PLEASE PLACE THE ITEM IN THE BAG: Supermarket Self-Serve Checkout Poll

I'd generally rather employ someone. Plus now I do most shopping at Trader Joe's where the cashiers are actually very nice.

i like when people have jobs but i also hate human interaction and can do a better job myself so i love it! hate how hard it makes it to use your own bag though, you have to make a pile and then put it in your bag after

they have these machines at Home Depot - where I want to spend as little time as possible, so the machines are useful in that regard. On the other hand, the machines won't shut up about "undetected item in bagging area"

i don't use them because they don't work.

I feel like this is gonna be like gas stations...in 25 years we're barely gonna remember that people once did this as a job.

I really, really liked these machines in the few supermarkets that had them in France, because the attendants in that country are mind-blowingly retarded and slow for whatever cultural reasons. But in America I almost feel like it's the opposite...the customers aren't very good at this new computer game and I end up waiting forever when I could have some semi-competent person ring me up. But I guess it's just a numbers thing, and when there are 20 machines in each store the slow people aren't really gonna matter.

I recently moved neighborhoods into the territory of a Giant Eagle, which has a U-Scan with conveyor belt. This seems like it makes sense, for those bigger loads of groceries I guess, but it's equipped with this sensor that basically won't let you scan any groceries if the person in front of you hasn't removed everything yet. This is the same logic as the little machines but it's much more galling because it's going to take them a while to bag and remove so much stuff, and there's so much space where groceries could clearly go! They even build in a little gate thing that should act as a separator between your batch and the person behind you's...but the robot doesn't seem to know about that. Still working out the bugs I guess.

because the attendants in that country are mind-blowingly retarded and slow for whatever cultural reasons.

i lolled

the ones with conveyor belts seem to lock up less because there's no bagging area, and they're faster because one person can bag while the next person is scanning their stuff!

xp

I feel like this is gonna be like gas stations...in 25 years we're barely gonna remember that people once did this as a job.

Tell you something else that seemed like a breakthrough, but people can now barely remember..

Machines that printed the total amount and payee onto cheques, ready for your signature.

they're faster because one person can bag while the next person is scanning their stuff!

I wonder if the one here is just messed up then - it expressly won't let you scan anything while there's still stuff out there!

THE ITEM IN THE BAG DOES NOT MATCH THE WEIGHT OF THE SCANNED ITEM

Self-checkout is great because it is quicker and it allows me to avoid contact, however superficial, with other human beings. Unfortunately, you can get slow/dumb people front of you with 700 million pieces of produce and then you will end up killing them and then you will go to jail for a long time.

I once had someone in front of me who insisted on letting their very young child scan every item. I mean, the kid was having a ball, but he could barely even reach the scanner.

nothing worse than kids having fun

whenever i use these it always crosses my mind that i should try to steal something. it seems like it would be pretty easy.

I don't mind using these, but I dislike having to argue with the machine about whether I've actually bagged an item or not.

id prefer to skip this phase and go straight to the part where the machine does the shopping for me. but then there's probably be all kinds of bugs with that too and he'd end up bringing home 12 cans of decaf coffee and a long stem rose and id have to discipline my personal shopping machine which would be difficult bc he probably doesnt know any better/was just trying his best.

yeah you can steal stuff just don't let it near the bagging area until it's time!

> I'd generally rather employ someone.

At least the self-serve robot won't loudly whisper, DO YOU HAVE TO EAT ALL THOSE CANS OF ALPO?

I love the self-check line when I have, like, one item. Or even ten small items. Other shoppers respect this boundary; I don't see anyone pulling up a big-ass cart of family groceries and checking them out themselves, even according to the rules, they could do that if they wanted. The self-check line is always the "people buying just a couple of things and are in kind of hurry to get out of this godforsaken place" line.

even THOUGH according to the rules

I'd generally rather employ someone.

me too, but if these machines end up working faster/better than a checkout line, why not just have the machines + 15 paid grocery store employees in cheerleader outfits cheering us on??

In my market, there's always someone on duty nearby who does things like un-hangs the machine, checks ID for booze, etc. That person is feet away, always. Without that person, it would be a clusterfuck.

i liked the self-checkout that rang up a six pack as a single beer. it took the store a few months to realize

They realized? How? What did they do, call you up?

THE ITEM IN THE BAG DOES NOT MATCH THE WEIGHT OF THE SCANNED ITEM

See, I've never seen that. I get "Unexpected item in bagging area," and even then there's a button that says "I'm using my own bag" which overrides the error."

I like these in theory but there are always a couple of self-check lanes out of service at my Wal-Mart, usually because the scale's busted. The software used to hang up and force an override from a live checker a lot in the first year, but it seems more stable now.

great for buying potentially embarrassing items like douches and time magazines

cashiers at wal mart are well-oiled professionals

i don't mind human check-out (i was one in high school - shout out to the A & P). what i hate is the stores that don't let you bag your own stuff cuz i am A+ bagger.

If you need extra-embarrassing stuff like sex items the self-checkout is sadly useless. This is our concern, Dude.

Why the hell am I supposed to check myself out and bag my own groceries? If there was a discount for doing so, maybe. If you can believe it, the aspie rednecks in my area group around these things like they're Jesus Christ from Mars, giving me more opportunity to hang out with the cashier and have the bag boy and beeps talk about balloons.

I've tried 'em. Tried to buy cold medication and had to have the attendant come over. It wanted me to place a 20-lb bag of dog food into the plastic bag. And forget about it if you have a 12-pack of High Life and some kitty litter.

Love 'em at Home Depot. Let the guys with the pallets of plywood stand in line while I whiz right through with my box of furniture straps.

i hate these things; they never work right and i invariably have to get an employee to help out anyway.

i don't want to place the item in the bag. i don't need a bag!

Kinks are being worked out. I see how it can and will work efficiently.

why not just have the machines + 15 paid grocery store employees in cheerleader outfits cheering us on??

Hopefully the "well-oiled professionals" from wal mart....

UNEXPECTED ITEM IN THE BAGGING AREA

I like these 'cause I always get to skip past the half dozen people in front of me who don't want to use them. And they don't try to make me use half a dozen bags for my meagre haul of items.

Sainsbury's ones don't show any 2-for-1 type discounts on the bill until after you've elected to pay, which is confusing and daft.

^^^this, yeah. I always have to 'trust' that it's going to remember the discount at the end of the check out.

I use 'em, despite my misgivings about them leading to less people being employed, because a)I don't like waiting in lines, but also b)I don't like being rushed at check-out, where I'm usually throwing items into the bags and fumbling with my wallet while I can feel the person behind me breathing down my neck, which, to be fair, is what I do when I'm in line.

I always have to 'trust' that it's going to remember the discount at the end of the check out.

Yes, that is annoying.

Because these things just don't work very well, there always has to be one or two attendants around so I don't know if anyone is actually losing a job over this. Plus you actually have more in the way of human contact because you're constantly having to call them over to fix the confounded things.

GREAT way to get rid of change though! I always throw every bit of shrapnel in my pocket and let the machine chew it over.

I absolutely will not use these things.

But then again, I have stopped using chain supermarkets for Lent, so shopping has become an entirely different experience for me. I've become like a French housewife, gadding from the Pan Asian Grocery to the Turkish Shop to the Streatham Fruiterer for my bits and bobs. Most of these places don't even have scanners. And I've learned to kind of like chatting with the various shop people. You learn things about food, and also about your neighbourhood from the human contact.

I mean, the day that a mechanised self-serve machine tells me where I can get Turkish flatbread or Anatolian Breakfast or lets me know that there's a shop down by the station that does spices really cheap, and how to make my Sag Paneer so the spinach doesn't boil away to nothing...

As much of a misanthrope as I am, I *like* the human touch.

I've had far more contact with supermarket staff since I started using these machines than I ever did before!

charging a pound of steak as onions: classic

they tried it here, but i'm almost sure they stopped doing this. it was at delhaize and i stopped going there anyway.

At least the self-serve robot won't loudly whisper, DO YOU HAVE TO EAT ALL THOSE CANS OF ALPO?

are you serious? do you guys get remarks? wtf. i'd slap that woman silly. no, i think i'd probably answer: "no, i have wild kinky sex in it. do i look like i eat tons of alpo?"

these things hate me. i don't use them unless my wife forces me to. and the they're all like "YOU DIDN'T PAY FOR THAT WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP" and i just die inside.

xpost to Kate yes, but the difference being is that the people working at those places are more likely to be engaged in the art of interaction.

At Boots, for example, they are friendly, smiling people, who will bag yr stuff and not volunteer information about anything other than the Boots Advantage card. Often they will be interacting with the person working the till next to them. Which I don't mind at all.

I'd like these people to be doing something much more interesting.

I was confused one time and was propping my items in the bag cause I figured she had already scanned'em. It was as if I had commited a capital crime. Christ.

I like them in the UK because whenever I go through a cashier in grocery stores I feel like I have to dump everything into bags really quickly and get out of the way for the next person in line because there isn't enough room for two people's stuff on the end of the checkout. At least if I have the patience for the stupid machine telling me I've removed an item or to please take my items I can shuffle things around in the bags and take my time on the self-checkouts.

I would not use them in Canada though, because most grocery store checkouts I've used either there have the cashier bag groceries for you or enough room at the end of the checkout to take time bagging stuff.

Getting into an argument, a few months back, with two stupid women in the checkout line that was 10 miles long put me off having to queue with a bunch of morons

charging a pound of steak as onions: classic

genius, never even thought of that. is there any chance whatsoever of getting caught doing this? I am a reluctant thief.

the biggest problem with these machines is if you want to buy booze they won't let the transaction finish until someone verifies you're not a child, and there's fuck all people around to do this so you end up wandering the aisles.

the other thing is the cashiers in my local supermarket are all quite friendly and nice and I like chatting or whatever as I go through.

so I guess I usually go to a cashier but if they're busy I'll use the self service.

I like being rushed and feeling people breathing down my neck while i bag my groceries because it turns something mundane into a high-stakes feat of efficiency and skill - every misstep, no matter how small, is punished with ruthless haterage by your helpless onlookers

rush-hour self-bagging (with concomitant PIN-entering and receipt-grabbing) should be a g*ddamn olympic sport

When our local Asda is busy (which is most of the time) the line for the self-service is longer and slower than the basket lane, but sometimes I go there on Saturday nights if I'm not doing anything because it's empty, and then I will use the self-service. "Please place item in bagging area" when you already have is annoyingly common though.

People should be banned from using credit cards in supermarkets

Let's see the colour of yer money, ya mooks!

I shop at places where the interactions with cashiers are generally pretty good: organic grocery, Asian ingredient shop, M&S, Waitrose. In the case of the latter, it's abundantly clear from their attitude and general helpfulness that the John Lewis Partner thing is the way to go if you have to take such a job.

Waitrose staff are nice, it's the clientele that's the problem

One person's annoying clientele are another's rich vein of comedy eavesdropping.

I have stopped using chain supermarkets for Lent

As much as that's a luxury specific to urban life, I have to say that giving up chain supermarkets for Lent is pretty awesome. I'm guessing that at worst you spend the same amount of money, and at best you save a good chunk. I have an Asian market literally across the street from me, and I go in there maybe once a month. I ought to be ashamed of myself. There are so many cheap fruits and veggies, good meat, great seafood, etc etc. (There's a lot of scary crap in there too, bad meat, scary seafood, etc, but shopping is a skill, I guess.)

The self-check line is always the "people buying just a couple of things and are in kind of hurry to get out of this godforsaken place" line.

― kenan, Tuesday, March 17, 2009 2:15 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^yes this, totally - it's obvious that's what they're there for. and i don't believe everyone saying they don't work - if EVEN I can work them, then they're fine.

I have an Asian market literally across the street from me, and I go in there maybe once a month. I ought to be ashamed of myself. There are so many cheap fruits and veggies, good meat, great seafood, etc etc. (There's a lot of scary crap in there too, bad meat, scary seafood, etc, but shopping is a skill, I guess.)

otm I have some of the best Indian supermarkets around near me but I seldom use except to stock up on spices/herbs etc. tho to be fair my big problem with not using chain supermarkets is that I'd have to go to a separate butcher, a separate fishmonger, etc etc etc.

I would spend way more money if I shopped in local stores rather than chain supermarkets, unless I lived exclusively off ramen noodles or something. That's presumably because I eat processed crap the whole time though, which is almost twice the price in the corner shops.

