As someone who finds interacting with register attendants painful, and doesn’t steal, this is unfortunate news.
I’m a introvert and hate dealing with people, but for some reason I don’t like using the self-checkout. I don’t know why. But anyway, I recommend moving to Finland. My interactions are as follows:
A very quick eye contact with a nod as a hello.
I pay, receive the change, say thank you.
I go away.
There is no small talk or push for registering for their bonus card systems, etc, here. You go in, do your thing, say thank you, go away. And saying anything is optional. I do it because I feel like that’s the least I can do for the poor person who has to deal with humans all day. But often I see people not even look at the checkout person, just stare at the register until it gives out a number, pay and bugger off.
There is no small talk or push for registering for their bonus card systems, etc, here. You go in, do your thing, say thank you, go away
As it should be! The exaggerated fake politeness I’ve encountered in the US is fucking horrible and makes everything worse.
Mayor Mamdani said self checkout should, by law, provide a ten percent discount. That might have helped.
Because self checkout should provide a discount. And grocery store workers should be unionized.
Shitty thing is they won’t hire more cashiers when they shut these off.
This seems very US coded. In euro they’re doubling down even with self scan on the phone or with a tool they give me. I scan them as I put them in my cart and at checkout I just pay and leave. It’s awesome.
Same in Australia regarding doubling down. They’re giving trolleys with an ipad thing on them you scan everything with, and increasing the exit area security so you cannot leave without the staff opening it if you didn’t buy anything, and AI based cameras all over the store and gates that judge whether it should open for you after buying things.
It’s a mix of awesome and horrible.
This is why I don’t shop in stores anymore , I have to do all the work and be treated like a crim. I boycott any place with self checkout and prefer the aldi even though it’s slow with very few registers open.
Self checkout was great for me because I’d have like 3 items and breeze on out. Now people come to them with overloaded carts because they don’t have any actual checkouts.
“things have gotten so bad that it has made many people need to steal, so we can’t keep self checkouts open”
They’d rather change their operations than lobby for the poorest to have enough money and not have to steal.
They aren’t bringing back cashiers, they’ll have one cashier with a massive line as a deterrent to get you to download the scan as you go app on your phone so you supply the bar code scanner at your expense and they track your phone and change the digital price tags based on your Palantir profile as you walk up.
Or the other option is Walmart has started remodeling their stores into primarily warehouses. The main entrance is badged only for picker workers to hand orders to Doordash or put app orders in people’s cars. The legacy experience entrance will be a temporary secondary option until they get enough robots to make the building fully lights out and automated. Shambling automatons will emerge from the black hell portal in the surface of The Edifice with your tampons and then run facial recognition on you and sniff your car for drug and explosive residue.
They could have saved so much time and money by just paying the cashiers a living wage.
Im surprised how many people here hate self checkout. I am much faster at scanning and bagging my own items than most cashiers. I almost never get errors, and if I do I know what to do to clear them typically. I always look at self check first, and then human lines second. Plus, none if that “how’s your day? Want to apply for a store credit card?” talk from a bored looking cashier.
I kinda like people
I think this weird anti-self-checkout crowd is just young people who don’t remember the times before self-checkouts. Even if every checkout was manned it was still completely normal to wait upwards of ten minutes, even when it wasn’t that busy. I remember my Mum excitedly running to a checkout because there was only one person queueing there. Nowadays I totally expect there to be no queue at all and I feel hard done by if I have to queue for more than one minute.
Um, no. There are many other categories of people who have issues with self-checkouts. Like anyone who’s legally or by the store’s rules due a discount or tax waiver (people with Indigenous status aren’t required to pay sales taxes in some jurisdictions, for instance), since the software often fails to account for these. Anyone paying cash. Anyone who knows anything at all about UI design or has wrestled with a self-checkout that just doesn’t function properly.
I’ll wait in line rather than deal with a machine that’s broken by design, thanks. Fortunately, the stores around here mostly have reasonable staffing practices, so the wait isn’t long unless some idiot tries to price-match against a flyer or something else weird and unusual.
Jusy FYI - I think self-checkouts can accept cash, but sometimes and sporadically do not, because I often see signs, permanent as well as improvisory, that they don’t.
