More Unintended Consequences
July 25th, 2006 | by Craig |I’ve never understood the appeal of the self-checkout stands that are slowly gaining acceptance in some grocery stores. Here in Montana, I’ve only seen them at (*gasp*) Wal-mart, but I understand they are becoming more prevalent.
I used the self-checkout once, and found it to be an exercise in frustration, and ended up needing a live human to help anyway. It then occurred to me that they are trying to get me to do their work for free. So, until there’s some sort of financial incentive for using the self-checkout, I’ll just take the service I’m paying for, thank you very much.
The funny thing is that instead of increasing profits by cutting costs, profits taking a dip in certain products.
8 Responses to “More Unintended Consequences”
By Andrew on Jul 26, 2006 | Reply
Over here, you can save yourself usually around 5 minutes by using the self-checkout. That’s good enough for me
By Jeff on Jul 26, 2006 | Reply
I use them all the time at the Albertsons here. Unless I get behind someone who doesn’t know what he or she is doing (no offense :-P), it’s much quicker. Also, I’ve usually had enough human interaction during the day, so avoiding more is a plus.
By rita on Jul 27, 2006 | Reply
I use them occasionally if there’s a line at the express lanes. They work best if you only have a few items and nothing that requires any special scanning like a bad UPC or sold by weight items.
The only thing I like about self checkout is that I bag my own stuff….which means it gets done correctly. I pre-sort my items on the checkout belt so it reaches the cashier in the order it should be bagged, so it irritates me to no end when they don’t bag things the way they should. Yes, I’m picky. Working as a cashier for years will do that to you. It’s not like it’s quantum physics.
By dogette on Jul 27, 2006 | Reply
I do see your point, Craig, but, once you get into the “art” of the self-serves, they really are faster unless YOU (no not you personally) are one of the “bad machines who doesn’t know it’s a bad machine.” [Line from the film Midnight Express.] I mean, especially if you’re not into shopping and usually only have a few items chock full of preservatives and HATE being in stores and your eye-twitch starts acting up on you before you’re even through the automatic doorway. And this applies ONLY when there’s no human spaz-clog in front of you, obviously. I probably shouldn’t just blurt this without prefatory remarks, but let me just come right out and say that I’m not all that big on some of the human interaction parts, either.
By Craig on Jul 27, 2006 | Reply
Maybe I just need to learn a little Goddamned Patience.
By Jim - PRS on Jul 28, 2006 | Reply
I would never go near one of those things. I’d wind up with a blue screen and the store would wind up in the dark.
By Jim - PRS on Jul 28, 2006 | Reply
Oh, and one more thing. I’d have to call you to get me out of the store.
By grannyinsanity on Aug 14, 2006 | Reply
I don’t like the idea very much either. I think we were all given an invisible rate hike when they got rid of the operators so we could spend all day listening to advertising while we wait for the next choice of numbers we can punch into the phone.
Have you ever noticed companies change their format so that you couldn’t punch in the correct sequences without listening to jabber about all the really great deals and services you could be getting?