Self Scan Checkouts/Technological Advance/Spawn of the Devil

[hue of fuzzpaws]

Recently the company that I work for installed self scan checkouts. As one of those supervising these, it has been very interesting in seeing the reactions these machines have on customers.

These fall into three groups:

a) I cant stand them/dont use/wont use them.

b) I use them all the time

c) I have never used them

I am curious how others in the Watch view these tools.

[sgt.null]

i use them where they exist. sually faster than employees doing it.

[CovenantJr]

I use them all the time. They save me having to be polite to a stranger, and havign worked checkouts myself in the past I find this method is, as Sarge said, usually quicker than waiting for some sluggish old lady to do it.

My girlfriend, on the other hand, won't use them unless I force her. She can't explain why.

My gripe with them, though, is how often they go wrong. It varies from retailer to retailer, but some of them have errors more often than they don't.

[variol son]

I use them all the time (unless I'm buying lots of stuff like produce that needs looked up and weighed) as people in NZ who work on checkouts are rude. My only gripe is people using it that don't know how to use it and take ages.

[Akasri]

I use it if I just have a few items. If I have a lot of stuff, it's quicker to have someone scanning/bagging as I'm unloading the cart.

[Brinn]

I'm the same s Akasri.

[Cagliostro]

Where I live, it is pretty much for the 15 items or less. I always use them whenever I can, and sometimes try to watch the number of items I buy based on this. Occasionally I'll sneak in an extra item, but I go through the usual slowness when I have more items. I love them and I hope for the day when I can do as many items as I want. However, produce does occasionally get complicated.
I don't mind others ringing me up, but I find baggers to be unbelievably stupid, especially since I bring my own bags. They load the weakest bags with the heavest stuff and save the strong bag with two items, and then start wrapping plastic bags around stuff, which goes against the reason I brought my bags into the store in the first place.
The unfortunate problem with bringing my own bags is that these self-checkouts weigh everything, so you cannot bag anything until after you are done checking out, otherwise the scale detects a difference in weight.
I also am someone who tends to finish my transactions long before others, and that includes me finishing bagging. It does tend to confuse people waiting in line after me, as "oh, he is done. I'll get right next to him as he gets his stuff together....oh...he is just now bagging."

[dlbpharmd]

i use them where they exist. sually faster than employees doing it.

Agreed.

[hue of fuzzpaws]

That is interesting to hear. As regards Cagliosto, I was under the

impression that as long as the last item scanned remained in the

weighing area, you could bag the rest of the items.


I tend to use them myself if they are avaiable. As regards supervising

them, I find that you are using the same type of techinques (as regards

dealing with the customers) as you would if you were serving behind

a shop counter, rather than the usually minimalist checkout approach.


Perhaps we have to use self scan checkouts as a vetting method for the

Watch membership.

[Vraith]

I hated them at first...you had to swipe ten times for the item to read, and I used the one at Home Depot, and every item I swiped needed ID. [I understood the glue and spraypaint...even the carpet knife blades...but pvc pipe? screws?]
Anyway, they fixed them , now I use them whenever I can.

[aliantha]

I've had the same frustrations as Cag with self-checkout and bringing my own bags. A clerk at one store told me baldly that if I was going to bring my own bags, I couldn't use the self-checkout.

I've gotten a technique down where I stack the items in the self-checkout bagging area and then quickly bag them after I pay. The only annoyance with that is the voice prompt repeatedly telling me to "Please take your items" while I'm bagging. Yes, ma'am, I am taking them just as fast as I can!

The problem with bringing your own bags to the regular lane is that the clerks don't know how to load them. The Safeway bags have a loop on one side -- you can hook the loop over a protrusion on the back of the plastic bag stand and the bag will more or less stand up. And yet I've seen more clerks ignore the loop and struggle with the bags. And then, yeah, they don't load them up, and you end up with half-full reusable bags (which have sturdier handles than the plastic bags and can hold lots more stuff) and some stuff in plastic anyhow.

I suppose there's a learning curve with any "new" technology, but still.... Hue, you would do everyone a great service if you would give your cashiers a little lesson in how to make the reusable bags stand up for loading.

[Auleliel]

I use the self scan checkouts frequently (they even have it at my library now!), unless I have a cartload of stuff or unpackaged produce, or the express lane is open. Also, I find it annoying to use coupons in the self checkouts, so I go to a cashier when I have coupons. The grocery store I go to has an option for placing your own bags in the weighing area prior to scanning so you can load your own bags as you go.

[Orlion]

I agree with Askari. I'm usually very quick self-checking my items, regardless of the amount of items. However, waiting behind people who don't know what they're doing (and there are more of them than the sensible type!). I sometimes want to shove them aside and do it for them.

Just recently, I bought shoes from Meijers and as I was going out, the item detector buzzed and the person on guard informed me that I should have scanned one of the tags within the shoe to deactivate the burgler alarm instead of the convenient barcode that's outside the box. Thanks for letting me know...jerks..

[aliantha]

On slowness: I get annoyed with clerks who are over-helpful. Maybe it was a slow day and she was bored or something, but I remember at one grocery store, I was ringing up some produce when the clerk came over and nearly knocked me out of the way to punch in the correct code for me. There's being helpful and then there's insulting the intelligence of your clientele.

[hue of fuzzpaws]

Certaintly sounds as if there are a few problems as regarding checkout staff. Alot of it can be put down to the relative youth of some of them. However, it is a type of job that attracts those that are totally wrong for it, as regards attitude etc.

A good starting point for anything involving customer interaction must be, I believe, is how I would like to be served etc and the sad thing is that there are few that meet my standards.

[High Lord Tolkien]

I don't use them.
I try to use registers with cashiers.
Why?
Because I'm NOT getting a discount for lowering their operational costs.
f#ck-em.

[Phantasm]

(although I do use them if I've only got a few items)

[dANdeLION]

I go through the line with the with the cutest cashier; unfortunately, sometimes that's the self-scan line.

[Vraith]

I go through the line with the with the cutest cashier; unfortunately, sometimes that's the self-scan line.

Heh...I think I've been to that store.

[Fist and Faith]

I don't use them.
I try to use registers with cashiers.
Why?
Because I'm NOT getting a discount for lowering their operational costs.
f#ck-em.

Seriously. But I don't have any choice but to pump my own gas. And it's getting so I have to pick my own damned apples, too! But like hell am I gonna cross a couple rows of cars to take my shopping cart to their little area!