My problem with the self checkouts is they do require quite a bit of wrangling from the person on staff and that sometimes, depending on the time of day, that person has entirely fucked off to another corner of the store. I’ve abandoned a near-completed self-checkout for the safe harbor of a human-staffed register on more than one occassion.
I tried it twice at IKEA and it’s so fucking shit and they still need to have people there to assist when you have a problem, IT’S THE SAME FUCKING THING JUST SLOWER.
They’re not there to assist you. They are there to monitor you so you wouldn’t steal more € than the self-checkout is cheaper than the staff it replaces.
In one of my local supermarkets there were 4 normal checkouts but never more than 2 of them were open because they’re understaffed. They recently replaced 1 of them by 4 self checkout machines, it’s soooo much faster now and lines are a lot shorter when it’s shopping rush hour!
Hmm I like self checkout because I don’t like dealing with retail people. I’m introverted by nature.
Just get me the F in and get me the F out. Charge the correct price and give me correct change. Machines do this SO WELL.
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That’s an interesting take you have. I personally find there needs to be more interaction in self checkouts as they often error meaning you need to wave down / seek out someone to help.
In the register I say “G’day” "ill pack my own " (take my own bags), and “on the card thanks” . Pretty smooth process , plus it helps keep someone employed and not me working for my own groceries I’m paying for.
Pretty smooth process , plus it helps keep someone employed and not me working for my own groceries I’m paying for.
Keeping someone employed for the sake of employment is the exact opposite thing that should happen. If you can pump your own gas, why should you be forced to have someone else do it for you?
If I had the option of someone filling my petrol whilst I just sat in the car I would 100% take that up. That’s a much better service ! Used to happen, guess labor was too expensive. I don’t see there being any harm in helping to keep a young workforce employed instead of doing the work myself for a business?
Good. Just pay people, society is for people. All of these cost saving schemes from capitalists in service of infinite greed end up failing and wasting even more money than they would have made or saved simply by paying people for their labour. Also, wealth tax immediately, I mean now.
People like self checkout and if that saves the shop money thats a win/win. Not everything is an evil scheme. When competent governments are in power unemployment isnt high enough that we need to make things worse to give people jobs to do.
That IF is doing a lot of heavy lifting here, as the article will point out. People like convenience when they feel perosnally disconnected from it, but I’m always sensitive to the implication of the adoption of a technology and long term goals, and you should be too. You claim it’s a win/win, but if this were applied broadly it would eliminate jobs for people who might not have good alternatives, if any, with no provisions for acces to other future labour. This is bad for ALL of us, even if you’re not working in retail and you don’t think people should have to, because like a chain our society is only as strong as the weakest and most neglected parts. Retail is largely a undesireable job because of OUR culture of consumption that gives people free license to treat employees like shit, and for the owning class to pay them as little as possible and disrespect their labour.
This is why you need to expand your view and afford respect for every worker working any job, their labour has intrinsic value to society, remember that you, the consumer, are the one creating the demad for their job to exist. Don’t forget the knock-on effect for owners who see tactics like this succeeding leading to more automation projects to eliminate more labour costs for the exclusive benefit of CEOs and shareholders. Based on these facts, I’m telling you, you’re wrong to think of this so simplistically, and to make so many assumptions in the face of clear precedents in corporate actions for pure profiteering. I know the purpose of coporations is to generate profit, and that’s true, which is also why we can only tolerate their existence with strictly imposed limits on their growth because by design unregulated capital will cannibalize society, the retail workers are the canaries in that coal mine, so to speak.
What do you mean the IF is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Its not doing heavy lifting. People like self checkout and if that saves the shop money thats a win/win and if it doesnt thats a win for people and a loss for the shop.
Your point about this being applied broadly and eliminating jobs is dumb. Technological advancement HAS been applied broadly and it does eliminate jobs and yet historically unemployment has been low because there is plenty of work to go around. Sure you can point to some points of high unemployment in history 10-20% but overall there has been no evidence that would suggest we should be passing on advancements to keep a job. So no self checkouts are not ‘bad for all of us’ and the rest of your rant is not worth addressing pure brainrot.