I like these and use them reasonably often in the two small-ish town centre stores that have them (Tesco Metro & Sainsburys Local in Exeter); however, I did notice on Sunday when I nipped in for bread,milk, and eggs on the way home from Bristol that, even though there was a queue of about 6 people to get to the self-service tills, people were still joining that rather than go up to an actual real till with a person, of which there were 3, with no queue. So I went to a real person and walked out WAY quicker than the self-service people. There's something quite poignant and sad about that.

Not.. really. You just know how to spot a queue full of morons.

there is absolutely nothing poignant about that nick

yeah, there is! Nick is totally poignant.

Poignancy fite!

I don't know if he's poignant, but that's what happens in my local grocery store, too. The lines for self check out are regularly much longer than the lines for human cashiers. My personal policy is to get in whichever line is the shortest, but I generally prefer the human cashiers because I like talking to people. (I know, that is crazy talk on the internets.) Also, there's one cashier who likes to ask customers trivia questions, and I find him delightful and nerdy.

Actually, I have THREE local grocery stores, all within three blocks of me, and only one has self-serve checkout. But the above is my policy when I shop at that particularly store. I prefer to shop at the Treasure Island, though, because Treasure Islands are deeply weird, plus they have better bagels.

Also, there's one cashier who likes to ask customers trivia questions

this is why people use the computer checkouts. i would hate that, i would consider it rude of him to put me in a spot where i'm forced to be impolite (by either ignoring him or actually saying "i'm not down with this")

this doesn't mean i'm antisocial or scared of human interaction or whatever bullshit - it just means i don't want to talk to anyone while i am trying to do grocery shopping

I mean, the day that a mechanised self-serve machine tells me where I can get Turkish flatbread or Anatolian Breakfast

http://maps.google.com/intl/en_us/images/maps_logo_small_blue.png

they don't really have them most anywhere in DC, but i don't use them if they're available. grocery stores trying to get rid of more good union jobs w/benefits - no way

xxpost I take one earphone out during checkout, hopefully sending the message that I am engaged with my surroundings as little as possible without being totally rude, so please meet me halfway and don't talk to me any more than is absolutely necessary.

^^^What Daria said, BTW.

i love the robocheckouts as you never feel ashamed for using switch for a frij milkshake and some beansprouts.

Best way to do the steak/onions trick is go in looking smart as hell, tie, shoes as to be above suspician. i currently cycle everywhere is quite silly gear (80s nike windcheater, occasionally teamed with green trousers) and have cut my hair so i look like a skinnytubby irish member of the skins cast so its out of the question. This added to (while attempting not to sound like alf garnett) most of the foreign staff thinking that if your on a bike and look like youve never done a hard days work in your life you are undoubtedly a kid often makes booze purchase a bit hairy.

Half the time, a booze purchase has to be supervised because the *cashier* is under 18 or under 21.

go in looking smart as hell, tie, shoes as to be above suspicion

HA otm. In my more roguish days I got really good at this. You don't want to look TOO sharp, you want to look kind of "Manhattan sharp." Your tie is a little loose, maybe you need a shave, but the point is YOU ARE SERIOUS BUSINESS and plus you're in a hurry, so let's get on with this shoplifting so I can do more important things, ok?

I don't use them, as I tend to do the bulk of my shopping these days in either Tesco or Waitrose because of their incredibly generous coupon-acceptance policies which means you can use pretty much any old grocery money-off coupons to pay for yr shopping without actually having to buy the item itself (thus reducing my weekly food shopping bill down to something ridiculously miniscule). Scanning money-off coupons at self-serve tills is a massive hassle (and is either generally frowned on, or even FORBIDDEN in some branches) so I use the normal tills and speak to real people instead. Which is shame really, as I'd love to play cashier and make things beep myself.

In defense of the trivia question cashier (and I'm not interested in defending him too enthusiastically - I have days where I would prefer people not try to talk to me, and I'm married to someone with views similar to yours, Lex, so I get it, at least in a general way), he does always ask first if you want to answer a trivia question. Presumably if you said, "No," he would go about his cashiering duties and bother you no more. But yeah, I get where that kind of thing isn't for everyone.

go in looking smart as hell, tie, shoes as to be above suspicion
HA otm. In my more roguish days I got really good at this. You don't want to look TOO sharp, you want to look kind of "Manhattan sharp." Your tie is a little loose, maybe you need a shave, but the point is YOU ARE SERIOUS BUSINESS and plus you're in a hurry, so let's get on with this shoplifting so I can do more important things, ok?
― kenan, Tuesday, March 17, 2009 7:52 AM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark

It's nice to be white!

(nb - I nab a lot of good stuff at the HEB, and I am a white dude)

You know, I thought of that after I posted it. The shit you can get away with.

charging a pound of steak as onions: classic

genius, never even thought of that. is there any chance whatsoever of getting caught doing this? I am a reluctant thief.

Used to do this all the time as a student. I don't know about the US but generally in Britiain if you act confidently and appear to be above a wee bit of shoplifting (plus, y'know, you're actually paying for other stuff) then anyone who might be responsible is likely to be too embarrassed to accuse you of stealing. If they were to, then deniability is right there - you just made a mistake, right?

Classic. Also doable with newspapers if the newsagent/kiosk section is separate and on the way in to the main store. Roll it up and act all casually "yeah already bought this from somewhere else".

Note, I am now gainfully employed and do not do this anymore.

are you serious? do you guys get remarks?

No, but this dude did.

I haven't read the whole thread but Stop-N-Shop around here has these awesome handheld scanners that you can use to ring up your order as you shop, so when you checkout, you literally just scan a barcode, pay, and leave the store. It's fucking fantastic.

these things are 99% broken fucking bullshit. However, the self-checkout at the library is one of the greatest things ever, so it can be done right.

That's going to be the way of the future...can't wait. xpost

Wouldn't it be cool if all the checkout people looked like Jame Gumb and stood up front, not making eye contact and saying "IT PUTS THE LOTION IN THE BAGGING AREA."

I think, like someone up-thread, that it's better if someone halfway competent does things that can be efficiently carried out but only if you know the vegetable codes, where the buttons for things are, and how to circumvent design problems in the system.

A cashier who uses the machine all day will stand about an 800% better chance of knowing that stuff than will I or any other random person who wanders in off the street (and considering that functional literacy rates aren't necessarily all that high in some places, people came in w/o their reading glasses, English isn't their first language, etc -- I can't wait behind people and get mad every time).

i love these but every supermarket i go to invariably has only one or two OMG REAL HUMAN checkout lanes open, so that definitely helps me love them. waiting in supermarket lines is one of the most excruciating experiences in the world imo. i find almost every argument against not using these if the line's shorter totally retarded, except if you have a lot of stuff / booze / need cigs. also: try selecting spanish, the voice is a lot better and you get a little language lesson.

1. it doesn't work. 1A. you are a retard. (N.B. if the machine isn't totally broken, this is more about the "UNEXPECTED ITEM" complaints.)
2. wehre is human touch. 2A. last thing check-out person wants is to deal with another annoying twat like you, you are a retard.
3. wah i'm contributing to job loss blah blah. NEWSFLASH: YOU ARE NOT EMPLOYING ANYONE. supermarkets have a lot of reasons to keep / fire people and you not going through soccermom aisle 3 is not exactly tops in terms of expenses. quit being a self-important retard.

THAT was a little over-the-top but people complaining about these / making a loud point about not using them bugs the HELL out of me.

Wow, you sure do like to bag your own groceries. I prefer to read the tabloids.

I prefer to bag as I shop and then use my scanner at the checkout lane so I can walk directly to my car and get the fuck home because srsly fuck the supermarket

I'll be all for that as soon as they invent a Total Recall-like tunnel that you can push your cart through and have everything scanned at once.

I'm not retarded, the machine is

I've just had a mental meeting about library self-checkout systems, RFID tags, and books being automatically checked out to you when you walk out of the building.

Which professionally is interesting, but on a human level is kind of sad. Don't get why my comment upthread is seen as "not at all poignant". Anything which cuts of angles of human interaction is sad, in my mind.

Well, that burger's still not going to flip itself.

YET

dan where is the supermarket that has handheld scanners? i must investigate this.

Maybe one day, there'll be a supermarket that lets the customer mop up the mess in Aisle 14 himself!

oh christ saying hello and grinning superficially to a checkout line cashier who sees hundreds and hundreds of people go through his line every shift and whom you probably would not give the time of day to in ANY other situation is not "human interaction"!!! when i hear someone say this i srsly have to suppress the urge to smack them.

Wow! I'm nowhere near the most cranky, knee-jerk, hyperbolic person on this thread! That's refreshing.

http://tv.popcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/snl_target_kristin_wiig.jpg

matt p is correct, not all types of human interaction are valuable and frankly if you really feel you gain anything from meaningless, surly nothings at the supermarket checkout, then THAT is what i would call sad and poignant

and honestly if you don't like bagging your own groceries you either have a lot of them, which makes this whole argument pointless because of course going through the HUMAN INTERACTION LINE is easier, or you are.. honestly i have no idea.

x-post Laurel, the "human interaction" line makes me go cranky, knee-jerk, hyperbolic, I try not to be that obnoxious about other things!

I normally hate other people in public! They walk slow, are stupid, get in the wrong lines, etc etc. But the checkout people, I guess I sort of like them on principle. I try to catch their eye and smile and I usu get a nice response even if they previously looked mean or unhappy, so it DOES make me feel like maybe both of us feel that little 3% better than we did before.

In the UK, at the "human interaction line", you bag your own fucking groceries anyway unless you specifically ask not to,which I have never, ever done.

Last night we did our weekly shop at Sainsburys. We talked to the cashier, who was an elderly (50s or 60s) woman called Ruth, judging by her name badge. It was pleasant. It was human interaction. We always use the same supermarket, and recognise most of the regular cashiers at the times we shop. Whether they recognise us or not is a moot point, but, unless the queues are horrific, we do make a point of using the same people's tills again and again. BECAUSE IT'S NICE. Because smiling, making light, meaningless chit-chat, and being aware that other people outside your precious ennui-riddled hyper-cool cynical fuck-off social circle exist, and are alive, and have homes, and voices, and interests, and can talk to you about catfood, or your choice of veg, or what you're cooking for dinner, is a last bastion of minor pleasure in this increasingly "let's use GPS on my iPhone so I never have to look another human being in the eye long enough to ask directions" world. Fuck YOU, Matt P, you misanthropic fuck.

Now now

I shop, I don't work there.

I like the woman at the Vanderbilt Ave supermarket who wears a headscarf and an insane amount of kohl-style eyeliner and is pushy and strong. She saw me buying hummus and couscous on the same day and ask if I liked Turkish foods -- I think she offered me recipes! I forget exactly. But she's great.

It's people using the self-service line even though the "human interaction line" is shorter, using iPhone GPS rather than asking for directions, etc, etc, "never make eye-contact on the tube", blah blah - it's THOSE methods of behaviour that cause rude fucks to walk slowly and stop aburbtly in high streets so you bash into them, it's those methods of behaviour that stop people saying thank you when you hold a door open. Every little solipsistic new development makes the world a more insular, miserable, rude, Thatcher-won-after-all-there-is-no-such-thing-as-society place, inch by inch, second by second. This is why I love going out down the river taking photos on a Sunday morning. PEOPLE WALKING THIER DOGS SAY 'HELLO'. PEOPLE RIDING BIKES SAY 'HELLO'. Fucking good fucking grief.

dan where is the supermarket that has handheld scanners? i must investigate this.

It's the Stop-N-Shop near the intersection of Broadway and 28 in Somerville. It's also super-awesome.

Thatcher-won-after-all-there-is-no-such-thing-as-society

After all? Not much doubt about it, I would have thought.

I apologise for being a bit sweary, but that quite upset me.

to be clear, i don't really hate the people in the lines or the cashier! i'm just super-neurotic -- the whole process is awkward and kind of exhausting, i get really self-conscious about having all my food items picked up and examined one-by-one and i don't like forced "hi"s etc.

x-post haha i'm not misanthropic, just realistic and trying not to lie to myself about what is "nice" for a person who is probably underpaid, overworked, and doesn't give a shit about what you're having for dinner!

t's THOSE methods of behaviour that cause rude fucks to walk slowly and stop aburbtly in high streets so you bash into them, it's those methods of behaviour that stop people saying thank you when you hold a door open. Every little solipsistic new development makes the world a more insular, miserable, rude, Thatcher-won-after-all-there-is-no-such-thing-as-society place, inch by inch, second by second.

