Who really uses those self-checkout stands?

Does your grocery store have the new self-checkout stands?  There are usually about four of them grouped together, and they allow you to scan your grocery purchases, bag them, and pay for them, all by yourself.  There’s a store employee watching over the area to make sure no one cheats, and to fix all the problems that the customers are invariably having.  We’ve used the stands about six times, and I think we’ve encountered some weird issue at least four of those times.  I don’t really like them, but I’m generally safe because those checkouts are always full during busy store hours.  I really thought that people would avoid them, but it looks like many people love them.  I’d much rather let an experienced checkout person handle the job for me.

We make a lot of emergency grocery store trips late at night, when the stores are quiet (I often run out of cat food around 11pm).  There’s usually one checkout stand open, and then a bunch of self-checkouts.  We get stuck using the self-checkouts at these times, when one person is in the one open checkstand buying $400 worth of groceries.  If we just have three or four things, we’ll be brave and try to check out ourselves.  The automated voice is supposed to be helpful, but it’s just bossy.  It screams, “Put your item in the bag!” if you don’t do it quickly enough, and I feel embarrassed and chastized.

We ended up doing last-minute shopping yesterday, and had to use the self-checkout.  Some naughty folks before us hadn’t taken their receipts and coupons with them when they left the store!  I know the automated voice was yelling at them as they walked away (and maybe it’s going to call them up, after researching their phone numbers via their Fresh Values cards).  I took their receipts as well as ours, and took a peek at what they’d purchased.  One person bought just Scotch Tape (aka, “SCTCH TAPE), for $2.99.  Another person bought Arizona Iced Tea, quantity 1, for $3.49.  They saved 30 cents because it was on sale, but I still think that’s pretty pricey for a bottled drink.  Speaking of bottled drinks, there were no leftover receipts for booze… those people probably take their receipts and make sure they get thrown away.  A researcher could almost make a claim that self-checkout users only buy one item, but then we came aong and bought five things to totally screw up the study (the imaginary study in my mind). 

Do you like the self-checkouts?  Do all your grocery stores have them?  I think two out of three big chains here have adopted them (Flippy will correct me if I’m wrong).  I appreciate that they’re a time-saver for some people, but I sure hope it’s not the wave of the future.  Grocery store checkers may have problems with carpal tunnel from repetitive scanning, but at least they have health insurance.  I have enough problems already without health insurance, and I don’t need the added burden of scanning/packing 100 lbs. of groceries,, or dropping a can of peaches on my foot.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/17 at 12:42 AM

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  1. I think Chronicler’s Fresh & Easy was completely self-checkout (I think ours had a few with real live checkers), which in my opinion is icky.  By the way, I like this new plugin for IE that is a spell-checker while I’m writing, which is just a bonus, because its main goal is to remove ads.  I likey the spell-checker.

    While I like gadgets, I don’t enjoy doing my own checkout.  I find it tedious.  Plus, talking to the checkers at the grocery store is almost my only socialization.

    Posted by Flippy  on  11/17  at  04:45 AM

  2. We do 95% of our grocery shopping at Publix, which doesn’t have them. Publix rocks it old school, even sends a kid out to your car with you to put your purchases in the trunk and return your cart (tipping is forbidden).  The other main grocery store chain in our area, Kroger, has them and I’ve tried to use them a time or two when I only had a couple of things and the other lines were backed up.  Of the warehouse clubs hereabouts, Sam’s doesn’t have them, I don’t know about Costco ‘cause there’s not one nearby and B.J.’s (where my mom has a membership) uses them almost exclusively, like there are 10 - 12 self-checkouts and only one live person and a customer service person.

    Without exception, I have NEVER had the self-checkout work properly. There is always some problem, either it screaming at me to put my item in the bag when I’ve already done so, refusing to ring something for unknown reasons of its own, my forgetting that one of my 3 items was produce (the self-check has an especial hatred for me and produce, leading me to believe that I was correct back in the day when I subsisted on potato chips, red wine and frozen pizza).  I invariably make B.J. mad when I try to buy a case of Diet Cokes, because you have to put the whole flat up there, remove one six-pack to scan one can, put it back and move the flat, which I am physically incapable of doing in the 1.5 seconds B.J. allots you.  I’ve had plenty of other problems there, too, but always with the soda.

    In summary, I hate self-checkout. I have enough problems in my life already without spending 20 minutes and blowing a blood vessel trying to obtain a carton of orange juice.

    Posted by Helly  on  11/17  at  07:21 AM

  3. Like Helly, above, I do most of my shopping at Publix, which does not have them. The only stores I go to on a sort-of regular basis that have them are Lowes and Home Depot. I encounter problems about half the time, usually when I have to remove a full bag from the weight sensor and then continue to scan items--that really pisses it off for some reason.

    Posted by Helena  on  11/17  at  08:17 PM
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