so you can unload multiple items from your cart at a time to be scanned. They also have more end space so you can have room to bag everything if you are doing a big shopping trip.

SnotFlickerman ,
@SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

I would assume they meant something like a CostCo proof of membership ID.

This is how self checkouts at CostCo work in the US, however they are pretty good about having plenty of regular cashiers available as well.

mundane ,

Exactly, a membership id to checkout the wireless scanner that you have with you in the store.

IHeartBadCode ,
@IHeartBadCode@kbin.social avatar

I think they mean ID as store loyalty card and/or membership card. Not actual government issued ID.

runefehay ,

I think they may be talking about the "discount" tracker cards. The ones which you fill out an application to get, so you can get the special "discount" (really what the price used to be).

zout ,

Not for me. Take in consideration that I don't do a lot of shopping. Two of the maybe four times times I used a self check-out last year;

  1. So I go to the self check-out. One of my items is on clearance. I scan it. It shows full price. turns out I needed to scan a different bar-code for the clearance. However, I can't remove the already scanned bar-code from the list, so now I need to call assistance.
  2. My kids drink a lot of coke zero, so when it goes on sale I usually buy a lot of it. In this case, I took all that's left in the store. I scan one bottle, do a quick count and adjust the number of bottles accordingly. I place the bottle in my cart and realize I've counted one too many. I can't take it off, and now need to call assistance.
mundane ,

This sounds like a terrible user experience. Is this a case of "we have implemented a terrible self checkout system and now no one likes to use it"?

Zagorath ,
@Zagorath@aussie.zone avatar

Are you Dutch? I recall an old NJB video describing how Dutch supermarkets worked like this. (Plus, Martin is a name I associate with the Netherlands…)

But no. Most often, you put stuff in your trolley or basket, then when you get to the checkout, you scan the things and bag them yourself one-by-one, then pay.

Here in Australia, one of our two main supermarket chains in the last 2 years rolled out something similar to what the Netherlands has had for at least half a decade. You use their app on your phone and scan things with the app as you go, before paying through the app and scanning a QR code at the exit.

The other main chain, and the two main smaller chains, have made no moves to follow, so you're stuck with a long line for a small number of open checkouts, or the self-checkout where you have to scan everything after you get to the checkout.

mundane ,

I live in Sweden. The system in the Netherlands sounds similar to what we have. There are also wireless scanners you can use throughout the store if you don't want to use your phone.

drml ,
@drml@mastodontti.fi avatar

@mundane @Zagorath

In 🇫🇮 these mostly are hybrids: conventional checkouts plus a variable nr. of self-checkout points. Some chains have also portable scanners but only recently (I recall that in 🇸🇪 they have existed for years).

Based on my own N of 1 -experience I use the "human check out" slightly more often than machine. Why? Hmmm. The conveyor belt makes everything roll a bit smoother ;D

The BBC article, I understood, was maybe more about the totally or almost totally cashier-less stores.

Entertainmeonly ,

Wait, you don't have to scan every item at the checkout?

Skua ,

At least here in the UK a lot of larger supermarkets give you the option of taking a little handheld scanner with you and doing it as you shop. When you go to the till you just scan a barcode that's on the till and it connects the till to the scanner so you can pay for everything. I don't personally use it because I'm too disorganised a person to pack as I go and also remember to scan everything, but it's fairly popular. It typically exists as an alternative way of using the self checkouts, the option to scan everything at the checkout itself is still there

key ,

Some places near me trialed that. It got dropped post covid because "forgetting" to scan things was an even bigger problem than with regular self checkout.

mundane ,

No, we (most supermarkets in Sweden) get a wireless scanner handle that we have with us in the store. So we scan each item when we take it from the shelf and put it in the bag/cart. When we get to the self checkout we just put the handle back and pay.

Badeendje ,
@Badeendje@lemmy.world avatar

I bet it depends heavily on what stores you frequent and where. Also which country ofc. In from the Netherlands and have similar experience, some stores even have portable DIY scanners.. so I scan while I shop and just hand in the scanner and pay.

mundane ,

I forgot to mention the wireless scanner in my op, but that is part of the steps I listed.

AnneBonny ,

It works like that for me too. Even better if your list is short enough to avoid getting a cart.

