Self-Service Checkouts

[Vivian]

Anyone else hate the millions of idiots, with a full week's worth of shopping that waste about 3 hours of you're time at these things?! They're meant to save time!!!



Spent an extra 20 minutes in the store today waiting on other people's incompetence

I demand that they introduce a 'self service license' because this makes me rage.

 

[Peaceful]

We have only just introduced these things here. I normally only go through there with a few things.

 

[Nebulous]

What a moronic invention. They don't save time and I always see people not scanning all their items and gettting free stuff.

 

[Jazzy]

They don't save time and I always see people not scanning all their items and gettting free stuff.

Then doesn't that make us the morons who pay and could be getting stuff for free?

 

[Wolvendeer]

Why I hate these things is because they have the over-cashier breathing down the throats of everyone in a self-service line to try to make sure you don't try to steal anything, and then they have to stop you and stare at the receipt, even though they usually don't look through the bags to make sure you don't have anything not on it. It would probably save time if they randomly drug people off and interrogated them so that people would be too afraid to steal something from the lines.

 

[ThaBawse]

They're amazing. I like to have a handful of things and then pretend like I don't know how to use it, and then come back in a few mins and repeat the process. It pisses people off lmao.

 

[Wolvendeer]

They take jobs away from people. The unemployment rate in my state is the highest in the country so I'm not a fan of these things.

I didn't even think about that. Good point. New reason to hate them.

 

[Nebulous]

[quote name='Nebulous']They don't save time and I always see people not scanning all their items and gettting free stuff.

Then doesn't that make us the morons who pay and could be getting stuff for free?

[/quote]



Until they get caught..

 

[tree675]

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[Ashley]

I kind of like self-checkouts, really. Our local Walmart has them but I only use those when I only have one or two things that I want to buy, or even if I have more than two things but their all small items that I can easily scan myself.

 

[Flurry]

They are both a help and a hindrance. Help cause it makes lines less long at the regular check out areas. And a hindrance cause more often then not. A customer is always needing help with it.

 

[Ashley]

They are both a help and a hindrance. Help cause it makes lines less long at the regular check out areas. And a hindrance cause more often then not. A customer is always needing help with it.

I know what you mean. I have had incedentes when I've scanned the same item twice by accident, looking like I got two of the same item. I have to have a staff member come and help me with it when it does happen. Some small items are easy to scan twice if you're not careful.

 

[Corleone]

Self-service checkouts are amazing when used properly. However, people struggle to use them, even though they're very user-friendly. I always use self-checkout if I can, because it's much easier than going to a checkout lane with a cashier.

 

[Nebulous]

Apparently the self checkouts know the weight of every item in the store. When you put the item in the bag (there is scales under the bags) it will add x amount of weight to the bag and the self-checkout will know that you've placed the item in the bagging area. Well, whenever something offers 20% more free you know there is going to be trouble.

 

[Vivian]

What a moronic invention. They don't save time and I always see people not scanning all their items and gettting free stuff.

I seen someone getting busted doing that a few days back

 

[Crusader]

Apparently the self checkouts know the weight of every item in the store. When you put the item in the bag (there is scales under the bags) it will add x amount of weight to the bag and the self-checkout will know that you've placed the item in the bagging area. Well, whenever something offers 20% more free you know there is going to be trouble.

It accounts for that. It counts as a different product.

Most of the problems are caused by the customer not knowing what they are doing. You scan an item, you put it in the bagging area and you leave it. Don't move it around, don't pick it up and put it back down.

 

[DrLeftover]

A grocery store in Dover put them in.

And then about six months later, took them back out.

Only Home Depot had self service checkouts and kept them, and whenever I only had a couple of things, I'd use them. They worked pretty well for that.

 

[Raven]

EVERY time I use these thing it comes up "please wait for assistance"
I avoid them usually, unless I go to tescos really early as they are the only things you can use to pay!

 

[Nebulous]

Most of the problems are caused by the customer not knowing what they are doing. You scan an item, you put it in the bagging area and you leave it. Don't move it around, don't pick it up and put it back down.

Well its not like they had any training in the first place.

 

[Evil Eye]

Well its not like they had any training in the first place.

Training shouldn't be necessary, otherwise what's the point?

 

[Darth-Apple]

I'm far too old-fashioned to use a self-checkout. I'm a bit of a klutz at figuring anything out that I'm not experienced with.

 

[Mike]

The big problem with the systems we have over here is the 'Unidentified item in the baggage area' or 'place the item in the baggage area'. The baggage area is hardly ever clearly labelled.

I think if you have a basket full of items it's well worth it, if I'm buying a bottle of coke or some crisp then it makes much more sense as theres hardly ever any queues for them here.

 

[Crusader]

Most of the problems are caused by the customer not knowing what they are doing. You scan an item, you put it in the bagging area and you leave it. Don't move it around, don't pick it up and put it back down.