Whoah, Jesus, calm down. Wanting necessary, non-optional transactions to go as quickly and smoothly as possible is not the same as thinking-yr-the-only-person-in-the-world selfishness. It's not a crime to want to have MORE mental space or energy to spend on the things you CHOOSE to do.

I prefer the "human touch" (lol) because:

1) The feeling of having an impatient customer waiting on me to complete the self-checkout process is nerveracking to me.

2) I think I'm on the extreme tolerance end of the patience spectrum. I don't mind waiting because I will just laugh at National Enquirer, inspect the new flavors of candy, read TV Guide, watch the workers work, stare at the ceiling, whatever.

I only use the machine if I have few items, the other lines are really long, and I'm confident that I can do it without screwing up. That combo has only come up maybe 3 times for me, ever.

i get really self-conscious about having all my food items picked up and examined one-by-one

!

Only the food items though?

Once deliberately bought Ben & Jerrys choc fudge brownie, red wine, condoms, and moist toilet tissue and nothing else.

Would have been pretty embarrassing if you'd accidentally bought them.

I abhor waiting in lines, period. Anything that reduces that is a-okay with me; in my experience, the self-service lines are always faster than the other lines.

to be fair, having a polite/kind moment with a cashier can totally brighten my day too, and i'm not trying to say that it isn't a nice thing when it happens, it's just usually i'm too distracted or tired to be genuine about it, which ends up making the whole mini-exchange feel off.

x-post haha that's exactly the kind of maladjusted grocery shopping i somehow always end up doing that makes me feel self-conscious!

minus the condoms ;_;

online food shopping ftw. i might only do it once a month but altho you've already paid for the stuff when the guy delivers it you can still have a brief polit convo with them if that is your wish.

online / delivery is AMAZING.

I mean, if all of the self-service lines are backed up and the cashier's line is empty or about to be empty, I am going there (unless I have done the scanner thing, in which case you have to go through a self-service line as far as I know). It isn't about automatic vs person, it's about which one is getting me out of this store the fastest because my time is too precious to me for me to spend it standing in a fucking line unless there is a rollercoaster on the other end.

xp: I would totally still be doing online delivery if they hadn't started instituting delivery fees on it!

i don't feel truly alive unless i've killed the eggs myself

Waitrose staff are nice, it's the clientele that's the problem

up yours peasant

it makes absolutely no difference to me if the cashier is surly & unpleasant or if they try to make small talk, as long as they do their job well and QUICKLY - it is not part of their job to be nice to me.

and yeah, fuck waiting in queues.

xp yeah online deliveries ftw! best thing about sainsburys deliveries is that they give you a £10 voucher if they're late, and they're ALWAYS late so that pays for the delivery fee and more.

(I have never bought anything at the IKEA in Stoughton because every time we've gone, the checkout line has been 45 minutes long. Fuck that.)

obv i don't really make an effort to converse with the sainsburys dudes when they deliver the stuff apart from telling them where to put all the bags

if any of them tried to ask me what i was asking for dinner i would consider that really rather impertinent tbh

*eating!

I'd be into food deliv but I've never lived in a neighborhood where I could get it! They seem to move in as I move out. Maybe I should take a hint?

Plus my friend who is a food-policy person says that the amount of extra boxing and packaging they do to your groceries is criminal -- I haven't seen for myself but it could be a concern for some people.

what if they were hot, lex?

dill in a box

they're never hot

xp

Plus my friend who is a food-policy person says that the amount of extra boxing and packaging they do to your groceries is criminal

you can usually give them back the previous delivery bags the next time you use them. i don't think there's any extra packaging issue with the one i use.

hey if lex figures out how to avoid human interaction completely, we will all be winners

Plus my friend who is a food-policy person says that the amount of extra boxing and packaging they do to your groceries is criminal -- I haven't seen for myself but it could be a concern for some people.

You can tick a box to ask for no bags at Tesco (and presumably the others in the UK)

Love 'em!

http://www.virginmedia.com/images/cashier-3-g.jpg

this not do it for ya, lex

they do underpack bags tho in my experience, giving you more to return than is necessary really. xp

hey if lex figures out how to avoid human interaction completely, we will all be winners

― congratulations (n/a), Tuesday, March 17, 2009 4:45 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^the kind of thing that nick should really find sad and poignant. not even a zing, just being a contemptible dickhead

ahhh human interaction

Well, that burger's still not going to flip itself.

I think they do at Burger King and other places that use gas flame instead of hot griddle! But they still don't assemble themselves.

online / delivery is AMAZING.

i did online/delivery from vons a few times but i stopped because they sent everything in double plastic bags. i would prefer a costco-type approach where they pack your groceries in reused cardboard boxes.

when i get my spud deliveries it's all in one cardboard box, which i return to them when they deliver the next batch.

and fly it to your house on recycled angel farts

something like that

Amazon uses recycled farts in those airbags...pass it on.

except the methane from angel farts is responsible for 80% of global warming

It takes me twice as long at the self-serve checkout because I rarely buy prepackaged stuff so I have to punch a bunch of buttons to find "asparagus" or "garlic" or whatever before weighing things. At my local Safeway the checkers know the numbers for this stuff already and I get out much quicker.

I'll use it on rare occasions when I run in to by one or two easily UPC'ed items, but then again those are usually bottles of wine or beer so I have to wait for someone to come over and get my ID anyway.

!!!

That means cow-tipping = 1-way ticket to hell!!

xpost

I rarely buy prepackaged stuff so I have to punch a bunch of buttons to find "asparagus" or "garlic" or whatever before weighing things. At my local Safeway the checkers know the numbers for this stuff already and I get out much quicker.

That's exactly what I mean!

At our Stop-N-Shop, all of the scales print out UPC codes for produce that can be stuck on the bag and used at the self-checkout (or scanned by yr trusty hand scanner; also, all of the produce has stickers on it that has the catalog number for them on it so even if you waited to weigh until the checkout line, the info is right there on the food; maybe you have to look up one thing because the sticker fell off.

I am coming to the conclusion that Somerville is super-advanced in its supermarket technology!

technological advances in the greater boston/cambridge area? i'm shocked.

I use 'em in M&S, and often end up answering back to the machine, coz they are so pushy.

I am coming to the conclusion that Somerville is super-advanced in its supermarket technology!

but really low tech in its sticker adhesive

wow i'm real impressed by this stop and shop. my somerville-resident gf is closest to the porter square shaws but i need to start convincing her to go there.

i am closest to trader joe's and whole foods so this debate never really comes up for me anymore.

but really low tech in its sticker adhesive

I guess you can't have everything...

i like getting into conversations with the checkout ppl at TJ's. one was like "what do you think of our cheese selection? i think it SUCKS."

did they say it with a french accent?

no, a white-girl l.a. accent

I occasionally like to have a bit of "human interaction" with the checkout folks, but not to the point where I think I am making their day with my entertaining and witty banter. Really, a human cashier is best, but I hate lines, so if the robot is quicker, I'll allow it to service me.

One day, there will be RFIDs in all our supermarket products. If lex is lucky, he can have an RFID implanted, so that for checkout all he needs do is walk out thru the scanner with his bags and there will be a gentle "bong" sound and a green light that goes off above his head as he leaves the market.

thx

a gentle bong

lol

IT HOLDS THE POPTART BOX UP TO ITS HEAD OR IT GETS THE HOSE AGAIN.

the checkers at the Whole Foods are pretty cool. I wish the Safeway near me had self-serve checkout ... basically because I only go there late at night (it's a 24 hour store) and they have one register open, and there is always at least one problem customer in line ahead of me.

On the other hand, to quote suzy upthread, "One person's annoying clientele are another's rich vein of comedy eavesdropping."

Seriously, go to this Safeway and wait in line around 2am, after which they aren't legally able to sell booze - cheap entertainment.

Dan is right, it's all about avoiding the line and what's quicker in a given situation. Most stores here don't seem to have automatic checkouts, though. Or ones that do are places I rarely visit due to being out of the way.

They replaced 75% of the 'real' cashiers with these in the city-centre Sainsburys I go in nearly every day. I was pretty mad at first because it's basic maths - if you've got a cashier scanning your stuff you can be bagging it and getting your Nectar card out etc etc at the same time. So really it's twice as slow on the self-service machines, more when you factor in people that can't use them or the machines that break down.

But it has actually increased the number of tills that are used (a lot of the checkouts used to have no cashier there at busy times) so overall it's worked out OK. People still tend to take a big basket to the real cashiers. I did accidentally steal some green beans once - I got mad that it wasn't working properly so just dumped them in my bag before the previous item had gone through. The poor guy that's ALWAYS got the job of looking after the machines just beeps everything through.

2am, after which they aren't legally able to sell booze

what the hell kind of asinine legislation is that?

uh it's pretty common in a lot of US states

i'm just super-neurotic -- the whole process is awkward and kind of exhausting, i get really self-conscious about having all my food items picked up and examined

See now I'm pretty neurotic too but I find that less awkward and exhausting than having a machine repeatedly shout "PACK FASTER" or "UNKNOWN ITEM YOU THIEVING FUCK" when I'm trying my best to do what it tells me in the exact 200 millisecond window it thinks it should happen in, and then when it inevitably thinks I've made too many mistakes or I've bought something that won't scan summoning someone from several feet away to scrutinise what I'm doing and turn the magic "whatever, shut up" key.

(Don't like 'em, but the other half swears they're faster even though I'm pretty sure they're not since there is usually a bigger queue for them than the checkouts and they make such a fuss about everything. Last time he insisted I mentally raced someone in the cashier checkout and they won by some margin. Uh, not that I told him, as it seemed a dumb thing to be all unverifiably I TOLD YOU SO about, but anyway.)

You can't buy booze after 10pm in supermarkets in the UK. 2am seems a really odd cut-off point.

that's when the bars stop serving in a lot of places

in new york (or at least nyc) it's 4am.

this is one of those things the US is pretty weird about. there are still a lot of states that don't sell alcohol on sundays, or have different hours for beer/wine/liquor sales... my personal favorite is Utah's "no alcohol served before 8 PM on Election Day" law (!!!)

I imagine it's to keep politicians from trading free beer for votes.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Huh, interesting thread. Pretty much no supermarkets here have self-serve checkouts (there may be some "beta" ones somewhere, but generally no). Also, our cashiers bag all our groceries for us, even when you bring your own calico bags, unless you say you'll do it for them (they have special baggy holder things to pop stuff into the bags easily).

Kind of glad for once we're "behind" in some regard.

I use them sometimes to "forget" I put a bunch of Coca-Cola 12 packs on the bottom rack near the wheels @ Wal-Mart or Albertson's.

"Have you seen Bob?" was the secret code that we baggers were supposed to ask the cashier when someone came through the checkstand "forgetting" to bring up the case of soda or dog food or whatever. The bottom of the cart was in the line of sight of the bagger but not the checker, so it was on us baggers to tattle to the checker by non-nonchalantly asking if they had happened to see ol' Bob (Bottom Of Basket) lately. Checker would say, "no, I sure haven't, sorry," wink, and then look down and happen to notice there was a case of soda or dog food or whatever down there.

whoops, the first non was a non-necessary non there

I hope you don't hate me now.

i hate when i go through the self checkout and then there's someone to check my work. Fuck off! I did it right!

Never do it. I don't even use the drive-through at the bank. I'd miss my favorite teller that way, and besides, my dog doesn't even like those biscuits. I always go inside.

Does your dog like the inside biscuits?

I like the inside dum-dum's.

He's holding out for the steaks in the boardroom.

You can't buy booze after 10pm in supermarkets in the UK. 2am seems a really odd cut-off point.