Thorry84 ,

My local shop around the corner doesn't even require scanning a card or anything like that. Just get the handscanner at the entrance by pressing the button on the screen. Scan your shit and put it in the bag, go to the self checkout, put the scanner in the machine, touch your phone to pay and it's done. I love it, I can be in and out in about 1 minute if I only need a couple of things. They've put in about 10 self checkout machines in the place of 3 old fashioned checkouts. Usually there is only one oldskool checkout open with a large line of old people.

Only irritating thing is people with like 100 items scanning all their shit at the checkout (if you don't want to use the handscanner), it takes forever. I don't get why people do that, but luckily there are enough self checkouts there is always one free.

lemmytellyousomething ,

Is this not how it usually works?

I want to shop without them generating a profile of me. I want to pay with cash. I don't even want them to know who I am. And I don't want random checks....

Fortunately, I have never seen your scenario in Germany where I'm living.....

moitoi ,

In my country, it's a huge success. People love it at the point that even Aldi and Lidl implemented the system.

But, the huge difference with the US is cultural. People coming here from abroad have a hard time to make local friends. It can take up to 10 years to make one.

My guess is that people love the lack of social contact more than self checkout itself.

Agent641 ,

To prove your point, will you be my friend?

Ainiriand ,

If you are talking about Germany, yes. I recently (3 years) moved to Germany and I love the tech. I can avoid having contact with the rude people that usually work at the tills.

Anamnesis ,

In the US people working the tills are usually TOO nice and you don't want to make smalltalk with them. Only in NYC have I encountered rude till people, and even there, most are pretty pleasant.

tocopherol ,
@tocopherol@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Yes in the US honestly I feel anxiety thinking about the cashier being too nice and not responding appropriately friendly enough haha, there is such a pressure for good service for any retail worker that I feel like it's somewhat rare for them to be straight up 'rude', at most they will be quiet. Like you mention though it does vary a lot region to region from what I've seen.

KpntAutismus ,

it's usually better implemented here. i regularly went to a real (the supermarket chain) once, they had one employee manning 4 self checkout machines and one of them took cash. they would open them during lunch rushhour, so all of the people who just wanted a sandwich were out of there within 30 seconds. worked awesome.

moitoi ,

It's south where people are even less open to contact.

barsoap ,

If the people at the till are rude your problem is probably that you're living in Berlin.

Ainiriand ,

You nailed it!

PixelProf ,

I almost exclusivity self-checkout for groceries, and it had drastically sped up my checkout time as most people in my area opt to use traditional checkout and the stores are still keeping lots of lanes open (just closing the express lanes). The last 3 times I've used a non-self checkout, each time I was double charged for items or didn't have reduced prices applied and didn't notice because I was bagging.

Aermis ,

Same but mostly because I like to scan each item and see it associated with the price on the screen before adding another item

PixelProf ,

That too, and I can really efficiently manage the items going into bags given I backpack my groceries and want pretty specific configurations...

MashedTech ,

Oh my god, YES. With the cashier I feel rushed and packing is a mess..

rabiddolphin ,
@rabiddolphin@lemmy.world avatar

Don't forget to sweep the floors and bring in the carts

MashedTech ,

I use self checkout on the machines that don't weigh what you buy. Those work so well. The kind that have to weigh what you buy are slow and they always have an issue when I put items in bulk on them. Like two cans of beer if I don't set both of them down at once it just breaks down and tells me I have the wrong weight in any configuration.

PixelProf ,

Totally agree. I forgot about those, as I've only encountered the weighing ones once in the past very long time and it was a mess, I can totally get hate if weighing ones are the only experience with them.

Crack0n7uesday ,

I just watched a comedy special where the comedian calls them the "the shoplifter lanes".

Zink ,

They let me avoid human interaction if I choose, AND they’ve hurt these big retailers while showing them the value of giving people more shifts/hours?

Spectacular success if you ask me! It would be fun to have worked on this tech and then see it helping others by failing or being sabotaged, lol. That’s not a feeling you usually expect when you launch a product.

UnderpantsWeevil ,
@UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

They let me avoid human interaction if I choose

Not even that, really. There's always a cashier or two who needs to hover over my shoulder to check an eye or protect against shoplifting or help with a malfunctioning device. The change is in their role. Cashiers are no longer helpfully bagging your groceries, they're just functioning as underpaid rent-a-cops.

