Hate the self-checkouts?

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I like using the self check-out myself. I cannot stand for very long so for me it is faster. I also like the fact that the clerk is not handling my items. I used to hate having a clerk with a cold doing my check-out. Our Walmart has plenty of employees right by the check-out area and come to help immediately.
 
Went to a town about 20 miles away for a Dr. appt. Decided to stop at Walmart, they carry items that ours doesn't. Had a cart full. Get to the front, one register open, 12 people waiting. Just walked off and left the cart. Went to the local Walmart the next day, they had 6 registers open. It is up to the manager. Lower labor costs means a bigger bonus check for the store manager. Their yearly bonus check can be more than their year salary.
 
I can't speak for other stores, but cashiers get treated like absolute garbage at my local store. They understaff (even before the pandemic) and usually only have one register open other than self checkout.

I personally prefer self checkout for multiple reasons.
1. I don't like people and prefer to limit my interactions with them
2. I often have to re-bag or reorganize stuff- they don't pay them enough to care so they will put cakes and donuts & stuff in upsidedown, sometimes they just throw stuff in and crush it
3. I have gotten the cold and even the flu numerous times from sick employees-- they cough on their hands and handle the stuff, they cough without covering their mouths, etc.
4. They have also been known to get cashback (without permission) and pocketed the $. They did that to my friend one of the last times he used regular checkout.
5. Sometimes they don't hand me all of my bags and rush to start checking out the next person & shoo me away while I'm trying to make sure I got everything (I always have to spin the bag thingy to make sure nothing got left behind)
6. I've had extremely rude cashiers not tell me they were about to clock out after I waited in line 15+ minutes and they have shut the register down in my face- I've also had rude employees refuse to check me out and instead have another employee who was in line behind me check out (I would be fine with that if they at least asked me first if it was ok to have them jump the line). I once had a cashier who told me her register was closed and I had to put all my stuff back in the cart and then she checked out an employee that walked up while I was going to the back of another line.
7. Self Checkout usually takes less time and lines tend to move faster- you don't have to worry about the cashier walking away to consult a manager or do something else - which I've had to deal with in the middle of a transaction.
8. Generally don't have to worry about being stuck behind someone who is paying cash or with a check or who is arguing about coupons with the cashier-- people arguing with the cashiers is another problem.

To clarify: I am always polite to cashiers but sometimes I get ones who are in bad moods who are incredibly rude. I don't respond with rudeness though, so there is no reason for them to be rude to me (other than being in jobs they hate where they get treated like garbage for very little pay).
 
I kind of prefer self check out if it is only stuff with bar codes, I can control how things are bagged and it works well.

However, if I am doing produce and vegetables that have to be weighed, I will go with the checkout clerk. The reason is simple, my glasses are always dirty and I have a heck of a time reading the little numbers on the plums.......
 
zannej
I love the Brutal honesty in your post, but I have never had to put up with those cashiers.
I do not like Walmart shoppers, but most of the rude people are on Black Friday sale, I always start early, 4:30 am & only get sales with no start time on them after Midnight. Now that I am retired, I do not go to Walmart, DW will at times.
 
Urban, Most of the fruit and veggies now have bar codes on them and the self checkout machine weighs them. If it can't be read or there is no bar code there is an alphabetical item lookup so you can select P and then find plums.Sometimes it gets confusing though. I still remember when the cashiers would have pamphlets they would have to look at to see what the things were and sometimes couldn't figure out what something was and would have to ask.

Thanks Joel, Sadly, there are too many of those kinds of cashiers here. There is one Walmart in the area that was so bad we nicknamed it Hellmart and we stopped shopping there (partially because a Walmart opened up closer to us, but also because the larger Walmart that opened up closer to the airport is better-- usually has more stuff than our Walmart). The local Walmart is never open past midnight. Pre-pandemic they decided they didn't want to pay cashiers to work past 11pm. For awhile they had overnight stockers but they discontinued that a few years ago. So now the stock people have to do their work while there are customers in the store & it is chaotic. Store doesn't re-open until 7am. Black Friday is a hot mess. I actively avoid it. When my brother still worked there, he had a day off, so he went to the store just to watch the chaos and mock customers for their bad behavior. I was told by some people that they had been bitten on the arm or hand by other customers when trying to reach for items. It's a sh**show! I prefer online shopping.
 