I went in Sainso's at midnight on a Friday a couple of months ago and asked the security guard if they stopped selling booze at 11, and he slowly shook his head and said "24-7" with a massive triumphant grin

I use these machines all the time unless an empty human checkout is nearer but I do often find myself instinctively telling them to shut the fuck up

It's only tangentially related but I deliberately walk slowly to piss off twats who hate people who walk slowly

think if yr a downtrodden supermarket drone the ideal situation is for people to generally ignore you but for people who are good at being friendly to give you the occasional interlude of fleeting humanity? Pretty sure the retail eco-system can support both the neurotic misanthropes and the desperate-for-company traditionalists as long as neither gets too extreme

It's only tangentially related but I deliberately walk slowly to piss off twats who hate people who walk slowly

nb not in the sense of slowing down to a crawl to deliberately delay a whole crowd of innocent people, but fuck accommodating some tutting London dickhead who's annoyed that I'm walking at a sensible pace because it's delaying him sprinting home to watch the Apprentice and beat the shit out of his shrill wife

so it was on us baggers to tattle to the checker by non-nonchalantly asking if they had happened to see ol' Bob (Bottom Of Basket) lately. Checker would say, "no, I sure haven't, sorry," wink, and then look down and happen to notice there was a case of soda or dog food or whatever down there.

LOLOLOLOL

Can I just say that I love this thread? Especially sarahel's screen name about unexpected item in the bagging area.

I deliberately walk slowly to piss off twats who hate people who walk slowly...Pretty sure the retail eco-system can support both the neurotic misanthropes and the desperate-for-company traditionalists as long as neither gets too extreme

This is the thread that keeps giving, folks. I love it.

I really, really hate the intonation of the Tesco machine woman's voice. Her stresses are all funny: "PLEASE select CARD TYPE!" "Insert your card into the CHIP and PIN deVICE!" Nyyyyrrrgh.

Also the machines seem to have major issues with the scanning of Fruit & Nut Dairy Milk.

Now that Asda have got rid of free carrier bags and I'm using their bigger 5p bags, the bastard weighing area keeps complaining about unexpected items when I put the empty bag down. Only way round it seems to be to put the first item in the bag away from the bagging area and then put the bag down in the bagging area. Then it doesn't notice the extra weight.

you can get 6 beers for the price of one using these things

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

think if yr a downtrodden supermarket drone the ideal situation is for people to generally ignore you but for people who are good at being friendly to give you the occasional interlude of fleeting humanity?

Its not too much to ask to be nice to cashiers and whatnot, their job is shite. Yesterday the woman before me in the supermarket was given a pleasant cheery "hi how are you?" from the cashier, and not only did she not even bother to reply, she didnt even look at her - the woman just stared angrily/stupidly off into the distance. Then when given her total for her whole one carton of milk, the woman threw a five dollar note onto the conveyor belt, nowhere near the cashiers hand, and just continued to stand there in a dull angry stupor. I dont know if she was rude or thick but it was unutterably insulting.

So I tried to be extra nice/friendly when it was my turn, I felt bad for the cashier girl.

I have dressed down people who treat cashiers badly.

One time a woman asked if she could buy one stick out of a pound of butter, and the cashier said yes, and then the woman asked her to put the rest of it back in the dairy case! Meanwhile the woman's husband was standing around with his thumbs up his ass. I told her that the cashier was very busy and her husband had to return the rest of the butter to the fridge. Fuck's sake. They obeyed me, and looked embarrassed. Another time I told an abusive fuck in the video store to stop being so nasty to the clerks.

These sort of actions are zero risk for fellow-shopper, and the clerks can't do it themselves. So next time you have a rude fellow-customer, CHASTISE THEM. Or at least catch the cashier's eye and cross your eyes or something.

nb not in the sense of slowing down to a crawl to deliberately delay a whole crowd of innocent people, but fuck accommodating some tutting London dickhead who's annoyed that I'm walking at a sensible pace because it's delaying him sprinting home to watch the Apprentice and beat the shit out of his shrill wife

^^i lold

also otm in a lot fewer words about this sitch than i was in a spazz up-thread

Huh, interesting thread. Pretty much no supermarkets here have self-serve checkouts (there may be some "beta" ones somewhere, but generally no). Also, our cashiers bag all our groceries for us, even when you bring your own calico bags, unless you say you'll do it for them (they have special baggy holder things to pop stuff into the bags easily).

Kind of glad for once we're "behind" in some regard.

― one art, please (Trayce), Tuesday, 14 April 2009 09:49 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

The Woolies i go to has it.

i hate when i go through the self checkout and then there's someone to check my work. Fuck off! I did it right!

― Whiney G. Weingarten, Tuesday, 14 April 2009 11:43 (Yesterday) Bookmark

And this^ is how I feel every time.

A grocery store called Woolies! That's great.

When did these start speaking your prices out loud as you scanned things? It makes me uncomfortable.

that's my private personal business

Man, this thread takes me back. That particular neighborhood, my wonderful treehouse apartment down a cute and oft-overlooked street, that I only could hold onto for that one year of the lease. The particular hike/bike-ride to that particular Giant Eagle, the hopes of bumping into that one girl again after one time having a very pleasant chat with her over in the frozen foods... my halting attempts at dabbling with Red Box DVD rentals. And PLEASE PLACE THE ITEM IN THE BAG.

Self checkout is a dream come true

I can't stand these goofballs bagging my stuff

Even when i go to trader joes i bag my stuff

There should mostly only be self check outs

All of the Jewels that I frequent have actually ELIMINATED their self-checkout aisles. I mean...what is that even?

Are these diamonds in the rough located in a quaint little town

Yes, it's the most darling little tucked away place called the Chicago Metropolitan Area. You should totally check it out (if you can even find it on a map).

Like, if you can't get self-checkout here, abandon all hope, amirite.

Are all the bad bag people shooting guns instead

one of the terrible and backward things about canada - up there with not being able to book things online using your debit card - is the relative paucity of automatic checkouts. never have i waited in more long damn queues in my life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrmMk1Myrxc

In los angeles you go to some targets and there are massive queues but self checkouts are mostly empty

I'm in and out in less than 10 minutes

Love it

Just remembering that supermarket checkout was one of my brother's high school jobs. How are today's teens paying for their Commodore software and Spiro Gyra albums?

Uber

video game testing

That's true

Loads of high schoolers at ice cream shops too

my view of this is I AM NOT GONNA BAG MY SHIT FOR FREE, PAY ME

Valid.

I don't really shop at places where this is a thing. And one of my favorite things about the grocery co-op is (duh) the people that work there, so me and mine are pretty chatty/friendly with the clerks. there's one in particular we even exchange bday presents with

xp

as a former grocery bagger (at an obnoxious high-end grocer in Westmount) I always feel weird when I don't just do it myself

my view of this is I AM NOT GONNA BAG MY SHIT FOR FREE, PAY ME

The biggest benefit of self-checkout for me is that I get to bag my own groceries. It seems to be a lost art, keeping cold stuff together, not putting wet produce in with a bag of flour or sugar, and not using 8 bags when 3 would do (especially now that Chicago banned normal-thickness bags, so the waste is more or less tripled).

I have three different types of bags for my groceries. The bagger's main purpose is to shove everything in there as fast as possible. Even at trader joes, whole foods, and the worst has been at sprouts. The only difference at TJs is they like to ask personal questions while they fuck up your shit and smile while I'm staring at how they mishandle everything

They sometimes but rarely ask if "i need help with that" and I'm thinking god no, stand as far away from my produce as possible

My eyes are glued to the screen watching for price discrepancies. If the baggers are still pushing carts around the lot once the cashier and I get past the payment part, sure, I'll roll up my sleeves, jump in, start slinging plastic, swap a little gossip about the angry customer before me or about the new manager over in floral.

I fuckin love these. I used to be terrible at working them and they were more sensitive to the whole 'baggage area' thing but now every time I go to a Target, the other lines are full, these are empty, and I'm in and out like nothing. and at Home Depot, where I might be making a lot of repeat trips for one fucking small tool, totally classic.

tho I like the dudes at my Winn-Dixie. there was a new guy at cashier and a veteran bagging and the latter was in a festive mood and singing every instruction to the dude to the tune of Jingle Bells, a la...

"Put a sticker on the tooooooooooop
Each time you bag a boooox"

or

"That's chemicals aaaaagggaaaaaiiin
they don't go there my friiiiiend"

I generally only buy a few items at a time anyway so these things are great for me. There's always the anxiety of the stupid bag detector system and today for some reason it rejected my card a couple of times, but yes. Teh future

BUT I've still not had the balls to attempt to use one when buying stuff that doesn't have a barcode.

ok i gotta be honest, i am really struggling to reconcile that phonetic typing with the phrasing and rhythm of ''jingle bells.''

I'm with Dr Morbius on this, if you want me to ring up my purchases and then bag it, then pay me. The union member in me gets very angry when I see these. Also I'm never in a rush, waiting in a line to buy groceries while someone works very hard to keep the line moving, this isn't a bad thing. There's much worse.

Who cares

I'm sure my aunt cares, who has been working at Wal-Mart for 5 years now at less than 20 hours a week, practically begging for a full time position so she doesn't have to pay for out of pocket health care. People can bag their own, yeah because who cares.

Self checkout is great, but the stores near me are too dumb to put item limits on the lanes even though they replaced half of the express lanes. All four were taken up on Sunday with people doing entire carts full of groceries and all the express lanes were still closed.

Huh, interesting thread. Pretty much no supermarkets here have self-serve checkouts
Ha how things change in 6 or so years, now theyre everywhere and tbh I love using them unless I have a huge family-shopping trolley load. I've no problem with packing my own bags. Aus supermarkets pretty much dont have these "bag boys" roles that seem ubiquitous in the US. It seems like extra busywork? Why cant the person ringing up the items bag them?

because jobs

Our minimum wage is like $25 an hour, no way supermarkets would wanna have excess people standing about at that price heh.

...sorry actually its more like about $18 but anyway.

In Woodville, Tx it's 7.25 an hour.

and no way do supermarkets wanna have extra people standing about at it

I'm with Dr Morbius on this, if you want me to ring up my purchases and then bag it, then pay me. The union member in me gets very angry when I see these.

the co-ops in crunchier neighborhoods here put up signs to guilt customers into bagging themselves so that the employees don't get repetitive stress injuries

i don't use them if they're available. grocery stores trying to get rid of more good union jobs w/benefits - no way

daria-g otm upthread. I feel similarly about ATMs and human tellers, even though tellers are rarely unionized. Entry-level and 'low-skilled' jobs are still damn valuable to the people who have them. Fuck unpaid internships too.

ok i gotta be honest, i am really struggling to reconcile that phonetic typing with the phrasing and rhythm of ''jingle bells.''

― walk back to the halftime long, billy lynn, billy lynn (Doctor Casino), Monday, December 5, 2016 7:57 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's the "dashing through the snow" part, rather than the chorus

THANK YOU

FOR

SHOPPING

AT

SAVEMART

paid baggers have never been a thing here. So much so that when they occasionally do have someone bagging your stuff (generally collecting for charity) I feel really awkward about it. So I just bag them myself and give them a donation. Anyway, love self-checkout

i'm ok with self-checkout
but not if i have fruits or vegetables, that is out of the question

Talking to people serving in my local shops is great, because they're nice to those of us who live in the neighbourhood. The Little Waitrose nearest my flat is about to install another bank of self-checkout and the staff (some of whom live locally/are my neighbours) are rebelling: lots of 'save the humans' talk to sympatico customers like me.

I don't do well with self-checkout because it's not set up for use by left-handed people. It takes longer to buy a jug of milk using the machine than it does to go to the till.

I was going to mention like Number None that getting one's shopping packed for you is basically non-existent in the UK. It only happens when scouts or something are collecting at the tills and then a lot of folk would try to blank them anyway.

The mega-busy Sainsburys I routinely use in the centre of Glasgow got refurbished a year or two ago, at which point they converted it to almost exclusively self-service checkouts. There are about 30 of the self-service tills now and about 4 standard checkouts only. It works much better.

Fruits and veggies are easy at self checkout, especially once you've memorized all the item codes.

there's a massive sainsburys beside my work with like 20 self-checkouts and a big snaking queue of people trudging grimly towards them all day long. they employ a person, sometimes two, because people are such total lemmings they can't just walk to a free checkout without being told it's free. occasionally there's nobody doing this role and people just wait at the top of the queue for some absent voice to say "number 5" rather than just looking to see which is free then going to use it. even when it's busy and there's someone directing people, there are so many that you never have to wait at the top, it's a constant flow, it is seriously frustrating watching people stop dead for no reason when inevitably there are three free tills if you just look a bit, at the end of the row or whatever.

