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The reason to have several more checkouts is for holiday rushes. Under normal day to day operations they don’t use them all.
that’s true now but that isn’t how it used to be before the self checkouts came. It was not unusual to enter a grocery or big box or general goods store and see every single checkout lane staffed by humans during daylight hours. You could almost always go right to a waiting checker or get in the shortest line and be next in line. The grocery stores operated like this for many decades!
they could use them all. but they allow self checkout to have a line. it’s ok though, the self checkout discounts usually help offset.
the self checkout discounts
Thee what now? You must live in some magical non-Capitalist hellhole if you’re actually getting a discount for ringing yourself up!
theft. i’m speaking of theft.
Shit, I can’t believe I whooshed that!
(To be fair, my local supermarket has scales and cameras to prevent most shenanigans… so I have to sneakily pocket small but expensive items while still walking around the store!)
(To be fair, my local supermarket has scales and cameras to prevent most shenanigans… so I have to sneakily pocket small but expensive items while still walking around the store!)
Ah you’re the cunts who increase the cost for the rest of us, thanks
That’s some messed up thinking of you think THAT is where the increases come from.
Be careful with that. Some stores will let you walk out even if they notice, until they have enough evidence to nail you for more than just petty theft.
And you don’t have to stop for store employees.
That’s the thing - they don’t have the store employees stop you once you breach the $500 threshhold. They bring in a police officer to arrest you.
They’re referring to what the legal system defines as “theft”
the discount for me is time saved not waiting in line to have someone else do a job I can do myself
Do you also want the restaurant to pull out a seat and push you in? do you want the petrol station to pump your own petrol for you? do you want to go to the bank so they can transfer money for you? I cannot for the life of me understand why some people are so hung up on self checkouts
Self checkouts are great. When they work. When something goes wrong, I get to wait 10 minutes for a clerk who’s busy checking out items for other customers. They’re mostly fine for checkout with few items, though.
Guess all those highschool girls will just have to stay home and torture mom n dad
When you see this, you should be thinking “look what they fucking took from us.”
Once upon a time, those lanes all ran. The CEO’s megayacht is the reason you have to stand in line or check out yourself.
Minimum wage did this. If they have to pay more than the natural rate for that labor they are going to hire as little as they can. Eventually things will slow and they will get through the queue but you will have to wait. But the company had no downtime for expensive labor.
The alternative was hiring a lot of people at an extremely low rate, meaning you end up with more labor than you need by a lot when things are slow, but at least you aren’t paying much for that excess labor and your customers never wait so they are likely to return. The consumer really wins there but someone will have to be paid a low wage.
The hate you must feel for those employees while waiting in line. Enough diving in mad brains for me today.
You say that, but grocery stores keep posting record margins.
Yeah that’s because they have a few very well paid people who figure out ways to crowbar their overlords’ impossible goal of eternal growth into reality.
Whatever that means in practice, these filthy plebes will have to live with it.
Fucking lol, what a bootlicking moron.
iTs bEcAUsE TheY hAvE tO pAy bEloW poVErTy liNE WagEs
“natural rate” lol
Have you been to other countries where they actually pay people a living wage? Cashiers can even sit. Imagine that!
Somehow big chains in some European countries can pay their employees a living wage and still make a profit, yet, in the US, the employees should be eating dirt in order for businesses to be profitable?
And as someone buying things in general, I prefer to go to stores and businesses where employees are at the very least paid minimum wage, if not more. Even if this will cost more. I know those business will be better for the community.
You are eating the lies of corporations if you think they cannot afford to pay their employees even minimum wage.
EDIT: Poe’s law. I may have eaten an onion.
Yeah I’ve heard of those places. They don’t even provide urine sacks and catheters! You have fifteen minutes a few times a day to walk allllll the way to the bathroom to relieve yourself. Shocking treatment.
or check out yourself
Thanks CEO’s megayacht. I’ll always pick self checkout over forced human interaction.
You don’t to talk to the cashiers, no one is forcing you to do anything and they won’t even remember you, it’s fine. Why so mad about having the smallest interaction with another human being?
