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> America is so weird looking at it from the outside. In Germany we have self checkout lanes, they're closed 90% of the time even when the queue is 50m long, a

> America is so weird looking at it from the outside. In Germany we have self checkout lanes, they're closed 90% of the time even when the queue is 50m long, and when they're open you have 1 employee for every 3 stations + one employee at the gate. Once you're done paying you have to carry your receipt to the gate and scan it otherwise it doesn't open Every time I go through that I wonder what the fuck went wrong in this world, this is something you have to go through every day in the so called #1 economy of europe... none of it makes sense, you're a thief by default, you pay the same price even though you do the job. And it's at least 2x slower because there is always a problem (alcohol/cigarettes needs a manual approval of an employee, if the weight doesn't match the machine locks up and need the approval of an employee, if the scanner is fucked you have to enter the 200 characters bar code manually in the machine, &c.)

metalman 2y ago
Last year I switched to cash only(Canada), this week had to think for a moment to remember my PIN. The self checkout's are horrible, and de-huminising, and just now it occured to me to start calling them the "self abuse line". Going to cash has also prompted me to be more frugal, and buy bulk, single ingredients for cooking meals, as I think there is something in the monkey brain that is reluctant to hand anything over for nothing much in return.And hefting many packaged items(and putting them back) reveals that they are shiny boxes full of air,described as bieng mega something with enhanced nutrition(pro), but true costs are $60+/kg for some bland food substitute pellets, that have 72 different ingedients, written out in a micro font, that must require special printing equipment to produce. What is fun at the cashier checkout, is handing them the correct amount, and watching the robo-human employee flounder, some (get it) and smile after a second, but others are clearly freaked out by a spontainoius demonstration of minor mental arithmatic combined with physical money.

metalman 2y ago

Last year I switched to cash only(Canada), this week had to think for a moment to remember my PIN. The self checkout's are horrible, and de-huminising, and just now it occured to me to start calling them the "self abuse line". Going to cash has also prompted me to be more frugal, and buy bulk, single ingredients for cooking meals, as I think there is something in the monkey brain that is reluctant to hand anything over for nothing much in return.And hefting many packaged items(and putting them back) reveals that they are shiny boxes full of air,described as bieng mega something with enhanced nutrition(pro), but true costs are $60+/kg for some bland food substitute pellets, that have 72 different ingedients, written out in a micro font, that must require special printing equipment to produce. What is fun at the cashier checkout, is handing them the correct amount, and watching the robo-human employee flounder, some (get it) and smile after a second, but others are clearly freaked out by a spontainoius demonstration of minor mental arithmatic combined with physical money.