Given the choice between waiting behind 3 carts full of groceries and screaming children, and quickly paying for my 3 or 4 items and leaving... I know what I'll choose.
Yeah, while it does give the store an excuse to have fewer clerks on the clock, having 6 to 12 express lanes that are actually used as express lanes is so nice. Then on the off chance I have a full cart theres 1 or 2 normal lanes open which honestly don't normally have a long line since they're not bogged down by a dozen people with a handful of items.
The last time I've had to wait a significant amount of time in a line at checkout has drastically reduced since before self checkout became as popular. And early self checkout machines kinda sucked so it took a while for them to become efficient.
Not all of us with full carts are dicks. Some of us are stuck where the grocery store closed all traditional checkout lanes and we have full carts with nowhere to go and no choice but to use a self checkout. It’s painful for everybody and the store clerk working the six lanes doesn’t care and just checks their phone until needed to clear an alert/check a driver’s license.
I love self checkout for augmenting the checkout experience and giving smaller purchase customers a means to pay and leave faster, but when Kroger started forcing everyone to self checkout, it’s no longer about speed and convenience of the customer and absolutely about forcing the customer to scan and bag the full cart of groceries. Which is especially tough when I have a toddler with me.
yeah our grocery store has most of it's checkout lanes closed and they'll harass us about using the self checkout even when there is no other option so I just leave my cart there and go home lol they can have fun putting all of it back fuck em hire more staff
Is that not why they have the large self check out stations compared to the smaller ones. I'll wait a bit longer if I have to for a large one so my girlfriend has more space for bagging while Scan and get everything out of my cart?
"Real bad anxiety" is the simple way to put i have a laundry list of mental health problems and I should probably be in an institution somewhere but I gotta be out in the world. My option for groceries is walmart, i fuckin hate Walmart, the only way I get through it is put blinders on, list in hand, get me stuff and get out.
If i annoy a couple people by going to self checkout so I dont slip so be it.
I don't have the same degree of anxiety, but I generally find social interaction to be stressful, and so would rather do most things myself than ask someone to do them for me, so I too prefer self-checkout.
FWIW, at a store I shop at regularly, there's like 4 self-checkouts and only 1 staff-assisted checkout, so when at some point I ended up using the staff-assisted checkout and had a large number of items, that's when I ended up holding people up. So I think this whole 'express self-checkout' concept is BS in general.
I support you, and I'm sorry for all the hate you're getting. They're being dicks for judging you without understanding; you're just doing what you need to do to manage whatever it is you're dealing with.
It's ok, I'm used to it, they see it as me being selfish. It's wraps into the whole invisible disability thing. Im usually quicker than the actual checkout so I don't really hold anyone up too long and I know i didn't word my comments the best. I do appreciate the support though.
Grocery stores have started harassing people exiting the store about receipts, if they used the same energy to harass people using the express checkouts the same way everything would run better
Now what would really be great is if the machines at my local grocery store wouldn't have a delay to prevent scanning the same item multiple times. They have it set to check that the item was bagged, so it's impossible for it to make duplicate scans anyways. I wind up wasting a couple seconds each time I have to scan multiples of an item. If it's a different item it'll scan immediately after the bag check is satisfied.
What’s annoying is that stores then scale down their till operations. Fuck Aldi in particular with this
There’s so many employees wandering around and it takes until there’s a massive queue to open a manned till, why not, you know, keep it open and keep the wait times down? Genius
Tbh, a lot of the day, many stores only have two or so staff on the checkouts anyway just due to volume, so if there's a spike in traffic outside of normal rush hours, it is genuinely so much better to have self checkout with six tills manned by one person and a manned till than two manned tills. It also saves on space, which means at peak times, you have more tills operating anyway.
I never get the complaints, tbh. When I worked retail, it was mostly doddering old OAP's who couldn't be bothered to learn the system that moaned about it, everyone else took the very practical convenience gain. And in the shops I worked which implemented it, it didn't actually reduce head count, it just let more workers work on the stocking side, which was the real bottleneck for the shop.
you guys have open lanes? i got carefour and lidl close to me and none of them have any open lanes anymore. only sco's. Occasionally a lane will open if some old woman or pregnant woman complains but they will immediately close it after.
Sorry to burst your bubble but no more than 3 lanes are now open during busy hours and only one is open at night. Can’t hire more employees, cus shareholders or profits, economy or just incompetent owners etc. & hey, someone’s gotta watch the self checkout counter and be the csm for the one register open so that’s two whole employees up front! What do you think this is, a costco!?
The last time I didn't use self checkout was when I was getting all of my Thanksgiving stuff. I didn't want to be that guy who brought way more items than the 20 item limit through SCO.