Because the cashier knows they are organic bananas. The self checkout has no idea.
Some of these people are fucking weird. Like the person you’re replying to? Yeah, I would not want to know someone that antisocial IRL.
Lucky for both of you, that seems to be mutual
Maybe you’re weird for making such a statement. Have you ever heard of social anxiety? It can be crippling.
You don’t even have to speak to the checkout person. Yet lemmy treats anxiety as normal, memes abound! Yeah, that’s fucking weird and anyone that crippled is, well, crippled, needs serious help.
I have crippling anxiety - and i overwhelmingly prefer a manned checkout.
Manned checkout:
Hi, here are my bags, paying by card, thanks.Robot:
Unexpected item in bagging area Try and flag a worker down they are busy solving the above issue for 4 other people wait patiently for a minute or two the worker doesn't realise i need their help have to go ask them for help continue scanning my items above happens 2-5 more timesThe robot tends to have significantly more human interaction, it’s slower than having a professional do it, and the human interaction is SO much worse.
Different strokes for different folks, for sure. I don’t particularly care either way but there are days that I only have a couple of items and zipping through self checkout is preferred.
Sometimes you want to just buy your shit in peace.
i dont think you win this discussion by talking down other peoples fears / inconvenoences. a lot of people generally just really dont like this kind of interaction, and while i agree with the whole megayacht thing, but people’s preferences should not be talked down upon
That’s very clearly not what I was saying, though. That person was acting like we’re forced to talk to the cashier and literally that’s not what happens. You rock up, they scan their stuff and maybe say “hello” and then you can just pack your bags and say “credit” and “no receipt” and take off.
Look I’m honestly fine with a self-checkout lane in some large stores and I’m not saying that there aren’t people with some much more serious issues they’re dealing with but we got way to many people with no excuses who just hate other human beings and that’s weird.
The CEO’s megayacht thanks you for doing the cashier’s work for free
My labour ain’t free.
This is why I always use the cashier lanes. I can goof around and check my phone while I wait. The store can pay somebody to check my items out
You think that’s bad, did you know some stores make you pick the stuff up from the shelves instead of the worker doing it for you!
Yeah, I’m not sure why I would be bothered by having to scan my own stuff, especially since I get through self-checkouts much faster. I value my time more than saving that physical action.
I beg to differ. I don’t have pay attention in the normal checkout - that time is fully mine.
In the self checkout that’s time I can’t use on anything else.
Its specifically because I value my time I avoid the self checkout unless I am only picking up a couple things.
Ah yes the valuable time you have to spend standing in line, especially since where I’m from it takes longer to use regular checkouts.
I’d rather do the scanning and be out there quicker.
I mostly use the spare time to post on lemmy. On avg I probably get one more post in than the avg lemmy self checkout enthusiast.
I get back to home sooner where I can utilize my home PC to post with extra horse power
really depends. If you are a busy buiseness person, sure. but if you just stand there and wait for rhe people infront of you, you might as well do the self-checkout if its faster
At my place a few remaining workers of normal checkout posts frequently run to self-checkout kiosks whenever they encounter random errors or booze (ID requirement), while the lines of customers form and grow on every side. They don’t get paid more for doing extra, their further empoyment is at risk, and their work day is full of complaints on how sloppy both they are and how wacky that tech is. Somehow, yet to surprise of no one, the idea that could get rid of unnecessary discomfort ended up salting the wound.
It’s almost like the driving force behind such innovations has rabies.
Yeah fuck workers amirite
Do you think about the shoe shiners losing their job when you choose to wear sports shoes instead of dress shoes? Would that be a valid argument to stop you? It’s not my responsibility to go out of my way to make sure certain jobs stay relevant.
Hunter-gatherers must have been real mad when agriculture was invented
Little known fact, serfs bought a bunch of yachts with their ill-gotten hunter gatherer wealth, which is where the term “surfing” comes from
Should have become sex workers. That job is still relevant.
Agriculture is no longer relevant? Holy fucking shit, it’s really the end times.
