Rules for using the Self Checkout!

[aaronck]

I remember once at the Superstore, this stupid woman needed help with every item-kept calling the girl back, claiming the equipement was faulty (leave the on the scale until it tells you to bag it woman!)
Anyways, after the 7th or 8th time the girl does the eye roll thing and talks to the lady like she's 7, which at this point is the only to talk to her, the lady gets all mad and berates the poor girl, and suggests maybe she should get a new job- I bet that lady thinks most people in the world are dumb, but I'm pretty sure it's just her

[Hemi-Cuda]

the best i've seen was watching a young woman at Walmart struggling with the self checkout. after several minutes of being unable to do whatever she was trying to accomplish (i couldn't see exactly what the issue was), she slams her foot down and yells "This is impossible! Stupid machine!". then all the Walmart cashiers turn around and start laughing at her, and her face turns beat red

apparently she worked at that Walmart as a cashier

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by jammies

Ding! Ding! Salivate! Ding! Ding! Salivate!

Buncha Pavlovian biatches! "Oh I'm gonna do all the work of the cashier and the bag-boy, and then I'm gonna congratulate myself on how much time I've saved!" WAKE UP! The stores have trained you to go into these abominations as if they're doing you a favour - but the truth is that it's all to save money and increase profits.

Hire more cashiers and the lines go away too - why aren't we demanding this? Instead you're willing to train yourself as a cashier (which is essentially what you're doing) and then thank MegaCorp for the privilege? Not this faceless consumer!

They're not abominations, they are faster. Like pumping my own gas is faster. Like doing my own banking is faster (ATM, Inet, etc.). It's not like because it is a win for them it's a loss for me. And I do want the companies I work with to be more efficient as it works to my benefit on three fronts:

1. if they're publicly traded I can share in the financial benefits of their profitability
2. I can save money on their cheaper products because of their efficiencies
3. I can get on with life faster because they saved me time, and I appreciate that.

Besides, if you still want to go in the slow lane, have at 'er. All the faster for me going through self check-out. Be sure to tell the cashier it's still cold out there when she asks!

[jammies]

Originally Posted by Sliver

They're not abominations, they are faster. Like pumping my own gas is faster. Like doing my own banking is faster (ATM, Inet, etc.).

So what you're saying is that the average untrained user is FASTER than a trained cashier? For one or two bar-coded items, maybe, but if you tracked the average number of items going through each kind of till over a significant time period, there is simply no way self-serve is going to be faster.

"Efficient" depends on what perspective you are looking at the transaction - sure, for the COMPANY it's more efficient to have you do their work for them, but for the CONSUMER it would more efficient to have more cashiers. I'm not interested in whether Wal-mart's stock pays out an extra .5 cents in dividend this quarter, if that extra .5 cents is because I'm doing the work that other people used to do - except I'm doing it for free. How that works out to be a net economic benefit is a mystery to me, unless you think unpaid labour is the wave of the future.

For gas and banking, you are after one thing - fuel or money, and thus the transactions are very simple and can be automated easily. It's more efficient because the human element has been replaced by the machine - this is NOT the same issue, as now the paid human element has been replaced by the unpaid human element. Someone is still scanning the items, bagging the items, and entering the payment, except instead of it being store staff, it's the customer.

[The Yen Man]

Originally Posted by jammies

So what you're saying is that the average untrained user is FASTER than a trained cashier who are either old and slow at everything they do, can barely work a computer normally, or don't give a crap and just work at their own pace?

Yes.

[gargamel]

Originally Posted by jammies

So what you're saying is that the average untrained user is FASTER than a trained cashier? For one or two bar-coded items, maybe, but if you tracked the average number of items going through each kind of till over a significant time period, there is simply no way self-serve is going to be faster.

You're assuming that there's as many people in the self checkout lines as there are in regular lines, but that's rarely if ever true. You're also assuming that you're shopping somewhere that the cashiers are "trained," which is often questionable.

[HOOT]

Originally Posted by 4X4

It annoys me that the stores don't take 5 minutes and paint a line on the floor or hang a sign or something to indicate this.

I have mentioned this to Safeway once when I was in there because I was behind these two idiots fighting over who was next, how many lines there should or shouldn't be. As soon as a til opened up I just walked past both of them and did my thing. I mentioned it to the manager (or so his name tag said) and said he didn't know what the plan was.

