I don't just hate the voices on those things, I hate the unending repetition of phrases designed for a retarded two-year old. "Please place the item in the bag." If there was a button labeled SHUT UP I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING, I might use these things. But as long as there are human cashiers, I will be more than happy to let them do their job.

Oh, and the job of the "bagger" has died faster than the cashier. If you're not bagging your own stuff, the cashier is doing it now on one of those revolving lazy susan things. And I have not seen a bagger in YEARS who actually understands how to properly load a bag, of paper or plastic. Apparently to both young and old, such a feat is now rocket science. BREAD AND EGGS ON TOP, MORON!

I love the self checkout. I like being able to bag my own stuff and organize it to where I need it to go.

When I went Christmas shopping I bought presents, stocking stuffers and groceries.. I checked myself out and bagged the stuff in the appropriate place. When my hubby goes.. We have to take everything into the room and sort it. Its awkward and you have to be sure you didn't miss that cheese block you got to go with crackers and summer sausage..

I have almost never used self-checkout where there wasn't some issue with an item not scanning, forcing us to wait for the harassed clerk to show up and help. What a pain. I choose the cashier every time.

Amy,
Those things are a double edged sword though. Many of the larger chains (Wal-Mart, Publix etc) have dropped using them. It is not that difficult to sneak out a few extra items so loss prevention was having fits.

While I agree they are useful in some cases unless the people using them are honest there is too much temptation to "get over" by adding a few items.

My emotions about self-service checkouts are mixed: I like being able to save time by doing it myself (unless there's a glitch in the machine or I've bought some OTC med that requires me to show my driver's license to the cashier to prove I'm not some kind of meth addict), but I feel bad taking a job away from a human being who can use the money. It's always something! :-)

The Stop & Shop self-check out is great. I use the Shopping Buddy...when I get to the store, I scan my card and get a little UPC gun thing which is used to scan items as I go. I can keep a tally of my cost and make sure sale items are being processed correctly as I go. You bag your items as you wish (in reusable bags) and when you're done shopping it's so fast to get out of there. If you don't scan-as-you-go, it's still really fast to get out of there...but if you have a ton of stuff it's annoying for the ppl behind you b/c you hold up the line when you're bagging your stuff.

On the other hand, the Shaw's one is check-out only (no scan-as-you-shop system)is a piece of shit and they had to take it out. It was the most horrendous piece of technology and I'm so glad they ditched it.

Blame it on the Minimum wage. I never seen a automated checkout in South Korea. Novel ways to pay using cellphones and other stuff but there is usually a checker or cashier. This an okay advanced country*Heck they want to replace ESL teachers with robots). But I think because the minimum wage is so low at 4110 won (about 4 bucks American). Most places have checkers or cashiers. Culture has bit to do with it. Kids live with parents till the get married or move out in mid or later twenties, so living expenses are down. Also very few high school kids work they spend most times studying - so more jobs for older people. But most cashiers and that are college age. Plus gas jockeys too. Rarely do you have to get out the car. Some young guy will come running out and do everything

Now if a store can replace a Minimum wage earner that only checks items with a $10,000 or $20,000 machine. They are ahead a in profit. True machines might break down but being on contract with some company they will get fixed quickly. Unlike a sick clerk who might be out for a couple of days. Besides most places will have another machine that can pick up the slack. Not so with people always as any manager can attest to when the need to fill a spot on a Saturday night.

The only downside the machines is they do not mop the floors, Fold and put away clothes, restock the shelves (maybe a bit more time yes).

Actually I will back off a little I see more automated paying with buses, train tickets and subways more now.

You can pay via mobile phone right now, if both parties have PayPal accounts.

It depends - if I've only got a few items, yeah, I'll go ahead with the self-check out. If I've done my bi-weekly shopping, I've got a boatload of stuff, so I bring it to the cashier. Sometimes there's a bagger and sometimes not, but even if there is, I'll bag my stuff too. I've taught more than a few baggers about putting cans and heavier stuff on the bottom, and not putting paper goods in with the frozen stuff!

"Would you like to check yourself out today?"

Why, yes, I would. I'm very narcissistic, you see. I can't keep my hands off myself.

I have almost never used self-checkout where there wasn't some issue with an item not scanning, forcing us to wait for the harassed clerk to show up and help.

Me too -- starting with the fact that bringing your own cloth bag completely confuses the goddamn scale on the machine, and they can't seem to figure a way around that.

The local CVS recently added several self-checking machines. During their "down-times" you're forced to check your own stuff so all the cashiers will be free to do other work around the store. The irony of this arrangement is one time everyone was having trouble with the self-checkouts, which caused a huge line. All the cashiers had to stop what they were doing and help the customers. Eventually someone said, "Can you PLEASE just open a register and ring us up?"

