The difference between European countries and America is becoming so stark. Anyone reading or watching global news has to see how backwards this country is and that it’s only getting worse.
I wouldn’t mind if they passed the savings on to the consumer… But they won’t.
Seriously, there are a lot of things to hate but self-checkout is not one of them. Not having to interact with humans, being able to make sure everything is scanned correctly yourself, and being able to scan at your own pace is great. The only problem is when they don’t have enough self-checkouts. Sure beats having a one or two conventional checkout open out of the 25 or so they have in the store. I would prefer they pass the savings on to the consumer, but that’s the only fault I can find with self-checkout, well, that and the stupid weight sensor but more and more stores aren’t requiring that stupid “place item in bagging area” thing anymore.
Well it’s all fine and dandy until you try to buy some spinach, fumble around on the touchscreen for a while until you figure out how to add something manually, then can’t find spinach anywhere and finally ask for help, feeling like a total idiot who can’t use a touchscreen interface that a boomer soccer mom could figure out, but then you figure out it was listed under “leafy green spinach” so now you’re mad at both at yourself and whoever decided that was a good idea.
If I’m paying the same costs for things… Why wouldn’t I want someone who’s better at scanning the shit than I am to do the job? Why do I want to fumble with knowing the vegetable codes? Or waiting 8 minutes for an employee to come over when the scanner freaks out because the 3 oz item isn’t in the bag… even though it’s definitely in the fucking bag. I also have to wonder if theft goes up considerable with more self-checkouts in play. That means that costs can actually go up over time… no?
They can be an okay experience… But a lot of times they’re not.
This was only an experience one time, but I was waiting in line to checkout at Walmart and listed to the registers’s beeps. I could hear about one beep per second from 3 or 4 registers combined. (all the ones they had staffed.) I could scan faster than a single register that day.
That being said, I hate the turn to self checkout. A conglomerate like Walmart has no excuse to not pay and staff properly. Or give me a discount for providing my labor.