While I see your point, there are more openings then people here, at this time.
It is the push to raise minimum wage & unemployment cost that is driving this self service movement.
The cost of purchasing + the cost of trained labor to maintain it + replacement of said machine is high.
However it does not lay out of work, quit without notice, slow production because it is lazy or for spite.
Japan started using Robots in 1970's & their unemployment is 2.97% in 2020.
The problem is more in depth than rich greedy men.


Yep. I agree 100%. Too many folks want full pay while they physically work as little as possible.
 
...It is up to the manager. Lower labor costs means a bigger bonus check for the store manager. ...

Yes that is as it should be because we are a capitalist economy.

Having only one cash register open would (IMHO) cause profits to drop because customers (like yourself) don't/can't wait. Poor management (no bonus) or because Federal government is paying workforce to stay home or a combination of both?
 
I hate self check outs and usually refuse to use them. If I only have one item I might consider it if the attendant comes over and pushes whatever buttons to get the thing started and to get me to where I can pay. I don't know the hoops to jump through and every store has a different screen display with different steps. They don't pay me, no reason for me to do the work. On more than one occasion I have left a cart of groceries at the self check out and walked out. At night that is the only option and if the attendant isn't helpful or has a bad attitude I just walk away and go to another store. But, walking in the other store I go the the registers first and ask if they will help me at check out because I just walked out of the other store when they did not. That usually starts things off on a good note and when I get to the register I get assistance.
Customer Service, provide it or go without the customers.
 
Back in the day folks would walk up to the counter and tell the Storekeeper what they wanted. The Storekeeper would then pull the items from the floor or off shelves for the customer.

Back in the day "DING DING" and the gas station attendant would coming running out to ask how much gas you wanted and to check the air and oil?

Back in the day there was no EPA, OSHA or government taxes that encouraged both parents to work for wages.

Back in the day there was no offshore competition.

Today "BUY AMERICAN" is the battle cry until we see the price tag. Then we complain that the American merchant is ripping us off. Local merchant starts pay at $11 (Federal government wants $15) with benefits and is trying to compete against communist controlled labor paid 24 Yuan per hour ($3.70).
 
Sadly, a lot of the stuff that is Made in the USA is now being made by prison inmates. There is no real quality control.

For awhile McDonalds tried to replace the cashiers with touchscreen machines but they wouldn't let you order stuff the way you wanted & were confusing so that didn't work out.

As for Walmart, the mention of the bigger bonuses for supervisors: Every year around X-mas they get some sort of bonus that is divided evenly among the employees in the department and every year just before the bonus, the supervisors find BS reasons to fire employees so they get a bigger cut of the bonus. One supervisor fired ALL of the employees for her department so she got the entire bonus to herself. But then she got fired because there was no one working in her department and she wouldn't actually do any of the work that needed to be done. She wouldn't even train the new hires. Just told them to figure it out on their own and would drop by to yell at them from time to time. Another friend found out that if he listed 3 things he was doing she would walk away. My brother would see her coming and fart in the aisles where he knew she would walk and then go back to where he was stationed. She would walk through the gas, gag, and run off.

As for the self-checkout and understaffing-- that is a part of corporate greed that will always be around. Human labor has been getting replaced with machines for a very long time. Cottongin, tractors (sort of replaced horses), machines that fold boxes, etc. It's part of the progress of industry. As The Lazy L said, there are things that used to be done by employees that are not done anymore. The cashiers are not eliminated entirely, but they are being reduced.

I still remember back in the early 90s when Singapore had advanced enough technology that you could pay your bills with a touchscreen machine in the underpass (underground walkway tunnel) for MRT (mass rapid transit) stations. They had options for languages, you would stick the bill you received in to the machine, it would read it, and then you could use the menu and insert payment to pay your bill without having to interact with another person. This was before the internet was readily available to the public. I think now they have vending machines that make pizza.

People are becoming less social and more detached from reality. More time spent staring at phone screens instead of actually speaking to one another. It's one of the sadder parts of technological innovation. Although, for so those of us who don't like people much, it's not so bad. I don't like interacting with people if I can avoid it, however, I do see the need for it and I see the psychological issues that have arisen from less interaction. Less empathy. More nastiness. Reminds me of an episode of SeaQuest DSV where they went in to the future and there were only two people left in the world and they were using robots to try to fight each other as they'd never interacted in person with another human being. Human contact and interaction is necessary, but so many people use tvs and now tablets/phones as babysitters or substitutes for that interaction. So we are getting newer generations of people who don't know how to behave / interact with other human beings.