[HOOT]

Originally Posted by jammies

So what you're saying is that the average untrained user is FASTER than a trained cashier? For one or two bar-coded items, maybe, but if you tracked the average number of items going through each kind of till over a significant time period, there is simply no way self-serve is going to be faster.

Why isn't it? How hard is it to wave a barcode over a scanner? How hard is it to look at the sticker on the apples to see the code? Do cashiers go through some kind of special training I don't know about?

If people actually paid attention to what they were doing, or at least ask for help right away then we wouldn't have people staring blankly at a screen for ten minutes while a half dozen people wait on this idiot.

[The Yen Man]

Queuing theory dictates that one single line is the most efficient as it is the one that minimizes idle time. Thank you introductory OPMA!

[Russic]

Does anybody else use these to get out of forced chit chat with cashiers? It's not that I'm overly cold or anything ... I just get uncomfortable discussing the events of the day with complete strangers.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by jammies

Ding! Ding! Salivate! Ding! Ding! Salivate!

Buncha Pavlovian biatches! "Oh I'm gonna do all the work of the cashier and the bag-boy, and then I'm gonna congratulate myself on how much time I've saved!" WAKE UP! The stores have trained you to go into these abominations as if they're doing you a favour - but the truth is that it's all to save money and increase profits.

Hire more cashiers and the lines go away too - why aren't we demanding this? Instead you're willing to train yourself as a cashier (which is essentially what you're doing) and then thank MegaCorp for the privilege? Not this faceless consumer!

When I worked for Safeway we were given a similar line. The companies goal was to reduce labour costs through people using these self checkouts. The more popular they became the less cashiers they'd have during the day and evening. Judging by what I saw at Walmart last night, they seem to be following the same business model.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by jammies

So what you're saying is that the average untrained user is FASTER than a trained cashier? For one or two bar-coded items, maybe, but if you tracked the average number of items going through each kind of till over a significant time period, there is simply no way self-serve is going to be faster.

First off, lol at "untrained user." You hardly need training to operate one of these tills, which is exactly why they work so well. Plus there is typically one cashier to oversee banks of either four or six checkouts so help is right there if you need it. That said, and others have pointed out, if you are generally incompetent or half ######ed you may not be able to figure out that that picture of a carrot on the screen corresponds to that bag of carrots you'd like to purchase. If this is you (or if you or over 50), just go to the regular cashier. They will be there as long as there are baby boomers.

Your theory that a self-serve checkout is slower is based on what you wish were the case, but runs contrary to the experience of everybody else posting here so far, myself included. It's faster every time. I also suspect Rona, Wal-Mart, Co-op, Safeway, Superstore, etc. have done a little more research into this to determine the systems work. All of the above strive to provide good customer service and beyond the benefits to the companies, customers clearly like the option to visit a self-serve check-out.

Originally Posted by jammies

"Efficient" depends on what perspective you are looking at the transaction - sure, for the COMPANY it's more efficient to have you do their work for them, but for the CONSUMER it would more efficient to have more cashiers. I'm not interested in whether Wal-mart's stock pays out an extra .5 cents in dividend this quarter, if that extra .5 cents is because I'm doing the work that other people used to do - except I'm doing it for free. How that works out to be a net economic benefit is a mystery to me, unless you think unpaid labour is the wave of the future.

I'm saying if you buy stocks, you are likely attracted to ones that perform well. Efficient companies are more likely to perform better and be better investments. Efficient companies also tend to have lower prices in a competitive environment. Why you are pretending this doesn't have a positive impact for a customer and an investor is beyond me.

Originally Posted by jammies

For gas and banking, you are after one thing - fuel or money, and thus the transactions are very simple and can be automated easily. It's more efficient because the human element has been replaced by the machine - this is NOT the same issue, as now the paid human element has been replaced by the unpaid human element. Someone is still scanning the items, bagging the items, and entering the payment, except instead of it being store staff, it's the customer.

Banking used to be very time consuming for people because it is not as simple as you are suggesting. I run a business and I have to do a lot of banking that I can thankfully do from my computer. There are all kinds of remittances, taxes and different accounts that I have to move things around in that would be terribly onerous to put in the hands of some 25 year-old girl that just passed her Canadian Securities Course.

/pwning your position

[Dion]

Originally Posted by HOOT

Why isn't it? How hard is it to wave a barcode over a scanner? How hard is it to look at the sticker on the apples to see the code? Do cashiers go through some kind of special training I don't know about?

