How to learn self-checkout in one shift (long)

[LadyAndreca]

So. One of our cashiers, M, has had three deaths in the family in the past month, the most recent being her mother, and she's understandably been out all week. But she's still on the schedule, because they seem to run the front end with a list of "anyone who wants 'em, take 'em" list of shifts people need covered. (I picked up one shift this week, but for the most part she and I work the same hours.) Which means we're running short-staffed.

I was the opening cashier today, and when I saw the schedule I KNEW I was in trouble. There were only two cashiers until 8--me and one at the lumber register at the far end of the store. The 8 o'clock cashier had to go to the outside register. The 10 o'clock cashier was M and no one picked up her shift today. Which left me alone until L got in at noon.

SOP for one cashier is to man the four self-checkout lanes. Not ideal, but it gets four lanes open and you can manually scan large items or hand-enter items that don't have bar codes. Except I never finished SCO training. I'd shadowed and covered breaks, but never had to deal with anything 'unusual'.

I was on SCO, alone, for six hours today. I got bitched out by at LEAST six people because they had to ring their own items/they didn't want to use a machine/they didn't want to learn to use a machine. I gave all of them the same response: "Do the survey on your receipt. Complain about the lack of cashiers. Maybe they'll hire me some help, I'd love that." (Hey, that's the reason I was hired.) Of course, the ones that whined about having to learn to use a machine then whined about having to use a computer to do the survey...

And, of course, EVERYTHING went wrong. Tax exempt transactions didn't ring right. People wanted to change their form of payment after starting the payment. People wouldn't bag their items and then yelled at ME when the computer complained that they weren't following directions. Items didn't have SKUs, departments had to be called. Machines ran out of paper. Someone left a Blackberry behind (crap, forgot to let L know about that before I left). Three people left money behind. All four computers would be beeping at me at once for age confirmations/CC info/bag weight checks (who the hell programmed it to think a key weighs 1/3 of a pound anyways??).

On the other hand, I think I know just about everything the self-checkouts can throw at me now. And why everyone hates it.

[Wolfboy]

I remember my first self check-out experience, I spotted a man having so much trouble using it he threw his items down and said loudly.

“THIS JUST PROVES THAT THESE PLACES CANT BE BOTHERED WITH THEIR CUSTOMERS ANY MORE”.

Then the guy behind him put his stuff down and applauded him.

I ended up getting the check-out infront of him and I could feel him watching me as I scanned all my items perfectly, paid without a problem and walked off on my merry way while he stood there with steam coming out of his ears. And these people think working on a check-out is easy.

[Mottom24]

I remember my first self check-out experience, I spotted a man having so much trouble using it he threw his items down and said loudly.

“THIS JUST PROVES THAT THESE PLACES CANT BE BOTHERED WITH THEIR CUSTOMERS ANY MORE”.

Then the guy behind him put his stuff down and applauded him.

I ended up getting the check-out infront of him and I could feel him watching me as I scanned all my items perfectly, paid without a problem and walked off on my merry way while he stood there with steam coming out of his ears. And these people think working on a check-out is easy.

I can't count the amount of times I have seen someone infront of me trying to use the self check out. these checkouts would talk, to tell you exactly what to do, including instructions on the wall and the big screen with their prices and everything laid out. there would be older folks who would scan an item and then just stand there... as it repeatedly says "please place the item in the bag..... please place the item in the bag" with the screen saying the same thing. they just stare... glazed over. I would sometimes walk up and tell them "uh... you need to put that in the bag." and they'll ask "put what?".... if we were still in caveman times, a sabertooth tiger would have ripped them to shreds only because their brain couldn't make the connection of "sharp teeth = bad".

[LadyAndreca]

I like to give older folks some leeway. There are quite a few that are honestly intimidated by the technology. There are also some people in my area who speak neither English nor Spanish, so have trouble with the instructions (had one guy today who spoke only Italian, and there's one group of Brazailians I see all the time that are very friendly but their English is very poor). And if it's slow, or they simply make it known that they need help, I'll help them.

However, when I'm faced with this scenario, I really have to laugh at some people.
- EW to my right, thirty at most, whining because how DARE she have to scan her own items, there's supposed to be cashiers to do this for her! With all four machines busy, I couldn't step away just to cater to her whims.
- Old man to my left, barely walking with a cane, stubbornly poking the screen and scanning and bagging items on his own and managing despite the fact that he didn't seem familiar with the machine.
- Old man was in and out faster than EW, despite not being able to move very fast, because she spent the entire time complaining and making the computer have fits because she kept not bagging items, then trying to put bags in her cart and refusing to put them back in the bagging area, then fussing with the payment...old guy had just alternated between checking the screen for instructions and scanning/bagging/paying until he'd finished.

