Self check-out at the grocery store..a vent

[BellePrincessBelle]

An hour is a long time. I can't imagine that. I have gone thru the checkout line with an overflowing cart before and it's taken maybe 5 or 7 minutes to ring it all up. 1 hour is crazy.

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I don't see any reason anyone would assume a self check line has an item limit unless there is a sign that specifically states that.

She was so slow it was maddening. She would have to scan things 5 or 6 times hence the overcharges. I'm all for giving older people a job but seriously it was awful.

 

[robinb]

My grocery has two types of self scanners. One for 20 items and less where you scan and bag in one motion and another with a conveyor belt for bigger orders. The conveyor belt ones have a bagger assigned to them so they bag as you scan. I usually use them because they often only have 3-4 staffed checkouts (out of 16!) and the lines are horribly long. So they have fired all those checks and now we customers are doing their job for free.

 

[Spacepest]

I've worked with self checkouts and always avoid them when I encounter them in stores because the customers who use them are way slower than a trained cashier.

One local business I frequented installed self checkouts and then laid off half of their cashiers. Two months later most of the cashiers were rehired because they were losing business. Many customers complained about the longer waits in line and took their business elsewhere, and theft had gone through the roof! And not all the theft was intentional...many people didn't scan their items correctly, they wouldn't ring up, and then the customers would walk out the door with partially paid for items. Or the machines would malfunction and the items the customers had legitimately paid for would still set off the security gates when they tried to leave.

 

[MM27]

Unless they are clearly marked xx items or less, then they are not express lanes. I love self checkouts. My regular grocery store doesn't have them, but I use them at BJs all the time. I did have a guy at BJs one time tell me that they were for people that only have a few items. I asked him where it said that and pointed out that they do in fact have an express lane at the end of the registers. He shut up.

 

[Hollywoodhaha]

They are for people with any number of items who, like me, hate making small talk with the cashier.

"Oh my God, grass fed beef? This is so expensive! Did you know it was this expensive? Do you still want it?"

"I have never seen anyone buy coconut milk before. And now everyone is buying it! Why? What's the deal with coconut milk?"

"We sell gelato? Is this a new thing? How is it? What's the difference between gelato and ice cream? Should I try it?"

And so on.

I *love* self checkout.

I get the first one so often oh my gosh. I HATE SMALL TALK.
"These cherries are 8 dollars! Do you want them? Really?"

 

[Aliceacc]

It was blizzard coming busy.

That is SUCH a great expression!!

 

[robinb]

They don't really put people out of jobs. I was a Food Marketing major in college and one of my senior year projects was on self checkout (this is when it was first being introduced). Basically if there were no self checkouts there would be longer lines at the regular checkouts because people wouldn't have the option to use self checkouts. In all the case studies I did (about 10-12 of them) not one company eliminated any employees or positions when they introduced self checkout. Most of the companies also where not in a position to add more staff if they didn't introduce self checkout and some of the companies that used self checkout actually did add more staff becuase they needed people to monitor the self checkout areas and they didn't want to take them from the normal checkout lanes.

The grocery store I go to definitely reduced jobs. They have only a few staffed checkouts open with probably 3 closed to every one that is open during super busy times and fewer open when it's not so busy. The self serve checkouts have 2 employees per 6-8 self serve checkouts. One to monitor and override and one to help bag bigger orders. On a Saturday afternoon prior to self checkout they would have 20 checkouts open. Now they have 5-6 plus the self checkouts. That leaves 14 closed checkouts without cashiers or baggers replaced with 2 monitors and 2 baggers in the two self service areas for a net loss of 24 jobs.

 

[Kathi OD]

We were in Walmart yesterday (I HATE THAT STORE) and there were people in the cashiers line clearly marked 20 items or less with cart fulls....Why are people so rude. Once I asked the cashier about that and she said they aren't allowed to say anything to the people.

At our WalMart, it would be because there are 2 registers staffed w/ cashiers open, with lines 10-15 people deep. Much faster to go through the self-service lines.

 

[msjprincess]

I use the self check outs & I usually have 2/12 to 3 baskets. I bring a bagger from home ;-) and we're done in less than 20 minutes. 2 weeks ago all my baggers were sick so I had to go by myself and use a regular check out. It took the cashier almost an hour to check me out!! I was alternating between bagging & loading the belt at times just waiting for items to bag. Aside from the fact that it took forever, I wasn't able to keep an eye on the register while she was scanning so I stepped aside to go over my 6ft long receipt only to find that she had double & even tripled scanned several items. Because of this I had to wait in the customer service line behind 6 other people buying lottery tickets in every imaginable combination, the cs rep had to come from behind the counter, dig through my bags, verify that I was infact overcharged, and refund me. What a hassle. Never again, self checkout all the way.

