Are self checkout lines a thing of the past?

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I HATE self-checkout.

Hate it, hate it, just H8 it.

 

 

I have used it maybe twice.

 

 

The supermarket I go to regularly (Acme Fresh Market-NOT Philadelphia Acme-) is locally owned and operated.  I spend anywhere from 200-300 a month on groceries, and I am recognized.

 

 

 I am on good terms with ALL the section managers.  I treat all the employees with respect and sincere interest, and they (at least the ones who like me, who know me, -- employees who have been there more than four or more years,) seem to be sincerely glad I am shopping there that day.

 

 

 Ava, the pricing coordinator and her husband, go deer hunting in season.  Leonard, the produce guy, steers me to the best quality items.  Davis, the meat department manager, does custom cutting or re-packing for me.   And so on and so on and so on.  Dorothee and Angelique, the flower shop ladies, like it when I make custom arrangements at their counter, and are helpful....

I was greatly relieved when Marsha's son came safely back from Afghanistan.

 

NO, I do not pull up an easy chair and a cup of coffee when I get to the checkout.  I respect the cashier's time, and the time of the person(s) behind me.  However, I try to treat everyone, even "idiot retail employees" like human beings who might have sore feet, might have practical knowledge I do not have.............

 

 

I could go to the Super Wal*Mart that is a mile + down the road, but they are NOT locally owned, the store is ALWAYS disorganized, and just usually unpleasant.

 

 

I am really shocked and angered at the tone some people have used in this thread.

 

 

 

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
Another thing that I don't like about the self-service machines is that they are manfactured by different companies.

I get used to the layout of scanner, cash dispenser, note dispenser, note insertion slots, etc. Then if I go to another store, the machines are slightly different and I waste time trying to suss them out.

Because of this I prefer a manned checkout.
 
the days when the checker removed the items from your cart

One locally owned chain, Lunardi's, still retains a configuration where the checker empties your cart.  The only other place I can think of that does it is Trader Joe's.
 
Kroger is supposed to offer to empty your cart onto the belt, but there is seldom anyone there to do it. I don't care about that. The few times they asked me if I need help, I said no. I'm old and scrawny but not disabled.

I think if requested they could find someone or the cashier would walk around and do it. Was a time the cashier routinely emptied the cart but that was before scanners when everything was manual. Was a time stores hired highschool boys to bag. Was a time bacon was 30c a pound and gas was 19c a gallon. Times change. Don't they?
 
Checker

Here's a wonderful movie from the Prelinger archives about "How to be an effective supermarket checker".

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Perhaps I'm the exception - but I'm faster than the clerk would be when I use the self check out.  I do 85% of my shopping and my local Meijer super store, 10% at Aldi and the remaining 5% at Kroger.  I self check at Meijer and Kroger and got to know the cashiers at Aldi who are quick and accurate - and friendly.  In my small local town there is a nice store called Beuche's.  I'm sure most of you would love it - customer service to the max.  They even carry your groceries to your car for you.  That is one of the reasons i rarely shop there- I almost have to wrestle the bags out of the kids hands, I don't need my groceries carried for me.

 

I guess it comes down to each his own....

 

 
 
the days when the checker removed the items from your cart

The Market Basket here in Groves still does it. The clerks are always nice and the baggers even have a kind word for you.
 
@arbilab

I don't go back to the days of 19-cent gas, but I do remember when it was 28 cents for regular and 32 cents for premium. ;)

My earliest memories of supermarket shopping are that no one ever unloaded the cart for you. Of course, I am referring to mid-century and later supermarkets, not pre-war survivor stores. The design that was common from the 1950s to even the 1980s was the circular turntable between you and register. You would unload your goods and place them between moveable dividers on the turntable. The turntable would rotate counter clockwise and bring them within reach of the checker, who then rang them up on the register (no scans back then) and slid them along a track to the bagging area. A supermarket where I shopped through the late 1980s had the circular turntables.

The turntable model check-out areas were wider than today's "straight shot" check outs, so more lanes can fit in the same space using the modern version. Thinking back to the turntable design, had scanning existed back then, there's no reason a checker could not scan each item as the turntable brought the items to the checker, though possibly there could be more carpal tunnel issues from the extra reaching involved. But I think the main reason for the turntables' demise was their size and the need to renovate stores and add more register lanes in the same space.
 
I don't remember a store that unloaded the cart for customers although there was a chain I shopped in at some time that had carts with some sort of heavy plastic panel. When you docked the cart at the end of the checkout belt, the panel somehow lifted things up to the belt. I don't remember more than that. I remember when shopping with my mother how she would park me in a checkout lane and then go back to finish getting the last items. I would be in terror of having to face the checkout clerk with no mom and no money. She always got back in time. I really need not have feared. She always made friends with the checkers and the various department heads as well as the store manager. She brought all of them her famous brownies and they gave her special favors. The lady who headed up the dairy department always sold mom the eggs she had to remove from cartons because they got messed up by broken eggs above or beside them. Do any of you remember when egg cartons were very light cardboard, not moulded but had all of those little folds and hollows where the folded parts that supported the eggs were stamped from? Well, for a broken egg, it was like a separator and the insides of eggs made quite a mess. The lady would go in back and take a box with about 3 dozen eggs out of the walk in cooler. A paper bag was placed over the top with some figure written on it.

The man I watched who successfully scanned each item actually bumped the items against the vertical scanner window.

