I've never understood the people who seem to not get that some people actually don't mind scanning their stuff and putting it in bags, and insist that that's the line between what the customer does and the employee. They also used to carry your groceries to the car for you, and you can also get them to pick everything up, bag it and bring it to your car or house. It's not like the checkout process is the special part that can't change.

Yeah, they want to save money by having fewer people get more customers checked out faster. I don't really care since the part I like, getting finished at the store, happens faster.

[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 108 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I don't have a problem with self-check. I use it most the time because I usually have < 10 items.

I DO have a problem with only self-check lanes being open or only ONE regular clerk check lane open. both of which happen at walfart.

I know this because I used to work there and policy was to hire floor associates that can run a register so the store won't need to pay for cashiers just standing around.

[–] Fisch@discuss.tchncs.de 19 points 2 months ago (2 children)

so the store won't need to pay for cashiers just standing around.

Aren't walmart employees also required to stand all day? Kinda insane to me that they're not allowed to just sit down

[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 32 points 2 months ago

can't say for every store, but we were told "it makes us look lazy and disinterested in being friendly or helpful to our customers".

typical boomer bullshit.

they did let the little. old lady greeters use a chair, although that's likely because of ADA compliance requirements they had to follow and not because they grew a heart.

[–] pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online 13 points 2 months ago

That's true for pretty much all corporate retail in the US.

[–] tinyVoltron@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I don't think I've ever seen a Walmart cashier without a line. Doesn't matter how many cashier lanes and self checkouts are open. Find it hard to belief they are ever able to just stand around.

[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

that's exactly the point. WM mgmt sees that as a win. every employee has a queue depth they can complete in x time, be it customers they help or tasks they complete.

if you can't complete the minimum queue depth according to WM you're pulled up for a performance eval and eventually fired.

Mgmt doesn't want to hire more people because "home office" provides a bonus to mgmt to keep operation costs low. at "performing" stores this can be as much to go out and buy a new car.

so the next time you're waiting in line for an hour at WM ask to speak to the store mgr directly, or better yet ask for the contact details of the district mgr. enough complaints and that store is marked as "non-performant" and the store (and mgrs) will be pulled up for a performance eval.

[–] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago

But in the end won't it be the cashiers who will suffer/be blamed, instead of management hiring another one to help carry the load? I mean, even if you ask to speak to the manager, and wait for them, and say, "obviously you've understaffed this shift, so you need to open a register yourself and start ringing people up, you can start with me," they are just going to blame the poor cashier who got stuck with Grandma's coupons and check-writing or whatever. Or if they are decent, they're already working a register, and it's someone higher up who refuses to hire more staff, despite having a "ghost job offer" that sits out there to look like they're hiring.

[–] toynbee@lemmy.world 32 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I love self checkout. Conversation with strangers is difficult, slow and often not fun. Separating that aspect from checking out is the best customer service a lot of stores offer.

Some stores near me are removing or disabling self checkout. Apparently this better serves the customer. Can't quite see how taking away options improves things, but ...

[–] ScoopMcPoops@lemmy.world 17 points 2 months ago (3 children)

It doesn't, it's because people shoplift at self checkout all the time and the big retailers can't figure out how to stop it. Almost every shop in my town forces you to do self checkout, they don't even have cashiers most of the time. Last time I was at my local walmart they had like 6 self checkouts and 4 cashiers just standing there staring at everyone trying to find shoplifters. They still can't find them though lol.

[–] Furbag@lemmy.world 15 points 2 months ago

Which is bizarre, because shrinkage due to theft at all major retail chains is at historic lows, but they keep complaining that they can't make any money due to rampant shoplifting. Then you look at their profits for each fiscal year and wonder what their deal is if losses due to shoplifting have never been lower and profits have never been higher?

It's an easy scapegoat to justify closing low performing stores. It essentially shifts the blame onto the community, rather than the greedy suits.

[–] toynbee@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

Well, this can't possibly be the case. The giant corporations who assuredly only have my best interests in mind tell me it's what I want, not what they want.

[–] Aviandelight@mander.xyz 5 points 2 months ago

I dare say that the shoplifters aren't even bothering going through the self checkout as a pretense.

[–] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I respect your preference, and for some people it could even be considered a "reasonable accommodation."

But I prefer to have the person who does this all day whip through the scanning and bagging while I pay up. It may not be rocket surgery, but good cashiers have an efficiency of eye/brain/hand motion that I can't match. Especially when there's multiples of the same item, their machine trusts them to do it the efficient way rather than scanning and weighing each item. Or having the produce codes at their fingertips without stopping to read them. And since all machines have little quirks, it's helpful to know exactly where to apply "percussive maintenance."

I am comfortable speaking with strangers, so I always thank them and wish them a good day. And I don't stand for entitled assholes giving them shit, either.

Having both options is best and should be part of ADA compliance.

[–] toynbee@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

That's fair.

[–] Naura@startrek.website 2 points 2 months ago

Yea the issue is the employer doing it to make more profit instead of spreading the more profit they make to the workers. There is nothing wrong with self check out. There is something wrong with people being paid shit when the company is sending dividends to stockholders instead.

[–] SatansMaggotyCumFart@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Have you ever rang a TV through as bulk onions?

I fucking love self check out!

[–] pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They have some new AI thing watching the cameras that will make that a lot harder. Like, it wouldn't let me scan the same item twice instead of scanning both identical items.

[–] kmaismith@lemm.ee 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This is why i refuse to use self check out. If they wont trust me to do the job my way i wont do it for free.

[–] dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

For me it's the damn scale under the bag, and how long the kiosk takes to register the weight of the last scanned item. Then the system "unlocks" and lets me scan another item. This system slows me down to the speed of the worst clerk in the store.

[–] pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online 2 points 2 months ago

I haven't had one actually do that in years. I think they all disabled that feature around here because it was so shitty.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

The check out is the part where the actual sales transaction occurs. It really is materially different from those other services you mentioned.

Also,

I don't really care since the part I like, getting finished at the store, happens faster.

That was true until they realized they could enshittify by closing all the regular check-outs and force everyone into it. Now it's just as slow as full-service used to be.

[–] ricecake@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago

check out is the part where the actual sales transaction occurs. It really is materially different

Like a vending machine? Or the gas station? Or the grocery pickup, where I pay online?
What makes a human being present for me giving my money to a machine different if it's a grocery store as opposed to one of those?

Sorry your experience sucks. Stores near me regularly have both open and the self checkout is invariably significantly faster. It's not like I just didn't notice that something I do several times a week actually sucks.

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 months ago

That's not the actual animosity towards things like self checkout, most of the time. It's a distaste for a large corporation to replace jobs with automation. Sure, it's a menial job, but it was still an ability for someone to have a job if they needed one.

Labor shortages go up and down with time and what a lot of younger people don't really understand was that sometimes the country would go years with it being hard to find any job. Even a bad one. The last 15 years have been pretty easy to find work, so a lot of the younger people can't really know what it was like when you could go a long time just trying to find a job.