There are no codes on produce or fruit stickers The cashier is responsible for memorising the codes for the different types of fruit and produce. It speeds up the process as opposed to the cashier having to look up every code.

[HOOT]

Originally Posted by Dion

There are no codes on produce or fruit stickers The cashier is responsible for memorising the codes for the different types of fruit and produce. It speeds up the process as opposed to the cashier having to look up every code.

Ummm yes there is. Here is the apple I was about to eat...if you punch in 4016 in the code guess which product comes up.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by Dion

There are no codes on produce or fruit stickers The cashier is responsible for memorising the codes for the different types of fruit and produce. It speeds up the process as opposed to the cashier having to look up every code.

Wow you guys really don't want this to work, do you?

On the self-serve checkouts there is a picture of a bunch of carrots for carrots. Likewise for celery, onions, etc. It is designed so a child could use it with ease and it is fast.

You like the old-fashioned way and that's fine, but it is more than a little annoying reading your uneducated posts on this very simple matter.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by HOOT

Ummm yes there is. Here is the apple I was about to eat...if you punch in 4016 in the code guess which product comes up.

I don't eat apples

[GreenTeaFrapp]

Originally Posted by jammies

So what you're saying is that the average untrained user is FASTER than a trained cashier? For one or two bar-coded items, maybe, but if you tracked the average number of items going through each kind of till over a significant time period, there is simply no way self-serve is going to be faster.

Not to mention that regular cashiers are setup to be much quicker than the self checkouts. Regular cashiers don't have to have each item weighed individually before they proceed to the next one. They have conveyor belts to move the groceries up more efficiently. Some stores used to even have staff that would bag the groceries for the cashiers. But they were eliminated to save money, not to save time. Just like self checkouts.

[troutman]

Grumpy Old Man: I'm oooooold! And I'm not happy! And I don't like things now compared to the way they used to be. All this progress -- phooey! In my day, we didn't have these cash machines that would give you money when you needed it. There was only one bank in each state -- it was open only one hour a year. And you'd get in line, seventeen miles long, and the line became an angry mob of people -- fornicators and thieves, mutant children and circus freaks -- and you waited for years and by the time you got to the teller, you were senile and arthritic and you couldn't remember your own name. You were born, got in line, and ya died! And that's the way it was and we liked it!

Life was simpler then. There wasn't all this concern about hy-giene! It my days, we didn't have Kleenex. When you turned seventeen, you were given the family handkerchief. ... It hadn't been washed in generations and it stood on its own ... filled with diseases and swarmin' with flies. ... If you tried to blow your nose, you'd get an infection and your head would swell up and turn green and children would burst into tears at the sight o' ya! And that's the way it was and we liked it!

Life was a carnival! We entertained ourselves! We didn't need moooovin' pitchurrrres. In my day, there was only one show in town -- it was called "Stare at the sun!" ... That's right! You'd sit in the middle of an open field and stare up at the sun till your eyeballs burst into flames! And you thought, "Oh, no! Maybe I shouldn't've stared directly into the burning sun with my eyes wide open." But it was too late! Your head was on fire and people were roastin' chickens over it. ... And that's the way it was and we liked it!

Progress?! Flobble-de-flee! In my day, when we were angry and frustrated, we just said, "Flobble-de-flee!" 'cause we were idiots and we didn't know what else to say! Just a bunch o' illiterate Cro-Magnons, blowin' on crusty handkerchiefs, waitin' in lines for our head to burst into flame and that's the way it was and we liked it!

[C-Life]

I buy bananas from CO-OP all the time and on the sticker has the #4011 produce code. Come on people this isn't complicated.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Rerun

Yeah... like just because you're under the age of 50 you automatically understand how everything works. I guess when you turn 50 the "understand switch" must automatically turn off eh?

I guess you've never met anyone young who is dumber than a post eh?

Stupid kids.... they think they know it all.


Edit: Btw, did you know that the median age of Physics Nobel prize recipients is 51?

That's because those Nobel Prize winners have been working on physics all their lives and not dealing with technology and interfaces.

Younger people have grown up with technology and menus and things and have more experience with them when their brains were young and spongy.

The problem most of the time is bad design more than anything. The menus can be confusing and give you no feedback when you've done something wrong except for blanking and telling you to wait for the attendant (who is off blowing bubblegum somewhere).