6 ms·

I prefer automated checkouts far more than human cashiers. It's much faster. Maybe there's some problem 20% of the time which is quickly resolved by an employee

I prefer automated checkouts far more than human cashiers. It's much faster. Maybe there's some problem 20% of the time which is quickly resolved by an employee. (People who would say that the system still needs humans ignore the fact that one person can now look over six checkouts, thus cutting jobs by one-sixth.)

mod 10y ago
I strongly dislike the automated checkouts; I prefer to wait in line to get a human. I don't like the bagging system that has to ensure you put your item into a bag, and that has a quite noticeable delay in responding to your actions. I also don't like the tiny area they have for the bags. What am I supposed to do? Put full bags back into my half-emptied shopping cart alongside items that haven't been scanned yet? It makes me uncomfortable, like they'll think I'm up to something. I also tend to buy items in bulk, like 2-liter bottles, and it's nice to say "I have 8 of these" and pass one to the cashier.
- paulddraper 10y ago
  OTOH, you can make sure your 2-liter bottles and tortilla chips are bagged separately.
- douche 10y ago
  > I also tend to buy items in bulk, like 2-liter bottles, and it's nice to say "I have 8 of these" and pass one to the cashier. This is really not the case the self-checkout lines are designed for. I use them almost exclusively for those cases where I duck in and grab a couple things quickly, and want to get the hell out. It's always faster and easier than even the 12-items-or-less express checkout line, not to mention the regular lines, where you get stuck behind somebody with a cart rounded to the sky and $400 worth of groceries in it.
- empath75 10y ago
  Yeah, when I checked groceries and had the produce codes memorized, I could blast through a grocery cart full of food in the time it takes me to check out a dozen items in the self checkout. I always go to a person for anything other than the express line.
phire 10y ago
I find the automated checkouts to be much slower than human cashiers. Humans can optimise the path from the conveyor belt to the bag so that the item just so happens to pass via the barcode scanner. I could do that too, but the machine throws a hissy fit and doesn't let me scan the next item until I've placed it in the bagging area, and waited a second for the scales to stabilize. In the time it takes me to scan and bag one item on the automated checkout, an experienced human cashier can get 5-6 items bagged. And that's only if things go as expected. Sometimes the scales bug out. Sometimes I have to navigate menus to specify what fresh produce I'm buying (while human checkout operators have memorised all the numbers). Sometimes I make a mistake and I'm not allowed to self-correct it. I have to wait for a human to come along and fix my mistake. Not to mention, the machine is yelling instructions at me the entire time. "Yes I know I should use the pin pad to complete my transaction, in fact I did so while you were still playing the previous audio clip." The only time the automated checkout is faster is when there is a queue at the real checkouts. And even then, the queue might be worth it just so I can avoid the automated checkout yelling at me.
- zelos 10y ago
  Even if it's slower for the transaction itself, the fact that they generally replace 1 human cashier with 2-3 automated checkouts mean that waiting times are much shorter in my experience.
  - aninhumer 10y ago
    Although I did discover at my local supermarket that if I'm buying alcohol at a self checkout (which requires someone to confirm my age), it can be paradoxically faster to go when it's busy, because there's always someone at the machines, whereas they rely on wandering staff to see the alert when it's quieter.
    - jstanley 10y ago
      Which also paradoxically means it's easier to turn up at a quiet time and steal the alcohol (even if you're underage!) than to buy it legitimately.
5555624 10y ago
>It's much faster. It depends on the store. At the grocery store a few miles away, I can scan an item and immediately put it in a bag. At the grocery store closest to me, you scan the item and place it on a belt, which takes it to the end of the counter. You bag everything at the end. By contrast, at that store, a cashier can scan an item an place it directly in a bag.
js8 10y ago
I prefer automated checkouts out of respect to humans - how terrible job that is! And also as a reminder, how terrible the software is. (I design and write software, not of this type though, for a living.) Although I take my time to go through it. Damn, if it's done by machine, I can do it on my own pace.
- pbhjpbhj 10y ago
  So out of respect you put people out of work whilst increasing the profit of the already wealthy - in most cases - shareholders? Is it more dignified to be out work and penniless? My position, having worked as a checkout assistant FWIW, is the opposite. Using the self-checkout is redistributing money from the poor to the rich, AFAICT: you're saving the company wages, paying the same amount, and doing the work for free. If the out of work checkout assistants got a living wage then you might be on to something.
  - js8 10y ago
    I am social democrat, and as such I am for all people to have living wages.. (and I am actually proponent of basic income and progressive taxes) However, checkout assistants are not very well paid and the job is horrible (it's not the worst, arguably, but could be improved). I do not however feel responsible for the bad moral decisions of other people. My action in itself doesn't increase profits of the wealthy, it's actions of other people. These people need to be made socially responsible (for example via progressive taxation), not me.
    - cableshaft 10y ago
      There was a time when you got good money to work in a grocery store, even in a checkout. I have (older) family members who decided not to finish college because they were making so much money at the grocery store, with pensions, in positions that would only pay minimum wage nowadays.
- empath75 10y ago
  I worked as a grocery checker for a year or so. My dad did it for half his career. It used to be a solid, union job in most places in the us. It's really not even that bad, if you like talking to people. The checking groceries part can be sort of meditative and relaxing.

