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You only have to hear "place the item in the bagging area, and then scan the next item" 100x and sometimes extra aggressively random. Oh, and then something sca

You only have to hear "place the item in the bagging area, and then scan the next item" 100x and sometimes extra aggressively random. Oh, and then something scans twice and you have to wait 5 minutes because they only have one human helping with 8 different scanning stations. Or the scan gun starts beeping really loudly and not scanning anymore for some reason, and you have to return it to the dock, take it out again and hope it starts working. Or you're left handed or standing in a way the system doesn't like and the camera thinks you're trying to steal something so you have wait, again for the one human to come over review the footage look puzzled and tell the computer that yeah everything is okay

Gud 2y ago
Are you from the UK? I travel a lot for work(200+ days a year) and so I see the best and the worst. In every country I've been, the self checkout is implemented differently. Only in certain countries, low trust societies, do you have to wait for the scale to calculate the weight of the goods to prevent shop lifting In Switzerland as an example, self checkout is a breeze. There is no such scale at all. Fast, highly efficient with good software. Same in Sweden, though for some reason some grocery stores in Sweden insist on being a member before you can use the self checkout lanes. I think because they were early adopters of the technology and weren't sure they could trust their customers(hint: they could). Another annoying thing is that you have to scan your receipt to exit the store. This you usually don't have to do in Switzerland. I've seen the same type of inefficient system you're accustomed to in the UK at pretty much all the stores over there and in Rimi in Riga. Frankly it works a lot better in Latvia than the UK, though still annoying and disrupts the workflow.
- ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago
  That describes most of them around here (suburban NY, USA). The [REDACTED DRUG STORE CHAIN] ones are the worst. They get confused at the drop of a hat, and have some employee, constantly intervening. I suspect they run “brogrammer” code.

Gud 2y ago

Are you from the UK? I travel a lot for work(200+ days a year) and so I see the best and the worst. In every country I've been, the self checkout is implemented differently. Only in certain countries, low trust societies, do you have to wait for the scale to calculate the weight of the goods to prevent shop lifting In Switzerland as an example, self checkout is a breeze. There is no such scale at all. Fast, highly efficient with good software. Same in Sweden, though for some reason some grocery stores in Sweden insist on being a member before you can use the self checkout lanes. I think because they were early adopters of the technology and weren't sure they could trust their customers(hint: they could). Another annoying thing is that you have to scan your receipt to exit the store. This you usually don't have to do in Switzerland. I've seen the same type of inefficient system you're accustomed to in the UK at pretty much all the stores over there and in Rimi in Riga. Frankly it works a lot better in Latvia than the UK, though still annoying and disrupts the workflow.

ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago
That describes most of them around here (suburban NY, USA). The [REDACTED DRUG STORE CHAIN] ones are the worst. They get confused at the drop of a hat, and have some employee, constantly intervening. I suspect they run “brogrammer” code.