Self-checkout etiquette - is it rude to start scanning while someone else is still there?

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Instead of directing your dismay at the fellow shopper, you should be complaining to the store management for forcing you to check yourself out.

You were working for free, in California no less. California labor laws are some of the strongest in the nation yet they allow for unpaid labor by the customers.

The unpaid customers should at least get a 1 to 2 percent discount for using self checkout.

Do you ever shop in the store yourself? Gathering the items from your list yourself, put it in your cart yourself? If you did any of these things you're working for free

The subset of people who complain the most about self-check out don't seem to mind the shopping part themselves. IDK how my mom rationalizes complaining and smarting the grocery store employees who mention going to self check out when she's doing all the shopping herself. Scanning and putting something in a bag is just over the line but going through aisles and looking for things on the shelves is just fine and dandy

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

losing a connection with their customers and doing away with self checkout.

What's the age cohort on that one?

 

[kdonnel]

Do you ever shop in the store yourself?

As a shopper, my job is to shop. However I have not been hired as a cashier. I will happily interact with a person to checkout.

 

[kdonnel]

What's the age cohort on that one?

One that spends a crap ton of money and was suddenly spending less.

 

[disneychrista]

As a shopper, my job is to shop. However I have not been hired as a cashier. I will happily interact with a person to checkout.

Then don’t use the self checkout. I’ve not been to a store that ONLY has self checkout.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

One that spends a crap ton of money and was suddenly spending less.

That doesn't answer the question. There are people in every age cohort that have a ton of money.

From my own personal experience and likely what you're talking about it's less about loss of connection and more about a sense of not liking change.

As a shopper, my job is to shop. However I have not been hired as a cashier. I will happily interact with a person to checkout.

Your job? You're fine having an unpaid job to shop around (which if more effort and time consuming especially with a full cartload) but put the line in the sand at the scanning an item yourself? With your mentality the store should be paying you to shop around (oooh now that's an idea )

 

[Magical2017]

To answer OPs question, yes I think that would be rude. The only thing that would change my answer is if it was super crowded, I had been waiting a long time, and the person took a long time moving their things and then did something like take a phone call and not move away--something pretty over the top. Then I might say, "Excuse me, would you mind if I started to scan my items?"

I despise self checkout. I always have some issue. I would make a poor grocery store clerk which is why I don't work in a grocery store. I will wait in line and check out with a human in most instances. DH loves to scan his own items so more power to him.

 

[Smugpugmug]

Then don’t use the self checkout. I’ve not been to a store that ONLY has self checkout.

The only store near me that does is Walmart, though I never go there since the in person shopping experience there is terrible. Even the Target near me is gravitating to self checkout only. Last time I was there only 2 non self checkout lanes were open.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I despise self checkout. I always have some issue. I would make a poor grocery store clerk which is why I don't work in a grocery store. I will wait in line and check out with a human in most instances. DH loves to scan his own items so more power to him.

We love self-checkout in Costco but I will say my husband often forgets to scan his Costco card before scanning items and the machine does yell at you for that lol but we normally don't have too much that we're buying and the bonus there is if the attendant is right there available they will put a line through your receipt after quickly glancing at what you have and you can bypass the line to get out of the store. I was happy when they brought that back to our store after being gone for years although I preferred the older ones that had the long conveyor belt.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

The only store near me that does is Walmart, though I never go there since the in person shopping experience there is terrible. Even the Target near me is gravitating to self checkout only. Last time I was there only 2 non self checkout lanes were open.

For the Walmart stores here it seems to vary. The closest Walmart to us has for years and years been predominantly self-check out and people LOVE it.

But I will say they just redesigned it (again as it's been through several redesigns already) since the store itself is one that is nearing the end of a complete overhaul like many Walmarts are getting.

The redesign is awful because it goes back to normal aisles rather than a very large self-checkout area (that had been expanded in 2019) and on the other side a smaller but expanded over time self-checkout area. Now people are hunting for the shortest line like the olden days instead of having a nice orderly line where the next person in line goes to the next open self-checkout so the experience has personally been downgraded even though they have kept the self-checkout being big. There's about 4 or so normal checkout lanes right now. People very much at this store location want self-checkout, it was picked so much more frequently over any regular check out lanes that were open.

Based on the several times we've been in since people are not happy with the redesign of the self-checkout. Why bring back a pain-point that led to people liking self-checkout is beyond me.

 

[Smugpugmug]

For the Walmart stores here it seems to vary. The closest Walmart to us has for years and years been predominantly self-check out and people LOVE it.

But I will say they just redesigned it (again as it's been through several redesigns already) since the store itself is one that is nearing the end of a complete overhaul like many Walmarts are getting.

The redesign is awful because it goes back to normal aisles rather than a very large self-checkout area (that had been expanded in 2019) and on the other side a smaller but expanded over time self-checkout area. Now people are hunting for the shortest line like the olden days instead of having a nice orderly line where the next person in line goes to the next open self-checkout so the experience has personally been downgraded even though they have kept the self-checkout being big. There's about 4 or so normal checkout lanes right now. People very much at this store location want self-checkout, it was picked so much more frequently over any regular check out lanes that were open.