I hope Amazon will also be donating food unsold in store to homeless and lowest-income folk. Would've been good if they could've included some info on that in their FAQ.

ahhhhhh thanks, Neanderthal. Duh!

LG: I have to confess I have problems being able to tell if self serve tills are free a lot of the time. With all the peoples heads all in the way and my poor eyesight I can misjudge whos standing where, and hesitate like an idiot or worse, walk to a till thats either out of order, or in use, and then have to stand there like a chump in the middle of the melee.

Taking to cashiers wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the employer-mandated hyper-friendly chattiness that's going around these days. Same with bank tellers. I dread having to visit a human Chase teller.

I haven't been to a bank teller in years.

I always wanna fuck with em when they ask me how i'm doing:

"Not expected to live past Saturday"

I love my bank tellers. They're so protective. Last time I was in there, it was because they put a hold on my debit card after it was scanned by someone with an iPad in a parking lot.

I told them how yes, it was, because I was using the new ClickList™ at Kroger, and an iPad is much easier to carry to the car than an actual cash register.

We had a good laugh, and they gave me a sucker.

My shopping bag confused the hell out of the Safeway machine today, so I gave up after two items and just stood in a regular line. I hate the voice more than anything. STOP TRYING TO MAKE IT SOUND NICE. IT'S NOT NICE. IT'S A DUMB BOX.

they put a hold on my debit card after it was scanned by someone with an iPad in a parking lot.

!!How do they detect this shit?!?

the debits are coming from inside the lot

Presumably the processing software Kroger uses tells the bank everything about the client device, including which model of ipad, the GPS, etc.

I use self-checkouts when I only have a few things and the cash register lines are long. My favorite experience with them was last year, when I was using one and this very drunk middle-aged guy at the self-checkout station next to me had accidentally triggered the Spanish-language feature and the machine was talking to him in Spanish and he kept pushing buttons trying to figure out what it wanted and gazing at it with this woozy incomprehension like he thought maybe he was dreaming or on another planet. The attendant finally noticed and came over and changed it back to English.

I use self-check at Walmart, live checkers at Kroger -- 100% because Kroger's people are much better trained and don't have that thousand-yard "please kill me now" stare. They may make the same minimum wage, I don't know, but something makes them a little happier about being there.

I've seen the same Kroger folks for years. See a new WMT cashier every time.

They took out the self-service kiosks at our WMT. I don't know why except maybe customers couldn't figure them out or that they were ripe for stealing CC numbers.

Got a Sam's Club membership last year. It's been great. Haven't bought a tube of toothpaste since March.

The one thing I wasn't looking forward to has actually turned out to be my favorite part of shopping there. Sam's has like a reverse greeter, a person who stands at the exit and double-checks your receipt with what's in your cart.

I always hated it for two reasons: 1.) You halfway feel like a criminal - having already bought your items, now you have to literally show someone your papers to get out of the damn store? and 2.) All six checkout lines lead to this one exit line which can backup pretty quickly.

But now, Sam's has introduced its "Shop & Scan" app. It's the next step from DJP's magical 2009 Stop-N-Shop with the handheld scanners. I take a picture of each item's UPC as I put it in the cart. It registers it and gives me a running tally on what my bill looks like. I've even put stuff back before because I've noticed I've gone over the threshold.

And when I'm done, I hit the "Check Out" button. I push the cart around all the cashier lines and head right over to the exit line. The associate scans the screen-sized UPC I've displayed on my phone, she gives the cart a quick once-over, and I'm out of there. (If the line's too long, I can hold back a sec.)

I don't know if it would work for me at Kroger where I buy maybe 40-50 items in a single trip, while at Sam's I may have 10 items in the cart. But it's a huge reason why I extended my membership there for another year.

The other night I went into a CVS and it was the first time I've ever used a self-checkout specifically because there were no cashiers. Sort of a depressing experience, weird to think about our near future of just walking into stores, picking things up and walking out without any human contact.

The one in my local Morrisons gives the shittiest combinations of change ever, lots of 2ps and 5ps and it NEVER gives out 50ps, and I mean literally never.

The self-checkouts at my local Sainsbury's give the notes and £1/£2 coins immediately, but then the rest of the change takes about 30 seconds total to grudgingly drop out. Come to think of it, I don't think it gives out 50p coins either. The ones at the Tesco I go into on my way to work all did an unscheduled software update last week, just before I was about to walk up to one and pay for my stuff.

Ugh, ditto on the Sainsbury’s change gripe. The only time I use the damn machine is when there’s an influx of tourists in my local store (LOL Bloomsbury) and the 5p/2p deluge is... unappreciated. These machines are a trial to left-handed people using their own bags, too - half the time I need an attendant to come and get me out of machine deadlock, and 100% of the time a cashier is less time-consuming.

The other night I went into a CVS and it was the first time I've ever used a self-checkout specifically because there were no cashiers. Sort of a depressing experience, weird to think about our near future of just walking into stores, picking things up and walking out without any human contact.

― Fedora Dostoyevsky (man alive), Sunday, May 27, 2018 11:37 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Oh yeah, CVS can be pretty grim in that regard. Althought recently one of my local ones took out the self-checkers that they'd had in place for about 5 years.

On the other hand, some of my local Giant supermarkets have gone way overboard with the self-checkers, so that there's an entire corral of between 8-10 of them and only two open registers with humans. You move your cart into this enclosed pen with 10 other people trying to self-checkout. It's really claustrophobic and noisy and I hate it, but the actual checkout lanes always end up being clogged by people with 300 items in their cart.

On the cashier side of things, they've introduced these new bag carousels in lieu of having actual baggers. So the cashier actually has to do the bagging as they scan because the area next to their cash register fills up with goods too quickly.

I'm surprised how people use cash in supermarkets. I really notice it when there's a self-service till with a broken cash mechanism and the Lidl staff cry out "Anyone for card only?" and sometimes there's like four people in front of me who don't budge and I can skip them all.

I know some people don't have bank accounts but doubt that covers it all. I guess some people find it too easy to spend money with contactless so avoid using it?

I only ever use cash, I don't have any credit cards anyway but I only use my debit card online - anybody buying a packet of crisps with a credit card needs to gtf imo.

Ha ha OK - but why? In the days when you had to punch in a number, fair enough, but this is quicker than cash so what's the problem (apart from the shop presumably having to pay a percentage to the bank)?

I think it's about keeping track of your expenditure.

Undoubtedly an old school (Scottish) working class thing about avoiding debt and not living on credit. Even though I don't have a credit card.

I find it much easier to keep track of my expenditures when I use debit, since every expense is recorded on my online statement.

Anyway, I mostly don't like these things at all. Perhaps in theory they could speed things up but the ones at the nearby CVS foul something up and require me to wait for an attendant as often as not, which makes them far slower. The self-checkout at the public library seems OK, though. Ultimately, Morbs probably OTM: lineups = store is understaffed. I've started to embrace adding myself to a long lineup so the store is forced to call another person to a cash register.

So if you're out on the town and want to go get a drink or whatever, but you've used up your cash, you just say "oops, out of money" and go home? Rock on with your principled self, I guess, but that seems dreary to me.

In my experience, most small businesses used to have a minimum purchase for cards, because otherwise the transaction cost would outweigh anything they could make on something small (like Tom's packet of crisps). One sees this less and less as most people want to use cards or pay with their phone or whatever. For lots of businesses, it's a choice between having customers and not having customers.

My barber gives you a discount for paying in cash, which is effectively the same thing as a surcharge for using plastic. I don't mind that, because I prefer to tip in cash (either by handing over too much money and saying "keep the change," or by handing over a large bill and specifying the amount of change I want back). So if I'm getting a haircut I know to get cash in advance.

My local bagel place only takes cash; they have an ATM inside (one of the leetle ones with a significant fee). But they're worth it because their bagels are the best bagels.

At the same time I know of food trucks and hipster businesses that don't handle cash at all; they just have a card reader and a phone.

Normally half of the self-checkouts at the local Co-Op are out of order. They're understaffed as well. Recently I was in the queue to pay at a checkout because all the self-checkouts were down, and the guy in front of me mentioned to the checkout operator that someone had just walked out without paying. Their response was "yeah, shoplifting happens all the time here, we're understaffed and there's no security".

I only use self check outs. And if I have to use a human, I pretend the are a computer.

they get annoyed when you try to insert a debit card into their mouths tho

beep boop

So if you're out on the town and want to go get a drink or whatever, but you've used up your cash, you just say "oops, out of money" and go home? Rock on with your principled self, I guess, but that seems dreary to me.

What, are you crazy? A Scotsman going home when he wants a drink? ATM machines!

I only use self-checkouts to get rid of change or break a £20 or whatever. Another good thing is I am spared the arguments that might ensue in '10 items or less' checkout lines when some twat rolls up with a trolley full of an entire months worth of shopping in it, which, this being London and the place being full of twats, happens all the time.

I do get the keeping track of expenditure thing, but if ran out of cash in a pub that took cards, that would take some serious principles to force myself to go out, find an ATM and use my card there instead.

Forward planning.

banks of 8-10 self-service machines and only 2 human checkout staff is pretty normal in the UK ime. which I find quite sad.


Co-op have hands down the WORST machines ever. they break if you so much as breathe near them. I hate them even more than the ones in my local Sainsburys that categorise onions under 'L' for 'loose onions' in the veg look-up list.

Waitrose ones are the best. Sadly, it's due to them not bothering to weigh the basket, presumably because they assume all their customers are too rich to steal things.

they also have those hand-held scanners pplains was talking about (I think?) - added bonus being you get to read about things like this: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/jan/23/waitrose-quick-check-rescan-security

they print out a receipt for every transaction though #cryingnativeamerican

ugh re-reading that article, Waitrose apologised with a goodwill gesture, the mugs

I tried the app version of the self-scanning once and found it a pain in the arse.

Tom, honest question.

What is the difference between swiping your debit card in an ATM and swiping the same card in a bar or restaurant?

Same plastic, same money from the same account. The only difference is having to walk and go find an ATM.

Cash = privacy

But fuck that, convenience over all.

I've mentioned upthread how overprotective my bank is.

Sunny and I were heading to Missouri last summer when we suddenly remembered that we hadn't called our bank to let them know we were leaving the state. We left a message on their voicemail to notify them, and by Monday, our debit cards were working again. Phew!

Tom, honest question.

What is the difference between swiping your debit card in an ATM and swiping the same card in a bar or restaurant?

Same plastic, same money from the same account. The only difference is having to walk and go find an ATM.

Actually having cash in your pocket is a thing, I suppose? I probably have paid by card in a restaurant, never done it in a bar - and I'm very much a pub person, and that's probably why I've never done it.

I like the self-checkout at the library.

I went full-time plastic and/or ApplePay when I switched over to a card that generates airline miles. So yeah, privacy is dead but I can fly back and forth LA/NYC for five bucks.

don’t they have eftpos in the uk/us? it’s basically like paying cash but it comes out yr savings account via card swipe - usually no fees. fark no one is using cash here anymore it seems to be tap n go everywhere.

yeah I think that's what 'debit' is. You use your debit card to pay (we now have contactless too so don't even have to enter a PIN if the transaction is below £30) and it goes straight out of your current account.

I thought most people hated self checkout because it takes forever, but I have been in a couple of supermarkets where there is a line a dozen deep for self checkout and 2 people in line at the human cashiers.

YMP I don't trust atms in bagel stores. Because the last time I used 2 cards ( mistakenly used the wrong one at first) at a bagel place atm, both cards got skimmed.

Funny enough, I get my cash at the grocery store by adding $20 to my debit total.

At my local supermarkets they wont let ppl with trolleys go thru self-serve. Baskets and few items only. Moves pretty quick as a result. But they always have at least 4 other regular checkouts open (up to all of em, on weekends)

Oh man, I live for cashback when I can't find atms that don't charge me $$$ in fees.

Funny turn of events, this thread. I'm all about cash, still, but see the world around me increasingly turn hostile towards cash people.

