- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
I really enjoy using the self checkout. I don’t have to talk to anyone, it’s faster than the employee scanning, and I bag my shit better and not have to worried about smashed bread or fragile items. It’s not for everybody and I get it but it leave it for the people do want to use them.
Man, I love the self checkout. Also didn’t they already show that rising costs everywhere WEREN’T from theft, but instead corporations artificially inflating their prices during the pandemic and then leaving it there?
Take away my self checkout, and I’ll steal out of spite
It’s fine if you have a few things and no one else is using them. These days, you go to the supermarket and you either wait in a long line for people to check out the stuff themselves or you wait on a long line for someone to do it for you. All they did was eliminate jobs.
“Nightmare” says you. “The only thing that makes grocery store checkout tolerable” says I. I’ll wait longer for a self-checkout rather than subject myself to a human who will try to make conversation with me (which forces me to take out my earbuds), be annoyed by the fact that I want to use my own bags, underload my bags, take forever, ask me required scripted questions, and put the bread underneath a can.
Frankly this is one of the most disheartening editorials I’ve ever read on Gizmodo. “Cumbersome?” “Confusing?” “Error-prone?” “Terminator?” “Frustrations?” “Wasted time?” Just say you don’t understand how to use them and have no intention to learn. Weird flex for a tech journalist.
Also:
they actually increase labor costs thanks to employees who get taken away from their other duties
Big retailers would love to give hard working people’s jobs to robots, and in many cases they already have.
How on Earth did an editor allow an article containing both of those sentences, only two paragraphs apart, to be published?
If you read the article they are only a “nightmare” for big box retailers who are crying about theft. I love the self checkout and generally use it every time unless I have a specific reason not to
These corporations are saving money hand over fist by eliminating jobs, and use this as an excuse for why their profits aren’t EVEN bigger! Their missed profit from an article here or there that we “forget” to scan doesn’t remotely amount to their savings off the backs of the American blue-collar.
Just as a mildly interesting story, I thought I’d share:
The best self checkout experience I had so far, was at a Japanese clothing store in Germany. There was a box at the checkout station, and each clothing item had an RFID in their labels. You just toss all your items in the box, it detects which exact products you’re gonna buy, and if the list of items shown is correct, you just pay and go.
A few years ago I heard of a similar concept for groceries, but that one was experimental and I don’t think they’ve implemented it ever since. But this one at the clothing store was not a test, and it worked flawlessly.
I like the idea for groceries, but how do you do produce?
Look into Amazon fresh stores. They have that concept. You just place the item in the cart and it shows you the list of items you have in the cart while at the store. After that I think you just go to the register and it chargers your Amazon account.
But how do you do it with produce? Say you want to buy three apples. I can get that it could figure out amount with a scale, but how does it know you’ve bought apples?
That one you would type the produce cause it could tell it was produce. Only been once so I don’t remember how it calculated the weight.
Got it. Thanks.
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Unfortunately, Kroger and Walmart are a 5-minute drive for us and Meijer would be a 30-minute drive, so we’re sort of stuck with Kroger and Walmart.
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Wait…ok, so I haven’t really shopped anywhere but Meijer or (to a lesser extent) Kroger for about a decade. Is this why I haven’t seen the problems with things like “unexpected item” and such? That could make a lot of sense. It’s been driving me crazy seeing stories like this when the worst experience I have with self checkout is when the camera thinks I’m stealing something because I have, like, a Wendy’s cup.
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The Kroger near me is fine about that, but it’s newer self checkouts so they probably haven’t had time to fall into disrepair yet.
Please, no. It’s my jam.
Oh wait, it’s for self checkout. Not self scanning.
It is GREAT as an option but not as the primary. I love it for small trips for a small number of things .
However for any medium to large shopping trip I would prefer to have someone there scanning while I unload and load.
I use self-checkout as my primary, including for produce, when shopping for a family of six. It’s always faster, even though I’m doing all the work.