It would be fun to have worked on this tech and then see it helping others by failing or being sabotaged, lol.

The original check-out lanes were already incredibly efficient. Self-checkout is comparatively clunky and time-consuming, which is why you're encouraged to use lanes for more than 15 items.

I wouldn't call it particularly helpful, even from a labor standpoint. Everyone is functionally more miserable than they were ten years ago. What we've got with this technology is a sunk cost that businesses are loathe to write off as a failure.

DeadlineX ,

I hate when cashiers bag my groceries. I have the large reusable bags, and they put like 4 things in each. Why? I always tell them I’m going to bag my own at this point anyways just to get my grocery bags full.

Buddahriffic ,

Even when they had plastic bags here, I'd be surprised at how little they'd put in some bags. Those things can handle more, fill them up!

That's the part I like the best about self checkout. I can set up a couple of bags and then optimize what I scan. Put all the freezer stuff together, fridge stuff, soft things on top, heavy stuff at bottom. Helps that they got rid of the weighing where I shop, that shit was so annoying plus it limited your total space to however big the weighing table was (unless you got someone to reset it so you could remove some bags back to your cart).

experbia ,
@experbia@lemmy.world avatar

They let me avoid human interaction if I choose

I used to like them for this at least, but now my local store has someone come talk to you and do the whole "did you find everything OK?" and loyalty card conversation while the other machines in the background need their attention and people are getting impatient. if you have headphones in they'll literally just keep trying and wait until you remove them to say "yep, nope, no thank you, don't need the pamphlet, thanks, nope, yep all good".

I avoid them entirely now, there's no value and only drawbacks. I'll wait in the long human checker line as long as I need. the human doesn't stop scanning randomly half way through the slow scan, bag, wait loop and start emitting loud alarm noises for an employee to come over (sometime in the next 10 minutes) and be forced to review a video of your whole self-checkout process titled "CHECK THOROUGHLY FOR THEFT" before they can unlock the machine and stop the alarm.

wildginger ,

Around here you cannot use coupons without assistance, and each one needs a 3 button confirmation sequence.

Did you get 2 or more of the discounted breads? Whoops, those gotta get individually checked to make sure you didnt secretly duplicate the coupon! Grab the meat that expires next week for tonights dinner, which gets a lil price slash to make sure it sells? Nope, sorry, that one also needs to stop the cart and call for help too.

None of this in a regular stand, those scan coupons like normal. I guess theyre afraid I know how to make these discount codes at home?

Facebones ,

I don't mind self checkout.

I mind that I need the one employee overseeing 12 checkouts every other scan because the system decides something is wonky. I mind that it now has AI that assures said single employee that I'm fleecing them for an $0.80 can of tomato sauce and I now have to wait for this person to dig through my 3 bags looking for this hoisted sauce.

If they're so determined that every customer is lifting everything at checkout all the time - if only there was a way they could have an employee verify every item gets scanned, every time, perhaps by doing it themselves. Then we could wait in a line and feed our items to them so they can rest easy knowing everything was scanned appropriately. Oh, what science fiction Dreams I have.

ExfilBravo ,

Or just RFID chip all the food items and I just walk out of the store and it charges me later based on what I walked out with. If no account exists automatic deployment of security personnel to catch the thief.

Facebones ,

I went to one of Amazon's spots in NYC, it was neat but it feels sus as hell just moseying out of the store 😂

Buddahriffic ,

No, don't add more waste to packaging.

nixcamic ,

This exactly.

Also trying to fit a bunch of awkward stuff off the scale and some of it is leaning against the edge and you have to balance everything just right cause heaven forbid it be off by a gram. Or it getting stuck because a bag doesn't weigh enough to register.

Like if you don't trust me fine but don't half ass it. If I'm gonna steal something from a grocery store it's gonna way more than a gram and sure as heck isn't gonna be an empty plastic bag.

kaffiene ,

Maybe this is just a British thing? They're very popular here in NZ

mahomz ,

Though the BBC is obviously identified most with UK, it in fact has many international publications. This article focuses on the US, with only a reference to "Booths in the UK", a very small supermarket group I have never heard of before.

Self checkout in the UK is commonplace and largely popular, though some of the general customer criticisms in the article are familiar to me as a regular user of them.

