If you have the option, do you use the cashier or the self checkout line at the grocery store? What about other types if store like hardware stores?
Depends on how much I’m getting and how long each set of lines is.
No. A byproduct of self checkout has been the downward pressure on the quality and professionalism of cashiers to the point I’d rather do it myself than to subject myself to a level of incompetence that borders on feeble.
Cashier is not a career path many aspire to, but like any job there’s a floor. I’m willing to admit maybe it is my area or maybe only the places I frequently, or leaded gasoline poisoning my brain to the point of overblown irrational anger. BUT I long for a courteous, competent experience at any service establishment. I expect a 50/50 chance at a positive experience anywhere I go that interacts with the service sector. Maybe it has always been that way.
But, yeah. DIY as much as possible.
Where do you live?
American south
I don’t have time to skim the whole thread so I’ll just say it. I go to the cashier because I like the conveyor belt.
Always self checkout. At least it doesn’t try to make eye contact.
Of course i use the cashier. First, because I’m there to shop, not to work. Second, because I support the cashiers job. Third, I simply don’t like the robo checkouts.
And no, I’m definitely not “anti technology”, like some people wondered. I f-ing develop computer chips and have been into Linux since kernel 0.97, so i’m definitely inside of tech.
I try to use cashier aisles whenever possible. In every type of store. Partly because I want to be contributing in a tiny way to someone being employed, and partly because of bad experiences in the past with self-checkout systems.
If I’m not in a rush (and no line) and no cashier is open I always ask the bored (usually elderly) person for help
Fuck it, they’re bored and I know the machines have cameras that track how much that person is needed. If no one asks them for help, they stop having a job.
This is kind of the way I look at leaving carts out; everyone has this righteous outlook on putting your cart away as it’s judge of character. Obviously you haven’t worked in retail before; I would jump to oh you need help taking this outside? Or, hey there’s some carts out there can I go get them. Because you know what, standing in a square (register) all day long is like prison.
I don’t get the logic here. You can still say “hey there’s some carts out there can I go get them” when the carts are neatly in the corral. There’s no advantage to just leaving them wherever.
Where I shop there’s only two in the center parking and you may as well take it all the way back into the store if you’re not in the main parking area. I mean I’m not saying I don’t put a cart away if the corral is nearby but I mean I’m not going to take 5 minutes to put a cart away. Also those magnetic wheel locks, nothing I can do about that, it’s anchored to where it locks.
I also had some bad experiences with the self checkout. I rather spend a bit more time going through the cashier line then the self checkout if I can get a better experience. I do find the self checkout at hardware stores with those scan guns to work well most of the time.
Generally at most stores, no.
However, I do most of my grocery shopping at Wegmans. When I’m there, unless I’m just picking up a couple things, I use the cashier lanes. While there is some variation in skill level, they tend to be much better than most cashiers in other stores.
Yep. I don’t go to the store to work. Fuck that.
Y’all know this is just yet more transfer of wealth right?
Edit: Allow me to go further. You have heard of trickle down economics? Supporters say if you let billionaires keep more money, they will create jobs and the money trickles back down
Checkouts where you scan your own purchases is the perfect counter example. They charge the same, AND steal your productivity.
I always use a cashier, since that means a normal person gets paid. Self-checkout just makes the rich richer.
also i don’t work there. i am not getting paid to play the cashier
On the other hand, I’m willing to compromise on my principles to ease my crippling social anxiety somewhat.
If I have to go into the store, I’m probably not in a good mood so I use the self checkout.
Still feel bad about snapping at the poor lady who had to ask for my ID for cough medicine while I was sick as a dog…
Edit: I buy my groceries once a week thru the pickup service. I don’t have to get out, I don’t buy extra stuff. Easy peasy.
Depends on what I’m getting. Small stuff, maybe 8 items, no produce codes? Self checkout mostly. Alcohol or anything else that requires a cashier step in to approve it? Original recipe.
No, i just put things in my pocket and leave. Don’t see any reason to use the cashier
I worked as a cashier at a grocery store for several years, I generally refuse to self checkout. It seems it as a shifting of responsibility from the store to the shopper to ensure that everything is calculated correctly.
