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

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.)