I still prefer self checkout for the most part, but I do see the problems with them. But again, it seems to be one of those inevitable changes. It's sort of like the self-serve coffee/ice cream things in some gas stations.
 
" For awhile McDonalds tried to replace the cashiers with touchscreen machines but they wouldn't let you order stuff the way you wanted & were confusing so that didn't work out. "
I had no problem with them 24 months ago, but have not been in McDonalds, did not know they were removed.
Then again I graduated HS.
 
Walmart tested robots to stock, but it did not work out. They said they still needed employees to help customers. By the way, Walmart had planned to start closing nights a year before the pandemic. At least here, they said they were losing money on overnights. Not enough customers and they had moved most stocking to the other two shifts.
 
In the not too distant future, everything will be purchased with your cell phone. I know they have moved in that direction already but it will become the norm. The first step, get people used to ringing up their purchases, then get everyone using a card and not cash, then all phone purchases.
Watch for the banks to have an app instead of a debit card.
I watched a video several years ago made by Nokia. Everything was purchased by dialing the number on the machine. Sodas, carwash, golf balls at the driving range, and a lot of other places.
Cash transactions are expensive for big businesses.
Just imagine how the government will suck up all your transactions.
 
In the not too distant future, everything will be purchased with your cell phone. I know they have moved in that direction already but it will become the norm. The first step, get people used to ringing up their purchases, then get everyone using a card and not cash, then all phone purchases.
Watch for the banks to have an app instead of a debit card.
I watched a video several years ago made by Nokia. Everything was purchased by dialing the number on the machine. Sodas, carwash, golf balls at the driving range, and a lot of other places.
Cash transactions are expensive for big businesses.
Just imagine how the government will suck up all your transactions.
In 1979 the Susan B. Anthony dollar was to stop cash flow, then there was to be a five dollar coin, then a ten dollar coin, but it fell apart, because people did not like the dollar coin. The dollar coin was to close to the quarter size & confused people. This was so you would stop carrying cash & use a card instead. One hundred dollar in coins would be a mess to carry, a plastic card in your pocket would hold a million dollars or one dollar.
So getting away from cash has been one of many government control buttons for over fifty years.
 
To clarify: I don't know if they did away with the touchscreen stuff in McDonalds but they are no longer allowing customers inside McDonalds. It's drive-through only. Although I've noticed I now get asked if I placed my order with the mobile app. I don't have the mobile app. I don't want the mobile app.

I had a hell of a time getting my order picked up at Samsclub because they wanted me to have an app.

I will NOT put ANY banking or credit card info on my phone. Too insecure. All those apps access everything on the phone, it would be easy for FB messenger to (or any other app) to harvest all that data and sell it. Any time I use credit card or banking info on my computer I don't save the passwords or info because I don't want it to be hacked as easily.

It's frustrating how much stuff they want to rely on mobile apps. Some sites force you to give a phone # and want to text you stuff and have you reply or get codes-- but I don't get cell signal inside so I have to turn on my phone and go outside. It is highly frustrating.
 
My child does a lot on his phone, but I will not use computer or phone to move money.
I do have a pay pal account, but it is limited to one account that I move money into from another bank, so even a hacker cannot
get the money out side the pay account. I do not trust any of the devices used today, but a few are the only way to move money.
 
For awhile McDonalds tried to replace the cashiers with touchscreen machines but they wouldn't let you order stuff the way you wanted & were confusing so that didn't work out.
Unfortunately, we were at McDonalds on Tuesday and only for a couple large unsweet iced teas. The inside tables were closed, the restrooms were closed, and although there were 12 employees behind the counter we could only place an order using their computer screen pods. And, despite me repeatedly telling my girlfriend we should leave ond go to the gas station to get an iced tea, it still took them 15 minutes to fill up to large cups with unsweet iced tea.
I hate fast food placed and I will try my best to never visit one again.
 
Actual it was because a metal coin last longer in circulation then paper money thereby "saving" money.
That true, but I disagree that the reason.
Stay home all the time & never going outside will slow or stop the spread of a Virus, but that not the reason for the lockdowns.
Then again, I never trusted Arrogant Pompous Politian.
 

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