Countries I have visited, I never see a self checkout. Not sure if that is the norm.

When tap-to-pay became a thing, Walmart went all in on building their own payment system instead, because Apple Pay and Google Pay both get a portion of the credit card transaction fees.

By pushing everyone through Walmart Pay, THEY get that portion, and can collect interest on any cash back stored in the customers account (just like Starbucks).

Of course, anyone who just wants to use the nfc on their credit card gets fucked over

Too bad, most larger stores here have them, I love it. Shopping is so quick this way, every thing is already in the bag when you leave, and you just tap your card to pay, and leave by scanning a barcode on your receipt.

Edit: here being Sweden

I currently work in retail, please just tell me what you want, pay for it, and GTFO. I have significantly more important tasks to do than chit chat.

Wow, an ADD person telling an ADHD person to grow some patience, almost like they are very different things or something because I can tell you personally that the H in ADHD does not play well with patience.

Maybe you should speculate less and actually read some history?

Why don't you "just" be more patient tho?

/bitter, downtrodden sarcasm

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?