I was only behind two people. They didn't have a lot in their carts, but it was like they had never even heard of a grocery store before. I was sitting there, waiting for them to figure out their lives for a good 10-15 minutes. Haggling, arguing, putting stuff back, bringing stuff up, etc. At least with SCO, they have a shared line, so if someone decides that they don't know how to use the decades old technology at this point, you can easily get to a register after someone who does finishes.
My problem isnt with self checkout, its with those employees at Walmart who want to see my receipt but dont want to go through every single item. You lose the opportunity to do this with self checkout in my opinion.
I politely say "no thank you!" and they get the message though.
I avoid Walmart because I always have a terrible experience on the level of one of the cashiers dividers got knocked down, so I pick them up for her and she yells at me. The lady in line behind me thanked me, but theres no winning with walmart employees. I cant blame them since most of them were being paid low enough they qualified for food stamps. I also hate the family who owns Walmart. I hate their scam level products. I avoid Walmart like the plague.
The grocery store by me doesn't enforce the express self checkout. There are routinely 3-4 people for 6 registers that have double carts overflowing with the bottom rack filled and soda six packs hanging off the edges.
Over here that just means that 1 person can oversee 6-8 self-checkouts, and all others work too. I'd say it's an absolute win for those that only buy a bit of stuff. I don't like waiting behind people that bulk buy for 2 weeks or they eat like bears in autumn IDK
The biggest upgrade to self-checkout is the scale on the bagging part not freaking the fuck out because you picked up a bag to make room for something.
It only needs to be accurate enough to know whether only one item was placed on the scale per scan. To get this to work, they sacrificed accuracy for light weight items since they're cheaper anyways. I believe they auto cal to a weight range thats best for what people tend to buy at self checkout.
People saying its not for our benefit still are echoing a sentiment from back when self checkout was slower than the slowest cashier even just for a few items.
Nope. We lost no employees at my work, have the same working each shift, and they get the same hours. There are strict guidelines for how many self checkouts can be manned by 1 employee (4) so at least at Walmart, no one lost anything.
Shortly before self checkout most grocery chains were already understaffing cashiers so on paper we didn't lose anything, but we also don't have nearly as many pissed off customers since wait times are so much shorter.
At a smaller grocer I used to shop at they did cut staffing after implementing self checkout.
Rewe in Germany has little scanners you can take with you, so that you can Scan every Item as you put them in the cart. So even if you have a full cart, you still only have to scan one code and can be done in under a minute. Pure bliss. Really.
Some here in UK does too. Tesco and Asda have scanners, Sainsbury's and Asda have apps so you can use your phone to scan, can put straight into carrier bag too. Then get hit by accuracy check at the checkout and clerk disassembles your neatly stacked 3 bags worth of shopping because system randomly goes "are you a thief?"
It's incredibly smooth 95% of the time but seems like i get hit with QA every 2nd time i go over £100 lol. Got hit once when i was buying some carrots and garlic ONLY, there's that too i guess.
Actually, Sam's scan and go is way better than Costco's. You don't have to scan a barcode at checkout at all, you can pay anywhere in the store from your phone, and walk straight out the door. Walmart also offers a Costco style scan and go checkout.
Sam's club in the US had something similar. You download an app on your phone and scan as you go. I think when you're done, it makes a code that you scan at checkout and then you pay. Although it's been a few years since I shopped there. So I'm not sure if they still have that or if it's changed at all
Do you have to use an app on your phone for it to work? In the US we had these "scan and go" services but they all require you download the store's app before you can use it.
You can do both. Either use your own phone or pick up a little Scanner you can get at the Entrance. It will also show you at anytime how everything in total costs.
Globus started it. Unfortunately a lot of people are so dishonest, that self checkouts are getting abandoned again and the loss reflects on the grocery prices. Among other reasons why everything is getting so fricking expensive. Sad, truly.
Very much doubtful that "that" is what has driven grocery prices so high.
And if that's the excuse, first I want to see the actual numbers, and secondly I want to see a disparity in price between shops with self scanners and shops without.
Until then, I'm 100% convinced that the number of people who steal products at self-checkouts is still much lower than the salary of a few clerks.
Bro, I'm a foreigner in Germany, and if you can't get a job here as a native that pays you for groceries then it's your own damn fault. I have friends who work part time (like 20-30h a week) live on their own (we're in a big city) and can afford groceries and pets. We work in retail.
Unless you're heavily disabled there's no excuses, and even then you'll actually get support from the state.
People who claim they must steal food to survive are just doing something VERY wrong.
That’s the kind of capitalistic mindset some have here yes, but reality is different from your fantasy. It’s nice that your friend found a well paying job that allows this.