I find that since they took the voice out of the scanners, they work much faster. It was maddening when it would take extra time to announce the price and how much you saved on each sale item. Save that crap for the TV commercial. Calling out the prices went out with the Fannie Flag commedy album I remember that had us out of breath with laughter. One line I remember was her asking a lady how her son's show was going then in the same breath called out, "TURKEY" and then the price.
 
I don't shop at Lucky's/Albertson's much so I haven't seen the self-serve checkouts there.

However I've used the ones at Home Depot and have to say they are generally more trouble than they are worth. Although they seem to have gotten better lately, I remember many frustrating moments trying to scan and purchase items, with the robot telling me I didn't put the merchandise in the bagging area, or there was something in the bagging area that wasn't supposed to be there. And the human attendant usually would take far too long to fix whatever problems cropped up. Often I'd just leave the self-serve checkout sitting there squawking, and take my purchases to a human staffed checkout line, or just leave the store in disgust.
 
My very first job

was as a customer service personnel (bag boy) for Winn-Dixie.  We would unload a customer's cart, bag the groceries, and then take them out for the customer.  If I had a dollar for everytime some hag would tell me "don't mash my bread" or "don't bust my eggs" I'd be a rich man.  Sometimes their bread would get squeezed and their eggs would get broken.  Things happen.  That was nearly 40 years ago.  When shopping at Ingle's or Wally World if I only have a few items I use the self-checker.  If I have a full order I go thru the line.   What I hate is some ignorant so and so with a $200.00 order going thru the self-checker.  I also hate when the customer and cashier are both chatting away then suddenly they realize it's time to pay then the customer has to look thru her purse to find her checkbook.  My favorite grocery store is Publix where they will unload your cart, bag your groceries, and offer to take them to your vehicle.  They are so friendly.  No matter where I go I always try to be friendly and speak to the cashiers and bagpersons.  I have worked in public service most of my working life so I know it is refreshing to have someone actually speak nicely and treat you as a human being.   But I do hate the cashier who is pissed he or she had to work at that time or they are worried their SO is cheating on them.  Once I had a cashier rant about my placing a particularly bloody package of ground beef in a clear bag.  She fussed and fussed about having to pull the meat out of the bag and scan it.  I "apologized" for making her life a living hell then walked over to the manager and told him why I was leaving the store and why would never shop there again as long as this cashier worked there.    We also have a few grocery stores around here where you pick up a scanner, scan your grocery items as you shop, and place them directly into your bag as you shop.  When you get to the register you give the scanner to the clerk who scans a ticket and you pay.  Occasionally you are pulled aside for a random audit of your cart which means the clerk unpacks your bag, rescans everything, then bags them up for you.  After I was audited for the 3rd time I told the clerk I was a democrat, not a republican.  I do not steal, lie about it, then give it to the rich.  She looked at me as if I were insane.  I never used the self-scanner again at that store.  To be honest I felt bad about my scene and should have showed out for the manager, not the clerk.  It wasn't her fault.  Oh well, life goes on. 
 
the demise of supermarket check out turntables

In my post # 529968 above, I wrote about the demise of the turntable check out lanes at supermarkets. Today I saw an acquaintance who's been a checker for 30+ years. I asked her why the turntables went away and she said it was a matter of width: when stores were renovated, particular older stores, they could fit in more check out lanes with the straight-chute design, which needs less width than the turntable design.

The last market I saw with turntables was the old VONS store in Point Loma, San Diego, which is where my family shopped as a kid. I was last inside in 2004 and they still had turntables. A new larger VONS opened nearby in the last few years and the old store (c. 1950) closed. The store began as one of the DeFalco's Supermarkets, and that local San Diego chain was bought by VONS c. 1970.
 
In my area, the QFC store I sometimes shop at always unloads the cart for the customer. There is no belt--the cash register is near the edge of the counter. The cart is easily reached. There is a shelf where an item or two can be placed. Or a small basket. QFC is owned by Kroger, but they position themselves higher in the market than other stores. (Read: they are more expensive, but I think--right now--Albertsons is the most expensive chain--at least for what I buy--in my particular market.)

Another QFC I knew of had the old turntables. Can't remember the last time I was in there, but probably in the last year or so. Those turntables were from another era, of course. In fact, that store (in the last decade) was under different ownership. It was closed a few months ago. The city that has that store would like to get another grocery store in its place. It'll be interesting if they do to see whether the checkout lanes with turntables survive.
 
I haven't seen this one in a long time, but there was a period when grocery stores had the customers do the bagging. Presumably as a cost cutting measure. One store my mother shopped at had two lines with one cashier. The cashier would check out one customer, and while he or she bagged and wrote a check, the cashier would check out the other customer. (I'm pretty sure this was Fred Meyer--at least the location we shopped at. It was the primary store for my mother. Back then, Fred Meyer was Pacific Northwest. Now it's Kroger.)

Going even further back in time, I remember my parents shopping at one store in the late 70s where you did the pricing. Not setting the prices (wouldn't that be nice?!?), but you'd take the item off the shelf, and write the price on the item. The store provided a supply of markers one could borrow. This was, of course, before scanning systems were so common. But, even so, I wonder if eliminating a person going around with a pricing gun really saved much from the bottom line. That store vanished, probably before 1980. Perhaps not coincidentally, it was located next door to KMart.
 

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