Community Chat

[Patriot3]

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@4kitties wrote:

I like to do self check out.  I can bag my items just as I like and when I get home it is so much easier to unbag  and put them away.  

I usually combine errands and I keep a cooler in my car.  I can bag the frozen and refrigerated items so that I can fit them in.  

I am also careful with my eggs and fragile items.  Sometimes store employees are not!

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@4kitties  You sound exactly like me!

[teganslaw]

I occasionally use self checkout lanes; they are convenient at times. I don't think they take away jobs like so many people believe. There is always an employee around to monitor the checkouts and help anyone with questions. Certain jobs are being moved to different areas; I doubt that they're actually lost. 

IMO refusing to go through self checkout doesn't do much to "save jobs." Stores are going that route whether people like it or not. 

[depglass]

I rarely go into Walmart anymore.  The two staffed lines are at the opposite end of the store from where we park.  How did I get out of the habit?  The pandemic did it.  They closed off all but one entrance/exit.  So people were walking in opposite directions right next to each other.  No 6 ft. social distancing whatsoever.  

[Spurt]

@cornicopia 

Target is also following suit....one early morning day while I was shopping--- I witnessed the employees closing their checkouts to go vacuum and clean the floors and straighten up merchandise and telling all of us customers to go to the self check....

Walmart has always been one to have FEW actual lanes open even before self checkouts came into being....so I guess they feel this is there solution without having to hire more people .......BUT if they are going to do that I find that Walmart's self checkouts are the WORST there always seems to be an issue with an item not ringing up and you have wait for someone to help you holding up the line behind you..If you want me to self checkout, (and at least I get things bagged properly) THEN FIX YOUR TECHNOLOGY AND MAKE SURE IT WORKS!

However, our grocery store chain , HEBs, has some of the best self checkouts with few problems and some people even try to ring up huge grocery orders using them but the attendants tell them to go to a regular checkout and there are still plenty of people manned checkouts too..

Personally I use Instacart more and more and have my groceries delivered and have had excellent experiences....I save time and with a one year membership I dont pay a delivery fee...just tax, and $2 service fee which along with membership works out to $12 a month--plus tip--- which is totally worth it to me....especially with gas prices going up....

[Spurt]

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@hckynutjohn wrote:

@cornicopia 

Will make this a short one. I agree with you and am not fond of self checkout. Looking around our City that has a fairly low unemployment percentage, I see lots of businesses with BIG HELP WANTED signs in their windows/doors and so on.

Seems nowadays people just do not want to work. The more that becomes a problem, the more big companies will go to self serve in  everything they can.

hckynut  🇺🇸

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@hckynutjohn 

Yep, sometimes its not because companies are cheap and dont want to hire---- its people not wanting to work...ENTER ROBOTS...there was a news story about Chipolte using robots to make tortilla chips........ .....Who knows if the future will turn out like the old Sci Fi movies from the 50's/60's....and robots do more and more jobs....STAY TUNED!

Chipotle is the latest brand to dip a toe in automation. The chain is partnering with Miso on a robot named Chippy, an autonomous kitchen assistant that integrates culinary traditions with artificial intelligence to make tortilla chips.Mar 19, 2022

[Stray]

I wouldn't mind but we keep getting error messages when we touch a bag or take one off the counter that is full and replace it with an empty one; we bring our own bags.  The lady that oversees the area is very nice and patient but it's very time consuming.  Sometimes an error message occurs for no reason & she must key in a code.  The barcodes are very small on fresh vegetables so if I forget my glasses, it's an issue.  I like to get in and out before the crowds so we go to a checkout with a person and at 7 am, only one is available.  

I do feel sorry for the check out people who worked through the early days of the pandemic;  many of them did get COVID.  Now they will lose their jobs due to automation & I haven't seen many of the regulars. 

[Cakers3]

Self-checkout is the future. So will our monetary system becoming cashless.

Sending complaints and boycotting stores will not put one dent in this way of shopping.

Some prefer it, some do not.  It's a choice and I much rather have a choice right now than to be stuck with only one way.  It depends upon each person's convenience.

Trader Joe's does not have self-checkout.  I enjoy the cashiers; always friendly, a joke or two, and the lines are never long.

Whole Foods also does not have self-checkout but we only pick up a few things here and there.

The local chain does.  Lately we are doing curbside pickup so somebody still has a job packing our order.

Lowes' has had self-checkout for a long time.  So does Home Depot.

We haven't stepped in a Wal-Mart in years-and basically because of long lines BEFORE they put in self-checkout.

All this caring about jobs and employees-I think it is more about people not wanting to just do the self-checkout.  I do not look at it as doing the job of an employee, union or not.

Huff and puff all you want-it is the way now so adapt or do without.

We go around with this all the time; people who use self-checkout are selfish.  People who do not are saving jobs.

Do what you want and move along.

[violann]

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@cornicopia wrote:

I do not like self-check out lines at all.  At Wal-mart regular check out lines are huge because there are only 2 that are open.  They are trying to herd us to the self-check outs.

To me, I believe this is going to push people, as myself, to just order things more and more from Amazon, destroying more businesses with their shooting-themselves-in-the-foot ideas.   I found today, to my disappointment, that Lowe's Home Improvement Store is going the same route with the self-check outs.  Next step will be going into the stockroom and get items right out of the boxes.  Why not?

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I'm pathologically terrified of inconveniencing anyone behind me, so "self check" is not ever my choice.

Even at that, I seem to draw line break-downs like a magnet, so I don't make too much progress by standing on line to be checked out by a checker either.

[Bookplate]

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@Mz iMac wrote:

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@Bookplate wrote:

I won't use self-check out.  If a store can't be bothered to hire cashiers, I can't be bothered to shop there.  

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The cashiers in my neck of the woods are "unionized."  If  "they" want me to bag my own things, they will have to pay me since I'm basically doing "their" union job.

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Most of the supermarkets around me have unionized cashiers, with the exception of Whole Foods and Trader Joe's.  In both the unionized and non-unionized stores, the cashiers still will do the packing if that is what the customer wants.  However, since the state's plastic bag ban was instituted, most customers bring their own bags and many do their own packing since it is faster to pack as the cashier continues to ring items up.  Also when COVID entered the picture, a lot of customers didn't want others touching their purchases so that complicated the process. 

I have watched customers at self-check outs and I can tell that it would take me a lot longer to scan and then pack my purchases that way than if I went to a cashier.  Most of them are very fast, experienced workers and often a friendly face, which is always welcome.

[Mj12]

I don't think self-checkout eliminates any jobs.  JMO but shopping online and buying from Amazon in particular does that.