this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2025
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[–] [email protected] 42 points 2 days ago (10 children)

My local grocery store self checkout after every single item:

Unexpected item in bagging area.

If they're going to treat me like I'm stealing the groceries I'm paying for, making the process slow and inefficient, then I'm just going to go to the regular checkout and not deal with it.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Self checkout (at least in my experience) is now just become "regular checkout" with extra steps.

Each time I scan an item it refuses to scan, so I need to wait for an associate to approach me.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (4 children)

This is user error.

Should be MAX like 5% of items give you an issue. That’s mostly just due to age approval for some items.

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[–] [email protected] 57 points 2 days ago (5 children)

OK Boomer.

Do you get the stuff off the shelf for yourself though, or give a list to the stock boy like when you were growing up?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 days ago (9 children)

I just click a few buttons and my groceries appear at my door in a few hours. It's like magic!

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 days ago

Look at these plebs pumping their own gas

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago

I mean... That is effectively what Instacart and Uber are.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

I like the scan and go in the Sam’s club app. Scan the items with your phone, and if the QR code receipt is visible when you walk through the gate thing they usually wave you on without a person checking.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

If I look at this topic the American skewedness is so obvious.

In Belgium the only thing you get by going the old fashioned way is they scan your shit and push it off at the end or you need to rush to put it in your cart. Same in The Netherlands. There are no baggers.

So yeah, let me just scan my items, put them in my bags like I want them, scan the thing at the self checkout, put scanner in tray, pay, walk out.

Every so often you get a bag check and if less people cheated on their scanning there would be less of that (is what they hope you think)

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 days ago (9 children)

I don't know how the self-checkout is constructed in Belgium, but in the US (at least, the stores I go to), the self-checkout is a small kiosk with a small weight-sensitive platform where you bag your groceries. You're supposed to scan each item and then place it in the bag so the scale can register it, and then scan and bag the next item, and so on. The problems are that:

  1. The technology is buggy and doesn't always recognize that you've bagged an item, so it locks up and won't let you scan your next item until an attendant comes to assist.
  2. Certain items like cooking wine or cough syrup or matches require proof that you're old enough to purchase it (again, an attendant has to get involved)
  3. If god forbid you take a second to rearrange items in one of your bags to make more room for your next item, the stupid machine nags you and then - yep you guessed it - locks up until an attendant comes.
  4. The machine-monitored security camera sometimes misinterprets what it sees you doing. For example, one time I was done scanning my items and realized I was still holding onto my shopping list, so I tucked it into my pocketbook as I was getting my credit card out. The camera must've thought I was stealing something, so it locked up until an attendant came to review the video footage.
  5. The bagging platform is too small for a full week's worth of groceries, so it's really only useful if you're picking up a handful of items, meaning you still need to go through an attended line if you're doing your weekly shop.

Honestly I prefer bagging my own groceries, and if the problems with self-checkout were fixed, I'd be happy to only do self-checkout. But the way it is now, it's annoying to use.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

In my supermarket they don't have the scale under your bag and no camera, and the plagform is just big enough for a weeks groceries, so it works a lot better

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yeah most self checkout at grocery stores is hot garbage for all the reasons you mentioned and more.

My favorite self check out experience is at Uniqlo. You walk up to what is effectively a plastic bucket with an iPad attached. Toss your shit in the bucket it shows you what it thinks you put in there and you click ok and tap you CC. It takes like 30s.

Grocery stores are just cheap and won't put the 5 cent RFID tag on things.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The only time it's ever useful for me is when I have to come in and grab 2-3 things fast.

I hate that it basically kills cashier jobs and I hate having to do a weekly grocery on them because of how shitty the systems are... It's to the point where I'll avoid places where there's no cashier the day I do my grocery or do it online and pick it up or get it delivered.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I think Amazon tried that here and shut it down

This only works in a respectful society that isn't exploited

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 days ago

So one in which Amazon doesn't exist!

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

Then just wait in line.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 days ago (2 children)

My grocery store recently got rid of their self checkout machines, and I'm actually upset by it. It went from having 6 self checkout lines plus the cashiers to only the cashiers, and now it takes like three times longer to buy my shit.

Also I'm team self check out because I dont want to talk to people

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (3 children)

The grocery store here got rid of 2 out of 5 cashier lines to introduce self-checkout stations. They were in full operation for two months or so. Since then they've been mostly closed for whatever reason. Now half of the self-checkouts are back open, but they hung up a sign that you're only supposed to use them, if you have 10 items or less. Who goes to a grocery store to buy only 10 items? Yeah, I really don't know what they're doing. Were they experiencing a massive spike in theft or why did they introduce these self-checkouts only to then nerf them out of usefulness?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

The dollar store near me recently did the same. Almost.

The self checkout machine is still physically there. Presumably all the internals are as well. It's just turned off and now, as you said, it takes three times longer to buy things.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 days ago (2 children)

If you don't trust me to the point where you're going to point 2 security cameras at me while I checkout, and this is your idea of "more efficient", then I can grocery shop somewhere else.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago (4 children)

8 hous at $15 an hour is $120

Two security cameras. At most $2000

Assuming the register is basically the same price

Do you want to pay a person to stand and scan groceries for 2 weeks for $1200?

Or do you want to spend $1200 on cameras that will last years?

30k+ a year vs. $1200 once

People could steal 29k worth of stuff, and the company would still makes the same profit.

The cameras are basically security theater anyways. No one is ever going to watch the footage unless needed.

The efficiency is definitely there

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Cameras are there to lower insurance premiums. That's why for years and years every security camera video looked like it was filmed on a potato because there was no incentive to upgrade. The rise of phone cameras has caused the price of 4k cameras to plummet though so they are getting better.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

At my usual supermarket, you can take a scanner thingy and scan your items as you put them in your cart. Once you're at the lane, you put back the scanner in place, pay for your stuff, and it's done.

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