The Anabaptist perception on self check-outs!

[steve-in-kville]

walmart.jpg

I hear a lot of strong opinions on this issue. Both local (chain) grocery stores I patronize have self-checkouts. Since I typically only get a small shopping cart full of items, I use these about 99% of the time. I do not mind, most times it is faster anyway.

Our local ghettomart Walmart is almost exclusively all self-checkout now, with someone waiting at the exit to check receipts. I hear stories how people just blow past them saying "I just did your job" and so on. I think that is borderline rude to do so.

I've also witnessed people cheating the system, not scanning items, and such like. One grocery store has five self check-outs and three people watching them. Another has seven and maybe one person watching... provided they are not glued to their phones.
 
What is your opinion on such matters?

[Josh]

In a discussion one person said that the self checkout at his local store is slow and difficult, and the store should be paying him what they used to pay cashiers.

Another person told him there’s a self checkout discount, you just have to know how to use it.

[Neto]

I don't do the self-checkout deal. I find a conventional checkout and wait however long it takes to get through the process. If there aren't any, I either come back later, during their 'full service' hours, or go elsewhere. But my wife pretty much always uses the self checkout process. I have often been with her while grocery shopping (Aldi's, Walmart, etc.) and we have never been asked to show a receipt. (I would think that the person at the exit wouldn't know who used the self checkout, and who used a conventional clerk checkout, so I would expect to be asked to show the receipt no matter how I check out. Never once.)

[Soloist]

Another person told him there’s a self checkout discount, you just have to know how to use it.

Yup you see the discount bragged about openly online and excused away due to the store’s greed.

[QuietlyListening]

I love self checkout. It's quicker and I can bag the way I want my items bagged- some checkers are really crazy in how they bag. Our city recently went to no plastic bags and if you see a paper bag that is available you pay. I bring my own bags- but since then the person in Walmart at the door will check receipts of those with paper bags or no bags at all. Haven't seen other stores doing that.
I would miss self check out if it went away. I hear many say we are doing their job but I have never looked at it that way and you don't have to use self checkout, just go the the conventional one or go somewhere else.

[RZehr]

Whatever is fastest. If there is self checkout lines, I don’t like it. If there are scales that prohibit efficient checking out, by requiring everything in a large cart to fit on a small scale, I don’t like it. I don’t like having to wait on an employee to reset the machine.

[Josh]

Another person told him there’s a self checkout discount, you just have to know how to use it.

Yup you see the discount bragged about openly online and excused away due to the store’s greed.

And as a side effect, you can randomly get treated like a criminal suspect at checkout, which is highly irritating.

Self check out is also slower. In recent business process studies, it’s been shown not to even save money; cashier wages are relatively low, they check out faster, there is less shrink (theft), and they improve customer satisfaction.

In Germany being a checkout clerk is considered a respectable occupation and the cashiers are very fast and efficient, even though Germany tends to use cash far more than here. And that also provides valuable jobs - and not just for fancy programmers sitting on their laptops sitting self checkout software that barely works, or overpaid salesmen who sell these systems.

[Ken]

Another person told him there’s a self checkout discount, you just have to know how to use it.

Yup you see the discount bragged about openly online and excused away due to the store’s greed.

And as a side effect, you can randomly get treated like a criminal suspect at checkout, which is highly irritating.

Self check out is also slower. In recent business process studies, it’s been shown not to even save money; cashier wages are relatively low, they check out faster, there is less shrink (theft), and they improve customer satisfaction.

In Germany being a checkout clerk is considered a respectable occupation and the cashiers are very fast and efficient, even though Germany tends to use cash far more than here. And that also provides valuable jobs - and not just for fancy programmers sitting on their laptops sitting self checkout software that barely works, or overpaid salesmen who sell these systems.

Here in the US, BY FAR the best and most efficient cashiers are those at Costco. At least when we are talking big corporate chains. Around here they make decent wages and have good benefits and generally seem to enjoy their jobs.

It also helps that they keep reasonable hours (10 hrs/day vs 18+ hours per day for Wal-Mart) which means that with the same payroll they can nearly double the number of cashiers working any one shift.

[ABC 123]

I use the self check out most of the time because it is faster.

I greatly dislike that they put customers in the position to "be rude" by asking to see receipts, further detaining people and not trusting them to do the jobs they well could be doing or else just blowing past them. It's like making a random, petty church rule and then persecuting people for not obeying it.

[NedFlanders]

I pick cashier unless it is really busy and I’m feeling rushed with few items. Something about saying hello and smiling to someone who is standing all day dealing with public that seems to be the Christlike thing to do over going through a cold machine. People usually seem to genuinely smile and are happy to interact with our children which is hopefully a blessing on their day.