“and if it doesnt thats a win for people and a loss for the shop.” This case is not a win for people. The people did not ask the shop to automate services better rendered by humans. Half the time shops have to have a human on hand to help the self checkouts when they fail or reader errors plague the customers. I personally have had those machines stall out or stop working and waste my time and that of one of the few workers still around the store which slows up service somewhere else cause of understaffing. These things are specifically not an advancement if you’ll turn your attention to the article that started this post.
“Your point about this being applied broadly and eliminating jobs is dumb.” How? Why is humans losing jobs dumb?
You want to vaguely gesture to all technology being good just by virtue of being new, but these things end up being terrible busienss decisions all the fucking time, too. Some work, some don’t, and almost all aren’t done for the benefit of anybody but the bottom line of the owners. You write like you have no point of reference or understanding of working life, or ability to connect to other people in society given the way you just handwave human replacement. It’s embarassing frankly, you want to call nuance brain rot to avoid engaging with it because you’re developmentally challenged.
People dont need to ask. The shop can add them and compare what people choose and determine that way. Its obvious people prefer these even though they are actually less efficient.
Why is humans losing jobs dumb? I didnt say losing jobs was dumb i said your point about this being applied broadly and eliminating jobs was done. The reason its dumb is because everything a lot of the things we make as humans eliminates jobs and still there is so much work to be done. We are no where near a point where we’ve eliminated a significant portion of the jobs. Your logic is that we shouldnt be going forward with a lot of improvements because they eliminate jobs but thats a terrible point. Your point had no nuance and it was brain rotten.
I’m waiting for them to close the stores to customers entirely and go to pick up or delivery only.
I know that would kill impulse buying, but I think they might make it up by not needing to police the isles, and no theft.
Service Merchandise did tag pulls and pick up at the register for everything back in the 70s and 80s. That might come back.
Nah, it would be more expensive since they would need to hire more pickers. also would probably loose customers who wouldn’t want someone else picking out their groceries.
Nah, Amazon and the like already do it. Robot pickers are far cheaper than worrying about theft prevention.
Ok, but robot pickers are expensive capital costs, and are set up to work in a warehouse environment with boxes, not a retail store full of soft goods and shelves. Unless you’re talking about recapitalizing the entire store to be a wearhouse, in which case there is a huge opportunity cost in regards to using good retail realestate for a warehouse.
Gonna have to use human pickers unless the grocery store is willing to completely recapitalize and the margins might not justify the high cost of retail real estate.
Thats the model Walmart is already moving to. It works well for Amazon, more and more retailers are going to consider it.
self checkouts facilitate logging your purchase data, imcluding your biometrics and facial data.
The shop is not paying me enough to do their job. Plus I never agreed to do any of it.
I use cash, go to cashier or kiosk every time or leave shopping items behind if closed as matter of principle…
Vote everyday with:
. your choice
. your feet
. your wallet
As if the same cameras aren’t pointed at everyone standing in a checkout line, let’s be honest, it makes no difference. You still swipe your card at the end, walk around with your phone radio, the face is just a cherry on top.
Cameras are equipped with face recognition. Habits and behaviours are analysed and monetised. Every company out there wants your data, not your money. Being able to target you directly is more valuable. Besides, each time you buy anything with your card or install an app your real identity gets leaked and there is a record [ metadata ] tied to your Digital Twin profiles via device identifiers. This makes you predictable, traceable and easily black mailable. Especially if you also have social media and big tech apps. There is a reason why the military calls them DEWs [ Direct Energy Weapons ].
In contrast you may:
. Opt-out from contactless cards by requesting chip & Pin only 😁
. Pay cash, monero or zano
. Opt-out of Mass Surveillance & Mass Data collection by de-googling your devices and using privacy respecting apps and solutions. This also makes it easier to control which radios and bands your device is allowed to use.
. Deacentralise your activities and learn basic opsec such as: Never give phone numbers and use email alias
. Avoid Self-Checkout! go to Quiosk! Its usually clear…
. Ask establishments about your facial recognition data and retention policies
Good luck!
Convenience Kills! 😎