After a two hour drive today I finally google mapped my way to a parking garage in Utrecht (Willem, if you are reading this: Vaartse Rijn parking place, avoid it like the plague). Yada yada yada five hours later after my gig I returned, and it turned out I couldn't pay with cash in the garage, only w/ a card. I happened to not carry a card iirc. The following intercom convo happened:

Me: Hey, sorry, I don't have a card, I only have cash.
Parking garage through intercom dude (PGTID): You can only pay by card. It says so on the sign.
Me: I know, I'm sorry, I see now it says so on the sign but I didn't see that when I drove in. How can we solve this?
PGTID: But it says so on the sign.
Me: I *know* it says so on the sign. I see the sign. I just didn't see it when I drove in and parked here. I just need to get my car out of here. I can pay double the fare in cash, just let me out of here.
PGTID: But the sign says no cash
Me: I *know* the sign says that. I didn't see it when I drove in. My fault. But we need to get this sorted now.
PGTID: Well, we don't accept cash. Perhaps you can ask a passerby, use their card to pay your fare. If you havent found anyone in ten minutes come back again.
Me: Uhm... Are you kidding me? A stranger, really? And wait, why is it ok to come back to you with cash after ten minutes, and not right now?
PGTID: Well we think you should at least try, make an effort.
Me: Make an "effort"?!
PGTID: Well yeah, the signs are clear.
Me:https://i.pinimg.com/originals/1e/77/7e/1e777eec36e43c2dbbb9eb6a7122f0ac.jpg

Went outside, smoked a fag, went back in, said I couldn't find a single stranger to use his or her card for me - obviously - and they accepted the cash. Fuck those people forever.

Cash all the way. Cards are fascism.

Another one of my unpopular opinions is that it should be the law that businesses must accept cash. Cards may be a convenience offered to customers, but should never be made a substitution for currency.

^^^

Is that an unpopular opinion? I feel like everyone is pretty much against no cash establishments because it's discriminatory.

Here in the US it actually says on the money that it can, legally, be used for anything. I don't exactly know how one would go about penalizing a business for not accepting cash on that basis, but one could try.

yeah not accepting cash is nonsensical to me

it's a growing thing unfortunately. there's a salad chain called sweet green that only takes cards. apparently their argument is that the "debts public and private" mentioned on the money don't include retail transactions because no "debt" has been incurred until you get the food, which doesn't happen until you've paid... obviously this is hateful b.s.

Ive seen places that are CASH only but dont think ive seen any CARD only - wouldnt that be illegal?

My festering anger took seed at a vending machine that didn't take quarters.

fuck charging a salad

Ive been hearing tell that shops here want to go towards phone app-based payments and UGH NO. I mean I'm getting ok with tap n go (though am unhappy with the risks that system poses re theft), but I refuse to have to do any fucking banking via my smartphone, ever.

Yeah, a lot of places now no longer want to handle cash. I just looked it up and it's not federally (US) mandated that places have to accept cash. Businesses can establish whatever policies.

I think Amazon stores are trying a thing where you can only enter if you have their app on your phone, you pick up whatever you want and just leave, and you get charged automatically for whatever you take out with you.

When I was 20, a customer at the deli gave me a $100 bill. I went to the manager and asked, Do we take these?

He cupped the phone and answered with a question - is it American currency? Then yes, we'll accept it.

So now that's my dad joke at the grocery store when I tack on that extra $20. The cashier will open her drawer and ask, Can I give you four fives? And I'm all, I'll take whatever you want to give me, as long as they're Yankee dollars.

The economic discrimination of only taking plastic is a majority big part of why accepting currency should be mandatory, but it's also because, come on, the fed's not printing that money for nothing. There's no middleman, no passwords or personal identification numbers, no malfunctioning card readers that only speak in one language anyway. I have this paper and you have that jug of shine. Let's trade.

being a hardline cash person is such an incredible self own that i don't actually need to engage in this debate

lol

I think Amazon stores are trying a thing where you can only enter

there is only one of these, it's in one of Amazon's office buildings, and was only available to employees until a few months ago.

I avoided credit cards for years but get ridiculous value from my Amex ones.

About 80% of people at the supermarket I go to on the way to work will still queue for tills rather than use the empty self-checkout things but I imagine a lot of them are buying cigarettes.

the cash-dependence of Japanese daily life annoys me. I've gotten reimbursed for travel expenses while there IN CASH, we are talking wads of cash (/bragging?). I don't live there so I don't have a local bank. what a hassle.

here in a boulangerie I've people ask if I could just pay by contactless for like a couple of croissants. I like it.

People have been spreading a meme about the cashier free checkouts putting people outof work on Facebook recently.
I used to intentionally go for a cashier and haven't really been shopping in places with the cashier free ones recently but the Dealz and the Tesco I was in last week which I normally don't go to had them as the main checkouts.

Noticing the disappearance of bank tellers on a large scale over the last few years too. Like banks seem to be becoming workspaces open to hire far more than they were. & tellers are now one a bank and only certain hours too.
But 3 branches of my bank in town have turned into workbenches for other people to use as bases over the last couple of years.
& not sure about the 4th one I don't need to go out of my way to go to since i tend to do all my business with it through the lobby ATM.

I've been to my local bank once in the last 10 years I think.

These things have been around for NINE YEARS? I still look at them with suspicion and try to avoid if possible.

The self-checkout machines? Way way longer! Early to mid 2000s I'd guess?

My bank still has tellers and people who call me Mr. Plains (to which I ask, are you on ILX too?)

But my credit union... I went through the drive-thru where all of the lanes were facing the backside of the building (like a 12-lane Shell station instead of the lanes being parallel with the bank windows.) A video screen of a woman blinked on when I sent my deposit up the tube. She asked how I was doing and if I needed anything else. I said no, and eventually, my receipt appeared in the tube.

The more I thought about it, I'm not even sure if the woman was actually inside my bank or even in my city. It's like McDonalds, where some happy woman with a Midwestern accent welcomes me to the drive-thru, but there's some weary teenager in the window collecting my money.

That said, I'm pretty sure the tube ended inside the credit union building.

The only place I haven’t been able to use cash is at Apple. It’s annoying.

I'm simultaneously fascinated and creeped out by the Amazon thing. Not because of the mechanics of knowing what you bought (that's actually pretty easy), but because of the wealth of consumer behavior data that is transparently the objective of all the tech.

We've discussed it before here the unstoppable local-biz-swallowing pseudo-monopoly that is AMAZON

And as I said then: because Amazon ALSO knows what records, books, and sexual lubricants you like, they can cross-reference to get ever-more granular market segmentation information.

Did more suburban white female knitting enthusiasts aged 35-54 look at the carrots that were at waist height? Or the carrots that were at eye level? Do they have different carrot preferences if they are also into Christian dating sites?

And what about the frozen lasagna? Are 90s grunge fans more likely to buy frozen lasagna that is on an end cap, or on a longer aisle? Do people who buy organic toothpaste buy fair-trade coffee? Do people who like gluten-free beer also buy unscented fabric softener?

What's the optimal number of paper-towel rolls for a 42-year-old man whose last record purchase was Chicago XII and who plays golf?

This has already been happening for awhile. Like Target figuring out that someone in a family was pregnant and sending them coupons for diapers before they even knew they were pregnant.

And yet, if you shop online for a coffeemaker (or whatever), you're still getting ads for coffeemakers weeks after you've bought one. Which is simultaneously annoying and comforting. They don't know EVERYTHING.

it's a growing thing unfortunately. there's a salad chain called sweet green that only takes cards. apparently their argument is that the "debts public and private" mentioned on the money don't include retail transactions because no "debt" has been incurred until you get the food, which doesn't happen until you've paid... obviously this is hateful b.s.

Timely. I have never ever intentionally weighed and selected the wrong item, mostly because I hate self-service checkouts. But I feel like in college I may have put the different number on dry bulk goods to get the cheaper price. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/avocados-carrots-self-service-scam-supermarkets-checkout-stealing-a8370621.html

xp a bar I used to go to a lot suddenly and without warning switched to no-cash, which I found out after I ordered a drink, and my wallet had just gotten stolen so my cards did not work. that was a fun half-hour

People also get really angry on planes when they find out it's no cash.

it wasn't so much a matter of "angry" but "trapped" because now I have an obligation to pay for something that I have no means of paying for

besides cash, of course

Oh sorry, that was just a general statement about plane travel and not directed to you. Although *I* do get angry at anywhere that doesn't accept cash, I guess.

Probably irrelevant data points:

When I was in college there was a food court scam where you would get a large fountain drink (like a dollar-something), but fill the cup with ice cream bars ($four-ish). Eventually someone got wise and started checking the cups.

The first time I stayed in a hotel room with a minibar I took a Coke. The next day I bought an identical Coke and tried to put it in the same place but was charged anyway (I forget if it was an RFID-style tag or a weight-activated tray).

^^

https://i.gifer.com/FZN.gif

I was reading a book written by a hotel front desk guy. You should always refuse the mini bar charges. They make so many mistakes, there is a separate person that just goes around filling the mini bars up, people put their personal items in the fridge, some people have everything removed because they have kids or are recovering, basically they have no way of really tracking and the front desk person doesn't care all all.

I was just thinking about how I was on this super long nonstop domestic flight years ago ( NYC to Hawaii) and they weren't serving meals (during a 12 hour flight!) and you had to pay for food. But of course they didn't take cash, which could seemingly exclude so many people from eating. At least after awhile they put a bunch of snacks in the back for people to take if they couldn't buy a meal.

pplains - exactly, hah. Though I didn't have the presence of mind to put something there in its place; I just thought we'd be square if I bought the same thing from 7-11 and put it back before checking out. Foolish.

Brits are stealing billions of dollars in groceries by ringing everything up as carrots

A professor of criminology at the University Of London, Emmeline Taylor, first looked into this behavior at Australian grocery stores before realizing it was also happening in Britain. In one store, she found that receipts indicated customers had purchased more “carrots” than the supermarket ever had in stock to begin with, some up to 18 kilograms (about 40 pounds) in one trip.

Different but related: Many years ago I worked on analyzing data from a government procurement database. Agencies were purchasing ridiculous amounts of soybeans. Battle squadrons needed soybeans. NSA needed soybeans. Fisheries needed soybeans.

It turned out "soybeans" was the first drop-down item in the NAICS code menu.

The problem with people stealing shit in this way is shops here have started to bag/portion pack everything, so you cant buy it loose anymore, which is disgusting, cos we should be going for less packaging not more!

Different but related: Many years ago I worked on analyzing data from a government procurement database. Agencies were purchasing ridiculous amounts of soybeans. Battle squadrons needed soybeans. NSA needed soybeans. Fisheries needed soybeans.

It turned out "soybeans" was the first drop-down item in the NAICS code menu.

― the lauper curve (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, May 29, 2018 5:48 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

From reading this, I guess I now know why soybeans were at the top? But man, that page offers a lot more questions than answers.

I prefer self checkout because I get to bag my own stuff. At grocery stores in my area, the bagger has to go behind the counter next to the cashier to bag groceries (or at least do some awkward and uncomfortable reaching).

Now that Chicago has made it mandatory for stores to charge for bags ($.07), the importance of self-bagging, and therefore self-checkout, has increased for me.

A) if I forget my cloth shopping bags, I don’t want to pay for the cashier to use way too many bags and double bag everything (why do they do that??? Why only 2-3 cans or 1 bunch of celery per bag?? I ask them to put more in, but then I feel bossy and cheap)
B) when I do bring my own bags, they load them badly and I wind up buying plastic bags anyway.

Today the self-checkouts were packed, so I went and browsed the spice aisle until it got better.

Not super thrilled about the proliferation no-cash places though.

So far 1 lunch restaurant and 1 coffee/pastry shop near my work have gone cash-free. I asked the owner of one why and he said it saved them money in accuracy of transactions (and he didn’t say it, but I’m sure less opportunity for employee theft) and because banks charge businesses to buy change.

xpost I try never leave the house without one of those tote bags that you can fit into your pocket. I abstain from plastic bags so much that I will end up putting stinky cheeses, eggs, booze, whatever into expensive purses.

I feel like baggers these days are so fucking terrible. Back when I was a bagger in 1996, I took great pride in my work. It was an art form. We also carried bags to peoples cars.

yeah they arent v good anymore

In Austin you have to bring your own bags, but they don't do this in the nearby suburbs. Baggers in stores just outside of the city limits get absurdly confused when you show up with your own bags. They are afraid to fill them up and try to throw in a bunch of unnecessary plastic bags.