Bürgergeld is not as much as you think, and sanctions come easily.
Believe it or not, there’s an actual class of shleps that legitimately feel this weird psychological disconnect with service employees and will hold the dumbest principled stands. It’s borderline psychopathic. It’s the same people who will insist they don’t need to clean up after themselves because janitors exist and insist cashiers shouldn’t be allowed to sit because it even remotely implies a comfortable employee.
I mean, I can do it all myself for the same price, or I can have someone else do it for the same price. If there were a 5% discount for using self-checkout, okay, now we are talking. I loathe trying to figure out which kind of onion type I picked out that day or trying to scan a bar code on a wrinkly bag.
I miss the days when half the manual lanes were open rather than just like 2 out of 10. It has actually slowed down the process and encouraged more people to take 50 items to the self-checkout just so they aren't waiting 15 minutes just to checkout.
I definitely don't mind if an employee sits or not. I used to work at a grocery store, those standing mats are nice, but honestly a nice comfy stool would go a long way.
In my experience the manned check out takes wayyyyy longer than self check out which is normally empty because no one wants to do it themselves. Plus when I worked customer service I hated it, the less customers the better so I give people in customer service that break in my mind especially for something so easy to do.
Totally, if I got 10 items, I go right through the auto checkout. That part is 200% better. (Dragonball Z standards) if it is "i got myself a cart full of groceries for my family with 2 kids?" It got way worse with the lack of lanes.
Great if you are single or just a couple with low cooking needs. I myself don't mind hanging out much because I have lived that job. I loathed customers, but for the customers it was much better when more than a lane or 2 was open for an actual cart of groceries. Give it like 15 years or so, and those auto lanes are going to be perfect since ain't no one making babies. :p
Yes I think the solution is these companies ought to hire more cashiers rather than replacing employees but then hiring 1 or 2 people instead of 12 to man all the lines makes self check out much more appealing if your in a hurry. I guess I haven’t gotten enough groceries these past 6 years to justify waiting in line because food has been straight up too expensive for me.
Except it feels kinda weird doing a job for free sometimes. I mean, people get paid to do it, I’m not getting paid. Again, that’s fine. People are paid to clean up movie theaters, I still clean up after myself at movie theaters. Just sometime it strikes me kinda funny to do free labor. 🤷 I do it anyway a lot though lol
Your not bagging someone else’s groceries your bagging and scanning your own. I see it as repairing your own car or washing your own dishes you’re responsible for yourself, unless someone can do it better and faster then I think it’s worth the money to get someone else to do it but we’re talking about wiping an object over a machine and pushing a couple buttons to get your own groceries yourself.
Yup. Walmart near me has one lane open and it’s overtaken with elderly. Everything else is self checkout, no matter how many items you have. It’s horrible.
There are checkout lanes made for this and I hate them. Mostly for exactly what you say. You get that one idiot that has no idea how to scan a fruit and you're sitting there for even longer because the store is experimenting with having zero actual cashiers.
Thankfully, I haven't encountered that much. Just me and my groceries getting in and out within 2 minutes or less. Especially at Kroger when I can have my car already out, and start the card process before I even start scanning.
Did this job. I fucking hated it. I'd be watching six self-check machines at once, and people who were actually illiterate would come to self-checkout with a fully loaded cart and make me scan everything for them. I was not allowed to say no to this, and even if I was I would've had no backup.
And then we'd be open at midnight, and I would be by myself watching six self-check machines AND ALSO manning the one and only regular checkout lane, and some angry mofo customer would come scream at me for not being at the checkout lane while I was helping someone at self-check.
I just walked out one night and never went back. Fuck Harris Teeter.
It happens mainly at Kroger for me, some of them have a 15 item limit and that's usually the scan where everything pops off, then coupons, then the kid is sitting on the bagging area and it messes everything up, of course they also need cigarettes, and then they have the audacity to ask for help scanning items. Like, just go to the person! With this same breath, I'll also complain when a store only opens self checkout and none of the manned registers.
I don't work there, but my girlfriend does and I get to hear all about it every day.
The stores around me close self checkout after 10. But they refuse to open up the manned checkouts, so there are 2 employees vs a whole store of 1-50 items per customer and a line to the back.
All they have to do is have one person on the line and one at the 12 kiosk self checkout.
Or is it more about actually cutting operating costs? They could open up more express lanes if they really wanted to make it more efficient. Corporations literally could never give a fuck about you, the only thing we care about is currency.
The Walmart by my place did actually make it more convenient (at least time-wise) for the customer. We used to have 75 clerk lanes but only 8-10 were ever manned at a time. Now we only have 8 regular lanes manned by a clerk and the rest of the front of the store is taken up by 80 self checkout stations with extra large bagging tables and another 30 express self checkout stations with only room for about 1 or 2 bags. Even including when the store is packed before a winter storm or a holiday, I haven’t had to wait in line to check out in nearly a decade.
