The newest fad in grocery stores is the self check out line, where you scan your own groceries. This is quickly replacing the express lane in lots of stores. I know how to use the self check out line pretty well, and it works great when the store isn't busy. When the store is packed, though, it gets really frustrating. Personally, I'd rather have an experienced cashier checking out my 15 items or fewer than have to wait for some dumbass that keeps running a watermelon over the scanner waiting for the price to pop up...Or worse yet, some r****d that brings a whole basket full of items. I think they're here to stay, though, since it costs less to run four self chekout lanes than it costs to have an extra cashier on shift...
God those things are frustrating. It takes me 20 seconds to ring up my stuff while some blue hair or other idiot is doing exactly what you described. My favorite is the idiot who thinks since he's already started checking out, he can leave his stuff and go get something he forgot.
The only pitfall to these things are, as you mentioned, the idiots who refuse to acknowledge that when they look in the mirror what they see is a freakin' waste of good air, and insist on using the lane while perfectly able folk have to wait behind them.
My initial response was I hated them. However, typically you can get through with no wait. So that part I love. If there IS a line at self-checkout, I just wait in a normal line...to avoid the watermelon scanning jackass. If the self-checks turn into the industry standard and I have to always wait in line for them, I may never go into a grocery store again. Waiting in line at a self-check defeats the whole purpose.
I love them, but I hate it when people don't know how to use them and use them anyway or when they go up with a cart full of groceries. It says 15 items or less for a reason!!!
I love them. But like everyone said, if there is a line, it's straight to the manned checkout line I go.
I like 'em. Frequently, there are lines at the regular checkouts while the do-it-yourself sections are empty. I can get up there, do my thing, and get out quicker. (And if the argument is brought up that the machines are taking jobs away from people, my viewpoint is: It's inevitable that jobs will be lost to technology. Hroses give way to cars. Telegraph gives way to phones. It's the way of things. I AM opposed, however, to sending jobs to underpaid slave labor in 3rd world countries. That's a different ballgame.)
That would be awesome. It would serve them right too, except that they would probably just start over so that they could check all of their crap out.
same there. they really aren't that hard to use. the HEB on gulfgate experimented with them for about 6 months. they threw them out b/c i guess they figured there were too many stupid people holding up the line.
Another complaint is when the machine gets in a loop and has to be overridden by the cashier. No big deal if the cashier is on top of things, but most of the time they aren't there, or helping the idiots scan their credit card through.
I would imagine that the lower income areas wouldn't have them given the fact that lower income individuals and familes don't have the same access to technology as those with higher incomes. As a result, they would be less familiar with how the technologies work and the learning curve would be a lot greater. At that point, it is no longer an "express" line.
I think the problem was that the store is a high volume store. People there RARELY buy anything less than an entire cart (sometimes two) full of groceries. If I remember correctly it was 6 self checkout stations being monitored by ONE person. That was also part of the problem. Too many people + too few employees + too many items.
The Best Buy out in Sugar Land employed an excellent idea to manage the checkout line madness. They have a mgr stand in front and direct customers to various lines. During the Xmas shopping season, it worked beautifully.
Yeah, I'm sure all those unemployed teenagers are really pissed. I don't think it affects the number of cashiers that grocery stores hire, since the turnover for that kind of job is so high. I did a little rough estimating, though. Let's say the self checkout line is open from 8 am to 10 pm, which results in one less cashier on shift that day. Assuming the cashier is getting paid minimum wage, that's 72 bucks saved per day (14 hours). For a whole year, that's about $26,000 per store. Multiply that by 100 stores, and that's over $2.5 million in payroll expenses, which is a pretty good chunk of change...
I've never used one. They scare me - I don't want to be one of the idiots that doesn't know how to use them. That is doubly true after reading this thread and seeing all the hatred for these people.