Based on the several times we've been in since people are not happy with the redesign of the self-checkout. Why bring back a pain-point that led to people liking self-checkout is beyond me.

I'm a huge fan of self checkout but Walmart has the worst one. The layout at the Walmart near me has the self checkout line go into the clothing section so if you're shopping over there you have to try to squeeze past the line. Waits are also really bad during busy times like weekends. I only use Walmart's website and curbside pickup now because of it.

But in terms of typical grocery stores, I only do self checkout. I'm the opposite in that I don't really want to do chit chat with the cashier and I like bagging my own stuff. The scenario in the OP is weird and rude though.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I'm a huge fan of self checkout but Walmart has the worst one. The layout at the Walmart near me has the self checkout line go into the clothing section so if you're shopping over there you have to try to squeeze past the line. Waits are also really bad during busy times like weekends. I only use Walmart's website and curbside pickup now because of it.

But in terms of typical grocery stores, I only do self checkout. I'm the opposite in that I don't really want to do chit chat with the cashier and I like bagging my own stuff. The scenario in the OP is weird and rude though.

That sounds like a pain to have to go through the clothing section. Ours was a line they created with items in makeshift aisles that made like an L shape but not anymore since they converted back to just normal aisles. Waits were never an issue at ours precisely because of the nice orderly line, it went by quickly because they had so many self-check out machines and you just went to the next available machine. Now it's back to the very thing many avoided with regular check out lanes.

We do grocery order pick up for groceries majority of the time but we also go into Walmart for random things or for times when we just don't have time to do an order (we've run into that a few times recently with my husband going out of town for business). Unless an item requires a normal checkout lane (which is rare) we use self-checkout. For other stores we do self-checkout whenever we can.

I don't have a problem with chit chat so long as it's also while doing the scanning and bagging but most don't really do chit chat anyways anymore and I'm also fine with that. I agree with the OP's situation being weird and rude.

We did just go to Menards yesterday and noticed that in the yard where you can get stone or gravel (which is what we were there for along with concrete) or other landscape items you can scan the QR codes (which have replaced the normal price signs out there) and either check the price or actually check out via the app. You would then show your receipt on the app (vs a normal paper one) to the yard entrance booth and drive right in, for someone just going in for the landscape materials this would save a lot of time since you don't have to go to the checkout lanes to say X amount of this particular stone or whatever.

 

[disneychrista]

We love self-checkout in Costco .

Our local Costco has only been open a couple years. When it opened it had 4 self-checkout. Within a year all four had been removed.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Our local Costco has only been open a couple years. When it opened it had 4 self-checkout. Within a year all four had been removed.

Years ago ours used to be one of the only ones in the nation to have them, they removed them and haven't had them in a long while but last year or the year before brought them back. There's like 6 or 8?? Used to be like only 2 but they had long conveyors, now they are more like normal self-checkout. They continue to be heavily used since they were reintroduced. There's a limit like 12 or 15 items can't remember but they are great when I just have a few things of clothes or bottled water or toilet paper or feminine products. We use them majority of the time. We used to be those people that would go in for a gallon of milk and paper towels or toilet paper and the self checkout was so nice.

 

[Minnesota!]

Love self checkout, will gladly pay more to have more of them. Hell, just give us smart carts like Amazon and consider it done. Costco getting them has been my favorite move - those lines are dumb there.

 

[FigmentSpark]

I don't even like it when the cashier starts scanning my stuff before the previous person leaves. I don't want my things passed to the "after scan" side and disappear in to anyone's bag but mine, yet it's too easy for the person before you to grab (even accidentally) your things as they finish up with their own.

I would have said something like, "I'll be out of your way in a minute" and made sure I was standing in the way.

Also, as you deal with the pushy scanner, you have to be watching your things. It's possible they have a partner that will remove things from your cart or even walk off with something you've paid for. They're already in your space, so what's to stop some other flagrant behavior?

 

[Snap Crackle Pop]

I don't like self-checkout solely cause if you make a mistake somehow it can come back to bite you in the butt later. I just go through regular check out.

 

[RedAngie]

Do those who dislike self checkout because “it’s not your job” feel the same way about pumping your own gas?

 

[Lady Gaga]

I think you have to consider both sides of this story. We are hearing one. What were you doing? I'm having a hard time picturing the scene. When I am self scanning, I am also bagging and putting stuff back in the cart as I go. When I get the receipt everything is off the platform and in the cart so I can just head away instantly. Were you standing in the way chatting with someone or on your phone or something else that created a situation that someone would feel the desire to move you along? If someone else started scanning where did they put their stuff after it was scanned?

At our local supermarket, the self-checkout lines (there's 2, it's a small town) have a long conveyor belt and your items transport down the belt and stack up at the end. You have to keep scanning and then pay. Only then can you push your cart down and bag everything.

 

[disneychick0412]

Yes, I think it's rude. Get out of my space! In order for someone to do what you are describing, they are standing WAY too close!