1rre ,

I mean Booths aren't that small, they're just exclusively north-western & fill the same niche as Waitrose, who have virtually no stores in the north west as a result

That means their customer base is pretty much a perfect intersection of people who won't want to use a self-checkout - older people & people who are friendlier to strangers

mahomz ,

28 stores is small by UK supermarket standards. Sainsbury's alone have over 1400. I can't reasonably consider Booths reflective of trends across the country, perhaps for the reasons you suggest.

OP's question as to whether the UK is rejecting self checkout on any level isn't really addressed by the example in this article.

EnderMB ,

Booths is basically unheard of anywhere else in the UK. The only reason I've heard of them is because the bald guy on TikTok that reviews the worst towns in the UK did a video on them.

telllos ,

Same here in Switzerland, very well made and pretty efficient. But I really hate the fact that I'm basically working for the store.

EnderMB ,

They're very popular here too, but a lot of older people really struggle with them, so they're widely hated by boomers that want things to be like the 80's again.

The technology is a bit shit, and more often than not there's a lot of waiting around for someone to unblock you. Where it was probably a "failure" to many is in the initial promise of being able to get rid of employees and replace them with self-scan.

Fapper_McFapper ,

… but a lot of older people really struggle with them, so they're widely hated by boomers that want things to be like the 80's again.

In my experience it’s not that older people are struggling with it. It’s that Walmart has 300 self checkout kiosks but only two are open and the line for a regular register is almost out of the premises.

And the CVS self checkout always ends up confusing itself and constantly yelling at you to place the item in the bagging area.

Kazumara ,

Sounds like low trust society issues to be honest. I only see those systems expanding in Switzerland, and they never use annoying scales or complain about unexpected items, because there aren't even any sensors for that.

lemmyvore ,

Over here it's a mix, some chains use the scales + sensors, some use simple scan machines. I absolutely hate the scale + sensors, some of them are almost completely unusable and the attendants have to keep running around fixing errors or resetting the ones where people just give up mid-cart and go to a manned checkout.

beeb ,

Can confirm. The only deterrent is the potential for an random bag check by an employee but that never happened to me in years of using self checkout. Some shops have a worker over watching a dozen of stations to help out or just identify suspicious behavior but it's very unintrusive.

Buttons ,
@Buttons@programming.dev avatar

I've been a checker and have monitored self-checkouts. We get no training or instructions to watch for suspicious behavior. It's not the job of a checker / cashier to confront people for suspicious behavior, we don't get paid enough to do so, or to even care.

withabeard ,

So much chocolate weighed through the scales as "fresh veg potatoes"

beeb , (edited )

Thanks for the clarification! My assumptions were wrong ^^ although I saw once a lady who tried to leave without paying, but the worker noticed and they spent a good 5 minutes convincing her to put in cash into the machine, which apparently she had but had to look for in her bag for a looong time.

JohnEdwa ,
@JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz avatar

Here in Finland handheld scanners have been getting added to more shops, you grab one, scan and bag as you go, and at the end you return the scanner and pay it all at once.

MirthfulAlembic ,
@MirthfulAlembic@lemmy.world avatar

One of the regional grocery stores in my part of the US has these (if you have an account). Before I did online ordering with curbside pickup, this was how I shopped. I didn't understand why it wasn't more popular. It made checking out so quick. Every twenty or so trips I'd be randomly "audited," where some poor employee had to rifle through my bags to double check I wasn't stealing anything.

frosty ,
@frosty@pawb.social avatar

We used to have this (scan-as-you-shop) at Wegman's in the northeast US, but at some point they decided to withdraw the program to re-think on it.

jol ,

The chance to be randomly audited would put me off from ever using it again. Specially when you know that randomly = you look brown or immigrant most of times.

flumph ,
@flumph@programming.dev avatar

At Giant, I'm pretty sure it's decided by the system based on some algorithm, not the employee. The one time I was audited, we were in the store for a long time and had removed a few items from the cart after adding them.