Well its not like they had any training in the first place.

They are really simple to use.

 

[Nebulous]

You would think so but everyone's comprehension skills are different.

 

[Khalessi]

As reported on a current affairs show that aired on tv tonight ..

People who use these .. should get a discount off the total of their grocery bill. Maybe 5% or something like that. After all, it's the customer who is actually doing all the work aye?

 

[Nebulous]

As reported on a current affairs show that aired on tv tonight ..

People who use these .. should get a discount off the total of their grocery bill. Maybe 5% or something like that. After all, it's the customer who is actually doing all the work aye?

Yeah! We should!

 

[csc4]

Most people just can't follow instructions. Of course, not everything that goes wrong with them is the customer's fault, but "place item in bagging area" doesn't mean "put item back in cart" unless you're pressed the skip bagging button.

That said, I use them all the time, even on (somewhat) large shopping trips, just because I work around them all day.

 

[Nebulous]

Most people just can't follow instructions. Of course, not everything that goes wrong with them is the customer's fault, but "place item in bagging area" doesn't mean "put item back in cart" unless you're pressed the skip bagging button.

That said, I use them all the time, even on (somewhat) large shopping trips, just because I work around them all day.

I always get messed up on the bagging area thing. The cashier usually has to come help me

 

[Dee]

They take jobs away from people. The unemployment rate in my state is the highest in the country so I'm not a fan of these things.

This. I just read an article about McDonald's replacing employees with machines, and A LOT of people commented about how much they were so excited because they "didn't have to deal with horrid customer service workers". I understand this in some cases, but not every customer service employee is a horrid person who either treats you like shit or is too chirpy and friendly.

I work in retail, and we are trained to get a read on the customer as we're interacting with them. If they're chatty, we chat back. If they're not very vocal and seemingly want to get through the transactions, I only really ask the pertinent questions (eg. about receipts, whether they want a bag, etc). It's not difficult to determine what the customer wants and doesn't want, so I think a lot of people are just being extremely anti-social and or overly dramatic.

And to be honest, it frightens me to think that a lot of people don't respect or see the need for customer service positions. Many people I come across feel they need to be replaced with machines, to take that "nagging, annoying cashier, hostess, waitress, call center..." jerk out of the picture and risk cutting millions of jobs. Sure, if this was the case, it would most likely be implemented slowly and in increments, but I think that we DO need to keep those positions instead of just bringing in a machine to do it.

While I understand the theory of wanting to streamline technology and make it more efficient for customers, to ring out more people and thus make more money, I feel we're getting rid of some truly crucial jobs that rely on customer service that a machine simply cannot provide.

 

[seasidemike]

They are not there to save you time, they are there to save the company wage costs. If you check you own stuff out, they don't need to pay someone to do it for you.

 

[MrDawn]

What a moronic invention. They don't save time and I always see people not scanning all their items and gettting free stuff.

Agreed. It always need an employee to come over and reset or enter a code. Kind of annoying and inconvenient. 
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They are not there to save you time, they are there to save the company wage costs.  If you check you own stuff out, they don't need to pay someone to do it for you.

Very true.

 

[seasidemike]

The best system for the self service I have seen so far is in a supermarket where when you enter you are given a hand scanner.
You scan your items as you shop, and when you are finished you rerun the scanner and pay the total. Very simple

 

[+Justice]

i've been doing it when ever i have just a few items it's very fast sometimes...

 

[Nebulous]

Last time I went to wal mart, I legitimately accidentally forgot to scan these $25 wrangler-brand carpenter shorts (wearing them right now). Didn't notice until I got to my car. Oh well. Didn't feel like going back in and explaining and a soulless retail giant like that won't miss them.

 

[MrDawn]

Last time I went to wal mart, I legitimately accidentally forgot to scan these $25 wrangler-brand carpenter shorts (wearing them right now).  Didn't notice until I got to my car.  Oh well.  Didn't feel like going back in and explaining and a soulless retail giant like that won't miss them.

lol That's totally epic. Same thing happened to me a few times.

 

[MrDawn]

It seems Wal-Mart works harder not to have their employee's to have any social interaction with the customers.

 

[AbbyNormal]

I don't think you WANT any social interaction with a WalMart employee!

 

[Nebulous]

I don't think you WANT any social interaction with a WalMart employee!

The employees are just regular people, shout out to anyone who can hold down a steady job (no matter what it is). I'd say watch out for some of their clientele though!

I went through the self checkout the other day and forgot to scan something again. Oops.

 

[MrDawn]

What a moronic invention. They don't save time and I always see people not scanning all their items and gettting free stuff.

People can do that? 😯

 

[Nebulous]

People can do that? 😯

Some people do it on purpose. I remember someone telling me they bought a bunch of t-shirts from there. Picked them up in pairs and scanned the bar code once for every 2 shirts he picked up. Guess he created his own buy one / get one free discount.