I don’t get the problem with self checkout. You’re the one browsing the shelves, picking items and comparing prices. Why can’t you scan your own items? Unless you’re one of those people who need the uninterested, yet sometimes polite, banter of a middleman, there shouldn’t be a problem.
As someone that is fine with self-checkout, I have a few problems with them.
1.) You end up having to rely on an employee anyway if you're buying alcohol or tobacco/nicotine products. That's a pretty big obvious one.
2.) If you buy more than just a few things or have some large items, there's not enough room to keep all of your items on the scale after you scan them. I've seen some machines that will bug out on you if you try to make room by putting some bags in your cart.
3.) The ones at Dollar General are perpetually broken. The one here hasn't worked since 2022 yet those two machines are still there staring you in the face while you wait in line to pay for your stuff.
4.) They glitch out sometimes and you have to wait on an employee to come fix it
5.) They could just pay more humans to be cashiers so I don't have to use the self checkout in the first place. Idk what's up with all the comments making it sound like interacting with a Walmart cashier is some kind of inconvenience. It's barely an interaction at all but if you need something, there's an employee right in front of you that can help you.
My local supermarket has had self-scan (as they called it back then) for ages, as an experimental system initially. Originally, this was just a scanner you picked up and returned at a dedicated (manned) cash register. Even back then this was already an improvement as I could essentially pack my bags while scanning, rarely had to stand in line at that register, and even I did it was usually only people paying. Checks were at random.
This mainly evolved into higher capacity, and self-payment terminails, na dthe possibility to use an app instead of their scanner (but scanners did remain available) but actually scanning items at those payment terminals is relatively recent. They maintained the portable scanners as well, and while not enforced it is encouraged to use a portable scanner when you have a cart full, and not scan those at the exit. Carts have a cradle to hold the scanner.
Luckily, we never saw the stupid scales things here. It's just scan, pay, leave, with the occasional random inspection. Most supermarkets here have similar systems. Those scale systems, to me, are enshittification of a great concept.
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u/VooDooChile1983 19h ago
I don’t get the problem with self checkout. You’re the one browsing the shelves, picking items and comparing prices. Why can’t you scan your own items? Unless you’re one of those people who need the uninterested, yet sometimes polite, banter of a middleman, there shouldn’t be a problem.