Community Chat

[CherryHugs]

I like checking my stuff out myself unless there is just too much in my cart.

I dont care at all about human contact and have done this from before the pandemic.

Like using drive thru for meds, food, and bank!

Not sure if we even have a full service gas station here but I wouldnt go anyway. 

[SurferWife]

@tototwo 

Full Service stations are a rarity these days.  The young men who work there are very polite, which is also a rarity these days!  They also happen to love my muscle car and always say, "have fun auntie!"  I rev up my engine for them and they throw me a Shaka.  It's a great little gas station.

[LindaSal]

I do a little of both.   It really doesn't phase me either way though there are times when employees act like you're bothering them!   So many incompetent people now, those are the times when I would rather just do it myself.  

[Porcelain]

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@mspatmac wrote:

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@ThinkingOutLoud wrote:

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@deepwaterdotter wrote:

If businesses no longer desire to hire employees as "tellers, clerks" at a desirable wage, I can handle my business myself.

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These are good entry level jobs where teenagers can learn customer service skills, develop work ethic, build a resume and save for college.

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@ThinkingOutLoud  I Prefer people interaction whenever  possible.  These people are working to support their families, themselves or young people earning their first paycheck. I greet them with a smile and small pleasantry and rarely if ever have a problem.  

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When I go into a store or restaurant, everybody helping me is not a teenager from high school. I see a lot of grown adults working very hard, who presumably need to pay for the roofs over their heads.

I see seniors as well. At least seniors can count on Medicare and Social Security to help make up for below living wage earnings, lack of benefits, and inconsistent hours.

These are billed as entry level jobs, but the big push right now is to force the adult heads of families to take them and do so without benefits.

If a job can be done by practically anyone and it requires behaving like an automoton, a computer or robot should do it, not a teen or an impoverished person.

The question then becomes, how do people make a living. We really need to work on this and think about it. There are no quck and easy soundbite answers.

[chickenbutt]

I've become a bit of a loner, so I seldom miss interracting with humans.  But, as to these services and self-serve options, I tend to feel more like I don't want to see people lose their jobs.

I've never done the self checkout at grocery stores.  I always go to the cashier, for the reason stated above.

For decades, I didn't do the gasoline thing myself because I just didn't want to.  Now, it's pretty much do it yourself or you can probably find somebody to help you with it.  I'm doing it myself, although it is rather difficult for me due to hand/wrist/etc strength and pain issues.  Since they don't have guys standing around waiting to pump gas anymore, I don't see it so much taking somebody's job, like at the grocery store.

Bottom line, while I'm fine not dealing with people I don't want to take their jobs either.

The thing I dread most is having to make a phone call to a company for help.    It gets way beyond annoying - punching numbers, saying words, by the time I get through to somebody I'm angry and have to quell that because it's not their fault and I'd never take it out on them.

[Spurt]

@Susan in California 

For groceries I much prefer ordering my groceries online and having them delivered....I was getting frustrated at my local grocery store when they opened up primarily the Express Checkouts (15 items or less) and had only a couple lines available for those of us with our large weekly orders...and then there were the dodging of the cellphone zombies who blocked the aisles while they talked on their phones..And countless times the cashiers were busy chatting with the bagger and were making many mistakes, they bagged terrible, put heavy things on top of the eggs and chips ......It was getting to be a MISERABLE but necessary task....and now I get to avoid it all.  I conduct my business with a professional yet friendly shopper/delivery person and they have always  done an EXCELLENT job ...! 

Now as far as shopping at my favorite Department, Discount, Hobby, and Pet stores I enjoy the professional yet friendly human interaction....And those employees at my bank are especially nice!  I guess it depends on whether Im shopping leisurely just for pleasure or whether its a necessary task made difficult by incompetent employees

[LizzieInSRQ]

I abhor self-check out at the grocery store. Its awkward checking and bagging for me the way it is set up. Its not laid out in a conveyorlike it is for a cashier etc. . I work at a job all day. I avoid self check out at all costs if I can.

[DiAnne]

I never use self check out at grocery store because I feel the automation is going to cost someones job but to be truthful right now I am having groceries delivered.

I drive three miles out of my way to go to the only full serve gas station I know of in the area.

I don 't use the ATM.

I am VERY good at online shopping.