The audit consisted of the employee scanning ten random items and confirming we had scanned them too.

raynethackery ,

When I was using food stamps/EBT, I was audited every time I used the hand scanner at Stop and Shop. Luckily, I don't have to use food stamps anymore.

flumph ,
@flumph@programming.dev avatar

Well that's some bull. The software knows what items are covered and which aren't, so that's just assuming folks needing help are thieves.

raynethackery ,

Yeah, luckily an Aldi opened down the street and I started shopping there. I don't need food stamps now but with the way prices are going...

jol ,

Ah, yes, yes. We're not racist, it's the system! It's an algorithm! I never heard that one before. It's also a sustym that randomly checks you at the airport.

Nollij ,

It all depends on how truly random the system is. Each checkout (or ticket, or whatever) assigned a random number between 1 and 20, with 20 meaning audit? That's non-discriminatory. But it's also not tuned for the purpose of finding shoplifters (etc).

When you start adding criteria, they are often at least correlated with discrimination. Food stamps were mentioned elsewhere. Flight history to/from a list of hostile countries for airports. The list goes on. Technically not based on things like race, but it's a paper-thin distinction in some cases.

jol ,

How do you know there's not someone looking at se purity cameras triggering random audits?

Nollij ,

Then that's not random by any definition of the word. It's targeted.

It's entirely possible, even likely, that management would keep claiming that it's random when it's not. But then we're not talking about any algorithms.

jol ,

That's the point I'm making.

hulemy ,
@hulemy@ani.social avatar

We have both happen, sometimes combined or scan with phone. I've seen some of the American systems, with sensors and weights and speakers (with some voice lines), those are creepy to me.

crazyCat ,

For sure, I use self checkout at at least 5 different places in China and they all work fantastically, including a Walmart.

grabyourmotherskeys ,

To be fair, anything that allows a Swiss person to avoid small talk will be overwhelming popular.

NegativeInf ,

Am.. am I swiss?

nbafantest ,

All of Lemmy is Swiss apparently

moitoi , (edited )

My guess is that we are half of the population on lemmy.

moitoi ,

I avoid places where self checkout isn't available. And, it's not just me. I stopped counting how many time the cashier is jobless and the self checkout area is full.

slingstone ,

I enjoy Sam's Club's "Scan and Go" feature in their app. I scan my items and pay in the app. I never have to interact with a soul, and that's peachy keen in my book.

tinkeringidiot ,

So much this. I started using it during Covid, and it’s been so great that I prefer Sams over any other shopping experience.

flango ,
@flango@lemmy.eco.br avatar

You do the work for the company and pay them! Fuck self-checkout!!

Rivalarrival ,

The value added by a cashier is not worth the amount of time I expend waiting for them to become available. Self checkout is a win for me and for the retailer.

You are free to wait for a full-service cashier if you like. I'd rather be on my way.

aceshigh ,
@aceshigh@lemmy.world avatar

What I’m annoyed by is when going to a cashier they expect you to bag your own groceries, and give me attitude when I ask them to do it.

I much rather prefer self check out. I don’t need to deal with the attitude.

yokonzo ,

Nah fuck that, I don't have to talk to a single person, don't have to wait in line, don't have to have forced smalltalk, it's great

rabiddolphin ,
@rabiddolphin@lemmy.world avatar

Yes shuffling from point a to point b without interaction is living

yokonzo ,

Who are you to decide what is "living" for me

rabiddolphin ,
@rabiddolphin@lemmy.world avatar

I thought lemmy was anarchists and you have everyone simping for the corporate food overlords, what gives?

gladflag ,

I hate self checkout because they make the system frustrating as if they don’t trust you. Which they don’t. So they make it weigh items and it yells if you’re too slow putting the item in the bagging area.

If you don’t trust me to do it. Pay someone else to do it.

avater ,
@avater@lemmy.world avatar

Problem is they save on the humans so you have to do their work too but you don't see any price reduction or benefit for doing so, and that is on top of all the usability issues...

Smoogs ,

It gets better, they’ve converted the Walmart tech help for the self checkout into sales people for their master card now.

shea ,

some terminals have 2 or even 3 cameras pointed at you, displaying on the screen so you know for sure they don't trust you. they're probably scanning your face nowadays too so they track individual purchase history

bluewing ,

I think self checkout works for one or two items. But not much more than that. I don't want to have two or three things to checkout and be stuck behind someone with a cart full.

But If I have much more than that, an "old fashioned" checkout is a lot better.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • technology@lemmy.world
  • incremental_games
  • meta
  • All magazines
    •