Stores having you do labor for free to replace workers and increase profit is not the same thing as a shoe shiner losing their job because of new types of shoes, like not even remotely the same issue.
You’re not going out of your way to make sure certain jobs stay relevant, you’re being forced to do free labor so these companies can kill those jobs, and you’re seemingly complacent in that.
It used to be that you went to the counter and told the store worker what products you wanted and they’d collect them for you. Now I’m doing free labour collecting it all myself.
I’m not being forced to go to self-checkout, I deliberately choose to do so wherever it’s available. Choosing not to do so for the benefit of cashiers’ jobs would be going out of my way.
To be fair, my experience with self-checkout does not match what I see in the comments here. It has always been faster than the regular check-out wherever I go.
There used to be a Fresh & Easy near where I lived some years ago that had zero employees in store. I just went in, got what I needed, paid at self-checkout, and I was on my way. Perfect shopping experience.
Edit: already mentioned somewhere else in the comments, stores used to have all products behind the counter and you’d have to ask the merchant for the products (there are still a lot of places like that). But people don’t complain about having to do the labor of picking up their own products from the shelves. Because you grew up used to this new way of doing things and you find it normal. People just try to rationalize their aversion to change.
This has been Target and Walmart for the last 30 or 40 years. They build them with 30 lanes with the idea of Xmas rush but then only have one or two lanes open no matter how many customers are waiting.
This was a problem long before self checkout or higher minimum wages or any of that.
Hell, 20 years ago when I worked at Walmart we usually had about half the registers open most days. More when we were expecting a crowd. There was a fair amount of downtime, but not an excessive amount.
They don’t even open the other lanes for xmas rush anymore…
TBF, I haven’t seen a Christmas rush requiring all the lanes open since maybe 2010 or so. Combination of ordering online and/or just buying less I think.
And all the sales start in October, instead of the December now.
This is the Target in Hixon, TN everytime i go there. I’ve stood in a 20 frustrated person long self-checkout line with at least a dozen regular checkouts collecting dust and not a soul with a red vest in sight. One poor lady helping 5 or so self cheout kiosks. The Starbucks at the entrance has more people behind the counter. And they still wonder why they’re failing spectacularly.
“Obviously it’s the checkout supervisor’s fault, they’re too expensive. Minimum wage for 8 hours with 4 hours unpaid overtime?! How do you expect a corporation to lose that much money to their employees and still fulfill their responsibilities of producing record revenue for their shareholders. Obviously the answer is to let go of the checkout supervisor’s at our stores and contract out one checkout supervisor to five stores and have them rotate between them in their own vehicle. It’s not like they really do anything anyway, they’re just their to make the consumer feel better.”
Said a CEO to his board.
Target fucking depresses the living shit out of me. The only reason I ever go is that I’m a school bus driver and for some reason half of the tips I get at Christmas and the end of the school year (why the fuck do people tip school bus drivers? I have no idea) are Target gift cards. It always has Kmart-at-the-end vibes with half-empty shelves and employees that look like they want to kill you. And I don’t understand how they can maintain a grocery section at all - the selection is poor and everything costs twice as much as it does at normal grocery stores.
For some unknown reason, the stores all seem to have been inadequately constructed. The floor shakes at every multi-story Target I’ve ever been in.
I’ve actually found that Target groceries are cheaper overall than the major grocery store chains, even the shittiest ones. I live in a major U.S. city so ymmv. The only big chain that beats Target’s grocery prices is Walmart. But you have to psych yourself up to shop there because it’s always a hellscape and I’m usually too tired for all that.
Aldi’s/Lidl/Trader Joe’s are also always very economical but they have a limited selection of items.
I live in the Philly 'burbs and Target is wildly more expensive than the big supermarkets, which themselves are lot pricier than LiDL and Aldi. I can see where that might be different in a big city proper since things are generally so much more expensive there.
why the fuck do people tip school bus drivers?
Because you provide a valuable service that anyone with a heart and half a brain know you’re not fairly compensated for. Without you we’d have to schlep our own children to school, taking up time from already busy schedules. What takes you two hours would take fifty cumulative hours between every parent.
