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I love using self checkout. I can almost always checkout faster than I would if I went to a lane with an actual cashier. Most of the time it's an older person t
by RandallBrown 15y ago
I love using self checkout. I can almost always checkout faster than I would if I went to a lane with an actual cashier. Most of the time it's an older person that tries to make painfully awkward conversation with me instead of just scanning my shit.
This works decently well in a college town where most people are younger and educated. When I visit my parents and do self checkout it's maddening. Everyone is constantly setting things down in the bagging area or taking stuff off early. Or the worst thing happens and they try to pay with a check. Another problem is when a purchase requires cashier interaction, like buying alcohol. If lots of people are doing it at once (college town) it can really slow things down.
Eventually this will totally take over, but it will be awhile before everyone accepts it.
It also kind of stinks
- hessenwolf 15y agoHmmm... A lot of time I have really appreciated the human contact with a cashier. Even now, despite being practically physically wired to computers at all time, I still avoid the self-checkout where possible. (It might help that the local supermarket is staffed by hot Polish girls)
- justincormack 15y agoMaybe especially because you spend time in front of computers? I do like to avoid computers in my off work time, so prefer human cashiers (as well as film cameras not digital etc).
- hessenwolf 15y agoMaybe indeed.
- ams6110 15y agoIt's OK if you are buying a small number of items. For a cart full of items it's absolutely slower than a traditional checkout where you can be unloading the cart, the cashier scanning, and the bag boy putting items in bags all at the same time. With self-checkout you are doing all three in a serialized fashion and it's slower. Also if you are buying more than will fit on the bagging area you're stuck, because the machines complain if you remove anything before you've paid. Also the cashiers are practiced at holding the item at the proper angle to the scanner so the reader picks up the bar code on the first scan. In the self-checkout area people are picking up items, looking for the code, scanning, scanning again. And produce that is priced by weight is another bottleneck. The experienced cashiers know all the produce codes by memory so they don't have to take time looking up the code for green leaf lettuce vs. romaine. Self checkout has its place, but it's not ready to replace human cashiers at the supermarket yet.