Rules of Self Checkout

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I use SCOs when grocery shopping except whenever I'm buying produce or stuff off the hot bar I don't know the codes for, because I'm a dork who hasn't figured out how to find those codes.

And in those cases, I head for a you-bag line.

This only applies to the Grocery Store of Awesome because they have such lanes. Not at the Roundy's store, because they don't have those lanes and they suck balls.

[PhiSigGirl1988]

I posted a list like this on my MySpace and my LiveJournal, I believe. I'll have to find the entry and add to this list.

[RavenStarr]

I'll use self-checkout if I only have a few items. Other than that if I have a full cart, I'll just go to a regular register. I admit I suck at doing self-checkout with a full cart, and I'm a cashier LOL.

[Fryk]

I like to use the self-sheckout because everyone else is afraid of it. Which means that there's usually no line there and I can breeze right through with my jedi scanning skills.

[mattm04]

MY store has the belt type system where you scan the item place it on the belt and it does it's thing to verify it and send to to a bagging area at the end area where you can bag at you leisure.

Just do what it says at it wull be much better. If it says put it on the belt, put it on the belt. Otherwise it will stop and you will get mad at it for you own stupidity.

[ArcticChicken]

If it says put it on the belt, put it on the belt.

I know, right? I can't tell you how many times a day I have to yell at someone to put it on the belt. I don't care if you don't wanna, ya still gotta do it.

[fireheart]

My store doesn't have them, but here's one from experience.

-Popping your very heavy carry bag or one of the foldup bags on the bag racks WILL result in you needing assistance. so don't get the CBF when the system locks up.

[AriRashkae]

I'll go to SCO when I have a large order if I have my husband or my older son with me. My son is capable of scanning most stuff and not pressing buttons, so I can bag, or my husband and I split up, usually depending on who's pushing the carriage at the time.

Often times, though, the attendant at my usual store comes over and bags for me when I'm scanning, probably because s/he is bored because almost everyone crammed into the 3 manned registers. Sadly, the offices are right over the SCO, so they always refuse the tips.

Which reminds me. I still need to order more GOOHF cards.

[KabeRinnaul]

The original was written more for venting and comedic value than anything, so here's the reasons behind the list:

1-3: Young children present three problems at SCO - One, the bagging shelf is usually just the right height for them to climb onto it. Which is dangerous, sets off the weight sensors, and can damage the thing. Second, children insist on "helping" with checkout, while not really understanding how any of it works. So they tend to grab things out of the cart, wave them across the scanner without actually ringing them in, then toss them into the bags. Their parents don't pay attention, so then I have to check the entire order to see what has and hasn't been scanned. Third, children want their things now and don't usually understand waiting. And like I said, the bag shelf is at child height. So they grab things out and throw off the sensors. Then as soon as you put it back and look away, they grab it again. Then throw a tantrum when they can't.

4-8: First, I have to approve each use of Skip Bagging. And if you try to pay before I do that, it stop you and calls for me. When I'm watching six SCO lanes and answering customer questions, that means the fewer skips, the better for us both. Then there's the specifics - scan one, skip bagging, scan another, then bag it? The scale thinks you just doubled up on the second one, and calls for help. And the thing of "with the bags but not in the bags" is where people will scan cat food or something, hit skip bagging, and then put it on top of the bags. They assume that "skip bagging" means strictly that they are not physically putting it inside a shopping bag, and so push it for everything else. And then? Weight sensor and a call for help.

9: Once had a woman who scanned two items before doing her Kroger card. I explained that it would discount them when she paid, and even shows her how to get it to come up, but she didn't trust that she was getting her discount because it wasn't on there in the order she was used to. So I had to call a FES over to void it all off because I didn't have override ability at the time. Meanwhile, the woman moved on to another SCO lane, screwed up again, then gave up and went to a regular lane, leaving me waiting for a FES with two lanes locked up on a busy day. Similar but less extreme examples are common.

I think 10-15 are pretty much self-explanatory.

[LadyAndreca]

You know, oddly, every time I've had kids attempting to be cute and scan items in my SCOs, the parents have been actively watching, helping, and teaching them to use the machines. Or have noticed that the kid is trying to help.

Kids climbing on machines or not wanting to put their items in bags (when they're NOT part of scanning/bagging process), though? Ohhh, yeah. Any time they're not locked into the cart. And sometimes even then they'll manage to get a hand on the wire barrier and start whacking and throwing off the sensor. And Heaven forbid you ask a child not to touch! Worst chewing out I've gotten at this job was asking a little girl not to touch the SCO. "How DARE you talk to my daughter! She wasn't doing anything! It was YOUR machine!!!!" Overprotective much? (At least the little girl didn't touch it again. All she'd done was rest her foot on it from the cart seat, her mom hadn't seen it.) All I could really do was keep my mouth shut and take a step back so I appeared as less of a threat.

[Peppergirl]

You know, oddly, every time I've had kids attempting to be cute and scan items in my SCOs, the parents have been actively watching, helping, and teaching them to use the machines. Or have noticed that the kid is trying to help.

And I think that's a great thing. Life lessons for kids are great, as long as they're not holding up the line.

[Magpie]

I don't understand why people are confused by the bag scale. It took me all of 5 minutes to figure out how to trick the SCO machine into letting me use grocery bags instead of the little plastic things. They eventually gave the option to tare the scale for your bags/bins, but it took several years. Now I find them easier, because I'm not frantically trying to keep up with the cashier as they scan my purchases. Or, worse, trying to keep an eye on the person who came to help bag, because some of them really show evidence of having not been trained in what can and cannot go in the same bag.

I like the SCO's for two reasons. First, my grocery purchases tend to look a little odd. I buy fruit and veg at the farmer's market, and dry goods at the bulk food store. So it tends to be soy milk, pickles, condiments, margarine, butter, yogurt. The occasional package of tofu, but that's about it. Horribly embarrassing whenever I think about it.

I also like them when I'm having a bad day, and really need to avoid human interaction. This latter reason is why I figured out how to bag before the stations gave the option of using your own bags.

[HYHYBT]

...my grocery purchases tend to look a little odd....it tends to be soy milk, pickles, condiments, margarine, butter, yogurt. The occasional package of tofu, but that's about it. Horribly embarrassing whenever I think about it.

A question for the grocery store cashiers: do you often think about that sort of thing? I've had some very odd cartloads, but I figure that the cashier sees that all the time and will assume, if she cares at all, more or less the truth: you got the rest somewhere else, or just happened to run out of an odd combination of things at the same time, or, the time I'm thinking of, we were having a family dinner, as many relatives as could come from all around, and I was supposed to bring drinks and dessert, with relatives who could cook much better than I do providing the "real" food. So my shopping was mainly about eight bottles of soda and some cakes and pies. I am indeed larger than I ought to be, but I *don't* just eat cake and pie, and hopefully the cashier didn't assume that I do; surely they've seen stranger.

Great. Now between this reply and one for the takeout complaint thread, I'm hungry.

[Lots42]

Then what is the skip bagging button FOR?

My 'favorite' part of self checkout machines is when they will not recognize that items under half a pound exist. Home Despot, I'm looking at you.

And my mom, who knows this, still insists on going through SCO.

Home Despot needs to be fined for stupidity.

I don't understand 'I use SCOs because I like bagging it myself'. If the human employee bags it wrong, step ten feet away and re-bag it.

[Broomjockey]

I don't understand 'I use SCOs because I like bagging it myself'. If the human employee bags it wrong, step ten feet away and re-bag it.

So rather than get it right the first time, you should waste the clerk's time by having them do it once, and your own time by having to unbag it, then rebag it? I do not understand your world.