It took an hour to scan one cart?

 

[marlynnp]

The Giant food stores here have what you posted AND checkouts with carousels like this

those hold 6 bags and you can easily fit 3 or 4 gallon jugs on the center part

 

[Cantw8]

The Giant food stores here have what you posted AND checkouts with carousels like this

those hold 6 bags and you can easily fit 3 or 4 gallon jugs on the center part

I can see taking a whole cart through with something like this or a conveyer belt as others have talked about but what mine has is tiny and that's why I just always thought it was for a few items Once you scan the items, you have to move them to the "bagging" area. You can not move the bagged items into your cart to make room for more things. If you remove things from the bagging area before you have paid, the machine will remind you "Please do not remove items from the bagging area" , a red light will light up on your machine and then an attendant comes over to see what is going on

 

[BellePrincessBelle]

It took an hour to scan one cart?

No, I stated that I always have 2 1/2 to 3 full carts. That day since I was on my own I had 2 very, very overflowing carts.

 

[Kathi OD]

No, I stated that I always have 2 1/2 to 3 full carts. That day since I was on my own I had 2 very, very overflowing carts.

I understood that. I was responding to someone else's post about people going through the express check outs at their local WalMart w/ full baskets.

 

[zoo2tycoon]

At our WalMart, it would be because there are 2 registers staffed w/ cashiers open, with lines 10-15 people deep. Much faster to go through the self-service lines.

NO these weren't scanner ones. These were cashier lines where people went with overflowing carts. I went to a regular checkout (as self scans were full to with a line). Got thru before the others in either the 20 items or less with cashier or self scanners.

ALSO,,,,,why do people who don't know how to scan go to the self scanner!

 

[Topper]

Whoah! How many people are you shopping for and how infrequently do you shop? Even when I'm hosting Thanksgiving I've managed to fit everything in one cart.

It is not any of your business.

 

[goofyintoronto]

This is what our self-checkouts look like as well. You'd be surprised as to how many bags that round conveyer thingy can fit.

The Giant food stores here have what you posted AND checkouts with carousels like this

those hold 6 bags and you can easily fit 3 or 4 gallon jugs on the center part

Whoa! I dont think that reaction was necessary!

It is not any of your business.

 

[Colleen27]

In our local store, the majority of the lanes are self-checkout lanes so unless you want to be stuck behind a ton of full carts in the 2 lone registers that are manned by a cashier, it's quicker to use the self-checkout, full cart or not.

The fastest lanes self-checkout or cashier, are the express lanes, so if you're in a hurry, that's the register you go to.

Personally, I hate the self-checkout registers. There is ALWAYS a glitch somewhere that holds it up and to be honest, for the prices our store charges, an actual person can ring me up. I've got no problem bagging my own stuff, I do it better than they do anyway.

That's how it is here too. Most of the time when I go shopping, there are 10 self-checkouts open (4 of which are labelled Express and have a smaller bagging area) and only 1 regular register. The self-checkout system has issues with coupons so the serious couponers always head for the regular cashier, so that line tends to be backed up 3-4 people deep, all with overflowing carts and piles of coupons. I hate self-checkout but I usually end up using it rather than wait forever for a real cashier.

 

[Colleen27]

The grocery store I go to definitely reduced jobs. They have only a few staffed checkouts open with probably 3 closed to every one that is open during super busy times and fewer open when it's not so busy. The self serve checkouts have 2 employees per 6-8 self serve checkouts. One to monitor and override and one to help bag bigger orders. On a Saturday afternoon prior to self checkout they would have 20 checkouts open. Now they have 5-6 plus the self checkouts. That leaves 14 closed checkouts without cashiers or baggers replaced with 2 monitors and 2 baggers in the two self service areas for a net loss of 24 jobs.

Ours too. It is a small store but they used to have 4-5 open registers, each with its own bagger, for a total of 8-10 people staffing the checkout area at any given time. Now they have 1-2 open registers with baggers and one cashier (no baggers) monitoring the self-checkout, a total of 3-5 people staffing the checkout area.

 

[deserrai]

I wouldn't take a full cart through the self checkout because it would be such a pain, but if someone else wants to I wouldn't have a problem with it.

 

[BellePrincessBelle]

I understood that. I was responding to someone else's post about people going through the express check outs at their local WalMart w/ full baskets.

Ack, my phone quoted the wrong person, sorry. I was responding to someone else. I'll fix that now.