Self-Checkouts

Jules

Jules

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Walmarts (maybe just in Canada) are testing replacing all tills with self-checkouts.

I was absolutely against using self-checkouts anywhere. Keep the employees employed. This past year made be change my mind. I don‘t want to stand in long lines with anyone. Now, I just buy considerably less and go through the self-checkouts. No more loaded cart. Get in, get out. We still have a few tills but they don’t staff them very often. It’s always people with full carts of groceries.

If there’s no line, I go to a cashier.

If I have a bigger order, I do online ordering. Since I’m not making impulse purchases, I’m saving money.

Have you been ‘trained‘ to use self-checkout? Seems like I have.
 

And... I am one who ALWAYS uses the self check if one is available. It's quick. You don't have to wait in line.

Even our public library just installed new self checkout stations. They have had self checkout for some time. You scan your library card, then scan each book. The new ones you scan your library cart, then set all your books on the scanner at once. Five... six... eight... no matter how many books it scans them all at the same time and does it within seconds.
 
I've been using the self-checkouts since the Pandemic started. One less person handling my groceries. I carry my handy wipes when I pick something off the shelf wipe it down & put it in my cart. The one or two girls at the self-checkout wipe every machine down after someone has used it. This is at our Wal Mart here in town. So I like the self-checkout just for this reason. I hate putting a person out of work. I just don't want to go through this 4-day hospital stay again.
 
Aunt Bea said:
All self checkouts are not created equal.

I’ve had good experiences with Walmart but I’ve walked out of the local PriceChopper and left my groceries because the system would not accept my credit card payment.
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Same here. When they first came out the selfs were horrible. They couldn't handle more than one or two items. Then they got better. But there's a real difference in when the self checkout was made. I found the same with self gas pumps. Some have a slow old fashioned computer, others are easier to use, and quicker.
 
I think the self check outs at the Library are great! Have had them quite a few years here. Not at the grocery store. Not enough space to put things, & it seems like they change the programs all the time. But in the Kroger they always have one attendant by their bank of 10 or so, & if I just have a few things & don’t want to stand in line I can usually get the attendant to do them for me. (To keep the poor slow old lady from getting things backed up, doncha know, haha)
 
Well maybe if enough of us quit using the self checkouts they would be forced to get rid of them. I flat out tell them I'm not interested in putting people out of work when they offer those to me and I keep walking. I will wait it out in the line. I got all I can do to manage on the computer at home. I don't need that frustration in Walmart and I don't work there and I don't wish to be treated like an unpaid employee.
 
Self check outs replace lower paid with higher paid tech savvy. Not as many for sure but since machines don't take breaks [unless they breakdown] they don't have wages & benefits, the initial cost & use of them reduces the operational cost over time. That cost saving is what capitalism is all about.

Both my wife & I are self check out savvy & use them regularly. I see nothing wrong with trading one set of jobs for the higher paid manufacturing & upkeep of the machines used for self check out. It's no secret that robotics & technology are replacing manual labor.

Jobs are returning but the news stories now are filled with articles about people not returning to service jobs. I think it's going to be interesting pretty soon as to what will happen with technology taking over manual labor & those manual labor positions going unfilled.
 
I wish the govt. would drop that unemployment crap now since supposedly the danger is over. :rolleyes:

We are now 20 people short where I work. If this keeps up I don't know what they're gonna do cuz I will not work 7 days a week. I'm too old for that crap.
 
We have the self check out at the library as well and I love it.
I would never use them at the stores. I usually end up having to call someone over anyway and most times they only have one person watching over all the machines.
Some stores you can put the bag in the cart right away without it beeping but with others you have to keep everything in the bagging area which isn't that big.
The bags are another problem, sometimes they aren't filled or it is impossible to open them up.
Very small items won't register in the bagging area.. Once I bought just one little package of embroidery thread and it was so light it wasn't showing that I had put it in the bag after scanning.
I prefer to wait on line. I'm never in that much of a hurry.
 
MarciKS said:
But all those unemployed people are gonna need somewhere to go when the govt. won't hold their hand anymore. If there's less jobs then what are they supposed to do?
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read post 18. There are jobs it's just that people have gotten used to working at home or the unemployment amounts paid that exceeded their wages where they worked.

Can't blame people for wanting a free ride for awhile but as we all know free isn't free someone has to provide the money. So what's it going to be those that go to work at jobs they don't like because they have enough pride to not want to be cared for like a child or hang back and let the government keep mounting debt & worse yet the deficit?
 
I really do not like the self-checkouts, and I usually will wait for a regular cashier, or if that is not possible, then I just ask for help with the self-checkout one.
We still have regular cashiers, but only a couple of them are open most of the time.

Walmart has a survey after you shop there that enters you into a $1,000 gift card drawing, so I always so the survey when I get home. They ask what you like and didn’t like, and I complain that there were no cashiers, that the lines were long and that it took a half hour to pay for stuff that took me 15 minutes to get into my shopping cart. I tell them that I am going to only shop at Aldi from now on, and stuff like that.
I don’t think that they care, but I tell them anyway.

Unfortunately, I do not see this situation improving.
We are moving into an age where more and more things are going to be done with some kind of machine or robot. The more that wages go up, the more that little businesses will go out of business and the large corporations will turn to more automation to save money.
 
We stopped at a Walmart in one of the larger towns couple of weeks ago, that has gone to All self checkout. What a Zoo! Luckily, we just had a half dozen items, and when we Finally got to a checkout, our purchase went quickly. However, we had to wait a bit, because several people were trying to checkout with carts filled fairly full. We watched them struggle through the process...trying to empty part of their carts while trying to bag and put paid items in the cart. It seems that such a process would almost require two people and two carts....one emptying, and scanning, while the other is bagging and carting.

We quickly decided that if our local Walmart ever goes this route, our shopping there will be Substantially Reduced.
 
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Plus I recall a rumor about them wanting to get the self checkouts in place and then have smart phone apps so you could scan your crap in there before you got to the register. People without a smart phone would be given a scanner to use. Can you imagine that crap? First time I got frustrated enough they'd be lucky if it didn't get pitched down an aisle. LOL
 
There is no self-checkout at the grocery I go to. The workers there I have gotten to know a little and most are friendly and will chat a little and I would hate to put them out of work. Self-checkout means self-bag too. At Lowe's or Walmart I usually only get one or two things so I self-checkout unless someone is working the register and no customers are there.
 

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