I only use checkouts with people. The Malwart near me refuses to open any registers other than self checkout. There are always ladies at the front wanting to check receipts. So, I just abandon my purchase a lot.
If they can’t hire people to open a single register than they can hire someone to put back the items in the cart.
Arguments:
“But POTOOOOOOOO you are being an asshole!”
I helped build POS machines. I know how often they are inaccurate and if they think you made an error stores are quicker to trust the POS machine more than the person.
The POS machines at self check outs have a ton of cameras and most want you to pay with a credit card. Some machines won’t flag you for shop lifting until after the fact. Then they will be able to cross reference the credit card that paid for it.
I can’t even begin to understand the “you are being an asshole” argument. Am I an asshole because I protect jobs? Am I an asshole because I don’t want to pad the earnings of a multi-billion dollar corporation at the expense of workers? No, dude, I am 100% with you. I have abandoned my purchases as well, and I actively avoid stores that push self checkout.
Protecting jobs is the stupidest possible reason to be anti self checkout. I don’t care much about the other points but that one I find really stupid. I guess we should also remove all automation from manufacturing and use hammers and nails to build cars as well. Let’s also destroy all calculators since we can just go back to people crunching out numbers on paper.
Look at all these poor women that lost their jobs because of big calculator.
Self checkout is not automated, you fool. you are doing the work for the company. It is not a new technological solution. A human is still working the till.
The thing is you’re distributing that time onto a lot of people. Instead of a person having to sit at the register 24/7 now people spend 1 minute longer at the store because they have to scan stuff themselves, which is negligible. In fact, you’re (or at least I am) almost always faster at shopping because now you don’t need to wait for a register to open up. Now you have an entire human being that’s free to do something else.
Another important fact is that for me at least the difference between when a cashier checks out goods for me and when I do it is maybe 30%, which again doesn’t count the fact that you don’t have to wait for a free cash register or the wait is much shorter most of the time.
Another thing it helps with is when you have a grandma fidling with her coins trying to find exact change for 5 minutes blocking everyone behind her. You can just go to a different self checkout instead of waiting for the single open till to free up.
You may be faster at the till than I am. I admit I lack practice.
You make a good point about waiting in line behind slow customers, though. One of the biggest advantages of the self checkout is the single queue. Having six lineups for six checkouts never made sense.
I stepped into a Fred Meyer the other day and was fucking horrified by the amount of cameras and face recognition around the self checkout section. It’s dystopian. I just left and went to a different store.
I was in a malwart for the first time in over a decade last week. There wasn’t a single register open like you said. I also walked out without purchasing anything. Maybe I’ll try in another ten years.
I only use checkouts with people. The Malwart near me refuses to open any registers other than self checkout. There are always ladies at the front wanting to check receipts. So, I just abandon my purchase a lot.
If they can’t hire people to open a single register than they can hire someone to put back the items in the cart.
Arguments:
“But POTOOOOOOOO you are being an asshole!”
I helped build POS machines. I know how often they are inaccurate and if they think you made an error stores are quicker to trust the POS machine more than the person.
The POS machines at self check outs have a ton of cameras and most want you to pay with a credit card. Some machines won’t flag you for shop lifting until after the fact. Then they will be able to cross reference the credit card that paid for it.
“You’re being paranoid”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/01/us/walmart-shoplifting-lawsuit.html
TL;DR: Don’t use self checkouts.
I can’t even begin to understand the “you are being an asshole” argument. Am I an asshole because I protect jobs? Am I an asshole because I don’t want to pad the earnings of a multi-billion dollar corporation at the expense of workers? No, dude, I am 100% with you. I have abandoned my purchases as well, and I actively avoid stores that push self checkout.
I’ve stated similar things on Reddit. Someone flipped out at me for creating food waste and staffing issues for making them put away things.
I don’t buy food at malwort if I can help it.
Protecting jobs is the stupidest possible reason to be anti self checkout. I don’t care much about the other points but that one I find really stupid. I guess we should also remove all automation from manufacturing and use hammers and nails to build cars as well. Let’s also destroy all calculators since we can just go back to people crunching out numbers on paper.
Look at all these poor women that lost their jobs because of big calculator.
Self checkout is not automated, you fool. you are doing the work for the company. It is not a new technological solution. A human is still working the till.
The thing is you’re distributing that time onto a lot of people. Instead of a person having to sit at the register 24/7 now people spend 1 minute longer at the store because they have to scan stuff themselves, which is negligible. In fact, you’re (or at least I am) almost always faster at shopping because now you don’t need to wait for a register to open up. Now you have an entire human being that’s free to do something else.
Another important fact is that for me at least the difference between when a cashier checks out goods for me and when I do it is maybe 30%, which again doesn’t count the fact that you don’t have to wait for a free cash register or the wait is much shorter most of the time.
Another thing it helps with is when you have a grandma fidling with her coins trying to find exact change for 5 minutes blocking everyone behind her. You can just go to a different self checkout instead of waiting for the single open till to free up.
You may be faster at the till than I am. I admit I lack practice. You make a good point about waiting in line behind slow customers, though. One of the biggest advantages of the self checkout is the single queue. Having six lineups for six checkouts never made sense.
I stepped into a Fred Meyer the other day and was fucking horrified by the amount of cameras and face recognition around the self checkout section. It’s dystopian. I just left and went to a different store.
I was in a malwart for the first time in over a decade last week. There wasn’t a single register open like you said. I also walked out without purchasing anything. Maybe I’ll try in another ten years.
I’ve asked them to open one and the employees have stated “no use self checkout” absolutely insane.