Blame it on the Minimum wage.

That's part of it.

Another part is that when grocery stores got unionized, the job was graded as the equivalent of a machinist because of the level of knowledge (arithmetic and product knowledge), amount of heavy lifting, and abilty to work a complex adding machine.

However, as cash register technology got better, the union refused to regrade the position. So, stores were forced to pay machinist-level wages to someone whose job consists mainly of running a product across a laser scanner or entering a SKU code. The amount due and change are calculated by the machine. Products are moved from cart to register by conveyor belt.

Unionized cashiers in Southern California were making $25 an hour (with benefits) when I worked in grocery only a few years ago. The grocery chains were able to force the union to accept a lower wage for new cashiers, but the veterans will still cost the company at least $50,000 a year.

I think a mix is good, and required. Most groc. stores around here have a 15 item limit on the selfcheck, and I think it's about right. Once you get over that, it becomes more efficient for the checker to do it with the conveyor belt and bagging area.

I think it introduces an efficiency in that many people like me, only getting 10 utems and good at doing self check are there and gone in a short time, making for more throughput. I don't have to wait while they only have 3 checkers at 20+ checkouts, so it's a good experience for me. I've been in places where I abandoned my little basket, because I had to wait way too long. Sure, in the long run, I had to double my time, by going to a different store, but by that time, there was an irratation issue. There were 18 people in line in front of me... so as I was leaving I commented to the front end mgr. that she lost my sale for failing to open a new lane when there were people waiting.

"Well, I'll open one now."
'uh, huh, with 18 people waiting? Too late.'

I wasn't the only one to leave. Nothing has changed in the store, and I avoid it, even though it's the closest.

As someone who has to work regularly with a Self-Check, I *HATE* them. For the people that understand/like technology, it must be a boon. But for the other 75% of the population, they have to have someone hold their hand. Why do I say that? Because for a solid year after we installed ours, someone was assigned to be standing at the Self-Check for every hour, just to do "tutorials". It only stopped when the employee complaints got out of hand.

On those instances where the machine was being used by someone who could use it properly, a lot of the time the machine would goof! Bad enough when it happens at a library, where the product is free. But if it goofed on me at a store, I'd spazz, because it's usually one cashier working the Self-Check Overview spot.

I dislike the needless giving away of a job. The fact is, cashing out should be something done by a human being, for a variety of reasons. Like loss prevention. Self-Check makes theft ridiculously easy. And the fact that having a human can act as a double-check to make sure the item is worth being sold. (Several times, I've bought clothes and the *cashier* has been the one to notice a tear or hole). You have a hope of haggling the cashier, none with the machine. And I'm old fashioned, and think that a little human interaction never hurt anybody, and reminds people to keep their manners sometimes.

The self check out was popular a few years back but I think all but one place (around here) has taken them out -- the one being a hardware store. I believe the big problem was theft of little things.

Well, the REALLY big problem was the college kids switching beer into gourmet soda six-packs which would then scan as soda so no problem! They got beer! Next trick -- because apparently security started catching the exchange on cameras -- was get a pack of soda and beer, pick them up together, scan the soda twice, put them in the bag together --- no problem, you got beer! Needless to say the state board got involved so any store with alcohol pretty much had to have someone there checking everything being checked out so they wouldn't get busted.

Some of these things are just badly designed. The ones in Giant, in particular, are like a science fair project made by a student with no understanding of user interfaces and no real sense of craftsmanship.

I've only used the machines at Safeway a couple of times, but they struck me as much better.

I'm going to guess that the senior executives of Giant don't shop in their own stores very often, and if they do don't use the self-checkout.

When I go to BJ's I hate the self-check. Most things are bulk and can't be lifted or by the time its lifted, the computer has stopped my order and I need an employee to re-start. At the supermarket, I always have trouble with the veggies and fruit and need an employee. The only place I really loved it was at Home Depot. Everything scanned nicely and other than the long line, I was out pretty quickly.

I'll start using self check out when stores start discounting for doing so. Otherwise, I'm using the cashier since I am paying for it.

"It would be one thing if they had little stickers on everything or some kind of photo-recognition. I got screwed up at "pick the kind of onion you're buying." There were 12 different kinds and not one looked like mine."

Its not just the sticker but the weight. When I buy peppers or string beans and its a weighted sale, the self-check isn't an option.

Kristen/Amy - photo-recognition could be one way. But the future will likely be RFID.