I get insanely anxious when a second person turns up to put items in a bag at American supermarkets

former baggers represent
Yeehaw

Last time someone else bagged my groceries they put raw chicken on top of a bunch of greens. In my day we were lazy and stole a lot from the grocery store but even we knew that was wrong.

yeah it’s a wasteland for commonsense now

The flip side of this is I get IA when I put packaged meat in a produce bag and then the bagger puts that into second plastic shopping bag instead of just popping it in my canvas bag.

xp

i get IA that all stores, including those that use paper bags, double bag absolutely everything. the consequence of forgetting to bring my own bag is accumulating many bags in the house at one time.

I’m OK with double paper bags because those are to put recycling in (that now goes to landfill instead of China apparently because single-stream recycling is a lie)

Put the lotion in the basket.

I get insanely anxious when a second person turns up to put items in a bag at American supermarkets

Yeah that system's strange to me too, I know Ive gone over this before but here, the cashier also bags, it really isnt that hard?

That’s been the trend here too. But in the 90s when I worked in grocery stores there were ~1 bagger per cashier.

But they also were expected to at least offer to carry/roll the groceries to customers’ cars and help load them, so we needed a lot of them.

(“Was” Not “were”)

That seems even more cushy. Someone carrying bags for you to yr car!? Makes it sound like having some kind of butler.

It was the norm, even for cut-rate and shabby stores. The baggers have to retrieve carts from the corrals anyway, so why not.

It occurs to me that baggers might still haul and load groceries - just not in the stores around me where you have to take an elevator or escalator/cart escalator to get to your car.

Even in the late '90s, it was mostly a service for the elderly (or your friends who came through the line with two items). Or at the store I worked at, the guys from Pantera. They tipped really well for loading 12-packs of shitty beer.

Geez I'dve loved someone to carry my crap for me haha. We just load it all inthe trolley and roll the trolley out to the car, then let the trolley bash into someone elses car put the trolley away in a corral in the carpark.

Our local supermarkets in Minneapolis (well, Jerry’s and Byerly’s, which was the posher one) had baggers at the end of till points and a conveyor belt to take bagged groceries to a pickup point, obviously staffed by at least two people.

Think we've done this before, but here you just bag stuff yourself. Having people bag things for you does feel like having a butler to me, like really unnecessarily making people do menial tasks for you. I don't like it, feels like something posh people do, bit like having a cleaner I suppose. I still have a kind of reverse snobbery towards people who have cleaners. My grandma is (still just about although at 79 she only does 1 day a week) a cleaner, the people who hire(d) her were either posh bastards in huge houses or elderly, that's who has cleaners and minions to bag their groceries in my mind. My wife wants us to get a cleaner now to take some of the pressure off me and although we have a good reason for it I still feel weird about it. Not that I'm going to make it an issue.

Baggers? Sounds awful.

xp
I know where you are coming from CP. When I was a kid my mum used to clean posh bastards houses, and got ill whilst pregnant from overwork and ended up miscarrying. But put all the reverse snobbery thoughts away, if you need help, then you need help.

This needs another thread - but I've increasingly noticed young people in the UK saying have a nice day or have a good evening, in that completely superfluous way I associate with the US. It doesn't work when British people say it, it sounds so awkward.

Bagger thing over here seems to be largely for charity drives. Seems to be happening with some frequency from what I'm seeing at the moment too. Various charities in various supermarkets.

i have occasionally thought about getting a cleaner in tbh, because i am a lazy bastard

I lived in a place where the guy who had been there longest and collected rent etc was also the guy who left most of the mess around including plates of food not being moved for weeks. Which i did tidy up myself at one point.
Then was the person who announced that we all had to pay for a cleaner that turned out to be his cousin.
Sharing houses is such fun

first job i had was as a Walmart cashier. this is one area of society where i am 100% in favor of automation

If you're a childless able-bodied urban person who shops frequently for just a few things, having someone bag for you or help get your stuff to the car seems ridiculous. IME none of those people accept the offered help.

But a mother struggling with small children, plus a week's worth of groceries for a sizable family? An older or otherwise less mobile person? It can make a big difference, and if the service is offered it's no crime to take advantage of it.

^^

Having someone bag also speeds up the whole line process. No bagger = the payee standing there looking at the receipt, their phone, their wallet before even trying to bag while the cashier can't ring more stuff up.

I can't get a cleaner either because of the same issues above. Plus, you end up having to tidy before the cleaner comes anyway and micromanage.

I know there are instances of canned food getting bagged on top of bread, but on the whole, the baggers at my supermarket know their shit much better than the average customer.

I say this because I wince when I see some alpha dad seize control of the bagging station and then start organizing each. little. thing. - usually one-handed.

In the end, the cashier usually winds up helping him since it's not nearly halfway bagged by the time the cart's empty.

* I wrote all of that, re-read it, and now for the first time in my life, I think I have some empathy for those Oregon losers who can't pump their own gas.

> Having someone bag also speeds up the whole line process. No bagger = the payee standing there looking at the receipt, their phone, their wallet before even trying to bag while the cashier can't ring more stuff up.

the payee could be doing it him/herself (which is the UK way). as you say, they are otherwise just waiting. and this way they get the bags packed how they like it.

yeah relying on the average Joe/Jane in line is asking for trouble; you know, the people who take 15 seconds between each button push at the ATM

fuckin morons

When I lived in Charlevoix, Michigan in the early 90s, a baggers at one of our grocery stores won the nationwide Best Bagger contest. It was on the local news and in the newspaper.

My point is that there was/is a nationwide contest for best grocery bagger.

No bagger = the payee standing there looking at the receipt, their phone, their wallet before even trying to bag while the cashier can't ring more stuff up.

Still dont quite get this. Cashiers here ring and bag all in one go quite quickly? They usually have 2 open bags in front of them and just swipe over the scanner, plonk into bag, rinse/repeat.

Why have car wash and oil change places? Folks can handle those on their own too.

Went through self-checkout today. PLEASE PUT ITEM BACK IN BAGGING AREA. What item? I didn't put any— PLEASE WAIT FOR THE ATTENDENT. Please wait? Oh this is so much faster.

lol I hate it when that happens.
*press I have brought my own bag*
*place down bag*
PLEASE REMOVE UNEXPECTED ITEM

PLEASE FUK OFFFFFF

afaik i was the first operator of these in tesco in ireland

theyre great but the scales are unforgivably unreliable

They’re a massive PITA if you’re left-handed and yes, if you’ve brought your own bag the machine always trips over to CALL ATTENDANT.

the ones near me in London all have cameras and screens showing you yourself as you buy, UGH

The self-checkout cameras in Target are really flattering. It's like that snapchat filter that smooths everything out.

I never do the I've brought my own bag, because of above issues, just leave my bag on the floor and put the stuff in it when I'm waiting for the receipt.

when I was a bagger in the usa we were to offer to take bags to shoppers' cars but it was rare for anyone to accept. maybe because people felt like they had to tip?

You should try shopping in supermarkets in Austria. There, the protocol is:

1) take items from trolley and put on conveyor belt
2) push trolley through to other side of cashier
3) watch cashier scan items and casually push them away without flicker of smile or indeed any form of human interaction
4) put items back in trolley, unbagged
5) pay
6) wheel trolley to bagging area behind checkout and bag them yourself

The idea is to speed up the process and in that sense it probably works, in that bagging time is removed from the timeline (the next customer doesn't have to wait for you to bag before they get served). But it's a stressful experience nonetheless.

they do that in lidl and aldi here in the uk with the key difference that there's an element of competition with the inhumanly fast cashiers who hurtle the items through the scanner at just-barely-subsonic velocity, so every time you shop there you're trying to cram everything in the trolley or your bag before it starts piling up

it's exhilarating tbh

Trayce, yeah at some places the cashier doesn't have time to bag at the same time (bagging area is behind them) or they do it at the end or just don't care because they have a huge line they need to ring up. It creates a bottleneck because the customer just stands there like in a trance.

why don't americans pack their own bags?

culture of entitlement iirc

Some do but some are just completely oblivious. I got mad when I went to a grocery store in a holiday location last year and it was right before closing and a ton of people in line trying to buy alcohol and groceries. This couple in front of me (2 people) just stood there and waited for the cashier to bag the groceries after she rang them up. She did it soooo slowly although there were 20 people in line but I couldn't fault her.

I kind of wanted to push past the couple and bag their groceries myself.

I never do the I've brought my own bag, because of above issues, just leave my bag on the floor and put the stuff in it when I'm waiting for the receipt.

This is the correct way to do it. Much faster in my opinion and also makes it much easier to organize your items in the bags (i.e. put all the cold stuff together, put eggs or other easily crushable items on top, etc.)

One of the local supermarkets here is self-checkout only if you go late at night so I've pretty much become an expert at this.

a lot of the bagging areas won't take much more than, say, a box of cereal and a loaf of bread. it's like buckaroo if you have a lot of bulky stuff.

first job i had was as a Walmart cashier. this is one area of society where i am 100% in favor of automation

Grocery checkers/cashiers are mostly union jobs in my area. I know it is physically demanding to stand for long periods and poking keys thousands of times leads to repetitive stress injuries, but until we have a better system for universal food, housing and medical care, those jobs are still valuable.

I never do the I've brought my own bag, because of above issues

Have never got this to work. I'm fucking stupid.

why don't americans pack their own bags?

Ole-tymey general stores had no self-service at all - you went to the counter with a list and the clerk fetched and prepared everything for you.

Being able to browse among the shelves and choose your own merchandise was already a devolution of agency.

During the post-wwii boom of consumer culture, the US standard of living was ridiculously high by world-historical standards. Britain was still rationed. For mid-century USians, being able to choose from among a dizzying variety of competing brands seemed a mark of manifest destiny and American exceptionalism - it became a perceived civil right. But not without the ambivalence that Randall Jarrell expresses in "A Sad Heart at the Supermarket" and the poem "Next Day."

Moving from Cheer to Joy, from Joy to All,
I take a box
And add it to my wild rice, my Cornish game hens.

The slacked or shorted, basketed, identical
Food-gathering flocks
Are selves I overlook. Wisdom, said William James,
Is learning what to overlook. And I am wise
If that is wisdom.

Yet somehow, as I buy All from these shelves
And the boy takes it to my station wagon,
What I’ve become
Troubles me even if I shut my eyes.

When Britain began to catch up in terms of orgiastic consumerism, Jarvis Cocker was already there to pull the rug out from under the hermeneutics of supermarkets. There was no honeymoon period, when bounty was actually welcome, because sour Britons are always all too ready to see (or imagine) the existential horror inside the good cheer of a well-ordered row of supermarket produce.

Anyway, the habits of bagging for customers and offering to carry groceries are an extension of a vision of customer service that was formed in a vastly different labor market than we have today. Life was definitely harder for non-elites but there was a class of decent living-wage jobs that the less-well-educated had access to. That meant that casual employment in the service sector was still an option for apple-cheeked middle-class teenagers, who could have an after-school job bagging groceries or fetching carts.

The stores themselves were still in fierce competition at the time, because waves of consolidation had not yet homogenized the service model. And because the range of products was still comparatively limited (I'm still talking mid-20th century here), the only way grocery stores could differentiate from each other was the quality, quantity, and cheerfulness of the services they offered. There were, then, only a few different kinds of detergent, so the only way to entice Mom to shop one place rather than another was to be friendlier and more solicitous.

Any bagging or help-you-to-your-carring you see nowadays is partly a holdover from older service models (stretching back to the "Little House on the Prairie" general store, then the mid-century modern race to colonize the suburbs), and partly an effort to tempt your shopping dollars into one store (and presumably away from another).

A store that scales back its customer service efforts needs to aggressively brand itself as a barebones palace of savings. Hence no baggers at Shoppers Food Warehouse, BJ's, Costco, etc. They try to make the case that you will save money by shopping at a place that doesn't cater to your every whim. But close analysis suggests that they don't really do that - packaging and unit-price trickery obscures whether you're actually getting a bargain or not.

And that, my friends, is why Americans don't pack their own bags.

(Except when they do; this is a broad general narrative with loads of outliers.)

When Britain began to catch up in terms of orgiastic consumerism, Jarvis Cocker was already there to pull the rug out from under the hermeneutics of supermarkets.

There were supermarkets long before Jarvis Cocker, of course.

