Suck at the Self Checkout

[catcul]

I went to get lunch at the supermarket next to my office. When I went to the self checkout, all four were occupied. One had a woman with four children and two full carts; one had a woman with her daughter and a full cart; one had a woman with two large boxes of kitty litter; the last one had an employee buying something. None of those children were under 10.

In line behind them was impatient customer(IC), me , and a couple. When kitty litter lady left, employee suddenly went to her register for some reason. When IC saw this, he confronted employee. That's when the female of the couple behind me spoke up saying that she was probably on break. He put his salad at the attendant's station and walked out. The woman said, "He's just going to stand in line somewhere else."

IC was sucky, but I can understand his frustration. The real suck was those two women with their children. If you go to the self checkout, you need to move faster than molasses in Antarctica. You should be considerate to the people behind you.

[Jay 2K Winger]

The real suck was those two women with their children. If you go to the self checkout, you need to move faster than molasses in Antarctica. You should be considerate to the people behind you.

But it's easier for them to scam the system by going through the self-checkout, catcul! Be considerate to their thievery!

[notalwaysright]

There's a couple grocery stores around here which only keep like two regular lanes open. Funnily enough, I shop at a store which keeps many regular lanes open. Still, this doesn't excuse some of the stupidness I see. Even though the SCOs have item limits, I frequently see people with full to the brim carts sloooowly checking out. Or other people, it's like they've never encountered a scanner before, or a computer, and are baffled.

Like the lady who repeatedly would hold two items, scan them both really fast and drop them both in the bagging area so that each time it messed up the scale. She joked with the attendant about how she should just do it for her. Same lady kept moving the stack of paper bags onto the scale. Three times the attendant had to come over and move the bags. If that person was trying to steal, they were doing a bad job, because of all the attention...

[Roland]

I hate self checkouts. Aside from the fact that the scales seem oversensitive, requiring the lone cashier watching that section to reset it...the self checkout lanes mean that fewer cashiers are going to be hired.

[NorthernZel]

I hate self checkouts. Aside from the fact that the scales seem oversensitive, requiring the lone cashier watching that section to reset it...the self checkout lanes mean that fewer cashiers are going to be hired.

Agreed. One of my local stores opted to SCO-only during slow time... that changed quickly, and now the SCO area has been taken down all together due to too many complaints

[Jay 2K Winger]

When the wholesale club got SCOs installed, they did it after the summertime had ended, when our workforce was going to be depleted anyway by summer workers going back to school.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

But it's easier for them to scam the system by going through the self-checkout, catcul! Be considerate to their thievery!

That may work in some stores but the Wallyworld near me now has Security officers on duty (have been seeing them for at least the last 2-3 weeks now) who will stop you and check your receipt as you are leaving the store.

I"m not talking about an employee in workplace attire - we're talking uniformed Security. Bet they'd look at that receipt very carefully as they did mine first of the month when Mom and I were out there really early (we had big bags of dog/cat food, kitty litter and a large 32 pack of canned Friskies among the zillion bags we had.)

[Draco]

the self checkout lanes mean that fewer cashiers are going to be hired.

That's a cute fallacy. It just means there'll be longer lines because those 4-6 SCO registers will suddenly be one person on a regular register. Most stores are highly unlikely to schedule more people.

[Lace Neil Singer]

The local supermarket has self checkouts, and they actually had to hire extra staff to watch them to stop people stealing, authorise alcohol sales and help the totally clueless work out how to use the self checkout. XD And some people are so stupid, you wonder how they manage to make it back home. Like the woman who buggered up one of the self checkouts by stuffing coins into the card slot.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

That's a cute fallacy. It just means there'll be longer lines because those 4-6 SCO registers will suddenly be one person on a regular register. Most stores are highly unlikely to schedule more people.

Yup. SCOs are a convenient excuse for corporate to cut costs, but they would cut those costs anyway. If the bean counters are going to say cashiers are a waste of money, you may as well have SCOs.

I kinda wish my store had SCOs. That might reduce the number of backup cashier calls.

[Dreamstalker]

I regularly get pulled off of SCO to ring when it gets busy...which I'm sure a lot of the SCs are counting on (shift lead E isn't the most observant person, and a rush is all the more reason for one person to be watching SCO and only that).

E's reasoning: "When it gets busy you are expected to ring."
D's directive: "When you are scheduled for self-scan I want you nowhere else but selfscan." I should ask him about what E is doing and what he thinks about it; he outranks her, and is gung-ho about only one person per shift watching selfscan.

I've countered this by signing the SCO key back in each time I'm forced to ring and hand it off, so if any dumbshittery happens I can say that E took over SCO duty so it's on her.