They used to pay and train people to do this, now they’ve decided that their shoppers can do it and if something goes wrong then they get to decide that you were stealing.
Self-checkout, every time, anywhere it’s available. It’s faster and I don’t have to talk to anyone.
Exactly this, it’s just more convenient even if you are doing more of the work youself
It’s not even more work. At a staffed checkout I still have to grab all the items and put it in my bag. The only extra work at the self checkout is making sure it beeps while I move everything to my bag.
Also, I’m not an expert on grapes, and really can’t be trusted to tell the difference between the $1.99/lb green conventionally grown grapes and the delicious $7.99/lb organic Gum Droptm grapes
I’m pretty sure ours are all barcoded so you can’t make that mistake.
I never use self checkout. I stopped buying at two retailers who installed self checkout on more than half the lanes.
Self checkout is a job killer, and worse, is making customers do the job of paid employees for free.
You’re looking at it wrong: it’s not taking away jobs, it’s saving on work that needs to be done.
The goal should be 0 jobs. Nobody should have to work. The fewer things that need to be done by humans the more time we all have to spend on things that actually matter.
You are confusing the need for an income with having a job. People need an income to live, they don’t have a need to be scanning groceries at Lidl all day.
And that’s exactly why I’ll start using self-checkout the day UBI is implemented (and not a day sooner).
Chicken/egg problem. As long as they can convince people to be wage slaves there won’t be a need for UBI.
Fair. But I’m not sure widespread poverty will do the trick this time. The wealth extraction by the richest is historically unprecedented, but the poorest blame the immigrants instead of revolting. Manipulation of public opinion has become easier than ever before, the same as surveillance. I don’t see the people rising up anytime soon and my neighborhood cashier has to eat this month.
Do you use horse-drawn carriages? No? What about the horse breeders and cartwrights?
[…] is making customers do the job of paid employees for free.
So if everyone used self-checkout, groceries would be cheaper…
So if everyone used self-checkout, groceries would be cheaper…
lol. lmao even.
So if everyone used self-checkout, groceries would be cheaper…
That’s not how capitalism works.
How does it work? Why don’t supermarkets just ask a million for a loaf of bread? More money and profits, right?
Now, I am aware there are cartels and other anticompetitive practices, but no single supermarket chain has a monopoly. There is competition, the margins in the business really are not that high, and supermarkets can and do lower prices to attempt to increase their market share. In fact, for products like bread supermarkets often deliberately sell them at a loss.
Would supermarkets like to put the savings of self-checkout in their own pocket? Absolutely. Can and will they, on the long term? No. If businesses would always pocket such savings, then margins in the entire economy should tend upward over time, and they simply don’t.
Head in the sand my dude. Canadian groceries were caught red handed colluding on bread price fixing. There was a massive class action lawsuit. Companies charge as much as they can get away with and will always push the numbers higher. They’re not eating costs out of the goodness of their heart, loss-leaders lead to more spending.
Head in the sand my dude. Canadian groceries were caught red handed colluding on bread price fixing.
Yes, I am aware there are cartels and other anticompetitive practices. I said as much in a comment on Lemmy not long ago - with some detective work you may be able to find it.
Companies charge as much as they can get away with and will always push the numbers higher. They’re not eating costs outbid the goodness of their heart, loss-leaders lead to more spending.
Obviously. And what they can get away with is profit margins up to a certain limit (assuming no monopolies, and at least moderately effective anti-cartel measures), that limit being the point where it becomes easy to enter the market or undercut a competitor, gain massive market share, and still make a lot of money.
They cannot get away with just endlessly taking all profits from productivity gains. These gains have been enormous since the start of the Industrial Revolution, and in most markets profits are on the order of a few percent of turnover, if that.
… with some detective work you may be able to find it.
You reference it, you cite it.
They cannot get away with just endlessly taking all profits from productivity gains.
Oh ho ho, they can and will.
You reference it, you cite it.
It’s right here in the comment chain.
Oh ho ho, they can and will.
Okay, but they don’t, profit margins are typically a few percent.
Riddle me this: why did Kmart (for example) declare bankruptcy? They just wanted to throw away free money?