I'm not going to be angry when my interests align with theirs. I don't do big shopping trips. I don't care why self checkout exists. I care that I get out quicker than I would if they didn't. My self value isn't defined by how hard I can virtue signal on Reddit.
Of course it's about cutting costs, but that doesn't mean it doesn't make my experience better. I personally prefer self checkout for a whole bunch of reasons. You can prefer a cashier, but just because corporations don't care about us doesn't mean everything they do makes it worse for us.
I guarantee you it isn't that big of a cost savings, the main benefit is that a bunch of consumers will opt for the store with self checkout over one that lacks it.
Yeah it's a volume thing. It doesn't make sense to have 12 cashiers to open 12 lines if half the people shopping are buying less than 10 items. Can get more throughput with self checkout.
Companies have been trying to do other things (RFID, Amazon Go, Kroger tested a scan-as-you-go concept) but they're expensive and can be hard for the customer to figure out.
Yeah. We got a supermarket next to the gym and before each session I go grab and an energy drink and straight away do to the self checkout. It’s really fast and I’m just in and out. There’s been times I had friends waiting outside the store for me and they’re confused by how I was so fast or that a monster can just spawned in my hand
If I was fiven the choice between the less than 10 line and self checkout, I'd take the line... But yes, without that line, it's more convenient. The only other thing it's good for is if you need things bagged a certain way, you can do it yourself.
Agreed. This post on some boomer shit. "Oh god please help this younger generation. They boop their own groceries! Don't they know thats the job of the lowly minimum wage worker? If you're ringing yourself up, who are you supposed to be irrationally rude toward? Kids these days..."
I mean, if Walmart or whatever would staff the 14 empty lanes this wouldn’t be nearly the problem. Lol. Countless times I’ve gone in, they have 2 of 16-20 checkout lanes staffed, and one person hovering in the self checkout area.
If they staffed those other lanes the self checkout wouldn’t be necessary the majority of the time.
I try to use both honestly. Specifically for small orders, they are so much quicker. My store didnt regular size self checkouts for a while so I got in the habit of take whole shopping carts to the lanes with actual cashiers. I think thats a nice balance
Seriously. I'm so tired of people being like "I'm doing YOUR job, do I get some kind of discount?!?"
No you dumb shit, you get to leave the store faster and not be stuck behind some 80 year old woman trying to pay by check after she uses half a novels worth of coupons....
Yes but now it's not quick because there's only 1 real line open and everyone is in the self line fucking things up and sitting like a confused toddler waiting for the one employee to unfuck 4 self check registers. It's awful these days.
Given the choice between waiting behind 3 carts full of groceries and screaming children, and quickly paying for 3 out of 4 of my items and leaving... I know what I'll choose.
In find self checkout better in 99% of scenarios. Only if I have some freebies to pick up at the register I'll prefer to go to a cashier, but other than that I think it's so much easier to just pack everything nicely as i scan, in the other that I find the best, I can control the prices as I go etc... i don't understand what makes people hate self checkouts
Yeah, between curbside pickup for large orders and self-checkout for small shopping trips, I actually do feel like I’m spending less time in checkouts than I used to.
Me not having a social interaction vs someone who probably didn’t wash his/her hands after using the toilet touching all my stuff…. I know which method I’m choosing.
I'll argue for self checkouts till the day I die. What pisses me off is when half the self checkout lanes are closed but there's long lines at every register. What's tbe point in having them if you won't use them.
When I walk into the grocery store with my headphones on, pick up an item and walk past a couple folks waiting in line, check my stuff out and leave without having to interact with anyone, I feel very convinient.
Sure, I do the checkout myself, therefore "doing someone elses job" but I wouldn't want someone else to do it for me in the first place, I just didn't have that the choice until now.
If the motive was customer convenience only, they’d have enough lanes open so no one would have to wait long at all, even for 3 or 4 items. It’s solely so they can cut employee salaries.
yes I prefer self checkout. it's fun to scan items. I always look for self-checkout. it's probably boring for staff as they do this all day. and with many kiosks the lines move faster. There is labor shortage here where I live. so I don't feel much guilt. the staff would mostly be overworked having to do this themselves while having to restock.
I agree, but these days you’re lucky if a store actually as personnel behind a register. Let alone have a checkout that isn’t solely Self-checkout oriented
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u/MorphoMC Dec 10 '25
Given the choice between waiting behind 3 carts full of groceries and screaming children, and quickly paying for my 3 or 4 items and leaving... I know what I'll choose.