Looks like I was wrong after reading more of the comments - I thought in the many years since I last saw a automated checkout machine that they would have improved in reliability and user friendliness. I wonder what the average downtime for these machines are.

I think for some people why they hate it is the "Old Foggy factor". Younger people are usually more keen to accept and use new technology. But for the older people who have been used to doing somethings for years to decade that change can be to much.

Supermarkets in Japan usually don't have a '10 Items or Less' line and it's been a thorn in my side for years.I order a great deal of our food to be delivered. If something I wanted wasn't available via online shopping that week, or I forgot to order one item for the weekend I'd find myself behind 10 people in line with overloaded carts doing a weeks' shopping. It was even worse at New Years' when the lines stretch to the back of the store.

I talked to them often over the past 2-3 years about having a 10 Items or Less lane. I stopped working when MIL's AD got bad enough she couldn't live alone. I was in the supermarket in the middle of the day for the first time.I saw carpenters and other construction workers lined up behind huge orders just trying to get a lunchbox and tea, they'd use up a good portion of their lunch hour in line. Then I really started to point out how inconvenient it was, and encouraged others to do the same.

Last year we got 6 self-check registers, I love them. I never buy more than 10 items and I don't wait for half an hour to check out. On the holiday there were a couple of families with $100-$200 orders who bulled in and used the self-check but that kind of thing is rare.

I like having the option of using a self-scanner, but I hate being steered toward them by an employee even when check-out lines are open. That's happened to me multiple times. In general I prefer using a check-out line because something always seems to go wrong with the self-checkout and it ends up taking more time than it would otherwise. As others have pointed out, it seems ridiculously easy to steal with the self-checker as well. You could ring everything up as bananas, etc.

My primary grocery store (Kroger's -- Ralph's on the west coast and others in between) has the self-checkouts. I can be in and out in about 15 minutes and prefer them.

Note that a lot of produce has stickers on them with a four digit number -- that let's you do the produce by the number.

As far as now to 20+ years ago: Do you know why there are 24 hour grocery and department stores?

The accountants sat down and did the numbers -- they figured out they would have 5-10 stock persons in the store from closing (8, 9, 10) until they got the shelves loaded up and faced at 1-2 in the morning. Then add in the lighting. Then add in the HVAC load. (It takes a lot more to get a building back up to 70 from 60 than to let it drop to 68 overnight.) That all adds together -- if you keep two clerks and a bagger at whatever wage and get fifteen people doing everything from buying cough syrup and aspirin, to major shopping, the profit margins work out. Plus the customer relations.

The self serve checkouts drops it to one clerk. I have seen a self-serve clerk at 3:00 AM doing it for an older couple, while I checked myself out.

As far as the alcohol bit -- they have an alert that has to be bypassed by the clerk/attendant. Not hard to do.

As far as the rip-off factor -- I may have gotten away with it when they had "gourmet" hot chocolate packets on clearance for $0.25 -- I grabbed about 10 of each style. The scale had an issue with it. I got through -- but I'm not sure the numbers matched. It happens.

Jim P. As far as the rip-off factor -- I may have gotten away with it when they had "gourmet" hot chocolate packets on clearance for $0.25 -- I grabbed about 10 of each style. The scale had an issue with it. I got through -- but I'm not sure the numbers matched. It happens.

Classy.

A question to ask is does the lost money do to rip off by machine surpass the rip of a mistakes that a human clerk will make.

Actually I surprised they do not have man trap booths for the check out.

As far as now to 20+ years ago: Do you know why there are 24 hour grocery and department stores?

This is another thing that seemed popular and now has gone away. For awhile it seemed like every grocery store around here was 24 hours. Now none of them are. Most of them are 6am-11pm now.

On the Alcohol issue, I suppose a RFID might solve the issue. The scams I remember reading about in the paper involved never scanning the Alcohol SKU so the staffer was not needed.

Last year we got 6 self-check registers, I love them. I never buy more than 10 items and I don't wait for half an hour to check out. On the holiday there were a couple of families with $100-$200 orders who bulled in and used the self-check but that kind of thing is rare.

That sort of thing would be vanishingly simple to stop. Just program the machine to stop scanning after 10 or 20 items, whatever the limit is. Put up a sign stating the fact, and for a week or two, have someone stationed at the self-check to explain and turn those away that have too many things.

So then the question is: is it better to piss off the people who have more than 10/20 items and deliberately go to the wrong lane, or piss off the people who have fewer than the limit by letting inconsiderate people scan their items anyway?

My primary grocery store (Kroger's -- Ralph's on the west coast and others in between) has the self-checkouts. I can be in and out in about 15 minutes and prefer them.