Admittedly it's kind of surprising when you some across a scene set in a supermarket in a 60s UK film, like "The Ipcress File".

http://www.homecinemachoice.com/sites/18/images/article_images_month/2014-11/ipcress%20file%2004.jpg

... come across, that is.

just wanna agree to this as well:

I never do the I've brought my own bag, because of above issues, just leave my bag on the floor and put the stuff in it when I'm waiting for the receipt.

This is the correct way to do it. Much faster in my opinion and also makes it much easier to organize your items in the bags (i.e. put all the cold stuff together, put eggs or other easily crushable items on top, etc.)

One of the local supermarkets here is self-checkout only if you go late at night so I've pretty much become an expert at this.

― silverfish, Wednesday, June 6, 2018 8:32 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i love ringing stuff up by myself and putting stuff in my own bag

i've seen people in the states with three items take probably 10 minutes and call the attendant, i have 10 items and am done in like 4

This needs another thread - but I've increasingly noticed young people in the UK saying have a nice day or have a good evening, in that completely superfluous way I associate with the US. It doesn't work when British people say it, it sounds so awkward.

I've started doing this. Not sure why; I remember joining in the ubiquitous overdone eye-rolling at the ubiquitous overdone American "have a nice day" long ago, and now I wish the cashier a good evening/weekend in most of my instore interactions

lidl and aldi here in the uk with the key difference that there's an element of competition with the inhumanly fast cashiers who hurtle the items through the scanner at just-barely-subsonic velocity, so every time you shop there you're trying to cram everything in the trolley or your bag before it starts piling up

also in Aldi (which I mostly <3 btw) everyone is needlessly aggro and so if you're still there approximately 0.2 seconds after the cashier is done with everything the person behind will inevitably steer their fucking trolley into you. GET BACK YOU SAVAGES, DON'T TOUCH ME, DON'T STAND CLOSER TO MY WALLET THAN I AM

It’s a while since I’ve been to Aldi but don’t they have the dividing flap along the chute from the checkout so they can start hurling groceries down from a second customer whilst the first is bagging, or is that somewhere else?

It’s a while since I’ve been to Aldi but don’t they have the dividing flap along the chute from the checkout so they can start hurling groceries down from a second customer whilst the first is bagging, or is that somewhere else?

braggin 2018

Wracking my brain trying to remember where I saw that flap in the U.S. .... and it was at IKEA!

ikea is famous for its flap-pack tbf

xps the local Aldi doesn't, no. there's not even a chute, just a tiny flat area by the till where the cashier places groceries after scanning. there is an extra flat surface behind the cashier but tbh if I could move my stuff there then I could just as easily move it into a bag, or into my arms to stagger to the bagging shelf

like this: https://i2-prod.chroniclelive.co.uk/incoming/article12773615.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/SGP_NEC_101116ALDI04JPG.jpg

the local Co-op does have the chute + divider so I know what you mean, but they almost never move the divider either (I have been on both ends of bagging hold-ups wishing it would be used)

I still don't get the rationale behind the supermarkets offering to shop for all your groceries and deliver them to your car at a predetermined time.

I've tried one, ClickList at Kroger. Everything I usually order was laid out for me online. All of the "yellow tag" discount prices were available. I was able to use my digital coupons and invited to bring my paper coupons with me. Knew exactly what the total was before I even left the house.

When I pulled into the parking space, two store employees came out of a side door, wheeling my groceries in a big special cart. While one loaded everything up for me into the back of the Honda, the other explained a few discreps and substitutions. Here's where I was really expecting heartbreak. But instead, the substitutions were like, "You asked for this store brand chicken for $3, but we were out. So here's some premium Tyson chicken that usually retails for $6.95, but you're still paying for only $3."

I just don't get it? Knowing what my total was before I left the house allowed me to put a few items "back on the shelf" instead of just swallowing my going over budget at the register. I didn't impulse buy anything. I didn't see what other specials were out in the store. No tin of Altoids. The store had to pay an employee to roam the aisles getting exactly what I asked for. (And how I privately steam at those bulky carts blocking the aisles when I'm inside shopping.) The store loses money on things like the chicken (if I was shopping inside the store, I would've said Oh well and maybe bought the Tyson stuff at regular price.) TWO people had to come out to my car...

I just don't get ClickList. Not even for an extra $5, which I have yet ever had to pay.

And I've had two reactions to my yarns about ClickList: The rural folk who were all "Oh, well isn't Little Rock fancy these days..." and my buddy in San Francisco - who I assume receives his groceries via drone - who asked, "What fucking year is it down there?"

Wait, do you not understand how they are making money on "clicklist" or you don't like using it? I try to only shop online but I kind of have a weird fetish about going into certain grocery stores.

WinCo had/has that 2nd conveyor belt that Ed refers to -- brilliant idea, they could pump customers through faster than any other store I've been to.

I love going to grocery stores (there are three within walking distance) and would happily shop once a day for that day's dinner, following whim and mood as the fates dictate.

My wife thinks this is foolish and wasteful; she's more into planning a full week's dinners based on recipes she sees, then getting a Fresh Direct order.

There is room in the world for all approaches. Let a thousand ideologies bloom.

Wait, do you not understand how they are making money on "clicklist" or you don't like using it?

I don't understand how they're making money off of it! "I know what say we do, how bout we make it attractive for the customers to not come into the store at all!"

1. Those employees who are pulling your order and bringing it to your car would otherwise just be doing other, less focused tasks inside the store.

2. Everybody who checks out and pays electronically relieves the congestion at the registers (a major annoyance factor for in-person shoppers).

3. The store that offers a free express pickup service attracts (and likely keeps) your business; it steers you away from other competing stores. The profit they make from doing ANY business with you vs. NONE is not insignificant.

My favorite thing to do in other countries is to hang out in grocery stores.

Same. Though the Australian grocery storing the eggs just right on the shelf like they were canned goods shook me a little.

My hosts in Mexico usually shopped at the corner market, but I hassled them into taking me to the supermarket. And that's where I saw the little kids bagging groceries for tips.

Good points, YMP. I guess I should feel the same about Outback Steakhouse offering takeout and even a parking spot right upfront for non-interior customers. But they can't sell them a Red Devil Margarita Swirl or whatever?

But by being accommodating when those customers want takeout, they increase the chances that the customer will come back another time when they feel like dining in.

Fostering loyal repeat customers is a more reliable revenue stream than maximizing the profit from every transaction.

I think there are only a couple of countries that put their eggs in the fridge. The US, UK?

...for sale in the store I mean.

never in the uk

sometimes in au they do, bodega/smaller stores don’t bother but Coles does. just extends shelf life rly

http://uk.businessinsider.com/why-europeans-dont-refrigerate-eggs-2014-12

I don't think shops exactly struggle to sell eggs, so I imagine they're not going to be sitting on shelves for too long.

Isn't it to do with the washing of the eggs? In the US they wash the eggs in something before they sell them, so the protective outer layer of the shell that stops them going bad is stripped away, and they have to be kept in the fridge.

Aldi and Lidl tried so hard to get people in our area to conform to the proper bagging protocol, but people in my area (can't speak for Ireland as a whole) were NOT HAVING IT, and everybody just lets their shopping pile up on those tiny ledges while they bag it there at the till, which takes ages, because the staff are actively discouraged from helping, and everyone is doing their big shop there.

Do other countries have the Lidl etiquette where people who only have one or two things get to go ahead of everyone in the queue? It's the only supermarket where that's a thing here, because there are no express lanes or self-checkout tills.

The only time I ever put eggs in the fridge is if I buy a ton and know I won't eat some of them for over a week or 2.

I never do the I've brought my own bag, because of above issues, just leave my bag on the floor and put the stuff in it when I'm waiting for the receipt.

This is the correct way to do it. Much faster in my opinion and also makes it much easier to organize your items in the bags (i.e. put all the cold stuff together, put eggs or other easily crushable items on top, etc.)

I usually do this - bag on the floor, for those same reasons. Of course this means bagging items after you've paid.

A couple of weeks ago I was putting my stuff away and a guy walked up to the machine and started scanning items. I was incredulous at first that someone would do this so I finished up and as I left said something sarcastic. He said "you were taking your time." !

Now, first of all crouching down, putting things in a bag (dir. Ang Lee) is kind of undignified and vulnerable in that hectic environment to begin with, and looming over someone like that is an invasion of personal space.

Secondly, I had six items in total (if it were fewer I'd have used the express till,) was clearly nearly done, and will have been ahead of the people on the other five machines who all must have started before I did.

So this makes less than no sense, it's pure cuntery, and in any case it takes as long as it takes (not very long at all, as it happens,) wait your fucking turn, arsewipe.

I'm over it now or the swears in this post would be more progigious, but how does it even enter someone's head to do that? He had to balance his stuff on the scales / scanner bit. You couldn't pull this shit in a cashier line so what the heck do you think you're playing at?

I like progigious, that's good.

This evening I bought a can of Red Bull in Sainsbury's and paid at a self service checkout. The operator came over to confirm that I was over 16, swiped their card over the barcode scanner, and without even a glance at me tapped 'Visibly Over 25'. I laughed.

wait... why would you be IDed for a soft drink!?

I'm extremely down with age-restricting something so full of powerful stimulants tbh

The one in my local Morrisons gives the shittiest combinations of change ever, lots of 2ps and 5ps and it NEVER gives out 50ps, and I mean literally never.

Things you were shockingly old when you learned - it doesn't give out 10ps either. There's no doubt an explanation for this online somewhere.

A mathematician explains it,

http://chalkdustmagazine.com/blog/self-service-machines-give-awful-change/

wait... why would you be IDed for a soft drink!?

Because that vacuous Mockney canker Jamie Oliver ran a campaign to have them age restricted to people over 16 and all the supermarkets fell into line. In terms of self promotion, he's the Elon Musk of UK TV chefs.

I thought it was because them machines were fishing for that Kew Gardens 50p coin

Sainsbury's have added a sarcastic and patronising voice asking "would you like a receipt?" that sounds like a care assistant asking an elderly person in a day care centre if they'd like another cup of tea.

Has the original question been used as source material for a 'funny' version of 'I will survive " yet?

It's one thing having a recording speak to you; another for it to ask a question unless you're able to verbally answer back. I'm assuming that without pressing a button you can't tell the Sainsbury's one you don't want a receipt, so this is shit UX imo.

Oh it says that when the prompt comes up on the screen that reads "do you want a printed receipt? yes / no".

OK so I've just been in Iceland (the shop) and used one of these fuckers which, for change of 75p, gave out three 20ps and FIFTEEN 1ps, ffs! So, thinking I would use up this unwanted shrapnel by buying a chocolate bar or something, I grabbed a box of kind of walnut whip things which were going for 50p only to find they had no barcode and you couldn't scan them! So I had to go to Morrisons - the only reason I'd gone to Iceland in the first place was because the queues in Morrisons looked enormous - and buy a special edition Easter Bunny KitKat (in February?) so I don't have to walk about like Mr Tambourine Man, jingle-jangling.

Did you really think somebody was going to come followin’ you?

i just used one and i did "lookup by name" to get to white potatoes. you type P O and the potato options come up. but it only had yukon gold potatoes and potatoes. i figured white potatoes must be the more generic potato so i touched the potato. it came up as russet potatoes in my list of purchases. those are 30 cents cheaper per pound. i got a potato discount.

Can't remember the last time I used self-checkout at the supermarket (usually I'm one of the disgusting savages who shops via the app/website and does the curbside pickup) (apropos of nothing, my personal favorite got ranked #1 in the nation in the most recent grocery store survey!) but the last time I did I remember there being a remarkable assortment of produce available for selection on the menu. Or you could always notate the PLU code for the fruit/vegetable that's usually right on the signage for said item and enter that into the system to save from having to navigate through that labyrinth. Also, since my neighborhood supermarket is usually extremely busy I've learned the fine art of packing my own groceries at that particular location, something that was of immense value when I visited a UK supermarket in December 2017.

If you're ever poor and find yourself needing to save on groceries, these things are a godsend.

yeah lol if you arent putting in your blood oranges as zucchini and bulk cashews as bulk oats

"sorry I misread 'peanuts' as 'pine nuts'!"

local tesco updated their software today and somehow onions feel through the gap. vegetables -> onions and garlic section was empty, only onion focaccia came up under search...

he scanned them as bananas in the end - same unit price

I don't categorically object to self-checkout. But I do protest those who try to take alcohol through these registers. (Go ahead and hold up the line even longer, while the one clerk monitoring multiple stations checks your ID.)