In the states they treat it as just another till.

THIS is why I hate selfcheckout, it WILL be used to fire all retail checkout workers IRRESPECTIVE of whether self checkout is actually more efficient and useful as a full replacement.

Meanwhile introverts celebrate self checkout here in the US with a shallow understanding of the process of extreme enshittification that is happening that is functionally irreversible especially in a country as broken as the US.

Do what, drag a barcode over a flat surface and put an item in a bag?

Correct, most people don't want to bother with it.

I'll do that all day if it means I don't need to interact with anyone.

What? You just stand there, wait for them to finish scanning, pay with card, and that's it. 0 interaction.

No, the point is you perceive them as slower because when you rush you can feel it things feel snappy, you can emotionally feel your speed further and it is unfortunately socially acceptable for you to openly shit on retail workers as lazy, stupid and incompetent in a classist insult.

This is the same phenomena as when older conservative men who have gotten used to being in control of everything cannot actually physically restrain themselves from micromanaging whatever they see people doing infront of them because they can't handle their irrational experience of impatience not having the companion emotional experience of rushing at the task.

Yeah it was great, especially for packing frozen stuff right away in thermal bags 🥲

Of course, friend.

Geez, I hope they're not putting you front of counter.

In the UK, they've taken some tills out. About 4 tills become 16 self checkouts. They still have plenty of tills for normal checkout.

It definitely lets less staff get more people through, in less time. So far, it's not been excessively abused over here. It's also made my life significantly less annoying.

How is that an argument? You're just spouting whataboutisms.

Costco is especially infuriating because they do not tolerate anything on the platform before you can start. You also cannot remove anything from the platform before you've paid and everything... So you can't pack as you go, making everything slower and more stressful for everyone. If you even attempt to, the goddamn thing locks up and the clerk has to unlock it for you.

Back when Fudruckers was a thing, I always got upset when people wanted to go there.

If I'm paying you $18 for a mediocre hamburger, you can put on the damn lettuce.

I shop in the morning to avoid lines. But, before self-checkout, they'd only have two registers open, so there was still a line. With self-checkout, in the morning, there's never a line so it's faster.

I like Walmart self-checkout machines better than others I've used, such as at Lowe's or Target (I don't shop at Target anymore) because I only need to put in my pin number, there's no other confirmations. I ignore the rate the store, donation, and print or email receipt questions while I put the groceries back in the cart, those all time out and the receipt prints by default.

I'm happy enough to chat or not chat to strangers, so that was never an issue for me. I'm sorry so many of the younger generation were apparently so poorly socialized, it must be stressful.

Great point! But I'm in the American South and cashiers are rarely talkative, at all.

I see that as a positive! They're happy at their job, who am I to complain?

Yep! First job was as a grocery boy. If you feed the cashier your goods in an organized manner, they do better.

My wife was an utter mess at Aldi, pushed her aside and handled scanning and bagging my way. Know what? She's great at it now! After watching a few times, she hands me our purchases in a logical order. Boxy stuff? That goes together. Cold goods? Goes together. Heavy shit? That goes in the empty bag. Soft stuff? Top off a bag.

What's great is that I didn't say much of anything. She figured it out after a few trips!

Anyway, I'm a grocery bagging expert. AMA.

Either amusingly or sadly, honestly, I still haven't decided which, I am my store's top earner and am considered a solid keyholder to the point I am regularly sent to go help out other stores of their messes.

Wasn't my experience in Shreveport.

I hate self check out. I'm a BYO bags person and the damn thing is always yelling at me, always talking mechanically at me, too loud. I would so much rather experience small talk.

Is it really? I've never seen such a sign in my corner of the US. Often there's only one human operated checkout.

The 'let the kid touch the hot stove' approach.

It worked on me, but I fear other people might nurse their burns and pray that next time things will be different.My experience is different. It's a dense urban grocer. Now that you mention it, I've been to Target in the suburbs where SCO was like thunder dome. A little more room for bagging, but not much. I feel so bad for the one team member dashing around checking IDs and explaining why coupons from a decade ago no longer work.

My location (different grocer ) may be privileged, because, even when it's slow, there are two full service registers. I remember how gross it felt watching a checker at Walmart in 02 also bag the groceries because baggers didn't exist any more.

As an aside, the rating thing at Walmart self check out is for the cashier, not the store. If the clerks get below a certain average rating they get penalized (or at least they don't get certain benefits or some shit, from my understanding). I don't know if they count purchases that don't rate at all, but I know some people rate 1 each time because fuck Walmart, but that ends up hurting the cashier, not the store.