Kroger is a dominant store in my area, too, and in every Kroger I have ever shopped in except one, they do it right (stickers, checkouts, everything...very convenient).

But there is one Kroger store (on my way to work, naturally), that just cannot get it right. They open late (they are not one of the 24-hour stores, but I can forgive them that if they just open ON TIME). When they do open, no one is available for checkout, and they CLOSE the self-checkout in the early hours when people want to buy one or two things and get on to work! If you can finally get someone to open the self-check, the scanner doesn't work about half the time, or the codes are not on the produce.

It's the only store I have EVER been to when I so completely lost my temper that I yelled at the top of my lungs at the manager on site, and I am NOT a person who yells.

Supermarkets...have a '10 Items or Less' line....

That's a pet peeve of mine. That sign should read "10 Items or Fewer."

I usually love the self check-out lanes when they're available and I only have a few things. Then again, I'm a techie and never have issues with them. The Ralphs stores around here seem to have a choice: Some have them, some don't. Same with Albertsons. None of the local Vons stores I've been to has any.

Every Home Depot I've been to has them, including a wireless hand held scanner the clerk can use to scan the large items that you don't want to have to heft onto the thing to try to scan it.

I've found the systems rarely (if ever) make any mistakes.. that I've seen anyway. I do pay close attention too.

My only peeves for them are being behind slow people. I've also seen cases where there isn't an item limit (I really think they should have one, personally) and someone is doing not only a huge cart load, but tons of produce, so they're looking everything up.

I've yet to see a setup in years that didn't handle produce either. It usually either allows keying in a code on the item, or looking it up (I have seen cases where it wasn't easy to find the right item like Amy mentioned with the onions) then you place it on the scanner which doubles as a scale, just like the manned cashiers.

I still shake my head when I think of the huge strike the grocery workers went on here in SoCal years ago. Just as was mentioned above about the pay issues.. it's almost worse when you think how many jobs (I know mine does) requires one to keep learning new skills and learning to become more efficient. Whereas most cashiers had their jobs become easier and less labor intensive over time. Great situation to be in to then demand even more money.

I'm still looking forward to the checkout like one set of IBM commercials had a few years ago.. where the guy with a coat on walked around putting things in his pockets, then walked through a scanner (likely RFID) and the guard grabbed him to point out he'd forgotten the receipt that had printed out.

My rule of thumb for self-checkout is this: if you're giving me a discount for DOING YOUR JOB, then I'll use it. Otherwise, I'll wait in line. I generally don't go shopping when I'm in a hurry.

But there is one Kroger store (on my way to work, naturally), that just cannot get it right. They open late (they are not one of the 24-hour stores, but I can forgive them that if they just open ON TIME).

Kroger's HQ is about 75 miles down the road from me. The stores around me, both 24/7 and not, are good. I called in an hour ahead of time needing fried chicken for a work carry-in. They were about 15 minutes late. They gave me a discount in the deli -- no call to the general manager. I bought two clearance items and did the self-checkout thing. They rang up wrong. I told the clerk. She went, confirmed, reset the price and gave me a $5 discount on top of that. No problems.

I also took a tech class with some of their employees. They told me the corporate culture was that if you have a problem with any of their stores -- corporate would send out people to check them out. They would hack the management staff on the spot.

So if you run into issues -- get the store number (on the receipt) -- and send a complaint from the website. You will see some changes, generally quickly.

"That sort of thing would be vanishingly simple to stop. Just program the machine to stop scanning after 10 or 20 items, whatever the limit is."

I did ask them, 'Did you do away with the 10 items limit for the holiday?' and the clerk said no, but she couldn't say anything, didn't want to alienate any customers. Well you'll alienate those of us who stick to the limit. The Japanese tend to be very wary of any kind of confrontation. We have mothers who let their kids do the scanning at the self-scans, holding up everybody else while their kid gets to play check-out clerk, they don't say anything to them either.

Something I thought of later is that the same machines are used in another chain nearby, and they don't put any item limit on them at all, so people who don't shop at my local store often recognize the machines, and think it's the same set-up. Probably what happened at New Year's with those two huge orders (while I waited to buy one carton of eggs). Programming the machines to take no more than 10 items is a great idea, I wonder if it's occurred to anyone at the Co-op?

As she scanned baking ingredients at the Stop & Shop in Brookline, Beth Segers, 51, said she missed having time to stand in line and "zone out and read cheesy magazines.''
_______________________

An ex-friend of mine would criticize me for doing that - he called it "stealing," since I was reading bits and pieces but not paying for them.

Turned out HE was a thief - in a much more serious way. Which is why he's an ex-friend.