mod 10y ago

I strongly dislike the automated checkouts; I prefer to wait in line to get a human. I don't like the bagging system that has to ensure you put your item into a bag, and that has a quite noticeable delay in responding to your actions. I also don't like the tiny area they have for the bags. What am I supposed to do? Put full bags back into my half-emptied shopping cart alongside items that haven't been scanned yet? It makes me uncomfortable, like they'll think I'm up to something. I also tend to buy items in bulk, like 2-liter bottles, and it's nice to say "I have 8 of these" and pass one to the cashier.

paulddraper 10y ago
OTOH, you can make sure your 2-liter bottles and tortilla chips are bagged separately.
douche 10y ago
> I also tend to buy items in bulk, like 2-liter bottles, and it's nice to say "I have 8 of these" and pass one to the cashier. This is really not the case the self-checkout lines are designed for. I use them almost exclusively for those cases where I duck in and grab a couple things quickly, and want to get the hell out. It's always faster and easier than even the 12-items-or-less express checkout line, not to mention the regular lines, where you get stuck behind somebody with a cart rounded to the sky and $400 worth of groceries in it.
empath75 10y ago
Yeah, when I checked groceries and had the produce codes memorized, I could blast through a grocery cart full of food in the time it takes me to check out a dozen items in the self checkout. I always go to a person for anything other than the express line.

phire 10y ago

I find the automated checkouts to be much slower than human cashiers. Humans can optimise the path from the conveyor belt to the bag so that the item just so happens to pass via the barcode scanner. I could do that too, but the machine throws a hissy fit and doesn't let me scan the next item until I've placed it in the bagging area, and waited a second for the scales to stabilize. In the time it takes me to scan and bag one item on the automated checkout, an experienced human cashier can get 5-6 items bagged. And that's only if things go as expected. Sometimes the scales bug out. Sometimes I have to navigate menus to specify what fresh produce I'm buying (while human checkout operators have memorised all the numbers). Sometimes I make a mistake and I'm not allowed to self-correct it. I have to wait for a human to come along and fix my mistake. Not to mention, the machine is yelling instructions at me the entire time. "Yes I know I should use the pin pad to complete my transaction, in fact I did so while you were still playing the previous audio clip." The only time the automated checkout is faster is when there is a queue at the real checkouts. And even then, the queue might be worth it just so I can avoid the automated checkout yelling at me.

zelos 10y ago
Even if it's slower for the transaction itself, the fact that they generally replace 1 human cashier with 2-3 automated checkouts mean that waiting times are much shorter in my experience.
- aninhumer 10y ago
  Although I did discover at my local supermarket that if I'm buying alcohol at a self checkout (which requires someone to confirm my age), it can be paradoxically faster to go when it's busy, because there's always someone at the machines, whereas they rely on wandering staff to see the alert when it's quieter.
  - jstanley 10y ago
    Which also paradoxically means it's easier to turn up at a quiet time and steal the alcohol (even if you're underage!) than to buy it legitimately.

5555624 10y ago

>It's much faster. It depends on the store. At the grocery store a few miles away, I can scan an item and immediately put it in a bag. At the grocery store closest to me, you scan the item and place it on a belt, which takes it to the end of the counter. You bag everything at the end. By contrast, at that store, a cashier can scan an item an place it directly in a bag.

js8 10y ago

I prefer automated checkouts out of respect to humans - how terrible job that is! And also as a reminder, how terrible the software is. (I design and write software, not of this type though, for a living.) Although I take my time to go through it. Damn, if it's done by machine, I can do it on my own pace.

pbhjpbhj 10y ago
So out of respect you put people out of work whilst increasing the profit of the already wealthy - in most cases - shareholders? Is it more dignified to be out work and penniless? My position, having worked as a checkout assistant FWIW, is the opposite. Using the self-checkout is redistributing money from the poor to the rich, AFAICT: you're saving the company wages, paying the same amount, and doing the work for free. If the out of work checkout assistants got a living wage then you might be on to something.
- js8 10y ago
  I am social democrat, and as such I am for all people to have living wages.. (and I am actually proponent of basic income and progressive taxes) However, checkout assistants are not very well paid and the job is horrible (it's not the worst, arguably, but could be improved). I do not however feel responsible for the bad moral decisions of other people. My action in itself doesn't increase profits of the wealthy, it's actions of other people. These people need to be made socially responsible (for example via progressive taxation), not me.
  - cableshaft 10y ago
    There was a time when you got good money to work in a grocery store, even in a checkout. I have (older) family members who decided not to finish college because they were making so much money at the grocery store, with pensions, in positions that would only pay minimum wage nowadays.
empath75 10y ago
I worked as a grocery checker for a year or so. My dad did it for half his career. It used to be a solid, union job in most places in the us. It's really not even that bad, if you like talking to people. The checking groceries part can be sort of meditative and relaxing.