[CaptainJaneway]

do you work for the orange apron? i use to work there and about 2 years ago and i could tell you stories about the sco.

we had one guy get so angry that he punched the screen and broke it. I think i was out of commison for 2 days.

the hardest part of sco is keeping track of the 4 register and customer plus making sure that they aren't stealing. we have had people cut off barcodes off of cheaper items and tape them on to other merchandise.

what i hated the most wasthe stupid computer about removing your stuff from the bagging area. The customers would get frustrated with it too. lol

[LadyAndreca]

Yep, orange apron! I got stuck on sco for a couple hours again today, but it wasn't so bad because we had an extra body today so we could open a regular lane if we had to. Except, you know, one of the four lanes just HAD to go randomly start resetting itself in the middle of transactions and then crashed entirely. Something about being sleep deprived made me find it hilarious, though.

"I just pressed 'finish and pay' and it died on me!"
*laugh* "That's funny, an hour ago it crashed on 'English'. Here, let me re-ring you on this one instead...there you go!"

[MergedLoki]

I love self check outs.

Never really had any problems with them except for minor ones that were solved in about 30 seconds.

I think the only peopl who 'hate' SCO's are old people scared of modern technology like... well computers, and color tv. and them dang blasted new fangled horseless carriages everyones riding around in :P

yes im being unfair and stereotyping old people but i DONT CARE. I meet like... 5% of NICE older people and 95% bitter hate filled phlegm/snot dripping rude, shitting themselves without a care in the world, old people. Soooo my outlook is skewed JUST A TAD.

[HYHYBT]

It depends on the setup. The ones that don't have the weights programmed correctly, or that make you wait until it tells you to put the scanned item in the bag, then wait again until it asks you to scan another, etc., or the ones that, no matter how much you're getting, won't let you remove *anything* from the scale until the order is finished all ought to have a quick trip to the compactor.

[ShetenshiSenshi]

I remember my first self check-out experience, I spotted a man having so much trouble using it he threw his items down and said loudly.

“THIS JUST PROVES THAT THESE PLACES CANT BE BOTHERED WITH THEIR CUSTOMERS ANY MORE”.

Then the guy behind him put his stuff down and applauded him.

I ended up getting the check-out infront of him and I could feel him watching me as I scanned all my items perfectly, paid without a problem and walked off on my merry way while he stood there with steam coming out of his ears. And these people think working on a check-out is easy.

I don't know why, I just get so much pleasure from watching grown adults make fools out of themselves. Do these people even know what they look like when they do stuff like this?

I don't buy the "I'm too old to learn this" and "I'm intimidated by this" lines anymore. Personal computers have been around since the late 1970s. It's not like stores are making them build the machines and code the OS. Follow the pretty GUI and do what the nice robot lady tells you to. It's not hard. If you seriously have problems working the things, empower yourself and head over to the local library and attend a free computer class. In today's day and age, there's no excuse to lack basic computer knowledge.

[LadyAndreca]

There is actually a timing issue in the orange apron's software, where you can get it looped into saying "please place your item in the bagging area" followed by "unexpected item in bagging area, please remove item" if you put the item back down. The fastest way to get rid of that it to just let the cashier clear it.

It's freaking HILARIOUS to see how many times people will put items on and off again while throwing the 'impatient temper tantrum shuffle' before finally turning to yell at me, only to notice I've been standing RIGHT THERE to clear it for them for over a minute. "Sir...sir! Let me...sir, please stop so I can clear that for y...sir!...I guess I'll wait for you then..."

Hey, I've gotta get what enjoyment I can out of my job. Don't wanna burn out too soon!

[CaptainJaneway]

yeh i hated that loop. I would just shake my head as they would take things off an on. The best is when they would try to rest ther foot or some other body part on the scale while they were scanning items.

I was a head cashier so I was able to go in and raise the volume to the max. The customers would complained about the loudness and i would tell them sorry i don't program them or some such thing. I would laugh to myself that is what you get for being sucky.

I miss being a head cashier their that was the only thing enjoyable about that job. I quit because the mangement was being assholes and were trying to tell me i wasn;t don;t my job etc. I told them bs and handed them my keys and told them i quit. They had other lazy ass people not doing what they were suppose to do. I busted my ass every night and i got this as thanks.

I also did 90% of the paper work that the other head cashiers and front end supervisor didn;t want to do. I even made a pamphlet on my computer to help the cashiers out with certain procedures not to mention telphone extentions of the managers and what not.

The other thing i use to like with sco you can print out a badge and use that to clear each of the 4 registers when there is a problem. Made it easier to go to the lane an inspect what the hell the customer was trying to put in the bag.

[fireheart]

The SCO's that my company uses (my store hasn't got them....yet.) have the following problems from what I've seen.

1) Too heavy or too light bags in the bagging area. I use the foldable ones that the company provides and it won't register as having my own bag. The same deal goes for if I stick my backpack down.
2) Heavy or light products in the bagging area. For some reason it won't register seed packets. And god forbid I should shift something into another bag because then I need a cashier to clear it.
3) My staff card. Now, this CAN be done, but it's a ginormous pain in the ass because the cashier is usually required to clear it.

Although, quick question...I'm hoping that I'll get trained to use the SCO's at some stage...any tips?