Chixe

When they first appeared here in Tampa years ago everyone went to them thinking they would be faster. Now there is always the option of just walking up to one and using them because everyone avoids them. They are always slow and cumbersome and there are only so many times you should have to scan one item. After all of that you still have to bag your own items so no way can it be faster than someone else doing the exact same thing. Just allow everyone to bag their own stuff while someone else does the scanning.

I like them... most of the time. Odd thing is when they're the most convenient — usually at night, when there are only one or two cashiers — they're closed. Makes no sense to me.

I use them whenever possible. I don't like to keep a lot of groceries, since I'm single and eat out a lot, so I rarely get more than can fit in the basket. I never have a problem with scanning an item, so I guess the store by me keeps it well maintained. It's quick and since people avoid them it's rare for a line. Seriously, I don't think it takes more than a minute and a half to scan and pay for two bags of groceries at self-checkout, including 1 or 2 produce items that have to be keyed in and weighed.

I will jump on one ONLY if there isn't an inbred moron in line.

I don't know what it is about convenience and stupidity, but they tend to gravitate towards each other.

Self checkout was designed for RAPID processing of small batches of groceries. Think "10 items or less" lane, but with you as the checker.

I can go to my local Wal-Mart any time of day and inevitably ALL 8 of the self checkout lanes are packed 4 carts deep with people with $200-300 worth of grocery shopping in their carts or folks who lack the IQ to operate a four-function calculator.

The folks that REALLY tick me off are the morons with activation required items like pre-paid cell phones. The beep it, and have to wait 30 min for the brain dead attendant to notice the blinking red light to come over and not know how to activate their item.

Other than THAT, I find them very convenient.

@Scrivs, the whole thing makes me wonder whether anyone actually did any "usability" studies about this type of thing. I'll be interested to see how it all falls out here at the Commissary, and how long it takes for the self-checkout lanes to become deserted.

@superrats, I might use them if I regularly went food shopping for just a few things, but I don't. I shop for a week at a time. It takes too much time to find a parking spot to go more than that, and no way am I going every day or every other day for just a few things (oh, did I forget to mention that there aren't enough of THOSE at the Commissary either, but there are TWO reserved parking spots for Generals, their wives, or those of equivalent rank, taking up space and usually sitting empty, while the rest of us circle the too-small lot three or four times hoping for someone to leave??). I refuse to do the Commissary dance more than once a week since it's a big time waster, and that's before the latest addition of self-checkout lanes.

The issue is that the self checkout lanes take up space that those of us with a week's worth of food need for real people to checkout our order in a timely fashion.

@RightOn, you sound just like me. I can so relate to having to deal with morons. This self-checkout thing isn't meant for $200-$300 worth of groceries or complicated things that require activation. But that's the kind of thing that happens, I know.

I use them all the time. Ours are generally only in express lanes, which is where I am 9/10 anyway. If there's someone ahead of me, it usually slows me down more than someone ahead of me in a cashier lane, but if it's open I'm scanned, paid and gone in like 60 seconds.

@jensized, I can guarantee that I'll never see that problem over here, because the Commissary couldn't possibly be open in the middle of the night, or even later in the evening, since that might be moving closer to the "good customer service model" that it strictly avoids on general principle.

Yes, I am a bit down on the whole "military benefits" thing, and living overseas at the moment. And sure, I could go and try to shop for food at the German stores, but I'd pay more for the "same" items, and most of the items I'm used to buying, German stores don't have anyway.

There's no place like home...

I feel the same way RightOn. It's the only time I go to a regular checkout lane. Even if it takes me longer, just the idea of waiting for a complete idiot who is still confused about the whole scanning process after scanning half a shopping cart full of stuff makes my head explode.

It's funny because the only place I've seen them is at my 24-hours Ralph's, and they're always closed. I guess that makes sense with what jen-sized said, because I mostly do my grocery shopping at late night.

I tried 'em once, though, but don't have enough practice to be "fluent" in the process. Just as well.

Every large chain grocery store around here has them and I refuse to use them.
Back in the day, teenagers got part- time minimum wage jobs bagging your groceries and handling bottle returns. Then a more "efficient" way was discovered and there are no more first jobs for high school students, except in fast food places.
I rarely have just a few things so it wouldn't be helpful for me and certainly hold up everybody. I also check very carefully the price an item runs up as and very often find differences. I also use coupons.
So a very emphatic "no" from here; I would choose always to have a human being wait on me.

One of my professors went on a rant about self-check lanes. He said that he refuses to use them because:
1. It takes jobs away from people who need them.
2. We're paying the store to do the work that we the customers are doing ourselves.
3. There is a pretty good marketing campaign going that makes the customer think that the self-check out lines benefit them, but actually they only benefit corporate officers.

*shrugs*

I have never seen, in eight states, a single grocery store that had these as the primary means of checkout. In fact they're usually 20% of the lanes or less, and very rarely do they have one that is not "15 items or less." My local stores each have two of that type.

There's plenty of first job kids bagging groceries, fetching carts, stocking shelves, etc everywhere I've seen.

Even if you removed every single self-checkout center from every Wal-Mart on earth, the cashiers do the bagging so you're not changing much.

I only use them if there's a long line at the registers with cashiers. I resent them; I have to put my purchases in my cart, take them out to scan everything, bag my own crap, and lug it out to my car. And I'm paying more for my groceries, because the price of everything never seems to go down.

I wonder if customers felt the same way when self-serve pumps were installed in gas stations? That's something else I hate! I can't think of one gas station in the area where they will actually pump your gas for you. I would pay extra, especially when it's 10 below outside, for someone else to pump my gas!

I try to only hit the store once a week and I have way too many groceries for self-serve. I'd be there all day. I make sure I go in a line with packer and the guy usually wheels the cart(s) to the car for me so I give him a tip. Grocery store self-serve would never work for me unless it's the rare occasion I go in there for one or two items.

In convenient stores they aren't too bad.

Our military Commissary has just installed three new self-checkout lanes.

Whereabouts is this military commissary? Of the 2 that I have been to in the Kanto plains in Japan, neither have self-checkout lanes, thankfully.

@jark, I'm in Stuttgart, Germany. I don't know of any other commissary with self-checkouts either, though admittedly I don't cruise around Europe visiting all the installations to see! Maybe we're just a "test case" here in Stuttgart; oh my, aren't we lucky!?!

1. It takes jobs away from people who need them.
2. We're paying the store to do the work that we the customers are doing ourselves.
3. There is a pretty good marketing campaign going that makes the customer think that the self-check out lines benefit them, but actually they only benefit corporate officers.

I agree with all of this. Not only did the commissary lay off baggers, but there are also fewer jobs for cashiers. Jobs of any sort for family members are at a premium in a smallish military community overseas, and they've just cut a few more out.

And do you think the food prices will go down because there are fewer employees to pay? I doubt it. End result: I spend more time at the food store, either checking out my own groceries, or waiting in a longer line because there are fewer real person checkout lanes. Time is money, and the commissary is wasting mine.

I only use the self-checkout lanes when it makes the most sense: when I have a few items and the lanes are packed with people with big grocery orders. It's not meant for an entire big grocery trip. And frankly I don't mind doing a little extra bagging. At times I help bag in the regular checkout lane when the cashier doesn't have a bagger on their lane.