Ok so we know the point of these, they want to save money on cashiers by just removing the service. "Scan your own groceries, ass," is their philosophy.
But, exactly as predicted, theft has gone waaaaay up, so they've had to shift the money they would spend on a low-paid cashier to a mid-pay security person/team, with many thousands more in security cameras/monitors/IT/ etc. Good move, right?
Anyway, my local walmart has been rolling them in slowly. 18 months ago, or so, 8 self-checkouts showed up in their own section. Fine, whatever. I avoided them as much as possible, unless the human-lanes were extra long. When I did try them I had those early problems like "not enough weight went into the bagging area," and, "Please wait for assistance" when they thought I was stealing. I actually did walk away from a cart, once, when my patience was extra thin.
But they've generally gotten better, and lately I've been using them more.
Then yesterday I went, in the middle of a major remodel. 75% of the lanes have been replaced by self checkouts. I sigh to myself, and head for one with a green light.
I get there just as the light turns red and says "Out of service." Fine, whatever.
Go to another, when I get close enough I can read on the screen, "Card only." I sucked many dicks this week and was paying cash, so I'll go find another. Fine.
check two more, find one that takes cash. My first thing was a fresh produce without a bar code on it, I need to enter it manually, and the fucking touch screen doesn't work, or is at least uncalibrated to the point of not being usable. goddaammmmmmit.
Find another, same.
Find another, kinda shit but barely usable.
Just seriously, fuck these idiots. They've now spent so much on these shitty systems, and additional security, and are losing so much more to shrink, they could have paid cashiers for a decade for the investment.
The Self-Checkout Phenomenon
The Self-Checkout Phenomenon
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."
The Self-Checkout Phenomenon
That was my takeaway as well.
Seriously though, don't use the fucking self checkout. I refuse unless I'm in a desperate rush or I have one item or something. If every customer REFUSED to use them, those machines would be gone.
And think about it, YOU are now doing the work of checking yourself out, bagging your stuff up, and doing the payment, but has the price of groceries and whatnot gone down or up? UP! Why the fuck are we accepting this shit?!
“Every record been destroyed or falsified, books rewritten, pictures repainted, statues, street building renamed, every date altered. The process is continuing day by day. History stops. Nothing exists except endless present in which the Party is right.”
The Self-Checkout Phenomenon
It occurs to me that in a generation, when self checkouts are pervasive and we're all treated like enemy criminals in stores at all times, the young people will ask in wonder, "Did you really used to have a person to do all this?" the way we scoff at the one state that still requires someone to pump your gas for you.
I hate living long enough to see almost everything in every day life getting shittier.
I hate living long enough to see almost everything in every day life getting shittier.
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."
The Self-Checkout Phenomenon
The other day, Walmart.
My local one has replaced 70% of their checkout real estate to what I call "checkout pods.". Clusters, watched over by cameras and employees.
6 checkouts has two employees watching, fore and aft. Three clusters of 6.
That's six employees right there, instead of six open lanes of cashier. I know I'm at least three times slower than a cashier because I don't to it all day long.
Anyway, the scale of the one I was using didn't work. It kept telling me to push the reset button on the side. Didn't fix it. I had three things to weigh so muttered wtf and just jumped over to the one next to me that opened up and weighed those things there.
One of the monitors was this little chubby girl. She was chatting up the tall black guy. I told her the scale on #-whatever was broken. She said "oh ok thanks" and went back to her conversation.
My local one has replaced 70% of their checkout real estate to what I call "checkout pods.". Clusters, watched over by cameras and employees.
6 checkouts has two employees watching, fore and aft. Three clusters of 6.
That's six employees right there, instead of six open lanes of cashier. I know I'm at least three times slower than a cashier because I don't to it all day long.
Anyway, the scale of the one I was using didn't work. It kept telling me to push the reset button on the side. Didn't fix it. I had three things to weigh so muttered wtf and just jumped over to the one next to me that opened up and weighed those things there.
One of the monitors was this little chubby girl. She was chatting up the tall black guy. I told her the scale on #-whatever was broken. She said "oh ok thanks" and went back to her conversation.
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."