We actually get paid fairly decently, at least in my district (we’re unionized FWIW). We get almost $32 an hour with health insurance and a small (very small) pension after 10+ years of service. Hours are limited for those of us low on the seniority list but that’s OK because I hate working. Now if were just allowed to use duct tape on the middle-schoolers, this would be the ideal gig …
First time I’ve seen my little corner of the world mentioned here. The Hixson Target is still wayy better than the Gunbarrel one. I’m convinced that Target is single-handedly keeping the company afloat.
Howdy, neighbor!
I know Hixon as “that Aubrey’s location that some of the employees from my local Aubrey’s location moved to.”
Those registers are for Black Friday.
I’m just pissed my grocery store got rid of self checkout
One line has 8 people waiting with a bunch of groceries each but the line is moving steadily
The other line has only two people … a little old lady at the cashier is holding up the line because she wants to process three out of date coupons, a return item with a label that said it was past its best before date, and a loaf of bread that ‘doesn’t look right’.
All of those are self checkout. Those 2 are also busy helping other people.
Just in case you’re wondering, they actually do man all those checkouts during superbowl weekend
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My first job I worked at a grocery store that had I think 12 checkouts and only 4 cashiers on at most times. The exception was when they did a special “2 hour sale” during which time it was busy enough for all stations to be staffed, but also it was basically guaranteed that you’d get to go home early on those shifts because it would die down pretty quick and they’d cut the unnecessary staff for the day
Even at the very height of Xmas Eve my Tesco has maybe half the tills open. I don’t know why they haven’t just got rid of the others, it’s free real estate. You could pop a Timpsons in there.
That would cost money. Possibly even more than hiring more cashiers.
Look, no one in self checkout is in a hurry or can figure out how to use it, one item won’t scan, they put something on the scale and need assistance from the attendant who isn’t paying attention but isn’t doing anything otherwise. It’s a great system
Heh. Butt.
My old bank branch had thirteen teller stations and two tellers since at least 2018.
My Bank does Apple shop style now. Get there, to the techbro with the glasses and tablet, “ah, please wait a bit, person X for problem Y is availlable in half a hour”, wait, tell them the same thing again.
How’d you get a picture of my local grocery store?
For real though, one of those cashiers would be on the self checkout helping 50 people at once and the cashier who has to actually scan stuff has 5 people in their line but all of them have enough food and goods for an army.
I always go to the cashier.
I hate self checkout.
The payment flow is always way too confusing, I hate scanning and bagging…
Please keep the cashiers.
same. The local self checkouts are a sensory nightmare for me. There’s blinking lights I can’t avoid, a camera+screen I can’t ignore… I just can’t deal with it.
local home depot only has self checkout. I don’t go there any more.
Maybe that’s it for me…
I already hate how bright those stores are with their artificial lights.
Plus the other shoppers are super chaotic in those lanes, and they have ill defined spaces.
I guess I’m the opposite. The sensory nightmare for me involves having to interact with strangers, and self checkout offers the utopian promise of avoiding all that. But it fails only too often, as the slightest problem brings the clerk over. It’s a bait and switch for my introverted ass.
But that’s the thing, different people feel better in different methods, so why can’t we keep both and let each one choose? Some would even use both methods in different moments Why does things be always forced into others because “it’s the future”?
That makes sense. I was raised Southern [USA], so I can fake polite conversation with the best of them. If anything, I’m too chatty if the checkout clerk gives the slightest sign of talkativeness.
Self checkout with app where you can put the items in your own bag or backpack as you shop, is the fucking goat
I have never tried that and I’m not sure how much I would like that
I understand. For me it also took a couple of times to get over the shoplifting feeling 😂
My supermarket is the opposite. The registers have a few people with like 2 items, and old grampa with 4 weeks worth of groceries is learning how to use the self checkout, and talking back to it when it says there’s an unexpected item on the scale.
Goddamn it, I talk to the self checkout, and I don’t have any grandchildren that I know of.
Sorry I’m with grandpa on this. Fuck your unexpected item in bagging area.
Would’ve been icing on the cake if they were conjoined twins.
